My mom is known for being a little um... outspoken. A good example of this would be during my parents' visit to Chicago last month. We were at Navy Pier, listening to some live music when she decided that the music was a little loud for her taste. She got up and told the sound engineer that he should turn the volume down. Then, when the band was on break between sets, she went up and told them that they were playing too loud. In her defense, one band member said he had permanent hearing damage and that he had no way of knowing whether or not they were playing too loud. Another band member said that he couldn't really tell because he wears ear plugs while they play.
Normally, as in the aforementioned case, my mom's outspokenness serves only to embarrass me. But I've had two different instances where her example paid off for me in the past two weeks. In fact, following her example just saved me almost $200.
Many times, I have gone with the flow when something happens that I don't like (See "Cinderella Man" post for more info on this). Don't get me wrong, if something is morally objectionable or I see someone else getting taken advantage of, of course I'm going to take a stand. But if it is something smaller, more insignificant, I normally wouldn't speak up -- until recently.
I went to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription last week. I have bad allergies this time of year and there's only one type of medicine that normally helps. This was the first time I had picked up the prescription since my new health insurance had gone into effect. As the pharmacist was ringing me up (And why was a pharmacist ringing me up? Shouldn't he have been in the back, with the mortar & pestle, concocting some type of elixir? Doesn't he have more important work to do than to run a cash register?)... Sorry. Anyway, as the pharmacist was ringing me up, he tells me that my prescription isn't covered by my insurance company and that it will cost me just over $125 per month. One Hundred dollars?!? Is this a "magic" pill? I'm not looking to this pill for a cure for cancer or anything, I'm just taking it to clear up some allergy symptoms. Well normally, I would've sat back and taken it like a man, without whining, arguing or complaining. But something inside told me not to settle for that. I called my health insurance company and politely "disputed" this lack of coverage. After ten minutes of expressing myself, their rep told me, "Well if you want, you can have your doctor send us a letter that says that you need to have this medicine for your allergies. If he does that, we'll cover it and you'll only have to pay $20." My mind was saying "Why does he have to write a letter? He wouldn't have prescribed it in the first place if I didn't need it" but that inner voice said, "Dave, don't screw this up, she's being nice, just thank her and go on with your day." So I did. I'm now going to save over one hundred dollars a month because I followed my mom's example and spoke up.
I love listening to my IPOD. I spent $70 on a Monster cord that takes the audio output and broadcasts it on an FM frequency, so I can listen to it on my Jeep's radio. I've only had the cord for a month or two but I've recently been having a lot of problems with it. No matter what frequency I try to use, I get a lot of static. In the past, I'd silently curse myself for not saving the receipt and I'd be out the $70. Not this time. I went into Radio Shack and asked to exchange it. To my surprise, the lady was cool about it and she exchanged it for me with only a minimal amount of objection. I thought I'd be stuck since I didn't have a receipt, but she took care of me. So that's the second episode in a short time-span in which speaking up has saved me a little money. So for at least the next month, I am going to show my appreciation by not publicly berating the quality of Radio Shack's products. I don't know if I'll be able to remain equally as quiet about that whole "short sleeve shirt with a tie" look though. That's just wrong.
I could really get used to this whole idea of speaking up. But I do think it'll be quite a while before I'm asking bands to play a little more quietly.
Hey Deeg,
Way to go with speaking up for yourself. i must agree speaking up for one's self is something that i am just realy learning how to do. But none the less with a little more practice at it you will be telling bands everywhere to quiet down :)
Posted by: Slayer | September 26, 2006 at 14:47