Corner of Bourbon & Division

Today has not been nearly as productive because I've been in limbo for the past two hours or so trying to arrange a house viewing. Between KK not answering her messages and now my real estate agent not answering hers, I feel like I am playing go-between between two gaping voids into which all attempts at communication vanish forever.

*tears out hair*

One of my many pet peeves is people who refuse to answer either their phones or their messages when something is extremely time-sensitive without letting the other party (in this case, me) know that they are tied up in some way. A simple "Sorry, stuck in a meeting, I will answer as soon as I can!" would suffice, but nooooo. We're just going to leave Phnee in limbo to wonder how long to leave sending a chaser email or message so as not to be impolite or seem like she's totally unhinged.

Like, you BOTH know that we need to sort this out today. WHY for the love of God are you not answering?!? Why am I the only one making an effort to keep the lines of communication open?

*tears out more hair*

Anyway, I still need to cut the chicken and go to Costco and generally get stuff done. The dogs are alseep on the sofa and I am very jealous of them, because there is nothing I would like more than to take a nice long nap right now. Unfortunately napping is not in my future. At best I may have a nap much later tonight right before my night shift.

So, yeah. There is not much going on right now, except for worrying about our brand new trade war with the USA. As of tomorrow, Trump announced that there will be a 25% tariff on products imported from Canada and Mexico, and a 10% tariff on products from China. Since there is no reason for these tariffs other than whatever his deranged brain came up with, and it violates the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA on July 1st 2020), Canada is retaliating with a 25% tariff of its own on US imports. Holy shit, y'all, it is so many products. It's food, drink, clothing, and a ton of other things like lumber products, cosmetics... the list goes on.

I'm trying not to be too cynical, but I am worried that Canadian companies are just going to jack the prices on everything regardless of whether it's a US product, just because they think they can get away with gouging consumers. We're already seeing nearly unprecedented levels of food and housing insecurity in Canada, and if the price of food goes up as well as the price of housing (because of the perceived value of building supplies), I can only imagine this will be catastrophic for the average person, myself included.

Sure, I can grow some of my own food, and I am lucky that my rent is relatively low compared to current market prices because I've lived in this house for nearly eight years, but none of that will help me if I don't have a job in April of next year. I can cut costs wherever possible, but unless KK miraculously stops spending money like water and starts earning more, we can't afford even the rent here. Anyway, I am trying not to panic too hard about that yet. There are relatively okay odds that my job will still be there, even though I'm on a two-year contract. They want to keep me, I know that much, it's just a question of whether the political climate of "slash all the public service jobs!" will allow me to survive the cuts. And yes, I *am* trying to buy a house in this climate. I have utterly lost my mind.

On that cheerful note, I am off to try to get something productive done. Catch you later, friends!

Me: "RCMP-GRC Montréal, bonjour, good morning!"

Caller: "Is [Officer's Name] there?"

Me: "I'm sorry, that section is closed until 0800. Is there an emergency?"

Caller: "I wanted to speak to [Officer's Name]."

Me: "I'm sorry, they're not in the office until 0800, in one hour from now. Is there an emergency?"

Caller: "No, it's fine. When are they going to be in?"

Me: "At 0800, in an hour."

Caller: "Okay, I'll try back in ten minutes. Bye!" *hangs up*

Me: *head connects violently with desk*

I was just reading a post by bodhifox about people being nasty on the phone with him, and it occurs to me that everyone I know who works in a job that has them answering phones has stories about people who are horrible and rude and abusive. It seems that callers fall mainly into two categories: neutral and abusive. For every 100 callers, I'd say about fifteen to twenty are rude or abusive in some fashion, most range from barely tolerable to just polite, and maybe one (if I'm lucky) is deliberately pleasant with me.

I'd really like to know what it is that makes people feel it's okay to be that way with complete strangers. It's not just the relative safety of the phone, either. People are abusive with retailers and anyone behind a counter, too.

People just seem to be angry, a lot.

( Nattering about failed relationships. Nothing to see here. )

Anyway. This is me processing. Nothing to see here. I'm also disabling comments, because my lovely friends have already given me enough advice (often very good advice!) on the topic. I'm just talking to myself in written form in order to make sense of this in my head.

I'm not looking forward to talking to her. I can't see any way in which this conversation can go well, and I don't really feel like explaining myself. I know I probably owe her an explanation, but so far she either doesn't understand or doesn't believe anything I say. So the emotionally and physically exhausted part of me keeps asking "Why bother?" The cynical part of me is also needling me with the thought that I may be meeting her only because she still has some of my stuff which I want back (a book, a CD, a pair of expensive socks, and my keys). That thought makes me very very uncomfortable. Part of me keeps telling me just to write them off as a loss and move on.

