Silver Lining Count: 1

The past two weeks have been mired in annoying "grown-up stuff": dealing with phone company shenanigans, more calls to said company to get my internet working properly (turns out they'd keyed in the wrong service codes or something and I was getting speeds ten times less than the speed I was paying for....I immediately started throwing geek terms at them on the phone, to avoid being asked if I'd first checked to see if the power had been turned on...), a huge mess involving three different agents at the medical insurance company telling me three completely different things, up to and including, "You can't have any more medical coverage under x plan, so neener," (you see, I've been trained by mom to basically not set foot outside sans coverage, so after being told "No problem!" last week and everyone else saying, "We're sorry but that was false information and you are screwed," this week, well, that did not go over well.)

Where do the silver linings come in?  Besides the fact that one agency (car insurance) took my money no problem, the silver lining comes with the realization that I have people who can help me with these bureaucratic agencies, and without this support, things might be a lot more dire than they are.  I had help getting proper information to throw at the phone company, both in terms of the service itself, and with how to talk to the geeks.  After multiple calls to the medical insurance company, Tom got on the line and straightened things out, reminding me that as an agent, he is paid to do such things.  But without this support, I'd likely be without a phone working the way it should, and I'd be at the mercy of whatever customer service agent I got that day for medical insurance, whose advice may or may not agree with their official policies.

Thanks to all of my support networks; together, we will fight The Man.  My sincere sympathies go out to those without such support - it's a tough fight out there.