Story of the Day 12/ 26, 2013

Many years ago as in something like 23, my son, Ely, was about 3 and we lived in Zanesville , Ohio.
In the middle of our kitchen was a small square table and 4 antique wooden chairs. Many times a week I would yelp at Ely to sit with his butt on the seat of the chair, so he wouldn't get hurt. By hurt, I was imagining him falling off the side of the chair. Since I have always had poor balance, it makes perfect sense to me, although, everyone else seems to think the idea is funny.....
Ely, at 3, didn't laugh ( yet), but most of the time he ignored me.

Until one day when it happened.
On that day, which was mid-summer, Ely was coloring , and I heard a cry. He had fallen through the back opening of the chair. The chair had spindles , but there was an open gap between the cross bar and the seat, and he had fallen into that space and gotten stuck. I stopped washing dishes, and started trying to pull him out , the same way he had gone in. But he was stuck fast.
I tried to turn his squirming body one way and then the other.
I got out the vegetable oil and started to oil his little midsection. Since it was summer and he was in shorts and a scant top, this was simplified.
At about this moment, while I was smearing liquid vegetable oil all over my son, our backyard neighbor knocked on the door. I opened it and enlisted her help.

Now it was the two of us trying to get Ely unstuck. We discussed breaking the chair, but were afraid we would end up hurting Ely in the process.
Finally, after much maneuvering, and more oil, he came unstuck.
However, he now had what ended up being a nice group of hand shaped bruises on his very fair skin. Fortunately, I had a witness, in my neighbor, who could verify that the bruises were not the result of child abuse.

This incident, did, however, make a lasting impression .
On me.
I redoubled my nagging, every time anyone sat or perched on a chair and their butt wasn't on the seat. And I would repeat my new mantra. "You could get hurt!"

You would think that the incident might have left a lasting impression on Ely, too, but whatever the impression was, it faded along with the bruises.

I know this because , this evening, at about 10 PM, I heard a voice frantically calling, "Mom, Mom!"
And then, with a bit of embarrassment, "Can you come help me, I am stuck!"

My son, who is 25...almost 26, had managed to get himself stuck in a chair. In a sofa , to be exact.
He had stood on it, and his foot had slipped into the frame and gotten lodged in such a way that only his wonderful mother could possibly get him unstuck.

Which I did, but only AFTER I pulled out the camera and had taken a few photos.

Story of the Day 12/ 24/ 2013

Apparently, my main purpose in lfe is providing comic material for my son's stand up routine.

This evening, Aaron was eating a cookie.
First, I almost had to yell at him to sit down.
This has been a constant refrain of mine, for years, "Sit down when you eat!"

But I did have to say one of my other major lines, "Slow down!"

My son, all 6 foot 3 inches, or maybe 2, depending on who is measuring, can down a 5 inch diameter iced cookie in less than 3 seconds.
That is, if he is not caught, in time, by those words hurled from my lips.

Today, however, for the benefit of his older brother, who was sitting at the table, I added, " Listen, he is my only chance for grandchildren, so I have to work on his table manners or he will never have a chance at a second date."
Aaron, who had slowed down a bit, and was between bites, said, "You see, that is all that I am good for. I will have to tell women, on the first date, 'I am my mother's only hope for grandchildren!'"
And he gave a slightly overblown grimace.

My other son, Ely, then remarked, "You can forget aout the grandchildren!"

Story of the Day 11/ 25/ 2013

My daughter told me that a strange person called her. Okay, not a strange person, a person from a strange phone number, as in a number that she doesn't recognize.

I opened up Whitepages.com and had her read the number to me, and I did a reverse number check.

Lo and Behold, it was her doctor's office calling her.

Not only that, Sarah says that they left a message for her, a voice message.

I told her that she needed to call them, tomorrow.
"But why?"
"To tell them," I replied, "that it is very nice the they left you a voice message, but they have somehow forgotten that you are their deaf patient and you cannot hear the message. Perhaps, you could say, you would like them to try again."

You see, I was wrong, it was a strange person who left the message.

