telephone operator....

i heart rick mercer.

i'll bring you back to that later but first...you know sometimes your day starts off bad, and you end up in a blue funk all day.

my day started off horribly wrong. the phone rang early this morning, waking me up and it was some kind of telemarketer. i'm not sleeping well these days, so to be woken up from a deep slumber was not good. here is our conversation.

me: you can't phone this early
him (rudely) : why not?
me: you woke me up.
him (even more rudely): then why did you answer the phone? you shouldn't answer the phone if you are sleeping.
me: because i didn't know who it was. i assumed it was important.
him (surprised): oh.

i hate telemarketers. but i try to at least be pleasant to them. but lately, they have started out rude and just get ruder.

the ones that really get to me are the charities. i got this one the other day. this is how it went.

her: hi. i'm calling from one of your favourite charities. you've supported us in the past and i was wondering if we can count on you again.
me: i don't think so
her: yes. it was four years ago.
me: no. i think you are mistaken.
her: yes you did.
me: no, i didn't.
her: yes, you did.
me: what are you talking about?
her: mrs. (insert my mom's name.. haha i guess that would be mrs. neighbour of the beast here), you supported us....
me: that's not me. she died two years ago.
her: oh.
me: and i don't support telemarketing.
her: but there are plenty other ways you can support us.

i had one guy say to me, 'oh well, your mom supported us. would you like to?" look, buddy, i just told you my mom is dead. and your first reaction is to try and get money out of me?! and the aforementioned lady could have saved us all a lot of time by at least asking for my mom by name, instead of immediately going into her spiel.

the province newspaper keeps calling me as well. trying to get me to renew my subscription. i have never subscribed to the province. they insist i have. perhaps if when they called me and asked for someone by name, they would realise they are not talking to who they think they are. i have informed the province at least half a dozen times that the reason my mother stopped getting the paper was because she died. the last guy who phoned asked me if i had received my special offer in the mail. i told him no. he tried to sell me the paper. i gave him my standard line that i do not take any offers over the phone, and he could mail me something. he got all snarky with me and said 'we've already done that.". look, i don't need your crappy paper, i didn't ask you to call me, so leave me alone ok.

anyways, i didn't start this off to rant about telemarketers.

my original point was sometimes your day starts off bad and never gets any better. after the phone call, i jump into the shower and proceed to get shampoo in my eyes. a lot of shampoo. great. now i'm not only angry, but also in pain and in tears.

i decide to take some recyling back today. i can't find any parking and i do not want to take my cans and bottles on a tour of the neighbourhood so i give up.

i go the library. a mother there decides to let her child scream for ten minutes straight, causing all the other children in the library to join in. i go to check out, and the screaming child is in front of me in the line up. i go and find a place to sit and read until they leave. the child continues to scream.

i decided last week that i want a new job by dec 1st. i have sent out what seems like 1000 resumes in the past four days. i have had slim response so far. i know that isn't very long but because of the mood i was already in, it wasn't helping.

however, i just finished watching rick mercer and i laughed so much, that i laughed my blues away.

i would love to add some clips here but cbc's website is still down. so instead i suggest you all go to rick mercer's blog.

thanks rick, i needed you today.