I think I might have the worst dental insurance in the world. The last time I checked, the point of having dental insurance is so that when something goes wrong in your mouth, you can afford to get it fixed. When you take into consideration the recent news that good dental health leads to overall good health, it seems even more important. Which is why I have dental insurance. That is, at least, what I thought.

I recently had enough pain in my tooth that it was keeping me up at night. I have the best dentist ever, but even so, I hate going. So, as you can imagine, it must have been pretty bad for me to head over to have him look at it. A couple of x-rays later, I found that I had both a nerve infection (ouch!) and a cavity under an old filling (double ouch). I left the office a few minutes later, armed with a prescription for antibiotics and an appointment to get the old filling replaced. All good, right? Well, that’s until my insurance company denied the claim. Turns out I have exceeded my allowed oral exams. That’s right. Because I had a check-up in February, they would not cover an emergency appointment in July. Really.

So, this bothers me for a few reasons. First and foremost, why do I pay for insurance that won’t cover me if I have a problem? According to the unhelpful rep that I spoke with today, they only cover one oral exam in any 6 month span. If you’re like me, you get 2 check-ups a year. So anything else won’t be covered. That’s right. I can either get 2 check-ups a year or get 1 a year and have an extra appointment available in case there is a problem (of course, if my once-a-year appointment is in February and my emergency appointment is in July, it won’t matter because of the 6 month rule). Sigh…

I know that insurance is a business. The people who work there want to support their family just like I do. But this is ridiculous. If you are only going to cover 2 exams a year (at $84 an exam), why should I pay you? I am losing money by having insurance. Even with 1 or 2 emergency appointments a year (they did cover 20% of my filling…gee, thanks…), I still come out ahead to pay on my own.

I love the Olympics. And I understand that with a 12 hour time difference, most of the sports that I love to watch are going to have to be time delayed. The Beijing Olympic organizers were nice enough to move the marquee events for Americans (swimming finals and gymnastic team and all-around finals) to the morning so that they could be shown live to the U.S. in prime time (which, of course, is why everyone is walking around so groggy…and yes, they really did move them at the request of the American Olympic Committee and NBC). And judging from the timing of the beach vollyeball finals, they may have moved those events as well (though those may have always been morning events). But everything else is time delayed. And it stinks. Radio show hosts who don’t ever talk sports are spoiling results. MSNBC is showing highlights of events that won’t be shown for a few more hours on NBC. And even my newspaper has results before I do.

Sure, there is nothing that they can do about the time difference. But NBC could sure do a better job of how they are broadcasting the games. There is so much “filler” in each of their broadcasts (especially the prime-time show) – if you have to show me events 12 hours after they happen, then edit them down so you can show me all of the heats of a race in that same time span instead of just the ones with Americans running. And why is the time difference prohibitive in some events but not in others? There is no reason that they can’t show some of the evening events live in the morning in the US. If NBC thinks we’ll watch the Today Show hosts run through the fountains outside of the Bird’s Nest, why don’t they think we’ll watch a live broadcast of a track event or gymnastics event final? They could still show the highlights in prime time, but it would let us see it live if we want. Yes, a lot of events are streamed live online. But that assumes that the event you want to watch is being streamed (not all events are streamed) and that you’re willing to chance the fact that you will likely see the results on your way to the streamed event.

Oh yeah (since I’m hoping this will be my last Olympic rant for two years)…enough of only showing the Americans. I can’t possibly believe that the only people who performed in Wednesday night’s “gymnastics gala” were three Americans and one Chinese competitor. Even if you have to show it during the day, it would have been nice to see the whole thing.

Keep your shoes on. I know, this seems self-explanatory. But there is always at least one guy who thinks that a ball game is the perfect place to take off his shoes. Yes, sometimes it’s hot. But are your feet really that much cooler out of your flip flops? And to the man who took his sneakers off (socks still on) at a Nationals game earlier this year – stop. You are in public, not your living room.

If you’re going to yell, know what you are yelling about. Some people don’t like the constant yelling of fans (like the man last night who tried to quiet down the crowd after home runs…if you don’t like the noise, stay home), but I don’t mind. What I do mind is the complete ignorance that gets shouted at sporting events. Don’t yell at a player by calling him the wrong name. Don’t shout for a double play when there are two outs. Don’t start a “Let’s Go Angels!” chant when you are at a Red Sox-Orioles game. Don’t get mad at a called strike three when it was actually a ball and the runner is jogging to first. And certainly don’t argue with those around you about the name of the Red Sox closer when you are not even close. Keep it to cheers until you have a little more information.

Learn to count. I can’t remember the last time when I went to a baseball game without a seat incident. Someone is always in the wrong seats, argues that they should be there because they have tickets for those seats, pulls out their tickets, and finds that they are in the wrong seats/row/section/stadium (just kidding on the last one…I think). If you’re not good at figuring out which is row #12, get some help. Don’t just sit in row #11 and argue with everyone around you about how you paid for those seats and you’re going to sit in them.

If you need more than one seat, buy it.

Look at the kids around you. Not because I want you to watch your language because of the kiddos (though in some cases, that would be nice too). But because 95% of the kids at an average baseball game are better behaved than the adults around them. Watch them. They stay in their seats. They cheer for their team. Many of them cheer for the other team too. They don’t argue with other fans. They happily eat their popcorn, cotton candy, peanuts, ice cream, and pretzel (actual food consumed by the kids in front of me last night), smile, and enjoy the game. If only all my seatmates could be like that.