Story of the Day 11/ 24/ 2013

My son, the one up in South Bend who is taking a design class, called me and told me that the class is taught by a woman who is an artist; and , last week, she showed the class some images of her work.

My son remarked, "Oh , you draw naked people!"

The instructor corrected him, "those are called nudes."

"No, my mom does those, and she calls them naked people." Aaron replied.

I am not sure what the instructor thinks of him or of me, but , at least, she smiled.

Story of the Day 11/ 21/ 2013

I haven’t died, but I am childless, for the moment, and this tends to lead to a dearth of stories.
If you do not know what I mean, it means that you do not have children.

A friend of mine knows what I mean. She has children.
She has three of them, all attractive boys who are each unique and distinctive and talented.

Her two oldest sons are in high school- the same, somewhat notorious high school that my children attended and which led to numerous Stories of the Day.

One of the young men, who will need an alias for this story, so let us call him Alex, has autism and is supposed to be having an evaluation done by the school system. Alex is charming and talented, but he is most definitely also dealing with autism. It affects a lot of his interactions with people at school and it is important to evaluate him and, thereby, know what should be done to help him achieve his best.

Her other high school aged son will be called Ben, for this story (A and B, I am not original.) Ben is also a charming and talented young man. He does not have autism. He does, however, happen to be a teenager and can be annoying and distracted, but he is nowhere on the spectrum.

Well, today, my friend received a phone call from an unfamiliar number. She wrote to me, “ The woman told me she was a speech therapist contracted by Washington Twp to do evals. She informed me she had evaluated my son this am. However, she was sorry to say she had evaluated the wrong son.”

The good news is that he “ did well” on the evaluation. The bad news is that his school day was interrupted and he was left wondering why some woman was testing his listening and writing skills; and his teacher was wondering why he was being asked to fill out something asking him if Ben could follow directions in class and if he had trouble expressing himself.

It is nice that Ben did well on the evaluation.

Obviously, though, someone at the school did not.

Story of the Day 8/ 7/ 2013

My son has a job!
I am referring to my deaf son, Aaron, who has been living at home, jobless, which is why I haven't cleaned the bathrooms in over a year.
I figure, he should be doing something constructive, productive, or maybe just .... disgusting- so that i don't have to do it.

At any rate, late last week, he was hired by a movie theater. He had an interview, filed in paperwork, showed them copies of his social security card, his driver's license and his circumcision records. Oh, okay, maybe not that last one.

And he went for training.

This theater is part of a large chain.
They have a very well thought out training program.

They have new employees watch several videos that explain about sexual harassment with people acting out scenarios. Not only scenarios of direct harassment, but even subtler things where a third person's looks may prompt a comment. Even an older female worker calling younger worker, "Honey" is brought up as something that can make a coworker uncomfortable.
I was rather impressed by the breadth of what was covered.

And then, they had some training videos about disabilities.
Of course, they already seemed to be doing rather well, since they had hired my son- the deaf one.

But someone did manage to miss a small detail.

This video wasn't captioned.

Story of the Day 8/ 5/ 2013

My children are making a movie.
Aaron has spent days and days and days- a couple fo weeks, already, doing the sound editing.
Not only does he have to balance the voices and dub, he also has to fill in sound effects for things like breaking glass and exploding balloons.

Aaron prefers using a website called Freesounds. Freesounds has a large collection of sounds that people have recorded and shared.

Today, while watching him work, I said, "You know, Aaron, you should record some sounds and upload them to share with people, as a way of giving back."

My son looked at me, a bit non-plussed.
Then he said, " You know, Mom, sound effects are not my strong point."

After all, he is deaf.

Story of the Day 7/ 29/ 2013

.


At least she told us at the end of dinner.
Sarah, you see, used Aaron's toothbrush.
She told him that he would notice when he went into the bathroom.
That is because there are these "threads" on the bottom of it.
Well , they look like threads.

