Collected Thoughts

Hello again, I know it's been a while. I haven't had a lot of free time, but some did open up when the bike ride I planned on this morning was snagged by my tearing the air stem out of the tube when I pumped my tires this morning, so here I am.

First some mom notes:

-Mom still resents Gracie, partly because she's so attached to our cat that died three years ago that she sees it as a betrayal, but largely because Gracie's adoption was a decision undertaken without consulting her. Almost every time Gracie comes up (my dad will ask about her), my mom will insert a thinly veiled indication of disapproval. For example,

Dad: How's Gracie?
A.: Good, she's sitting on my lap.
Mom: Oh, that must make the intolerable heat even worse.

-Mom continues to not appreciate how busy I am. I would be exaggerating if I followed the previous sentence with, 'based on the way she expects me to deliver stuff to her friends in the D.C. area;' in fact, that's the kind of thing she would say. But she does underestimate the time it would take for me to get to the homes of family friends in the area, especially considering D.C. traffic. Let me back up-- she made Mirella a beautiful amber necklace, and asked me to give it to her. Mirella is my friend as much as my parents' (I know her through a friend of theirs, but she and I are very close), so it is not as if I don't want to see her, but she lives forty minutes' drive in good traffic, and D.C. traffic is rarely good. Occasionally, I have meetings for work that are up by Mirella's house, and the last time this happened, as I left the meeting, it occurred to me to call her and see if I could stop by. Of course, I hadn't brought the necklace. I did tell my parents over the phone that Mirella said 'hi.' This time, I thought to arrange our getting together ahead of time, so I did bring the necklace. She called my mother to thank her. My mother (according to Mirella), uttered something about hadn't we seen each other before this moment and since I had the necklace in my possession. I envisioned a repeat of the boots scenario but realized that since I wasn't in the same car, if mom gave me crap, I could just hang up.

***

Now for some non-Mom related blogging about customer service.

-Ah, Verizon, such the leach. Only a monopoly can be brazen enough to charge people for services they don't want. I mean, it's bad enough that I would have to pay to not be listed in the yellow pages, but it gets worse.

I noticed a few extra dollars on our phone bill, with 'long distance' in the description. Note that our phone is not connected; we have phone service solely to enable our DSL. We never wanted long distance, never asked for it, so I called to complain. That charge was removed from our bill.

The next month, there was a $6 charge, with 'long distance' in the description. I called again.

Turns out, that initial charge was for not using our long distance. Yes, Verizon is charging for not using their long distance service. The second charge? For removing long distance service from our package. Yes, we had to pay to remove a service that we never requested in the first place, so that we would not get charged for not using it.

Up next, Banfield Animal Hospital at PetSmart. Gracie had fleas, so by extension, I had fleas. It was BAD. I was losing the little sleep I had time to get, because I was getting bitten in the middle of the night. I needed both medication for my cat, and spray for the furniture, curtains, etc.

Incidentally, on my way from work the day I planned on getting this stuff, it was pouring down rain. I actually lost control of my car and hydroplaned, just on the highway, but thankfully managed to regain control and keep going. However, I opted to take a busier route that was less likely to be flooded than the rural roads I normally take (yes, I work in the boonies). I knew there was a PetSmart in one of the strip malls along that busier route, pathetically because it was right next to a Babies-R-Us and I've gotten so many baby gifts this year, the year of the babies, that I had no trouble finding the PetSmart. I asked the woman at the Banfield counter for both flea medication and furniture spray. She must have heard me because she gave me directions for using the spray on my furniture. Nonetheless, when I got home, ready to exterminate the blood-sucking little bastards that were making my cat's and my life difficult, I discovered that the spray she'd sold me was also for the cat. I was LIVID. Furthermore, the receipt said they didn't take returns on prescription items, so if I wanted to try to get my $55 back, I'd have to once again return to the same out-of-the-way store to argue my case, my case being that they sold me a product I did not ask for, so they better damn well take it back. More importantly, I had to contend with another night of being flea bait.

The next day, I returned and made my case to a different veterinary nurse behind the counter. As she went back to ask her manager, I heard,

"Excuse me, ma'am... you're standing in dog pee."

Indeed I was. I stepped aside.

The nurse returned and said she could only give me store credit. I said like hell she could (only more politely) and asked her firmly to refund the amount to my credit card. She did. I also told her about the dog pee. She pointed me to the furniture spray, which was in the main part of the store.

-Alexandria Ambulance Service, which was so wonderful when I needed them, is not as great in administrative areas as it is in its first response (better than the other way around, I suppose). My insurance covered a little over half of my ambulance bill, so I received a bill for the rest from the ambulance service. On the stub there was a place for one's credit card number, i.e. sixteen boxes in which you write the digits of your credit card number. So I did, and sent it in, so imagine my surprise when I got another bill last week. I called to determine what the problem was, and was directed to call the same number with 888 rather than 800, as the number had been misprinted on their letterhead. I called, and was told that the problem was that they didn't take credit cards. Apparently, they'd switched companies and the new system was not yet up and running. But instead of actually indicating this on the second bill, they left me to guess. Had this not been the ambulance, I would have been willing to play this by just sending my credit card number every time. As it were, I went home and sent a check. Two days later, I received the same bill, this time, with the phone number printed correctly. But the credit card option was still there.

-Thrift store, at which I bought a skirt and a few books, including a very large hardcover cookbook. The volunteer put my stuff into a paper bag with no handles. I said, "Could I trouble you for a bag with handles?" Although I said it with no trace of sarcasm, etc., she got defensive and said, "we have no bags with handles; if we did, I would have given you one." Luckily, one of the regular salespeople rolled her eyes and said, "give her a bag with handles," and took a plastic bag (that the first woman probably didn't give me because it was too flimsy, not out of spite) and placed the paper bag inside of it.

***

My rules for moviegoers:

-If you are too dumb to independently follow the plot of a movie, wait until it comes out on DVD. DO NOT go to see it in the theatre if you need to constantly (or ever, really) ask your companion what is happening. Even my mother, who likes (but probably does not need) clarification about what's happening in a movie, has the decency to wait until said movie has ended.

-If you are so codependent that you cannot wait until the movie ends to discuss it, wait until it comes out on DVD so that you can discuss it in the privacy of your own home.

-Do not stretch your arms over your head or for any reason create an opaque layer over your head. There are people sitting behind you.