Dear Client,

Are you serious?  You’re really thinking about calling off the project now?  After all we’ve been through to get to this point?

The website is done.  It’s built.  Just the way you wanted it, which only took us a month to determine.

But you’re too busy to come up with the tiny bit of content I need from you, so you want to scrap the whole thing?  Somehow you can mange to set aside time for a corporate meeting to discuss the future of the project, but you couldn’t use that same hour of time to write a page of content and a 4-sentence bio?

I mean, look, you’re paying me for my time either way.  But seriously?  That just sucks.

Lovingly,
Amy

Things have been busy recently.  Work has been frustrating.  Today I spent 8.5 hours doing data entry.  It’s a good thing Texas is flat, otherwise I would have walked off a cliff by now.  I’m rebuilding a company’s website and there is NO WAY to transfer their shopping cart from the current database into the new one.  Which is ASININE.  But perhaps that’s why their current host is going out of business.

So I’m getting to manually enter over 500 products.  So far I’m about 3/5 of the way there.  Sigh.

In addition, everything else I’m dealing with at work is frustrating.  I’m rebuilding another company’s website and their IT guy WILL NOT give me the information I need.  After numerous phone calls and emails, I’m currently 2 weeks behind because I’m waiting on DUMBASS to cooperate and give me the stupid DNS information - a totally simple request that apparently he’s too busy to handle.  After ignoring my phone messages and emails for a week he tells me he’ll get me the information in a few hours because he’s busy.  It should take him all of five minutes to get the information I’m asking for.

He never comes through.  I email him again.

Then he says he’s decided he would “be more comfortable” meeting me before sharing the information.

Um, sorry.  This is not a good week for me to drive 2 hours for a meeting at the office (see aforementioned data entry project).  And I can’t sit around for another week waiting to meet with him so I can get started on my project.  Had he mentioned his paranoia WHEN I INITIALLY ASKED FOR THE INFORMATION, I could have arranged it last week.  But he’s not the only one with a busy schedule.

He was supposed to call me today.  Didn’t.  After waiting for 45 minutes, I called his office.  Was told he got held up in a meeting and would be free to call me in 10-15 minutes.  He never called.  Big surprise.

In addition to dealing with Dumbass, I’m also in charge of a couple of tasks that are seemingly simple - but have taken a ridiculous amount of time to make headway on.  For instance, switching the bank account information for one of these companies I’m doing work for.  Sounds relatively straightforward, no?

It’s not.

There’s Company A, who is the processor for the manual terminal.  Then there’s Company B, the processor for the website transactions.   Company B doesn’t pass information on to Discover or American Express, so I have to update information individually with them as well.  This would have been nice to know at the beginning - when I asked the Discover rep that very question, I was told that I had to do the updating through Company B, and not through Discover directly.  Apparently not the case.

Company A, who is sometimes called Company C,  has some sort of affiliate - Company D - who apparently I have to update with the information separately, but nobody tells me this until I find out by accident 2 weeks later.

Company B, who is sometimes called Company G, does not receive the information we faxed them.  We send it again, via mail.

Then I get a  phone message from “Melody at the Credit Card Processing Company,” regarding some of the information I’m trying to change.   How helpful.  When I return the call, Melody doesn’t quite remember why she called me.  I ask Melody which Credit Card Processing Company she’s calling from.  She says she’s calling from Company E.  I haven’t had any dealings with Company E and have no idea who they are.  She says she also works for Company F.  Again, not ringing a bell.  After a lot of questioning, I am able to determine that Melody at Company E and Company F has some relationship to Company A, but I have no idea what that relationship is.

Company D has not received the information we faxed them.

Company B/G, has STILL not received the information we sent them, twice.  Though they point out that apparently it takes them 7-10 business days to check their mail.  Go figure.

I get a phone message from Erica at the Credit Card Processing Company.  Why do they do this to me?  After much trouble, I am able to determine that Erica is from Company D.  She is calling to tell me that Company D has received the information after all … but has not processed it.  Nobody knows why, or when it will be taken care of.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am ditching all of these companies in the near future in exchange for dealing solely with PayPal.

On Saturday, we made a special trip to Red Robin, one of our favorite restaurants and one that we seldom get to visit because the closest one is over half an hour away. They have great food and Button always gets a balloon - which, to a 2-year-old, is pretty much as close to Heaven as it gets.

We told the host that there were three people in our party and one (Button) needed a highchair. We were led to a table for two. At Red Robin, a table for two is just that - there is no room for a third plate, and certainly not for the kids’ menu place mat they always give you.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to fit at this table. There are three of us.”
“We can extend the table.”

There were approximately 12 inches between that table and the ones on each side of it (which were occupied). If they extended the table, the people sitting next to us would not be able to get out of their booths. And there would still be no room for a highchair.

We explained this to the host and asked if we could just have a bigger table. Seeing several large tables empty around us, we didn’t think this would be a problem. He said ok, and went back to the front for a new table assignment. He then returned and led us to … anther table for two.

“This table isn’t any bigger than the last one,” I explained to him. “We have three people and this is a table for two.”

He muttered some excuse about how he doesn’t know how many people the tables seat. I stood there blinking at him, trying to comprehend the fact that evidently COUNTING THE CHAIRS at the table was a concept too advanced for him.

He then asked us if we wanted a booth instead. Looking around, I saw several booths nearby that were clearly meant for 4 people and would allow us the space we needed. “Sure, that would be fine.”

He then led us halfway across the restaurant to … yet another table for two.

At this point, I began to lose my patience. “Is there a reason that we cannot get a table that will seat THREE PEOPLE?” I gestured at one of the many empty table around that would suffice.

He looked at the table I had indicated and told me that he couldn’t seat us there because they couldn’t put a highchair at that booth.

I saw other non-booth tables available that could have accommodated highchairs. I considered pointing that out, but was afraid his brain might derail and explode at the possibility of other options.

I asked him dully if they had any booster seats, and the reply was yes.

“Then please bring us a booster seat and take us to a larger table.”

Somehow, we finally made it to a table that had enough room for the three of us and our meals - and boy, were we hungry at that point. Next time, I may just tell them we have 5 in our party, and hope we end up with a table for 4.

I took this quiz.

It told me I was most aligned with Barrack Obama, and furthest from Ron Paul.

Then I took this quiz.

It told me my views were most aligned with Ron Paul, and furthest from Barrack Obama.

A lot of help that was.

UPDATE: And then I took this quiz, which told me my views were most in line with Mike Huckabee and least similar to Ron Paul.

It’s beginning to look like I’m actually going to have to READ and do RESEARCH for this election instead of just trusting the internet to do all the work for me.

How annoying.

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. .

Wordpress isn’t working for me very well - I can’t get it to do several of the basic functions. And it’s just on this site. Which is part of the reason I haven’t been saying much here recently. Must look at a reinstall or something.