Aaron's current toothbrush stands on the counter in the bathroom. It was a "special" kiddie-interest toothbrush that I got in a two pack at the dollar store.
It stands on the counter, instead of in the toothbrush holder.
The bottom of it is a bit larger in diameter than a standard toothbrush, and it is flat, or mostly flat, along its bottom.
This is very handy, if you do not have a stand for the toothbrushes- which we actually do have.
This was also very handy, in an emergency, which is what Sarah decided it was.

When she saw the spider.

Those "threads " are its legs.

Sarah was rather proud of herself.
You see, I am the family exterminator. I kill the wasps, mosquitos, moths.
And the spiders.
I do not flinch.
In this family that makes me brave.

What can I say? We have very low standards.

I know this because my 6'3" son and my 5'10" daughter scream for me to come when they see an insect. Sometimes, my husband does this, as well.

So, Sarah, felt rather proud of herself.

And I felt rather glad that she had waited until the very end of dinner to share this.

And Aaron felt....

Well, being the compassionate mother that I am , I told him, "Don't' worry, I have a new toothbrush for you!"

After all, it was a two-pack

And , having read this story, you are probably feeling thankful that the picture was a bit out of focus.

Story of the day 7/ 7/ 2013

My son, Ely, is visiting from Syracuse.
We took our dear friend, Anne, out for breakfast; and over breakfast Anne asked a lot of questions about shared housing.
She wanted to know how they split things like cooking and purchasing groceries and household items.

In the telling of how things worked, Ely explained about the toilet paper-
how he had realized,that he was the only one of the 4 housemates who ever bought any.
And how he would wait until they were down to 2 rolls, and then one roll, and then no rolls,for days, before buying more, just to see if anyone else would.

And I interjected explaining how I had told him to keep a roll hidden in his room during these experiments into the purchasing habits of people who had allowed the toilet paper to run out......

During the entire year, only twice has anyone else bought toilet paper.
The first time that someone other than Ely bought toilet paper, they bought one roll.
One roll?
One roll.

Worse, Ely had a friend visit , shortly after that roll appeared.
A friend who works at the same place as the roommate who bought it.

Ely's friend exclaimed, "Hey, that is the same toilet paper from work!"

Story of the Day 7/ 3/ 2013

Apparently, July can be a tough month for kids heading off to college for the first time.
That is becasue they are learning who their assigned roommate is.

For one young man that we know, it inspired several long moments of panic.
He texted my daughter and said , "I think he is a Muslim!"

Now, we are Jewish and can be a bit nervous regarding being put with people of different religions.

You can end up with a religious evangelical Christian who keeps telling you that you are going to Hell, but he/she will keep praying for you.

Or you could end up with someone who is a religious Christian from a rural area who is so thrilled to meet a real live Jew that they have to call home and tell their Aunt Sue and their cousin Joe and everyone else they can think of- who all then want to meet the real-live Jew.

Or you can end up with a Muslim who may be very anti-Israel to the point of believing in following the admonishment by some Arab nation leaders to push all the Jews into the sea, and telling you that this is his goal, at least 5 times every day.

And, in case you want to know, I have a friend who had one of those experiences, and a family member who had one, I and had one , as well; so those things can happen.

But they usually don't.

Because you can also end up with people from a variety of different religions, including those mentioned above, who are totally fine and with whom you will end up having a rather good freshman year. And going over to stay at their home for Thanksgiving break.
In fact, this is the most likely thing to happen, unless your roommate, for no reason connected to his or her religion, is a jerk.


But, to get back to the current issue, this young man was ...scared.
He also isn't Jewish. In fact, worse than that, in case he gets a fundamentalist Muslim, he belongs to a different minority ( in America) religious group that is targetted for violence by extremist Muslims , in his parents' area of the world.

Sarah, at any rate, texted him saying, " Not all Muslims are bad." And she told him that the kid might be a good roommate.

She also asked him why he thought the boy was a Muslim.

"His name is Ben Worthington.*"


Let me see.....

Bin Laden.
Ben Ahmed.
Ben Worthington.


_________
*slight name change to protect the kid's privacy.

Story of the Day 7/ 1 / 2013 - #3

It has been a long day. I know that because this is my THIRD Story of the Day.
At least it is now evening, otherwise, I would be worried about how much more there is yet to come....

