Friday Freakout

Today's Friday freakout has been long in the making and there's no end to it yet.

Thankfully,  the city I'm living in offers discounted transit passes for people with disabilities. (I have Cerebral Palsy.) Not so thankfully, they make it very difficult to actually obtain the application form for the ID card that you must have to be able to purchase and  use these discounted passes.

I have been trying to have this information mailed to me for the past 5 weeks now. When I first went onto my city's  transit site, I tried looking for a downloadable form. No luck. The link for the pdf of the form isn't even there, it's just a bracketed phrase saying (click here to print application.)

I looked for a number to call. The number I found leads you to an automated system where they ask for your name, phone number and address. I have called that number once a week for the past month with nothing being sent.

Then I tried Twitter. I found my local bus company's twitter and sent them a tweet asking about  how to get an application.. No luck there.

Last Thursday, I called the  transit office for the entire county. The woman who answered last week promptly took my information and said they would get something out to me right away. Fast forward to today when it's over a week later. Do I have my application forms? No.

So I call the same county office line. I explain the situation, and the lady very quickly (and somewhat rudely) tells me that I need to call another number, quickly rattles it off, and hangs up on me. I called the number and it's the same number I had already been calling! So I call back to ask if there's somewhere I can go to pick up the application in person. I get the same woman who says " I already told you you have to call that other number" very snarkily.

I said to her. "I understand what you told me, but I've been calling that same number for the last 5 weeks and haven't received anything. Is there somewhere I can go to pick this application up in person?"

Her response?

"Well, um I don't know I think at City Hall but I don't know where their office is there so don't ask me."

To which I said, "Thanks so much for all your help" and proceeded to hang up on her this time. (Immature, I know, but it made me feel slightly better.)

Then I decided to call the first number back one more time to see if I could get a person in their office. I hit 9 for a rep and then heard "You must call back during business hours. We're open Monday through Thursday 7:30 to 5 pm and every other Friday."

Well, apparently today was not the right Friday. So now I have to try calling back again on Monday to see if I can either go somewhere to pick this up or finally get someone to send me this form.

It seems like way too much hassle just to save a little money, but being that I'm still trying to find a job, every little bit counts.

Friday Freakout

None of the things in this post are actually worth freaking out over, I just like the catchy title.

My first freakout item for today actually started yesterday. I went to the bank to withdraw some money, but since the amount I needed was a bit large and I needed it in US currency, the bank didn't have it when I went in. They told me I could wait a half hour to check to see  if another teller had it when they came back from lunch, or that they could take down my info and call me the next day to let me know when it was ready to be picked up. I chose the second option and gave the teller my phone number. She told me that the rep would be calling me later on that same day to confirm the details and that they would also be calling me this morning when it was ready to be picked up.

I didn't get a call  later that afternoon. No big deal I figured they got busy and forgot. Then this morning came and went with no phone call. Now, I was starting to get a little irritated. One of my pet peeves is when people say that they will do something and then don't follow through. It really irks me.

So I went to the bank, and luckily they had it ready for me so that all turned out just fine.

Then when I dropped off that at home we checked the mail and my boyfriend handed me a card that belonged to me, which leads me to pet peeve number two....my mail being opened by someone other than me! The envelope was completely torn open. Not just a little rip or tear from being jostled, but torn open. I don't know what they were so in a rush for that they couldn't read the name properly, or what they were looking for, but I hope that whoever opened it enjoyed looking at my holiday card.

Among the other strange happenings of the day, we had some pretty eccentric cab drivers on our way to and from  the store to pick up a few things. Thank goodness for zoned cabs here, so it doesn't cost as much as you might think.
On the way to the store, the cab driver was one of those types who tries to sound really smart, but really isn't. He kept talking about movies, and then it moved onto space and space technology. Only he wasn't making any sense. Plus my boyfriend is a super nerd, so I know what that kind of talk is supposed to be like and this guy wasn't quite hitting the mark.

Then we fought our way through walmart. It was super crowded, which I don't care much for, especially since people don't pay too much attention when it's really crowded. Or they pay a little too much attention to me in particular. But we survived.

Then on the way home, we had another eccentric cab driver. Only this time he was a little too far out there.  So much so that both of us were uncomfortable. He seemed like a nice enough guy, until you got him talking. Dearran mentioned one of his friends was looking for a roomate and found one, so we're just chatting about that and the cabbie interjects and says "Yeah I had this one roomate about 14 years ago and she was okay for a while but then I caught her stealing and told her to get the f*** out of my house that f******* b**** (I don't feel like having to give my blog an adult rating and I don't know how strict blogger is about swear words so I'll let you all fill in the words with your imaginations) and so on.

Then he started talking about how he hates when other cab drivers steal passengers and how he got out of his car to rip open the door to another cab and threaten the driver, (with a bunch of swearing mixed in.)

Lets just say I was very glad to get home.

The day wasn't all bad though. We got everything we needed at the store and stuck to the list for the most part. Plus we got some good tote containers that were on for half price. I'm especially happy since we were able to get purple ones, and, in case you couldn't tell by the looks of my blog, I love purple. Plus, we got a bundle of 10 cardboard boxes for more packing. The sign said $ 4.47 where they were sitting, which wouldn't have been a bad price, but when we looked on the receipt it said 1.77 and didn't mention anything about it being a ten pack. So either they were on a super clearance sale, or they were supposed to be 1.77 each and the cashier charged us wrong. If she did, we saved about 15 dollars.

So all in all, the day sort of balanced itself out.  Does anyone have any Friday Freakout experiences they want to share, or general pet peeves?