Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Booooo...

Well the whirlwind trip to SF is over and my brother seems to be settling in well. Lots of creature comforts at his place... too bad he can't cook at his computer desk, then he'd be set, wouldn't even have to move! Heh.

There were many lineups this weekend and my patience was sorely tested in each one. My mom and I waited at the post office for at least a half hour when it should have taken about 2 minutes. I mean, I know the USPS isn't known for fabulous customer service, but really, let's move things along. There was an angry jerk at the front of the line and another lady who apparently needed to make use of every single service that USPS offers. Very nice.

Today at the airport we had to use this "easy check in" process that United offers forces you to use. Basically you check yourself in and then the counter agent is supposed to give you the luggage tags. We had some trouble using the "easy" process, so we had to ask for help. The agent was of little to no use. I could have sat behind the counter and offered the same level of "assistance". (I'm reminded of the Friends episode where Joey couldn't use air quotes correctly.) (Yes I DID just watch that episode, thanks for asking!) Eventually she stopped yakking on the phone long enough to get up and give us our luggage tags. Hmm. Now that I think about it I don't think she got up. I think I have seen a snail move faster than her. It's kind of upsetting that United actually pays people to sit on their butts all day doing nothing. Oh, and the flight attendant snapped at someone who had to go to the bathroom on the plane. Should he just have peed on the floor then? Please.

In the "security" lineup (quotes again!) we got told off by one employee for not pushing our items through the conveyor before stepping through the metal detector.... meanwhile the other employee kept motioning us to come through the metal detector before we had pushed our stuff through. Grr. I would like to see some stats as to whether all these new security measures have really prevented terrorist activity. It's irritating that we have to go through a zillion lineups, but I would accept it if it was proven to help. I am not reassured though, knowing that airport security staff don't go through much security themselves.

Twice during the weekend, I said to the hubby, "Is that person a man or a woman?" It's unusual that I say that more than once in a short span of time. The second wo/man was the car rental agent. S/he was supremely unhelpful. Is it just an American thing or what? S/he sent us up two levels, where we were told by the second car rental agent that the first one had no idea what s/he was talking about and was totally wrong to send us back upstairs. Kind of funny, but an inefficient way to run the company, having employees talk about each other behind their backs.

When we got our luggage, we kept wondering what that odd smell was in the air. Had someone baked some sourdough bread? Spilled some soy sauce all over the city? It seemed to follow us too... we couldn't get away! Well, when we got home, we found out, that odd smell WAS us! And it was because some idiot must have brought home soy sauce and it spilled all over their luggage, and it got into ours (but luckily not in our clothing.) Who puts a bottle of soy sauce in their luggage anyway - that stuff is cheap, just buy it at home!!

Yay! I'm done ranting :D

It was a great trip. I just like to harp on the little things.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was saying "Boo-urns"...

Tree said...

Welcome back! Now you can harp on the local idiotic things.