Bad Service

I went to look at a house the other day, and in my neighborhood, parking is on the street... It's a very old neighborhood (mostly 1920's houses) and so most houses don't have driveways. There was no parking in front of the house, or anywhere on the block, so I had to drive around and park a block away. Not a big deal, but when we left, the agent got into her car... which was parked right in front of the house! Maybe it's just me, but if I were showing a house and there was only one parking spot left in front of the house, I would leave it open for the potential buyer, wouldn't you?

EDIT: let me explain. I drive by this house about 18 times a day. I had driven by ealier that day. When I came back, no cars had moved. No new cars were there. the only new car, was her car. I'm not saying OMG WHAT A BITCH... most work places that I have ever worked for or known of ask you to park farther away from your workplace so that customers can park closer. yikes.

The post about the bad ob/gyn reminded me of a similar experience that I had. When I was 16, I went to Planned Parenthood for birth control. I was also told that they would have to do a pregnancy test prior to giving me birth control. I knew at the time that I wasn't pregnant (the boyfriend and I had been careful about using condoms) but ofcourse, there is always a chance. I was told they would call me back the following day to give me the results on the phone.

Ok, later in the evening the next day, I got a phone call from a lady from PP. She told me they had the results of the pregnancy test.

Her: "What would you do if you found out you were pregnant?"
Me: "Oh my god. I'm pregnant?" (on the verge of a heart attack)
Her: "No, but I wanted to show you that you are not prepared to have a child so you need to be more careful"

I hung up without saying anything but I felt completely violated. She must have missed the memo that I never thought I was pregnant but I was told to take the pregnancy test in order to get birth control. Regardless, that's still not right. If I had been a little more older and wiser, I definitely would've called back and complained to a superior.

Went out to the Daily Grill last night. They've got really good food, but in this particular case I was about ready to throttle the waiter, not just because he screwed up the order but because he paid zero attention to us. But jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, the repeated screwups were a big part of it.

I order a plain hamburger. No cheese. I mention that I have a serious dairy allergy, so really, seriously, no cheese. He smiles and nods and half an hour later the burger comes out--dripping with cheese. I sigh and grit my teeth, but this has happened before, mistakes happen, yadda yadda nothing to get upset over, and I send it back with very specific instructions this time: "I have a potentially fatal dairy allergy, and if I eat a hamburger with even the tiniest remnants of cheese on it I could die. Plz to be making a whole new burger, because even if you scrape the cheese off of this one it's been cross-contaminated with dairy, and I will still have a reaction if I eat it. New burger. No cheese. Kthx." Only more polite, because really, honestly, I'm nicer in person than I come across on the internet. Smile, nod, and two minutes later he emerges with a plain hamburger. "Well," he says, beaming, "the cheese came off cleanly, so here's your burger."

"Wait. Is this the same hamburger?"

"Yep, they got it off pretty easily, so--"

You jackass. I can understand getting mixed up the first time and telling the kitchen to make a cheeseburger by mistake, but after that? Were you listening to a single word I said? If you hadn't given me your "the cheese came off cleanly" crap, you know what would have happened? I would have assumed the food was clean, eaten it, and gone into anaphylactic shock right at the table. This isn't me being a finicky eater, this is me wanting to avoid a trip to the frickin' emergency room. And really, how hard is it to get a plain hamburger? I'm not asking you to bake me up a special non-dairy bun, I'm not asking you to miraculously produce some soy cheese, I'm asking for plain food. This isn't rocket science, pal.

I explain one more time, and half an hour later my food finally comes. It's delicious and does not set off any allergic reactions. The waiter, meanwhile, proceeds to ignore our table for the rest of the night. He keeps walking by, not even glancing at us, doesn't come by to ask how the food is, doesn't ask if we want our check or a dessert menu; I sit there for fifteen minutes with an empty glass as he keeps walking by, and eventually flag down someone else to get my drink refilled; when we're done we try five times to get his attention, fail, and finally have to literally grab his sleeve and ask for the check. If the restaurant had been terrifically busy, it would have been understandable, but it was practically empty and he kept passing our table. What a punk.

Edit: Yes, I did end up talking to the manager about the allergy issue. He was very nice about the whole thing, and judging by his expression when he went back to the kitchen to "have a few words with" the waiter and the cook, he wasn't too happy about what happened. Actually, I think that's what might have set off the ignoring, heh. Hopefully the waiter will get fired.

If anyone is looking for a host to run their business or website, avoid hostdepartment.com. They are down at least 3 times a month, every month. Once they even lost my entire website. Everything. If I didn't have a back-up then I would have had to start over. They don't even answer trouble-tickets and their live help only says 1 thing in a strong Hindi accent, "We're sorry but there's nothing we can do about the problem." That's their answer every time my site times out because they are down.
Utterly useless, costing me customers, and I'm paid until December. SHEESH!

Maybe God is telling me I should stop going to the casino. In fact, I know this because of the people He's throwing my way. First it was the bitchy deli counter lady, and now it's an over-zealous, talkative slots attendant.

Look, lady. I know it was after 2 in the morning and there weren't many people in your section and you were probably bored and wanted to chat. My friend and I had both finished a rather long day of working at our respective jobs and we wanted to unwind for an hour or two. I don't mind that you wanted to make conversation, but for cryin' out loud, that doesn't mean it was an open invitation to hover by our machines for 20 minutes, yapping about politics.

* I don't care about your opinion of George Dubya.
* I care about Iraq and Afghanistan, but I didn't intend to engage in such conversations during my downtime.
* I really don't care about your views on Republican vs. Democrats.
* Please don't start talking to me about Canadian politics. Again, an important issue, but not during my downtime.
* When I repeatedly say, "I'm sorry, I don't get involved in political discussions," that should be an indication that, you know, maybe I don't want to talk about politics.

When I smile politely, nod and look away from you to look at my machine or my friend's machine with nary a word, perhaps you should take that as a hint that I really don't want to talk to you. It was the only thing I could do without saying "please get lost."

Oh, and before anyone mentions it, I didn't move because both my machine and my friend's machine were on a hot streak. I'm not going to walk away from free money. :-)

At least I walked out of there about $300 richer than when I entered, but damn, stop talking to me.

Last week I bought a skirt from a major UK retailer whose speciality is clothes for obese women like me. I was in hurry to catch a bus, so couldn't try it on, but chose the size that I am currently wearing more than 20 other skirts and trousers in.

It was 12 inches too big on the waist! And I don't think it was mislabelling (as I know sometimes happens having worked in a clothing factory and warehouse during the vacations as a student). Because on the hips it fitted fine. I suspect they made the pattern to fit a very slim girl with very little difference btween hip and waist, and just added inches... my gripe is that these people's business is making clothes for the obese...