Coulda Been Worse... I Might Have Been Having a Good Time

 A Collection of the Misunderstood

I suddenly had a big flash of insight and compassion for Nick Nolte, James Brown and that lady who really, really likes to visit her plastic surgeon.  I'll leave it to you to determine who's who, or who's whom or what's what.  I got sick.  Not you're standard issue runny nose, play hooky from work or school and go noodling for catfish kinda sick.  I got the flu.  Yes, the lie in bed, try not move, feel my joints ache from that annoying breathing habit and generally wish for a meteor strike to come crashing through the roof and instantly turn me into a former blogster.  The mid term result of this journey through viral Valhalla compelled me to take a photo to document the slog of sickness.  I mean, after all why should I be the only one who's been made queasy?  So, back to my epiphany.  Most everyone has seen the pictures of celebrities above (okay, I'm no celebrity, just a kid with a dream) and assumed they have simply reaped what they've sown as a result of drug and/or alcohol problems and other unhealthy quirks, such as smacking their wives around.  I've got a new theory.  After the shocking experience of seeing myself in the mirror, I think maybe they just had a bad cold & flu season.  Maybe not.  All I know is that I'm really, really glad I wasn't off having a great time basking in the sun, enjoying a cool drink by the pool or hiking off to see some majestic hilltop or other point of interest while in another country, only to be waylaid by the vile microorganisms that invaded my system.  Until I began working in this business, I never even considered getting travel medical insurance when I was out of my home country.  I figured, "heck, I've got health insurance if anything were to happen to me".  Nah, that's not true.  Truth is, I didn't think about it at all. Most people don't.  What they don't know is that many policies issued in the US have time and/or geographic limitations that limit or eliminate coverage. Many domestic plans indicate they provide "emergency coverage" and never bother to define exactly what constitutes an emergency - by the looks of me, I was in the throes of an emergency, but I'm not sure the insurance company would have thought so if I'd been overseas. The Beacon Series travel medical plan offers benefits for both emergency and non-emergency conditions.  But going on about standard domestic plans, even if they do have some benefit, the person insured is out of luck if they need an emergency medical evacuation,  trip delay benefits or lost checked luggage coverage.  Just think about how many of these pictures would never have had to appear if they had just had good travel medical protection and could have replaced the Nyquil they had in their luggage.  Then again, maybe they hit the Nyquil a little too hard anyway.