"Services" ACHOO!

I would like to think that up until now in writing this blog, I've done a very good job of not giving out much personal information.  My name is posted somewhere on the site (I'll never tell you where!), but other than that, I've done my best to avoid anything that would help you find me.  However, today I am so pissed off at the university that I attend, that I am going to break my personal code.

So rapists and murderers that have been desperately scouring the pages of this blog looking for a way to find me, come at me, bro!  I could go Hulk on just about anyone right now.

I attend Texas Tech University.  There are many things I like about this school.  The campus is gorgeous.  I love that it is isolated from the surrounding city of Lubbock, because I don't like the way cities feel.  Tech doesn't have that feeling.  Most of the professors aren't too bad, particularly in the math and classics departments that I most often deal with.  I do my absolute best to take pride in my school and give my full support to being a Red Raider.

But today, if you asked me, I would tell you that if you are even slightly considering going ANYWHERE else, run.  Save yourself before it's too late.

In sitcoms, there is often a joke for a particular character that continues running through the entire season.  Whatever it may be, just when you think you won't hear anything about it again, WHAM!  There it is!  I love this!  It's like a little nod to those people that are watching the show frequently enough to realize that its happening.

My running joke isn't funny anymore.

Before the semester started, as I was preparing to move in, I got the odd urge to check my parking permit.  Nothing blatantly told me to check this.  It was just a feeling.  I honestly remember buying a parking permit back when I registered to live in the dorms again.  Apparently, I was wrong or something in their system screwed up.  Either way, I didn't have a permit.  Even worse, there were no more permits for my dorm's parking lot.  The closest permit I could still get was a block away.  I realize that parking a block away doesn't seem like that much, but let me ask you this:  If you had a garage or driveway right in front of your house and you had to park in some lot down the street, wouldn't you be ticked?
Anyway, at that point I was ticked.  I could pretty much convince myself that I had messed up and this was still my fault.  After a few days I could laugh about the extra exercise I got walking to my car.  I really didn't think it was THAT bad, just a minor annoyance.  According to their rules, I could even park in my dorm's parking lot on the weekends.  (Because that makes sense. (ACHOO!) )

And so, the very first weekend out of the bottle, I went somewhere Friday night, and came back to leave my car in the parking lot of my dorm.

I came back to it Saturday afternoon to find not one, but two tickets:  one for Friday and one for Saturday.

Luckily, the appeal process was pretty easy.  I went online and appealed both.  The results came back within two weeks, and they said that I was indeed in the right and waved both tickets.  I was satisfied and resolved let bygones be bygones.  I made my peace with TTU Parking "Services" (The word services here having the broadest possible meaning attributed to the word.), and went on.  I parked down the block during the week and in my dorm's lot on the weekend.  Everything was fine.

Until I got an email one Friday morning telling me that I had been issued another parking ticket.

By the time I got to my car to verify that I was still parked in the lot in which I was supposed to be parked (the same spot I had been parked in all week) there was another ticket.  They had ticketed me for Thursday and Friday.  (Apparently Monday through Wednesday you can park wherever you want.  Right?  (ACHOO!) )  Worst of all, they had ticketed me for parking in the lot for which I had a permit.  The permit that I had been stuck with because I could not get the permit for my dorm's parking lot.  A permit I could not get because they were out by the time I realized I didn't have one.

I appealed these tickets as well and put them out of my mind.

Until, at least three weeks later, I got a notice from Student Business Services telling me that I had a balance due despite the fact that I had already paid off my tuition bill.

I checked my bill and, wouldn't you know it, there was a lovely little note from parking in which my $25 unjustified parking ticket (which I had appealed and not yet heard back on) had been turned over to Student Business Services and had a few late fees attached resulting in the grand prize of over $200!  (It's like I won the Price is Right!)  I immediately called Parking "Services" and asked them what was going on.  They told me that I had not paid the ticket and it was passed due so they turned it over.  I told them that I had appealed that ticket and had yet to hear back about it.  They said they had no record of ever receiving this appeal.  They got the one for the other ticket (which I STILL haven't heard back on (two weeks, my butt!) ), but nothing for this one.  They did, however, agree to wave the fees because everyone gets a free courtesy ticket or something like that.

