So, I work at a reservations call center for Virginia State Parks. I’m a pretty nice and patient person (really), but there is some basic information that I ort of expect you to have when you call me. For instance, when you tell me you’re calling to make a reservation, I expect that you know at least one of the following – which park you want to go to and/or when you want to go there. A woman yesterday wanted me to search all 37 parks for a cabin that was on the water, for “some time” in August. There is no easy way to do this.
Another time a young woman called about a reservation she had for that night. She didn’t know which park it was at, she didn’t even know if it was a state park, she was “pretty sure” it was in Virginia, but she didn’t know where in Virginia. How can you have a reservation that you made for a park and not know what park or where it is? Finally she asked me to just list all of the state parks and she’d let me know if anything sounded familiar. Other times people will call me while they are actually at the park, and they still don’t know what park they’re at. They’ll tell me something like, “there’s a river,” or “my camp site has a green tag on it,” or my favorite, “there’s a WaWa on the corner…”
Come on people, work with me here. Help me help you.
Or when they ger rude or pissed off about reservation policies they claim they weren’t told about. Or when they tell me “thanks, you’ve been real helpful” after I have to tell them that that date is all booked up. As though it’s my fault they waited until 2 days before 4th of July weekend to make a reservation. I found all this stuff distantly amusing at first, now I want to know why they’re wasting my time when I could be reading my book or doing a sudoku puzzle.
But enough about work. We all know how much the vast majority of jobs suck. I haven’t really got anything to write about today. I’ve been watching the news, it’s been thunderstorming here a lot. My legs and feet have started to swell from the heat and being 7+ months pregnant. I really want the baby to be born. Not that I want to hurry up and get into the labor bit, but I really want to meet him. He’s due August 27th, prospectively, 3 days before my birthday. For some reason I think he’s going to be a little bit early. My various family members have already purchased me almost everything a baby could possibly need in the first 6 months to a year. This kid already has more clothes than I do. But I’m really excited to put the crib together, and bounce him in the bouncy chair, and set up his little tykes play station. My favortie toy that I’ve bought so far is this little stuffed dragon. Each hump on the dragon is a different color and has a little light on top. When you squeeze each hump the colored light lights up and it says the name of the color in one of three languages. I’ve already decided he’s going to speak at least four languages, play at least 5 instruments and at least 6 sports. Well rounded, but still well adjusted.
I really wish that Americans were less apathetic and that the government actually cared about what the people wanted. In other countries when they’re pissed about something they march and they protest and they strike. If the government is trying to phase out a holidy you get off of work, protest, if you don’t like the price of gas, strike, if you don’t like the raise in food prices, strike, in China thousands of people marched and protested because they felt the police covered up the rape of a young girl. In this country we probably wouldn’t even care. We’d comment on it to a co-worker, then forget we ever heard about it, or change the channel. In Korea thousands of people protested the importing of US beef. And in these countries, the government responds. By and large Americans can’t be bothered with changing their routine or actually doing something. Or they think it doesn’t affect them or it’s not their problem. Or they worry about missing a day of work. It’s supposed to be the other way around, you know. Your government and your employer should be worried about you missing a day of work. The only real pressures this government responds to are economic. Imagine if truck drivers all went on strike, or if we all refused to go to work for one day, or nobody bought gas for one day, or everybody rode the bus for one day, what kind of impact that could have. If we could make business stand still for one day ( and we all have the power to), we might have a chance at actually influencing something. Vote with your dollar. I myself have marched at the capitol on a number of occassions, and I can’t recall that anything ever came of it, or that anybody in the capitol cared, except for traffic iterruptions. There was practically no media coverage and the only members of the government who took notice were the riot police and mounted officers.
I know I’m dreaming here, but I’d like to have the country back from the special interests and corporations. I’d like to have both a population and a government that cares.
Another time a young woman called about a reservation she had for that night. She didn’t know which park it was at, she didn’t even know if it was a state park, she was “pretty sure” it was in Virginia, but she didn’t know where in Virginia. How can you have a reservation that you made for a park and not know what park or where it is? Finally she asked me to just list all of the state parks and she’d let me know if anything sounded familiar. Other times people will call me while they are actually at the park, and they still don’t know what park they’re at. They’ll tell me something like, “there’s a river,” or “my camp site has a green tag on it,” or my favorite, “there’s a WaWa on the corner…”
Come on people, work with me here. Help me help you.
Or when they ger rude or pissed off about reservation policies they claim they weren’t told about. Or when they tell me “thanks, you’ve been real helpful” after I have to tell them that that date is all booked up. As though it’s my fault they waited until 2 days before 4th of July weekend to make a reservation. I found all this stuff distantly amusing at first, now I want to know why they’re wasting my time when I could be reading my book or doing a sudoku puzzle.
But enough about work. We all know how much the vast majority of jobs suck. I haven’t really got anything to write about today. I’ve been watching the news, it’s been thunderstorming here a lot. My legs and feet have started to swell from the heat and being 7+ months pregnant. I really want the baby to be born. Not that I want to hurry up and get into the labor bit, but I really want to meet him. He’s due August 27th, prospectively, 3 days before my birthday. For some reason I think he’s going to be a little bit early. My various family members have already purchased me almost everything a baby could possibly need in the first 6 months to a year. This kid already has more clothes than I do. But I’m really excited to put the crib together, and bounce him in the bouncy chair, and set up his little tykes play station. My favortie toy that I’ve bought so far is this little stuffed dragon. Each hump on the dragon is a different color and has a little light on top. When you squeeze each hump the colored light lights up and it says the name of the color in one of three languages. I’ve already decided he’s going to speak at least four languages, play at least 5 instruments and at least 6 sports. Well rounded, but still well adjusted.
I really wish that Americans were less apathetic and that the government actually cared about what the people wanted. In other countries when they’re pissed about something they march and they protest and they strike. If the government is trying to phase out a holidy you get off of work, protest, if you don’t like the price of gas, strike, if you don’t like the raise in food prices, strike, in China thousands of people marched and protested because they felt the police covered up the rape of a young girl. In this country we probably wouldn’t even care. We’d comment on it to a co-worker, then forget we ever heard about it, or change the channel. In Korea thousands of people protested the importing of US beef. And in these countries, the government responds. By and large Americans can’t be bothered with changing their routine or actually doing something. Or they think it doesn’t affect them or it’s not their problem. Or they worry about missing a day of work. It’s supposed to be the other way around, you know. Your government and your employer should be worried about you missing a day of work. The only real pressures this government responds to are economic. Imagine if truck drivers all went on strike, or if we all refused to go to work for one day, or nobody bought gas for one day, or everybody rode the bus for one day, what kind of impact that could have. If we could make business stand still for one day ( and we all have the power to), we might have a chance at actually influencing something. Vote with your dollar. I myself have marched at the capitol on a number of occassions, and I can’t recall that anything ever came of it, or that anybody in the capitol cared, except for traffic iterruptions. There was practically no media coverage and the only members of the government who took notice were the riot police and mounted officers.
I know I’m dreaming here, but I’d like to have the country back from the special interests and corporations. I’d like to have both a population and a government that cares.
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