(11:33 AM) | Adam Kotsko:

Tuesday Hatred

1. I always send my car insurance in the day after I get the bill, because I am paranoid. Last month, the check apparently got lost in the mail, and I overnighted them a premium check (because I'm paranoid) to make sure that everything would be "cool." This month, my check cleared within just a couple days of sending the payment. The annoyance: there is still no explanation for what happened to last month's check.
   
   
2. I used to get a lot of tickets for arrogantly parking my truck on the street. I appealled every last one of them, and I also appealled a ticket I got for not having a City Sticker while I was in the grace period. This was three months ago, and I still have not heard back from them about a hearing. I am hoping that it just got lost in the bureaucracy, but there's really no way of knowing for sure.
   
   
3. Similarly, when I moved, the cable company switched out my previous cable modem for a newer model, but I forgot to keep the receipt for when they took the old one, so I got a bill for $150 for failing to return their modem, when in fact I did return it to them. I complained and asked them to try a little harder to track it down, and they said they'd get back to me once the situation was resolved. Since I haven't heard back from them in three months, I guess the situation is resolved, but it'd be nice if they would have called me and said, "Oh, we found it -- sorry to try to defraud you of $150."
   
   
4. The ferrets usually have these little platforms in their cage to make it a multi-level environment and give them room to move, but I guess Hayley has taken them down for cleaning or something -- anyway, just now they were wrestling in the litter box, because they really don't have many other options for where to wrestle. Not only is it disgusting, but it's also noisy, because they're rustling up all the ferret litter. Overall: the ferrets are going to need a bath.
   
   
5. Oh, now they're worn out, so they're actually taking a little nap in the litter box. I guess it's not that big a deal, since ferrets apparently only like to shit in the corner anyway -- there's always a huge pile right in the corner and this vast expanse of unused ferret litter. That alone should count as its own bullet point.
   
   
6. I hate those bus stops where there are six different possible buses that could stop there, because you see a bus off in the distance, and there's a chance that even then, your hopes could be dashed. I also hate how the Armitage bus stops running at 7:30 -- it doesn't really affect me directly, but it just seems petty.
   
   
7. I hate that my cell phone often doesn't ring when I'm walking around outside. I used to think it only happened when it was extremely cold out, but it recently happened when it was a perfect spring day, right in the middle of the Loop -- if there were decent cell phone coverage anywhere in the world, surely it would be there.
   
   
8. I basically hate talking on the phone in front of people, at all.
   
   
9. I hate being asked questions, about anything, ever. Even if it's a simple matter of just making conversation, asking what I'm up to, where I'm headed, I get this weird anxiety like I'm being interrogated.
   
   Once, when he was training me to analyze the x-rays, one of the chiropractors at the office where I used to work was looking over my shoulder to make sure that I was doing it right -- totally reasonable -- and I was just paralyzed, unable to start doing it. He said, "Oh, I see, you're nervous because I'm watching you." I said, "I just don't like to be seen doing anything." He said, "Yeah, I've noticed." I found that strange. I would probably be happiest in a job where I was locked up in a room and no one interrupted me -- then when I got off work, I'd be feeling sociable and talkative.
   
   
10. I hate that I feel like I'm walking on clouds when I get a three-day temp assignment. It's playing directly into the "new economy," of course -- I'm pleased with whatever pittance my corporate overlords send my way. It's like that old Onion article where the fast food worker is in charge of mopping the floor, and he gets a new mop, which is actually really nice and lets him get the floor cleaner with less work, but then he feels pathetic for being happy to get a new mop.

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