I was satisfied and once again put it out of my mind.

Until last night.

Last night, my mom called me telling me that they had received an email saying I had a hold on my account from Student Business Services because of overdue bills.  I checked and confirmed this.  Then I checked my email and saw that at 5:30, they had sent me an email telling me about this hold.

Registration is tomorrow.

I checked my bill to find that that stupid parking ticket was still there, so I called Parking "Services".  They told me that they had waved the fee for that ticket, but for some reason it hadn't gone through to Student Business Services.  (FYI, my first call to them about this ticket in which the fee was waved was TWO WEEKS ago.)  They assured me that they would resend it and it would be taken care of in the next few days.  The next few dayS.  Plural.  I, in my naivete, let it go.

Today, I checked my account once more to find the same hold, so I called Student Business Services who told me that they had received nothing from Parking "Services".  So, I called parking.  Again.  They told me that they would email their boss and let them know, but that she had been on vacation and was behind.  They once again assured me that it would be taken care of in a few dayS.  I asked if there was anything I could do to speed up the process.  They said no.  They recommended I go ahead and pay and wait for the transaction to go through and I would be reimbursed.

I am now pissed.

It's not that I CAN'T pay it.  It's that I SHOULDN'T have to.  Why should I pay because someone else screwed up?  I resolved to go to the various Services in person and try to work this out.  However, as I tried to talk to my roommate about all of this, I quickly realized that I could not form any of my arguments into a cohesive thought, because I'm so pissed off.  I haven't been able to verbalize a thought about this cohesively since.

I paid.

I'm pissed about it, but what choice did I have?  If I didn't, let me lay out for you the sequence of events from the beginning of this fiasco as they could have played out, assuming that my tongue's betrayal continued and I couldn't get them to work it out today:

1. I do not get the parking permit for my dorm as I thought I did.
2. I am forced to park in another lot because they are "out" in my dorm's lot.
3. I receive a ticket for parking in the lot I am supposed to park in.
4. I appeal the ticket.
5. The appeal goes unregistered by Parking "Services".
6. The ticket gets turned over to Business Services.
7. Parking "Services" agrees to wave the fees.
8. They forget to tell the people in charge of the money.
9. I get a hold on my account.
10. I refuse to pay the fee, but cannot argue my case, because I don't know how to deal with anger.
11. I cannot register for the classes I need, because they fill up before I'm allowed to register.
12. I have to push back my graduation.

Right now, the main reason I don't want #12 to happen is because I don't want to deal with TTU Parking "Services" anymore.  I wouldn't mind being here another semester, but I want to graduation mostly because I'm sick of dealing with them.

Am I a drama queen?  Yes.
Am I blowing this all out of proportion?  Probably.
Do I care right now?  No!

I may have gone too far saying not to come to Tech at all.  There really are many wonderful things about this school.  I do, however, recommend that whoever you are, wherever your classes are, and wherever you live, skip out on dealing with Parking "Services" and just park at Wal-Mart.

The Kitchen Table Test

To say that I like "How I Met Your Mother" could qualify as a nominee for the Understatement of the Year award.  It would be almost like saying Ted likes Star Wars.  I'm a little bit completely obsessed.  If you aren't, you either haven't seen it because you live in a third world country (in which case please leave a comment telling me how you found and are reading my blog) or you have been mistakenly watching the wrong show.  These are the only possibilities.  (There's also the very remote chance that you've seen it and don't like it, but, to be frank, I'm writing this blog for people who aren't cold humorless monsters.)

