This of you who know me might be surprised to hear that apparently, I have inconvenienced someone and pissed them off.
Who was this person? To whom could I have been so rude as to make them genuinely annoyed at me? I mean, come on -- if there is one thing that I can confidently say about myself, it is that I am not rude. It seems that my childhood doctor does not agree. Or rather, his staff does not agree.
Here is the story: I need my immunization records in order to register for classes at Brooklyn College. Who has those? Oh, of course, my good ol' doc. Now, I did not get the request for these papers until the end of last week, and I need them by Friday morning. So I call on Monday. I say that I need my measles/mumps/rubella records (what the hell IS a mump anyway), so she tells me to fax in a request. I get the number, and fifteen minutes later, a fax is sent.
Figuring I had better follow up at some point, I call on Wednesday afternoon. At first, they have no idea what I am talking about -- or at least, they pretend they do not. "Hi! I'm just calling to check on the status of my records request. I faxed it in on Monday? Last name M----?" "Let me look... ... ... Hmm. Is this Christopher M----?" "That's me! "We don't have a record of your request." "Um -- oh...kay? How did you know, then..." "Oh HERE it is. Yeah. We'll try to get that to you by, maybe, Monday?" "Oh. Um...it would be GREAT if I could have it by the end of the week?" "Right. We'll see what we can do."
I tell my mom about the conversation, she decides to call, having had an even longer-standing relationship with these people than I do. She calls me back, and says, "Well, they say your records are off in a warehouse across town? And they didn't even get your request until Tuesday night, and you just keep calling and calling and being really pushy. So I was really nice, tried to smooth things over, and they say that they'll try to rush it, as a special favor, and get it to you by Monday."
I am sure you notice the time discrepancy, there -- Monday afternoon versus Tuesday night -- and the generous offer they made to RUSH the order by the following Monday, which was the same time they told me ANYWAY. And this is also a perfect example of one of my mom's most infuriating tricks -- she feels perfectly free to get up-in-arms about anything she likes, yell at random clerks, shoot digusted looks at salespeople who honestly have nothing to do with whatever she is mad about. I was hoping she might get some kind of reaction out of these people and get them to hurry things along. But sometimes, she decides to go totally limp, and makes ME out to be this crazyperson. I am getting more and more upset, at the fact that they a) flat out LIED to her about when I sent in my request, and b) flat out LIED about the fact that I keep "calling and calling," like I am some kind of crazy harassing stalker-man...who just needs his god damned MMR records.
I know I am not ever going to see these people again; I have no intention of going to the doctor in Colorado. But it still makes me really really annoyed when someone makes things up about ME in order to cover up their own incompetence, and then tries to act like everything is all my fault. And it REALLY pisses me off when my mom follows suit and acts like I am the one doing things all wrong! I am doing things RIGHT, here; I am going back to school, I am requesting records and talking to advisors and sending things in on time and paying off my debts and everything, totally by the god damned book, and this kind of crap gets pulled. I mean, I know it is totally inconsequential, I know I should not care, I know what they say is not even a big DEAL. But it matters to me. I pride myself most, out of all the things in the world that I can do, on my ability to be pleasant and nice and accommodating -- and it feels like these people just smacked me in the face.
And so help me GOD if they do not let me register for my classes because I do not have my immunizatoin records -- I know a room full of people who are REALLY going to need a doctor.