Rant #3,792: Only In America

Today, I have to cover a meeting for work, which kills my whole day right then and there.

With everything revolving around my son and his job(s) and everything else I have to do during the day, I feel like the vise is clamping down on me--

I just need some air, a little space to breathe.

First today, I have to go to the Social Security office with proof that my son's last day at his secondary job is next Thursday.

We have the proof that we need to ascertain that, so it should be just a matter of handing it in to them, and then they do what they have to do so my son can continue to get his disability payments into the foreseeable future.

It sounds like an easy thing to do, but in the bizarro world we live in, there is no such thing as easy.

More bizarro world stuff ...

Yesterday, my electric razor decided to take a hike after maybe three months of use, so I had to get another one.

I went into Target to get one, and I couldn't even find the section--it might have been moved--so I asked one of the few workers on the floor for help.

"It's all the way down there," she said, pointing me east in the store. "In the men's section."

I had just been there before asking her, so I went back to the same area, and found it to be positioned a bit more east than she had let on. 

I went to the section, and just about every razor was behind glass, which was certainly different than it was three months ago when I bought my now-dead razor.

There was an associate in the aisle unloading boxes, so I asked her if she could open the cabinet for me.

"I ... no ...," she said, obviously not speaking English (and explain to me why it took eight months for my son to find a job ... these stores will hire someone who does not speak a word of English, but they won't hire a special needs person).

"Can you get someone to open the cabinet," I asked her again (sorry, I did not have my Spanish dictionary handy to translate my inquiry into sonething she could understand).

She walked away, not saying anything to me in English or Spanish.

So there I was, right where I should be, but without any assistance.

I looked for someone else, but no one was on the floor.

About five minutes later, the associate came back and she had her phone out, said something in Spanish to someone who replied in Spanish, and then she said something to the effect that--

I could not understand a word that she said.

In the meantime, I found that there was a small button on the side of the cabinet for "HELP ," and I pushed it four or five times.

Whether it was that button pushing or the associate actually did something to help me is something I will never know, but within a few moments, another associate came over to me and asked me what I wanted.

I told her that I wanted to look at the razors.

She asked me what side of the cabinet I needed opened.

I told her that I didn't know, because all sorts of razors were behind both sides of the glass.

As we both crouched down as she opened one side of the cabinet and then the other to view the contents, her dreadlocks-real or extensions?--fell over me, and happily, after about a  minute or two, I found what I wanted.

I thanked her, and the other associate was still unpacking things in the aisle, and I thanked her, too--but in English, not thinking that she would not understand me.

So i then said, "Gracias"--

And got absolutely no response.

I paid for the razor and got the heck out of there.

Yes, this is the state of retail today.

My son has to struggle to find employment and they hire people who don't even speak English over him.

"Only In America ... ."

On to the Social Security office ...

Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.