Aaron and Sarah took off to go to the American Legion.
Aaron had gotten the address and mapquested it. He also had his GPS in the car.
Despite that, I got a call, after they had left.
The GPS was misbehaving, he was supposed to be on one street, but he wasn't.
Being the kind mother that I am, I opened up map quest on the computer and searched for the street, then I explained what the computer showed.

A bit later, he called,again.
Should he take a right or a left? How much farther was it?
This time, he gave me the exact address.
I opened up map quest, again. I gave him detailed instructions, grateful that he was less than half a mile from it.

About 45 minutes later, I get another phone call from my son.

No, he did get there.
Safely.
And they sat down at a table and Aaron ordered a coke.
Then he found out that they did not accept credit cards.
And he had no cash on him.
But he did have his debit card, and they have an ATM.
Did I know his PIN number for his debit card.

I explained to him that his PIN number and mine were different, and that , "no" I didn't know his.
He was getting ready to either wash a lot of dishes, or maybe go out on the street corner to beg.

Fortunatley, the American Legion Post is all of 8 minutes from our house, even though it took him more than twice that long to get there.

So being a wonderful mother ( please remind him of this, the next time that you see him) , I drove over and paid the bill.

Have I explained that Aaron is deaf? Deaf means you can't hear.
I also found out, tonight, that he is illiterate.
On entering the American Legion there were two signs, one on the door and one on the wall you face when you walk in.

They only accept cash.

Story of the Day 7/ 1/ 2013 - #2

My son, Aaron, received an email from Sarah, today. The subject was "Reply Aaron" which certainly would make him open it, to see what he needs to reply to.
Except, the email was something generated by a program that hacked into my daughter's email.
Aaron didn't open the attachment or the link.
Apparently, however, his father did.

Aaron figured this out because he also received an email from my sweet husband.
Telling him how to enlarge his penis.

My daughter is mortified.
I told her not to worry.
That is the difference between being a teenager and being in your 50's.

Someone her age might joke about it, but would be truly horrified if this email was sent from their email account and was received by their friends, family and school teachers.
Someone my age, or my husband's age would do the reverse.
We would experience a moment of mortification.

And then hours of laughter.
Especially imagining our parents opening it.

Story of the Day 7/ 1/ 2013 - #1

My daughter asked me to listen to something for her.
She does this fairly often.
She will watch something on the internet, and it will not be captioned; or she will want me to describe a piece of music for her that goes with a movie or an ad. Ads are almost never captioned, so I get to listen to a lot of ads and either interpret them - where there is spoken dialogue- or tell her what the sounds are that match the video.
Since she is profoundly deaf, even though I am bad at this, I am much better than hearing aids.

So, when Sarah asked me, today, to listen to something for her, I assumed it was on the internet.
I was surprised, instead, when she ran off to her room and returned a moment later carrying a greeting card.

Someone who has known her for her entree life sent her a greeting card for her graduation.
One with a sound chip.
Sarah wanted to know if it was music or a message.
So I listened, dumbfounded, that this was the card the friend had chosen to send to her.

Story of the Day 6/ 23/ 2013

I have been publishing these out of order.
I apologize.
June 23rd finds us back to Aaron and the saga of his EMT practical exam, up in Hobart, IN.




My son drove off to Hobart on Saturday evening.
He couldn't leave until after our Sabbath was over, and after he had come back from services and until after he had peed, thrown his bags into the car and received severe last minute frantic directions from his mother.
One of which was to let me know as soon as he got to the Hotel in Hobart.
I mean in Merrillville, since, I did not, after all, reserve a room for him at the Hobart Budget Inn.

It was about 11 PM when he finally pulled out of our driveway and took off.
I called and let the hotel know that he would be arriving there in a couple of hours. I had already given that instruction when I reserved the room, but there was that nagging worry that they would give his room to someone else and he would nd up sleeping in the car.
In his case, that could be dangerous, not because the cops might stop and make sure he wasn't sleeping in his car, but because there was no outlet for the alarm clock he had with him- the one that vibrates his bed hard enough to make it practically dance on the hardwood floor in his bedroom. The only alarm clock pretty much guaranteed to get his butt up in the morning and to the test.
As for the hardwood floor in his room, someday, in the far flung future when we sell this house, I can only imagine what bedroom activities or the level of bedroom activities future home shoppers will imagine us partaking of when they see that floor- gouged in a million places from the bed jumping up and down.....

