Just in case you're bored

I have found a new way to entertain yourself. If you happen to get a call from a bill collector and the debt is not yours, you too can make your day a little more exciting and fun.

This really happened. (I dunno, maybe I shouldn't put this on my blog, but hey, just keeping it real.)

Background: I get the occasional call about debt that doesn't belong to me because of strange coincidences in my life. Won't go into detail--let's just leave it at someone else has the exact same name I used to have, incurred debt, and left me to deal with the consequences and bill collectors. Joy joy joy.

Anyway, usually the callers are polite and friendly, I set them straight, we have a little laugh, and we all move on. I don't hear from them again. Fortunately, it doesn't ever hit my credit report, because, well, it's not my debt. Simple enough.

Not today. Today, I got to experience a call from a rude, abusive bill collector. He interrupted me continuously as I attempted to explain why he called me instead of the right person. He told me it was my problem, and that I had to send or fax him something to prove it wasn't.

THEN...for extra love, he hung up on me in the middle of me talking. Wait a minute! Isn't it typically the consumer who hangs up on the bill collector? Well, yeah, especially when it's THEIR DEBT.

So today, I got mad and I got smart. I called him back. Yes, I did. During the first call, I asked to speak to his manager because of the way he was speaking to me, and he said there wasn't a manager available. I mainly called back to find out the name of the company and see if someone else answered and I could gripe to them, or see if someone else would send me to a manager, but guess what? Mr. Cheerful answered. I said I wasn't sure if I had talked to him or not, and he assured me I had. :-) He said he hung up on me because I was arguing with him. Imagine that!

So, after Mr. Cheerful informed me once again that the call was being recorded because it was an attempt to collect a debt, I said, "Good, because I want it recorded when I tell you once again that this is not my debt, and that I feel it is unacceptable for you to be speaking to me so rudely and abusively, even if it were my debt."

He kept going round and round with me about needing me to fax him something to prove it wasn't my debt, but he was much calmer, let me tell you. I finally took down the fax number and told him I'd think about it, and he got me off the phone as fast as he could after that.

So, I think I'm going to call him back tomorrow just for the heck of it, because I might be bored and want to talk to someone about how their day is going. I kept his phone number just in case. >:-}

(Disclaimer: I know that being a bill collector has got to be the suckiest job in the world, but that DOES NOT EXCUSE treating people like trash, whether it's their debt or not.)

Rarrrhhh! (Soapbox warning!)

Today is schedule pickup day for both girls, and lemme tell you, if it wasn't, I'd have to . . . um . . . do something I might regret. (My mom suggests burying your offspring from the neck down from the ages of 12 to 18, leaving only their heads above ground so they can breathe and you can feed them , but I might have to extend that to age 10.) If they could both just groan and grumble a little more, it might set some kind of record for this summer.

Pick pick pick. Jab jab jab. Whiiiiiiiine. Louder, I can't hear you!

Shew.

So, we are ready for school to start in approximately 91 hours.

And mom is cranky. But not just because of all that. There's more.

I'm on a soapbox since last night when we went school clothes shopping at my formerly favorite store, Target. Well, I guess they'll have to stay my favorite discount store, because I realized as I did a little research on the Internet last night ALL the stores do this, not just Target.

We were in the girls' department, and my youngest got a hankering for a cute pair of capri pants in the school uniforms section. Understand, she's not required to wear uniforms at her school--other than a strict dress code that some days makes parents long for a uniform policy. However, as you know, I am domestically challenged, and uniforms would likely make me crazy, because they'd never be clean on the right days. Well, Todd would probably be organized enough it wouldn't be a problem, but if it were up to me .... I digress.

So, you remember my post a while back about the young girl who was "overweight?" (From China, or maybe it was Viet Nam, can't remember for sure.) I got on a soapbox about that because the kid was like 5'4" and 100 pounds or something, and they were saying she was overweight.

Well, I've got a new one for you.

As we were checking out the cute khaki capris with the pink and black polka-dotted interfacing and striped ribbon belt, we noticed something. When I got home, I researched it further because it was bugging me that much. At Target, Walmart, JC Penney, and I'm sure any number of other department stores, they charge $2.00 extra for girls' plus size uniform items.

Yeah. Seriously.

Okay, I can kind of understand the extra charge for adult plus size clothing. It does take more material to create larger-sized clothing, and perhaps there are some other considerations on equipment, etc. BUT LITTLE GIRLS. Let's do the math. If you are a size 12+ little girl, your pants are still smaller than a size 16 regular little girl. And shorter. BUT, because you have that little plus on the end of the tag that allows your pants to fit your little pre-teen poochy belly body without the legs dragging five inches past your feet, you pay $2.00 extra. Or at least your parents do.

I really can't say much else without getting ugly other than what kind of message is this sending our little girls? Even at age 8 (yes, 8+'s also pay the extra two bucks), you should somehow fit into the "ideal" we have created for female bodies in this country. (And yeah, they do it for the boys, too, in the "husky" sizes. I checked.) Is this new, or have they always done this for kids? I just don't remember, but it doesn't seem like it. I am glad they have responded to the fact that not all kids come in the same sizes and shapes, but still. I don't see them giving a $2.00 upcharge (or even discount. HA!) for the slim sizes, by the way. Sounds like unequal treatment to me.

Excuse me while I go puke.

Overheard in DC

(Well, Bethesda, if you wanna get technical.)

While exiting Ruby Tuesday restaurant at about 9:30 p.m. Two employees sitting on bench taking a break.

Female RT employee: What happened?
Male RT employee: I don't know what happened. All I know is I woke up and he was lying on the counter. Dead. With his eyes wide open.

What the???

Time between the lightning and the thunder

Isn't it amazing how one event can change your world in a dramatic way? That's how the last week or so has been for my family. We are survivors, though, and it's all going to be fine.

Speaking of family, here are a couple my favorite little creatures.