Tags
Albany New York, Alice's Restaurant, Arlo Guthrie, Department of Motor Vehicles, Depression, Effexor, Hudson NY, Lorazepam, mental health
This stoopid drug has GOT to GO. *kicks the Effexor bottle out the door* I can’t think; I can’t function; I can’t do ANYTHING except sleep and maybe go somewhere for a few hours and then come back home and sleep some more. No – I CANNOT live like this!! Thursday I stumbled outside to see why my upstairs neighbor was weed whacking – I didn’t even know they had one!! She said she borrowed it from someone, and was tired of our landlord not doing anything. Well, I didn’t say anything, but when I moved in here, and in every other place I have lived, the tenant takes care of lawn maintenance and snow plowing and crap like that, and my landlord, who is a friend of mine, specifically told me when I moved in here he didn’t want to be bothered with “stupid crap” and “unless it was a dire emergency, deal with it”!! I totally agreed – I am used to that. I think I have asked him once in the over 2 years I have been here to fix on thing, and that was on the oil burner (not my problem). And he was fine with it. The upstairs neighbors are super nice, but I think they were a bit spoiled where they came from in Boston, and we just do things differently around here. So she’s complaining about him, and I am half listening, and then she says something about my little red car, and I say I am still waiting on a clear title, blah blah, it’s been MONTHS, I am getting annoyed, and she says call the local DMV. I explained I already had, and they referred me to Albany, which is a giant black hole of bureaucratic mess and I was sure it was somewhere in the ether by now. She says it won’t hurt to try again, so I go back inside, pull up the new and improved NYS DMV website (oooooo how nice!!!) and it tells me the new clear title was issued June 11. I look at the calendar – it’s Sept. 18th – it should NOT take that long to get from Albany to here, even via a REAL snail carrying the mail!!!!! So I call the local DMV office, they look up the VIN, and say “it was mailed to _______ (my old addresses I moved from 2 years ago). I grit my teeth and explain that in the cover letter of the package I sent certified, return receipt requested, registered, demanded someone’s first born, etc., that I had moved, and to please send the new title to my NEW address, which was in 36 point font, bold, italics, centered on the page (NO ONE could miss that sucker) and she says well, come down, we will see what we can do. I get dressed and ready in record time, fly out the door, stop for gas – the phone rings. “Hi May I please speak to Ame?” “Speaking (get off the phone lady I am in a hurry!!)” “This is so and so from the NYS Mental Health Dept. and I’d like to set up and appointment for you for intake – can you come now?” OMG they told me 6 months!!!!!!!!! No I can’t come now – I have to go deal with DMV – I can’t deal with another state agency at the same time – I will lose my tentative grip on reality. I say (sweetly – I have manners) “I’m sorry, I am on my way to DMV – perhaps another time?” “Okay, how about Wednesday at 4? Do you have your calendar available?” No, lady I am sitting at the gas station about to bolt for DMV – I will write all this down on my gas receipt and not forget!!!! Grrrrr. “I don’t, but I know I am free that day (I think) that will be fine!! By the way, the ER told me it would be 6 months before I got a counselor – that there was a backlog….” She laughs. I find nothing funny about any of this and I need to GO!!!!!! She says” Oh no, it’s not so bad – please come 1/2 hour early so we can do paperwork.” I quickly assure her I will, tell her I will see her then, and take off at warp speed to our local DMV, hoping to hell I can get a friend of mine who works there. No such luck. I stand in line – 5 people behind the counter, no one taking anyone from the line. I start to fume. FINALLY, a woman says “May I help you?”, and I swallow my anger, go up and explain the situation. Well, this, that, it was mailed to the wrong address (no shit lady), you have to refile for a new one (oh no I do NOT!!!!!!) and it will be another $20!! I smile through my clenched teeth and say “I just spoke to someone on the phone who assured me it was a DMV CLERICAL ERROR and I WOULD NOT BE CHARGED ANYTHING!!!!” I am trying not to yell or breathe fire at this point, although I am sure my eyes were flashing all kinds of warning signals and things, because she says “Let me call Albany and see what they say.” I smile again, this time looking at her like if I don’t get my way, you will be turned into a toad in about 30 seconds…. She is on the phone with Albany whispering for about 10 minutes, flipping my paperwork over, reading all the inserts, documents, receipts, etc., and finally hangs up and turns to me and says “They will mail you a new corrected title out and you should have it Monday or Tuesday at your correct address.” I slowly calm my inner rage down to a simmer, thank her for all her help and wish her a great day. I did see my friend at the information desk, and we chatted for a moment, which helped, and I get out to my car to a