You might be wondering why we have a vibrating alarm clock to send off with him to Hobart, and yet, we do not have a portable flashing fire alarm.
Especially since this made getting a hotel room for him such a complicated affair.
We did have one.
A flashing fire alarm that was portable.
I ordered it from a company for Aaron to take to Israel.
It costs about $250. I also ordered the $13 adaptor for the different current.

I did this because not only did the dorm in the yeshivah in Israel NOT having flashing some detector, it had NO smoke detectors.
So, in case of a fire, that smoke detector would not just be saving my son, but all of those other little boys in the dorm. Hey their mothers think of them as little boys, so....

My son, obediently plugged it and his alarm clock in shortly after unpacking his socks and underwear.
And the lights went out.
In the entire dorm.
Oh, and at the same moment the lights went off, there was a bit of a noise. A kind of a bang, as best as my son, who is deaf, described it.
Well, the circuit breaker was taken care of , or the fuse that had been blown, and the lights went back on.
However, the smoke detector was dead to the world.
As was his slarm clock.

The alarm clock had only cost about $40 , and we have since replaced it, but the smoke detector............

Story of the Day 6/ 13/ 2013

This morning, I received an email from the college my daughter, Sarah, is attending.
Or, at least, will be attending, this August.
It's subject was " Admitted Student Questionnaire"

I opened it and started to read.
The email informed me that Sarah is not attending RIT.
She is not enrolling in RIT.

This is Sarah who has been walking around wearing a collection of RIT t-shirst in which we have invested, picking out towels and texting to her roommate. The one who is supposed to live with her at RIT.

My first thought is, "Oh My G-d, what did I fuck up?"
Let's be real, not only am I not Einstein, I am not competent, so this was a reasonable thought.
I went through a mental checklist:
I paid the deposit.
I paid the dorm deposit.
Sarah had been assigned to a specific dorm room.
I had registered for the parent's orientation.
I had called the school to make sure we were dropping Sarah off on the correct date.
I had run the directions through Mapquest.

What did I miss????

Sarah walked into the room wearing one of her RIT t-shirts.

I decide that I am very capable of messing up, but Sarah would not have allowed me to miss any critical things.

So, I shoot off an email to Dr. Miller.
I tell him:

Dear Dr. Miller,

Sarah IS enrolling at RIT. It was the only college to which she applied, because she fell in love with it, when we visited , two years ago.
I am not sure where the information that she is not enrolling is from.

Sincerely,
Cassia Margolis


The original email was sent at 10:36 AM and my reply to Dr. Miller was sent back 19 minutes later.

At 11:16, I received another email from RIT:


You may have recently received an email regarding the Admitted Student Questionnaire for "Non-Enrolling Students". THIS MESSAGE WAS SENT TO YOU IN ERROR.



As a result of this morning's chain of missives, I have decided that:

#1- I need to go buy more hair dye, because I am certain my entire head is now grey.
and

#2- I may have prematurely assumed that Sarah graduating from high school was leaving me with a dearth of material for the "Story of the Day".

Story of the Day 7/ 2 / 2013- Saga of the camera- addendum to the addendum

So, we have the camera back.
After a month.
And it isn't working quite right.
Although, it is working.
And I also have a gift card from Best Buy.
The place that lost it, lost it again, and sort of fixed it.
And we need a new TV.

You see, our TV is great. Wonderful picture. Really great. Much better than most TVs I see in showrooms.
But the dvd player will no longer work with it.
And that is the main pruprose of it, for us.
We do not have cable, or a satellite dish.
We watch dvds.
In fact, the original excuse, I mean reason we bought a large screen TV for a lot of money was to watch movies- the movies that are shown uncaptioned in theaters and therefore cannot be understood and enjoyed by my family, which cannot hear.
Instead, we wait the 6 months until the films are released on DVD, and then we watch them.

