Tuesday, November 07, 2006

WHY WON'T THEY TAKE MY MONEY

Car Rentals are pissing me off. On Sunday I am going to TN for a conference on LGBTQ children, youth, adults, and families involved in the child welfare system for work. I am driving a van to this conference. I need to rent a car. Renting a car is a pain in the ass. Why you ask? Oh so many reasons. I plan to rent and pay for this car using our company credit card. My credit card is useless because there is no money available on it. They won’t accept a debit card (not that I would use mine anyway because why would I). They won’t let me use the company card because my name is not on it. Therefore, someone whose name is on the card has to come down to the rental place on Sunday morning and rent the car. This does not make them particularly happy. I have been trying to open a business account so that they can bill the company but it appears that we do not rent vehicles enough for them to do this. Why is it so difficult? I thought about mentioning that they just rent me the car on Friday but I know they won’t go for the extra few days of car rental costs so that is pretty much out of the question. Why is it so difficult? Don’t they just want their money?

I just spoke with someone over the phone about getting this set up. She is faxing me forms. This may or may not be able to be processed by Sunday. I hope so. It’s bad enough I have to get up on Sunday but for someone who isn’t even going on the trip to have to it just isn’t fair. You gotta do what you gotta do though. I guess it is all about making sure no one screws the rental company but really, how many people do that? I suppose maybe more than I think. It just wouldn’t cross my mind. I just want to drive and come home as quickly as possible. I have a meeting Friday morning. I wonder if I can go home after this meeting since I have to work on Sunday and for 24 hours a day until Wednesday. Then I come home and start teaching my next class on Thursday. Wait, that’s a bad idea. Maybe I call all the people signed up for that class and tell them it will start on Monday instead. The problem with that though is they need to go over their homework with me after the class and many of them wouldn’t be able to get that done until after Thanksgiving. Huh, I wonder what I should do? If I decide to do it on Thursday then someone else will have to call all the students and remind them about class. It isn’t like teaching class is hard. I don’t have to prepare. That way I can take it really easy Thanksgiving week. I have to plan my menu and budget for groceries. Call me Monica.

Also it’s peace day across the blogging world. I think I am supposed to have done something to this photo of the earth and post it in support. I didn’t do that. However, I am in full support of peace day. In fact as a former Peace Child it would be sacrilegious for me not to support the day. It’s also nice that Peace Day falls on Election Day. I guess it makes you hope that with a change in leadership will come a change in the level of global peace that we can achieve. I know that most people throughout the world prefer a state of cooperation and peace to that of chaos and war. However, it seems those who don’t necessarily share that opinion tend to be those in power throughout the world. Maybe it is because the peace motivated types tend not to be power obsessed and therefore don’t run for office. I’m sure I am oversimplifying things far too much but I think there is a grain of validity in the point. Do you think world peace would be good for the global economy? I would think yes but I am guessing that many people (particularly the power people) would say no. I’m thinking about trade here there and everywhere. The sharing of resources, the elimination of world hunger and homelessness (think of all the jobs that truly getting grid of hungry and homeless people would create. Think how much more manpower the world would have in general if people started working who had been too hungry or homeless to do so. Industry would boom. In case it is far too obvious I have so reason to believe my assertions. They are probably wrong. I have never taken a class in economics and really know jack shit about it. Damn liberal arts education. I do, however, know how to think up some crazy ideas and then try to argue their merits and sometimes have people believe me. Anyway, I guess the point is Peace Day Hooray!

In the theme of self-selecting songs on topics (and having them be very easy to guess), today I will go with songs that make me think of peace, love, happiness, and general good vibes.

1. Color in sky Prussian blue, scarlet fleece changes hue, crimson ball sinks from view. Wear Your Love Like Heaven. Donovan. Identified byMonica

2. Packing my bags, going away, to a place where the air is clean. Saturn, Stevie Wonder. Identified by.Monica

3. Walk around, why wear a frown, say little people try to put you down. Mighty Mighty, Earth Wind and Fire. Identified byShadow Falcon

4. Now I’ve been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come. Peace Train, Cat Stevens. Identified by Monica

5. There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung. All You Need is Love, The Beatles. Identified byMonica

6 comments:

Traveling Matt said...

1. Weeeeeear your love like heaven - donovan.
2. Saturn - Stevie (people live a long time there)
4. peace train - cat stevens
5. all you need is love - beatles (do we ever do a dance to this?)

too bad you are leaving town. i was gonna try to eat dinner w/ you this weekend.

ShadowFalcon said...

3. Earth wind fire - mighty mighty (don't tell anyone I got that!)

Foofa said...

Shadow- Earth Wind and Fire are awesome! You should never be ashamed of knowing them.

Mizzle- We need to plan Thanksgiving stat.

With Love, Fat Girl said...

Give Peace a Chance! The Immortal John Lennon.

(by the way, thanks for linking me)

Sandra said...

Happy belated Peace Day to you!

Ummm...you'd think car rental companies would actually want to RENT cars and make money. Sheesh.

The conference you are going to sounds interesting. I hope you'll write about it.

Anonymous said...

In your next life, maybe you should consider being a travel agent or an event planner. Oh, never mind, you'd be mad all the time... But organizing stuff like that is one of your many unsung talents...

:-)
Happy Peace Day!

Plus, it looks like many elections went well yesterday. Not all. But many.