new phone message. “Hi this is *garbled* at the NYS Mental Health Dept – is there any way you could come in early so we can get you in the system?” Slamming my head against the dashboard, I look at the clock, and decide WTF, I am 3 blocks away, let’s just get this done and over with. I find the building, I sign in, put a big M (for Mental Health) next to my name, get handed a badge and get sent to the 3rd floor. This woman (very condescendingly – I am obviously in need of mental health) asks me who I am and why I am here. I try to explain I spoke to someone named Nicole (at the gas station), I got a phone call from someone named (maybe) Sam (couldn’t understand) the message, and I was here to “get into the system and get paperwork”. She looks at me like I had 4 heads, says “We don’t have a ‘Sam’ here” – I explain again about the garbled phone message and offer to listen to it again – she says never mind, she will get Nicole, please have a seat over there on the Group W bench. (For those of you not familiar with the song “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie, you will not get that joke). So I re-listen to the message, and get the name, and go up to the window, where another lovely condescending woman say “Yes?” I point to the other woman next to her and rattle off the correct name, she says “Ohhhhhh – okay – please sit back down, we know what to do now”. Well, I am glad you do, cause I certainly don’t!!!!!!! The door opens, a woman named Amy comes out, calls my name, and says she will help me with my intake, etc., and thank you for coming today, it will just make things easier next week, blah blah – at this point I am ready to swallow about 4 Ativan and just go home. She “puts me in the system” – OH JOY – asks me a bunch of questions I have been asked about 800 times already, hands me about 20 sheets of paper, tells me to fill them out before I come back next Wednesday and walks me to the door. I could have found my way by myself, but I guess they didn’t want me to hang myself with my badge or take hostages or something along those lines. I get back in the car, think about stopping to get something to eat, decide I just want to go home, and get in the door, let the animals out and proceed to sleep on and off until noon on Friday, when I jump out of bed and realize I have to be at an art exhibit by 4 pm 1/2 way across the county. Here is my FB post on it, because I just don’t feel like typing it all over again!! When Life gives you the wrong day for something, you don’t bitch about it – you turn it into an adventure!! What a glorious day for a ride across the county almost to the MA border – foothills of the Berkshires. Stopped at a farm stand and bought myself a sunflower – one of those stands that still has the “Trust Boxes” – you take your produce, and put your money into the box. Didn’t think there were any left around!! Then decided to stop in at the world’s Greatest Thrift Store ever – the Purple Barn on Route 23 in Martindale – haven’t been there in years – hasn’t changed in years!! Spent tons of time talking to the owner (you kind of have to – she’s one of those kinds of people who just loves to talk to everyone), and left with a GORGEOUS velour black pullover shirt with a blingy zipper for $5 – a 2 piece skirt and shirt set for $6, some belts, a tank top that will go with everything that I so desperately needed and $1 bottle of silver nail polish!! I did good!!!! Got to the PO at 10 of 5 – ran in, grabbed everything, gossiped a wee bit (well – you have to – it’s the Post Office!!!!!) and came home with HUGE SMILE on my face. It’s not what I set out to do, but it turned into a beautiful, fun filled day, and sometimes those are the best ones of all!! LOVING LIFE!!!!! Yes, I got the day wrong for the art exhibit – it wasn’t Friday, it was today. And by the looks of the time and the weather, I don’t know if I will make it. It will be packed with “cidiots” (NYC people who NEVER drive, rent a car to drive up here for events and don’t think traffic laws are applicable to them). They do 20 in a 55 (“OMG A COW!!!!” OMG ANOTHER COW!!” OMG pumpkins GROWING on green stem things on the ground!!!”), etc., and do 55 thru towns that are posted at 30 – never mind someone might be crossing the street or waiting to turn or something – that doesn’t apply to THEM!!!!! I shall see how I feel in a little while, check the weather, and see if I want to deal with all that bullshit. I think I have had my share for the week!!!! On the bright side, my horrorscope DID tell me to go shopping/buy something for myself, and the gorgeous black and bling Bob Mackie sweater I have had my eye on for a few weeks got dropped to $19.95 on eBay, so I snatched that sucker up faster than a shopper at a Macy’s One Day Sale!! *does the dance of joy* So hopefully I will get my title, my new tires and my head shrunk next week, along with the meds I messed up for Monday (please Dr. Semlear, be in a good mood!!!). Love and Light and enjoy your weekend – my daughter texted me at 10:30 and said they were on their way – they live 12 minutes away – it’s now 2:20. *head desk* And they wonder why I need my head examined!!!!!! O.o
Ame - that's A ME! 