All Zen

I'm feeling very zen right now. It's funny, I can sit back and look at myself and watch how my certain brand of crazy thoughts flies around like I have a jet pack blasting out my rear end. I can go from outraged to lovable to crazy to peaceful in 6.2 seconds flat. I should get some kind of metal for that don't you think. So, I decided that since I'm feeling the zen at the moment, I should take advantage of it and journal. Hello Journal.

I got home from work, opened up my mail and saw a utility bill for $463.33. That's water and garbage for the month. As you might imagine, I dropped my jaw on my foot. I think it smooshed my baby toe. Ouch! First reaction was to put it down and walk away, leaving my lovely patient husband to deal with it. You see, I absolutely detest customer service people. I don't typically have good experiences with them unless I'm shopping in a high end store or staying in a fancy hotel or dining at a nice restaurant. I don't know, maybe I just expect better service from all people in a service roll. If your job is to answer the telephone and deal with people and their problems, my thought is that you should do it with a certain level of pleasantness. Is that even a word? Oh well, as my husband says when he makes up words allllll the time, "I used it didn't I? It's a word!". I love how he says it like I had better just recognize.

So, I picked up the phone and quickly dialed the customer service number on the back of the bill. Aren't I good wife, dealing with things myself instead of dumping it on him? I am, I'm sure of it. I ended up sitting on hold for 12 minutes. Someone answered, I said hello and began to explain my bill. There was nothing but dead air. She hung up on me. She hung up on me? YES! I called back again, this time there wasn't even a greeting. The phone was picked up and slammed back down with some force. I could tell because it wasn't a direct hit. It sounded like one of the old fashioned Bell South phones with the rotary dial. I heard clunk, clunk, clunk, dial tone. She struggled with that hang up. Why is she hanging up on me? I have no idea. All I got to say was "hello, wondering if you can help me with my bill". That was it. I called back a third time. This time my call was received. I actually got to talk to her for a couple minutes.

She looked at my bill and said that if there isn't an obvious water leak, we just have to deal with it. I was like, wait wait wait a minute, I don't understand. How can we use no more water than we ever have and end up with a $463.33 bill and be expected to just deal with it. Um...no. After a few questions and some discussion, she was not a pleasant person in the least, I finally said "thank you for your help but I don't think you've help me at all" and in mid sentence she hung up on me again. This is the city utilities here people. I couldn't believe it.

I called back AGAIN. This time, I just asked for a manager or supervisor on duty. I ended up sitting on hold for another 10 minutes or so. Finally I got another woman and told her what had just happened. She very reluctantly looked up my information. Then when she got my bill up on her screen she said "WOOOOOOOWWWWWW"! Um, ya. Can you please help me understand how it's possible that I got a $463.33 water bill when we haven't had the water on and it's been raining nonstop for a month? Please?

It all started with a bit I shock I believe. Then confusion set in. Then I had one of those "oh no you din't" neck wriggle moments. That was followed by the image in my head of strangling some stupid little uneducated grunt worker by her skinny little neck. It was really a split second image flash in my head. I got over it quickly and moved right to my zen residence. I'm really quite proud of myself for the exchange. I was patient, pleasant, kind, articulate, and direct. I think I might have bordered on nice.

I'm really not sure why I felt it important to share this. It's really an insignificant event in my day. Nothing special. Oh well, perhaps I'll look back on this post someday and angels will appear, singing to me in a tongue that I'm not currently able to understand and it will be that moment when the entire universe makes sense to me.

Now, my hands are cold so I think I'll need to make myself a nice hot cup of tea just to hold for a bit.

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you enjoy your weekends.