Just got off phone with Merrill Lynch. Nightmare! I’m reminded of a recurring dream I have where I get stuck in an elevator and the bottom falls out. There is no escape for me and I totally die and wake up when I hit the bottom. I had the same experience on the phone today, except for the dying and the scary and the elevator parts. Today is first day I can access new 401K account according to their pretty brochure. Wrong. Called to get a PIN. Tried 3 times. Everytime it failed, it didn’t tell me it failed, it just sent me back to a phone rep. Phone rep first tried to tell me I couldn’t start my PIN with a 0 and also probably forgot to ENTER the asterisk when I was prompted. Right away you realize these people have problems because their phone system says weird things like “ENTER THE 1 KEY” instead of “PRESS THE 1 KEY.” I know, semantics are a bitch, but every freakin other phone system says PUSH so why should they be allowed to say ENTER. I think ENTER implies that you have to hit ENTER since that happens to be a button on keyboards that people are familiar with. It also doesn’t help that ENTER has other meanings like ENTER the room and so forth. There’s no ENTER key on your phone keypad you idiots! I wonder how I can leave them a comment about this usability infraction, but I wouldn’t know how since I don’t have a freakin ENTER key. After third attempt at getting some PIN, a third phone rep came on to tell me I couldn’t log in until I got my first PIN. That first PIN may be in Houston if they mailed it in the last week, though I doubt it. The guy kept asking if I wanted to enroll, and I’m like, ”NO! I JUST WANT A PIN!” Enroll? Ugh. So, the guy asks me to hold on and that he’s transferring me to a phone rep that specializes in my company’s 401K account. After about 30 seconds of silence, the phone goes dead. They hung up on me. Great. To be continued.
Didn’t go out last night. Dressed up in a weird mask and all black, but I was feeling sleepy. I get up at 6 AM every morning so staying up late on a ”school night” is not easy. I took some pics of my costume, however. Toss that one on the huge pile of photos I haven’t published yet. Still going to #’s tonight. Be there.
Took Chew Chew to the vet for boarding. Met another female basset hound named Grace, 13 yrs old and looking great. Didn’t know how long bassets lived. He’ll be 4 in January, so it looks like he’s going to accompany me through my 40’s. (At least someone will be there, hehe).
Not talking to the aforementioned neighbor anymore. Do me a favor and don’t bring the topic up if you see either one of us. Some things are better left alone. Like five month old blue cheese dip, for example.