So , having a nice, large screen TV becomes our only really good access to movies.
And it is worth it.
Or, it was, until we stopped being able to watch dvds on it.
So, last week, Aaron and I hauled it down the stairs and out to my car- where, with careful maneuvering, it barely fit.
I had taped the cable, the remote and the instruction book in a ziploc to the back, and a large note on the front explaining what worked and what didn't.
Then my son drove it off to the thrift store that benefits the battered women's shelter, where they can hopefully get $20 for it; and someone can hook it up to cable and enjoy it.

And now, we are hunting for a new TV.
But not at Best Buy.
Because even though they sent us a gift card that would pay for some part of it ( thought not a substantial part), I cannot face going through another "Best Buy experience".

Story of the Day 6/26/2013- Saga of teh camera- Addendum

The saga of the camera may or may not be over, but my telling of it was not complete.
I left off some things that happened, but I will now add them and explain how they influenced me.

Before the camera was lost and found, - I mean before they lost it a second time , but not after they had misplaced it, lied to me and then sent it off to be repaired, and lied to me about that, I dealt with a supervisor at the 800 number.
She was very apologetic, especially after she realized the local store had not been honest with me.
She offered me a gift card to help assuage my negative feelings to the company.
I accepted and even thought that this would provide a positive spin to the story.
Or stories, I was probably already up to two on this topic.
Best Buy was being hard on my nerves , but good on my writing output.

Unfortunately, it was after that when I started being given different dates that it would be back at the store, and being told that I would be called, and wasn't, and then the camera was once again "missing" and then.....
So, by the time I did, finally , get the camera back, any warm feelings I had from getting the gift card , had faded. Faded into the head-butting feeling of "what more are you going to d to me?"

It was also before I started being irritated by the wrong information up on the geeksquad website.
Which kept insisting that I had dropped the camera off to be repaired 2 weeks after I had.
In fact, I was so irritated, after seeing that time and again, as I kept waiting for the camera to be repaired and come back to the local store for pick up, that I sent the internet site a message.

On June 9, I wrote:

Comments: I find this insulting. I called and got a service/repair number. then, on May 9th, i dropped it off to be repaired. on may 23, i called to see if it was back and repaired , yet. i was told it wasn't. Why wasn't it? because u forgot about t it. so, you gave it a new repair number and then pretended i dropped it off on may 23rd and that is what this site says. this hides the fact you've had the camera for over a month. i dislike this insult added to injury.


Amazingly, I received a reply, the next morning:

Good Morning Cassia,
Thank you for contacting Geek Squad. I do apologize in regards to the delayed response as we do understand time is valuable. I have reviewed your service order and do show that the unit has been shipped off to the service center.
I would also like to apologize for the delay in the repair. If you would like I can contact the local store on your behalf in which to inquire on other options at this point?
Thanks
C....



I have removed his name, just in case someone from his company thinks that he should not have been so pleasant.


And I promptly responded:

I do not think there would be any benefit in you contacting the local store.
According to your site ( I just checked) , it is still not there.
Further, when I spoke with them on the phone, they lied. I know this because it was between two phone calls to the 800 number. When I reported what i was told to the supervisor at the 9800 number, she verified that. So, I have zero confidence in my local store, at this point.
If, in the future, I need to deal with Best Buy, I will drive half an hour in the other direction and go to a different store.
Sincerely,
cassia

Now, you would think this would be the end of it, but it wasn't.
I received the following reply on June 11:

Cassia,
I do apologize for the mis information that was said to be provided. However I can contact the store to request a replacement or inquire on a replacement.
Thanks
C...



This was a nice offer, but too late. I had just finished picking up the camera at the local Best Buy, before getting this.

That is , picking up the camera after calling the 800 number and having someone search the dock and realize it had been sitting out there and not checked in because they couldn't figure out how to check it in...




I emailed C.. and let him know that, after more than month, we actually did just get the camera back.

