You know that commercial...

You know that commercial that has kids in various situations: The DMV, on hold, at the scene of an accident?  I believe it's an insurance commercial that vows to always treat you like the adult you are, and not a child.  That's how I have felt at one point or another over the course of the week.  I hate that feeling of being talked down to, like you are a kid; or not being listened to or believed.  Maybe you've experienced something similar, maybe you're better at blowing it off than me, but after last night the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" occurred and had it not been for Kevin, I might have been on the evening news.  Yep, I'd had enough.

It all started when I was trying to make doctor's appointments.  My yearly physical is coming up, and also I'd noticed changes that I felt my endocrinologist needed to be aware of.  So, during my planning time at school (which also happens to be the outside world's lunchtime) I set about making appointments.  I had to leave a message at one place and asked that since I was a teacher,  would they mind calling back either before my planning time was over, or if that wasn't possible, after 3 when school was out.  I explained what I needed, and hung up.  Then I called my endocrinologist and repeated the process, except this time, I got to speak to a real person.  I explained that I was a teacher, and that in order to come in for an appointment I would have to take a day off (not many substitutes like half-days), so I understood if it would be awhile before I could get an appointment after 3.  There was a pause and the receptionist said, "I have an appointment tomorrow at 10.  Would that work?"  No, sorry.  I repeated the reason I needed after 3.  "Oh.  We have some more available that day.  How would 11:30, 1:30, or 2:15 work.?"  No again.  Let me repeat myself.  Finally we settled on a day the following week  at 3.  I worked with my librarian and teaching partner to get my class covered so I could be there at 3.  I compromised.

Then I get to the appointment and the feeling of not being listened to and talked down to continued.  For awhile now, I have been losing hair at a faster rate than normal.  I understood that there could be several reasons for that, one of them being my thyroid, but for each cause you needed to have a blood test done.  So, like a good person, I made the appointment.  Also, within the last month or so, I've had days when at 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon I am ready to go to bed.  Not take a nap, mind you, but go to bed.  I force myself to stay awake, because my kids need a parent who can be there for them. Plus, I can't expect Kevin do all of the work.  But then, around 7 or 8 o'clock at night I am wide awake.  Energy to spare.  I usually go workout at this time, but then that keeps me up.  When I saw the doctor (my regular thyroid doctor's PA) I felt like I did when I was first diagnosed with Hypothyroid disease.  He "suggested" maybe I should take a nap, and make a life change (you know: eating better, exercising, yada-yada-yada).  When I responded back that a nap wasn't really feasible with a room full of 21 students, or that I couldn't when I got home because I'm responsible for my own children, he looked at me skeptically.  When I also told him I did the things he suggested like eat healthy, work out on a regular basis, he made a couple of comments that indicated I wasn't exactly telling the truth, and that I needed to "take a step back", after all these were only suggestions.  Granted, I was a little grumpy anyway.  I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, because they were doing blood work.  However, you don't tell a patient to "take a step back."

I felt better for awhile because I called Kevin and vented.  Plus, Jack was ready to go to the doctor's office and tell that PA what he thought about being rude to his mom.  I had a little bit of a break, until last night.  On Sunday, Jack updated his iPhone, but once updated it wouldn't let him access his phone.  Because of that, Kevin and I went on a journey to find out what exactly had happened.  We found a nice lady who told us that she had seen it on several iPhones since the update rolled out.  All we needed to do was visit the Apple store and they would correct the problem.  The closest one we found to us at that time of night was at a mall in West Plano.

It was at that store, that I'd taken all I could take with condescendingly rude people who don't listen.  We walked into the store and was met with a person who asked if he could help us (innocent enough), so we explained our situation.  He called someone from the "Genius Bar" (that's a misnomer).  This gentleman came up to us and asked the same exact question.  Okay, then.  I explained it all again.  "Well," he said. "It looks like the screen is cracked."  Yes it is (top right hand corner).  It has been for about 8 months, and my son has been able to use his phone no problem.  But all of a sudden after the update, he couldn't access it.  I was then told it was a "display" problem and that it would be $129 + tax to fix.  If that didn't work, it was a "hardware" issue which would cost $269 + tax to fix.  "But is it possible it's an update issue, since this has been a problem," was our question.  At this point, I was told I would need to make an appointment to bring the phone back so I could leave it to be worked on.  "Well, since I'm here, can't I leave it with you and pick it up by the time you all close tomorrow," I asked.  This is where it went downhill.  I was told I couldn't do that, I would need to schedule a time to come back to drop it off, and that they would look at it then.  He pulled up the scheduling app on his iPod, as he explained that.  I explained that I was a teacher and that I would need to schedule an appointment after 4:15 to bring the phone back.  Kevin explained that he worked at a teaching hospital and couldn't come in until after 5:30.  "Well, as you can see," he began.  "We begin appointments at 10 am, and continue through out the day. But we don't have an appointment available tomorrow."  Wait, what?  All I need is to drop off the phone and it be worked on.  "Well, as you can see," he repeated.  He then pointed out that there was an appointment available at 10 o'clock the following day. Of course, he started it by saying, "As you can see....."

I looked at him (probably somewhat dumbfounded) like, "Weren't you listening to me?"  At this point, I handed the phone to Kevin, and with tears in my eyes asked him to take care of it.  I told him I would be outside, sitting on a bench because I didn't want to end up on the evening news.  A few minutes later, Kevin walked out with the phone and explained what we were going to do.  He would bring it up, have them work on it, and Jack would have a phone by the end of the day.  He is also going to speak with a manager about the poor customer service we received, since the man didn't listen to us when we explained our need for an evening appointment, when he zeroed in on the crack on the screen, and dismissed everything else we said after that point.

So we will see how it goes tonight.  I got online and found an Apple Store that is closer to Kevin's workplace, and guess what?  They had 19 appointments today after 4:30.  I won't be there, so maybe that's good.  I won't have to listen to, "Well, as you can see..." any more.

It hasn't been a good week in the self-confidence department.  It'll get better though, and hopefully, you won't see me on the evening news.