Cultural Irrelevance

Mike and I have been having some scuffles with our insurance company as of late, so when my uncle Peter recommended we switch to the one they use, we checked it out. Surprisingly enough, we could get far better coverage for far less money so we called them up and got started.

After talking to Mike and getting his car and our condo approved, the agent called me to approve my car. We were planning to go to the Taj (JefCo's massive courthouse) on Monday to get both cars put in both names, so I told the agent this and asked if we could do a joint policy. Apparently, we have to be married or demonstrate "intention to wed" in order to have a joint car policy. He seemed more embarrassed about having to tell us this then I was surprised by the seemingly outdated policy. I asked him what we would need in order to demonstrate commitment similar to "intention to wed" and told him that lack of commitment isn't the issue- we've had joint finances for over a year and have no qualms about co-owning cars, condos, etc- but since we don't belong to a religion that celebrates marriage and we don't feel our families care all that much, it's culturally irrelevant. He said he'd ask his underwriter about an exemption and get back to us today.

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, in spite of the agent's apologies and clear willingness to help us get around this clause.

• This is the third time we've been denied the coverage we want because we're not married
  
• We could save $700+ per year on car insurance by being married
• It would cost us $30 to go to the courthouse and become married
• We seriously considered going to the Taj yesterday and getting a license
  
• The fact that we seriously considered just doing it should tell you something about how seriously we take that piece of paper
  
• If my uncles applied, having been together for 20 years and co-owning everything, they would be denied coverage because they are not married
• Suddenly, I understand a lot more about how fucked up the legal issue of marriage is and how it really has nothing to do with religion or ethics
• 50% of marriages end in divorce, so how is "intent to wed" proof that we are committed to each other for life?
• I'd also like to point out that we've been living together for longer than the average American marriage lasts
• We are going to two weddings and a wedding shower this weekend and I need to not be bitter

In other news, I was feeling so useful at work until the Czech post-doc panicked about his samples being above -20 C for too long and promptly undid several hours of organizational work during his freak-out. I was following the exact directions given to me by the head of the lab, but el jefe is in New York this month and I had to take the blame, no excuses. It also sucks that I completely understand the Czech guy's problem with what I was doing, so I feel guilty about following directions blindly and ignoring my own common sense. Today I need to go in there and attempt to re-stack identical, unlabeled boxes in the order in which they were origionally stacked. It's extra fun that the boxes are now in three seperate freezers and have all been moved around by people using things out of the two back-up freezers so I'm not sure I'll even be able to identify the boxes that need to move vs. the boxes that need to stay. FML.

Okay, I'll Wear Gloves...

If it comes in a special bottle wrapped in a thick plastic bag and is stored buried in sand in a super thick paint-can-like container, I'm willing to buy that it's pretty damn toxic.

I spent a good part of my day pulling boxes of 1 ml tubes (think half the size of your pinky finger) out of the freezer and trying to interpret the writing on top of each one before they began to thaw. Reading other peoples' handwriting is bad enough when it's not a series of seemingly arbitrary numbers, letters, and symbols written small enough to fit on a tiny round sticker, and having limited time with each box made it super fun, but I did eventually update and correct the stock catalogue.

Lab work is super glamorous.