I will also add the small detail. Even after i got home with the camera, the website did not show that it had yet arrived at the local store.


Now, I figured everything was done and over with, but it wasn't.
I received this email from C...


Cassia,
I do apologize for this entire inconvenience. I would like to offer on behalf of best buy a 50 dollar gift card due to the inconvenience. If you would like to accept this offer please provide me the shipping address.
Thanks
C....




Well, if you know me well, you can guess what my response was to this:



I sent C.. this reply:


Hi C....,
You are being kind, but no thank you. It is not the fault of your department. The 800 number, after they realized what happened ( sequence of events) on the 23rd, also offered me a gift card, and I do not want to abuse the situation and also take a card from your department. I did tell them that what I really wanted was that someone would look over how things are done and fix the places where the problems occurred.
I have also decided NOT to use that Best Buy location, again. A slightly longer drive in the other location might be a good idea.

My issue with the website is that I did not take it for repair on the 23rd. I brought it in on the 9th ( after eating the repair number on the 8th).
I am sure that sounds like silly detail, but , thin of this- when we went to get it, I did not have paperwork with the "new" repair number on it ( that hey gave it on the 23rd) , just the number from the 9th........Of course, they also accepted my daughter's ID ( it is her camera, my husband got it for her.) It also made it necessary for me, each time i called, to explain that the camera was taking a long time, since i hadn't dropped it off on the 23rd......
Thanks, cassia



I thought that would be it, but I received one more email from C....:



Cassia,
I completely understand and once again do sincerely apologize. I have sent this to our corporate office in which to review and address. I have also sent this to the store leadership to address and correct. Anytime that you have any questions or concerns please let me know and I will work toward a resolution for you
Thanks
C




Now, in the meanwhile, we do have the camera back.

I have a gift card that does not come close to making up for what happened, but which will get us an extra memory card ; but , at least, I did also end up in contact with someone who seemed to both take it seriously and try to do something besides get me to go away. Something like address the actual problem.



So, things were better, and I felt that at least someone at the website was responsive.


That was on June 26th.


But I do not always promptly post my stories.

Sometimes because I am awaiting approval, or because I need to fix the 735 typos per paragraph and sometimes because I sharea computer with two teenagers, well, a teenager adn a 22 year old and I cannot get a turn to use it for a few days.
And sometimes....

because some higher power knows the story isn't really over yet.

So:


July 1st- Addendum to the Addendum:


The kids used the camera, tonight, for the first time since getting it back.

Well, the second. My son did some audio recording with it, but no video.

They are starting to shoot a new video- and .....something isn't working quite right.

And the warranty runs out at midnight, tonight.

Of course.

Story of the Day 6/ 11/ 2013- Saga of the camera- Part 3

Best Buy.

On June 9th (which is now two days ago) I find myself calling their 800 number, again.
I will not call the store.
The store lied to me, so I will not call them, but I need to know if the camera is back there.
If it has been repaired.
If we can finally get it back.

The 14-17 days I was originally told it would take has morphed into a full month.

It is 3:32 PM.
I am transferred to a woman named April.
I give her the case number and ask her to check on my camera.
She looks it up.
She tells me that the camera was shipped to the vendor to be repaired on May 10th.
I groan.
I would like to pretend that I groaned silently, but I didn't. I groaned aloud.
I tell her the chain of events.
I ask her why I do not have the camera yet, if it was shipped out to be repaired on May 10th.
She agrees that this looks wrong. It doesn't match up.

She puts me on hold.

For 20 minutes.

At 3:54 she is finally back on the phone with me.
There was a shipping label made out on May 10th, but it was never shipped.
She is checking.
The store manager is checking.
And I am back on hold.

Eventually, I am told that it was shipped out from the vendor to the store.
She knows it was repaired on June 4th. It was also shipped out to the store on June 4th.
But it is not yet back at the store.
I am told to keep checking.

On June 10th (yesterday), I find myself calling the 800 number, again.
I still refuse to call the store, directly.
I have some faith that while the 800 number is not well run, I haven't been lied to by them.
At least not on purpose.