I don't know. I'm tired, and really unhappy about this whole situation. Once it's done I'll go back to the way things were, and I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I like my life: I have a fulfilling job, fantastic friends, and parents who love me. My life is really good, overall, and while it hurts now to have BorderCrossing leave, having her gone is not going to make a huge difference in my life, except possibly to reduce my stress levels: juggling a girlfriend along with all the other demands in my life was hard, although I thought it was worth it at the time.

If that makes me a bad, selfish, horrible person, then so be it.

Either my skills at communicating with tact and sensitivity have taken an epic turn and are now composed of weapons-grade fail, or half of my friends/family/acquaintances are willfully misinterpreting things I say as slights/insults, or Mercury is retrograde. This has happened so many times over the last little while that it can no longer be considered coincidence.

Please tell me Mercury is retrograde. The other two options are NOT my idea of fun.

So George (aka Pukey) was just sick all over the floor, and Pan-Pan has decided that this is far superior to his own kibble. I should go in and break it up, but truthfully, it's making my stomach heave just thinking about it.

All right.

::: Three minutes later :::

Okay. Bleah. All clean now.

...

Huh. The technician from Sympatico just called, so I'm going to have to sign off. I'm impressed: they said between 8:00 and 12:00, and it's looking like 08:00, which means I won't have to spend my morning waiting. Good thing I remembered last night that he was coming and set my alarm early. Maybe I'll even have time for a nap.

There is nothing more anxiety-producing for me than to receive a message on my phone saying that the person wants to talk to me about something, but won't say what.

Rationally, I know that it's probably nothing bad.

However, being the kind of person I am, I immediately start worrying about it. What could it mean? What could it be about? Clearly, if they didn't want to leave a clear message, then it must be Very Very Bad. After all, I live alone: there's no reason not to say whatever you want on my answering machine. No one will hear it but me.

The only thing I can do to save my sanity is not think about it, except that it keeps creeping back and shouting "Boo!" at me every so often.

Right now I just want to get this damned theoretical phone conversation over with. Actually, I have two of those pending.

It makes me long for the good old days when I ignored my phone for weeks at a time.

I have the dumb.

The following conversation took place Friday evening, with a coworker.

Coworker: "I tried to call you this morning, but you must have been sleeping pretty soundly, 'cause you never answered your phone."

Me: "I might have been gone already. What time did you phone?"

Coworker: "Around 8:00. The phone rang off the hook, and you don't have an answering machine. I thought you were asleep so I hung up."

Me: "That's odd. I was definitely home at 8:00, and I have an answering machine. Besides, the phone is right next to my bed, so I would have heard it rin— Oh, God."



Guess who accidentally unplugged her phone for three days last week? You get three tries, and the first two don't count.

Anyway, I plugged my phone back in when I got home, and thank God that I'd had the presence of mind to email the RCMP on Friday (before I found out my phone was unplugged) to do a follow-up, because of course they tried to contact me during that time.

So I received a message yesterday (while I was gone, naturally), asking to call them back on Wednesday. YEE!

All in all, while I am an idiot of the worst kind, things have turned out for the better thus far.

So the little guy I spoke to at Sympatico, hereafter known as The Blithering Idiot, did not in fact put in an order for a new power cord for my modem. I called last night when I decided that the "minimum three business days" had stretched long enough. The new little man, who spoke with a pronounced East Indian accent (Sympatico? Outsourcing to a different continent? Never!) but who was otherwise far more competent, promised me that he would send me one right then. It ought to be here tomorrow, or Monday at latest.

If it's not here on Monday, there will be a complaint. A formal complaint.

The rest of my life proceeds apace. No reason whatsoever to complain. :)

My phone isn't working.

More specifically, I can't seem to make outgoing calls. I have yet to test whether I can hear anything if I can answer the phone, but I have no dial tone on my phone. All I get is static.

I have received a couple of calls which at the time I let go to my answering machine, and that seems to have worked fine.

I don't have time for this. Not now, not for several months. This problem had better fix itself by the time I get home tomorrow morning.


Also, I really, really wish LJ would stop acting up all the time. I get constant "database busy" messages, and one time out of three it doesn't post my entries (like just now) but simply refreshes my "update LJ" page. No, thank you: if I wanted to refresh, I would have hit "refresh" and not "update."

:::ETA:::

And now LJ seems to have randomly eaten 3 of my icons.

I give up.