I've been rewatching the series from the beginning over the last several weeks and today I watched an episode in which Ted finds out that Lily has been sabotaging his relationships for years.  As part of her confession, Lily tells him that the girls she did this with failed what she called the Front Porch Test.

Basically, Lily and Marshall (who, for those of you in third world countries, are married) have been best friends with Ted since college.  Lily makes the rather reasonable assumption that they will be very good friends for their entire lives.  Thus, she considers their futures through this Front Porch Test.  She pictures the four of them (Marshall, Lily, Ted, and whoever the girl happens to be that week) on the front porch of one of their houses in the distant future.  If she doesn't like the way the scenario plays out, that girl has failed the Front Porch Test.

This got me thinking.  (Because, let's face it, what doesn't?)  I have a similar test.  However, it's not really with my friends.  Older Ted as the narrator of the story refers to all the other characters in the core cast as "uncles" and "aunts".  They are family.  Like them, I have a test with my family.  It's not a Front Porch Test.  We don't really spend much time on the porch.

For my family, it's the Kitchen Table Test.

My family ROCKS!  Seriously, they rock.  Actually, "rock" is being modest.  My family is the MOST AWESOMEST!!!  So, as Lily put it, "whoever you marry, whoever joins Team Awesome . . . the bar's set pretty high."

I didn't realize just how high that bar was set until someone passed the Kitchen Table Test.

My family spends a lot of time together.  (And really, who could blame us?  I mean, we're awesome!)  We not only love each other, but (most days) we genuinely LIKE each other.  I thought this was how all families were for the longest time.  I've since realized just how blessed I am.  Anyway, the ultimate culmination of our time spent together is dinner.  Dinner has long been a sacred tradition in my family.  It (almost) always takes place around the kitchen table and is one of the most fun things anyone can do, as far as I'm concerned.  My mom is a MAGNANIMOUS cook!  Between that and the fact that everyone in my family is classically trained in the great art of conversation (Yes, there are still people good at that.) family dinners are almost as awesome as we are.

However, I could easily see how family dinners with us could be intimidating for some people.  It's hard to be surrounded by that much awesomeness.  But for me, anyone who's going to join our family has to be able to not only survive, but thrive in that setting.

This is the Kitchen Table Test.

I have a really good imagination and generally I'm at least decent at reading people.  Thanks to these skills, I can usually run the Kitchen Table Test in my mind if I've spent enough time around the person.  However, it's even better if we can run the test live.  Needless to say, not many people have passed the test.  Even less have passed the test in person.

One has.

My sister-in-law, Wonder Woman, is pretty great.  I have a theory that if I spend enough time with almost anyone, I will grow to hate them.  Wonder Woman and I are both majoring in math at the same school.  Thank to this little "coincidence" we have class together every day of the week.  Consistently after class, we find time to talk to each other.  Basically, I'm spending time with this girl every day of the week, and I still don't hate her.  That's pretty impressive into and of itself.

She's actually the reason I realized the importance of the Kitchen Table Test.  I remember the first time my brother, Superman, brought her home for dinner with all of us.  We immediately jumped in and were our usual awesome selves.  I don't know how she felt about that dinner, but all of us could tell there was something special there.  It takes a special kind of person to hold up under those conditions.  She passed with flying colors.

Throughout our time with her, she's managed to weasel her way into all of our hearts.  And, like everyone who will pass the Kitchen Table Test, we not only love her, we LIKE her.  My sister, Goober, has even gone so far as to deem her a saint (with reciprocity, of course).

Superman, Wonder Woman, Goober, and I hang out pretty regularly.  We like spending time around each other.  In fact, they're all definitely among my favorite people to be around, not just as a group, but as individuals.  I, and I suspect I'm not the only one, have come to realize that whoever Goober and I end up with will have to pass all of these tests.  We will all have to like them.  We will all have to be not only willing, but excited about hanging out with them.

And most importantly, they will have to pass the Kitchen Table Test.

What's you test?