I have already checked on the Internet- at geeksquad.com. The camera is not yet at the store in Indianapolis.

I explian to Britanny that I am not calling to have her check, I am calling because I want to complain. And I want her to record my complaints because hopefully someone at the company is interested in fixing how things work.
I explain that it is bad enough that they misplaced the camera, or forgot about it, or whatever it is they did with it for the 2 weeks before I called them and reminded them that they were supposed to send it out to be repaired; but what I am really upset about was that I was lied to, and that every time I check on the website, it is adding insult to injury when they thank me for dropping it off on May 23rd to be repaired.

I tell her that it is now over a month that they've had the camera.
No videos, no photos of my niece's graduation, no use of it.
By the time we get it back, if we do get it back, the warranty will have expired and if they haven't properly repaired it, we will be further screwed.


Today is June 11
The website still insists that I dropped the camera off on May 23rd to be repaired.
It thanks me for it.
I think a few choice words in its direction.

How can UPS take an entire week? This is not the UPS that I know.
I decide to call the 800 number again.
Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.

They transfer me.

Dennis asks me for the tracking number. He tells me he will put it into their website to see if it has been received at the store.
I explain that he can do that, but I just checked it, again, and the website still says that it was shipped on June 4th.
Shipped, but not received.
And, since they managed to lose it once, I want him to make sure they haven't done it a second time.

I think he is irritated by my asking him to investigate this.

Too bad.

10 minutes later, Dennis tells me that the geek squad person at the local store cannot locate the camera. The local person thinks there may have been a mix up in how it was written up and that it might still be at the warehouse. He will speak with the manager.
I am told that they will get back with me in a couple of hours.
I am polite.
I say "thank you" and don't relate that I have never received a phone call back, yet, from the previous time I was told that I would be called back.
And that was 9 days ago.


Amazingly, less than half an hour later, I really do get a phone call from Saul.
The same guy who was supposed to call me over a week ago.
I am polite and do not ask him why he didn't call me then.
At this point, I consider it a major accomplishment to be polite.

They do have the camera.
It was sitting at the dock area.
They had been unable to check it in.
It was sitting there for a while.
The numbers didn't match up, so it had to be overridden by a manager.
If I had not called the 800 number, and if the person from the 800 number had not called, it would have sat there a few more days, judging by the fact it had already been sitting there a while.

Oh, and the icing on the cake?
I cannot pick it up with the paperwork they originally gave me.
That is no longer the number attached to the camera.
Instead, I will need the new repair number, which they assigned it on May 23rd.
Of course, because they handle this with the same competence as everything else they have done regarding our camera, I do not find this out until I arrive at the store.

In fact, because I do not have it, the only way I can get the camera back is to have the owner show a picture ID and sign for it.
The owner is the person to whom the camera was originally shipped when my husband ordered it.

Fortunately, my husband did not have it shipped to himself.
The owner is my daughter, Sarah.
My husband had the camera shipped to her, at our address. After all, the camera was for her and her brother to use making films.

I, of course, only find out that the owner will need to sign for it after I am already at the store.

This, however, is the one moment in all of this that luck is with us.
I mean good luck.
Sarah happend to have come along, which she did not do when I dropped off the camera.
And she has her learner's permit with her.

Leaving they store, I feel like I am escaping from a bad dream.

I am desperately hoping that the camera is actually repaired.

Story of the Day 6/3/2013- Saga of the camera- Part 2

Saul didn't call.

That was the guy that Amanda told me would call me by midmorning, today.
The guy from Best Buy who is looking for a camera that is now missing in action.

At 3:01 PM, a time I felt was sufficiently past midmorning and therefore a good time to call and say, "You never called me!", I called the 800 number.

I was transferred to Juliana.

At 3:07, I was disconnected.

I called back. That was after waiting 5 minutes to see if Juliana would try to...un-disconnect me.

This time I found myself speaking with Priscilla.
I give her the case number.
She says the case is closed and the camera is there at the store.

I have a moment when I wonder if I should be hearing Twilight Zone music.
But I don't.
Rather, I hear a very pregnant silence.


I explain what I have gone through. I ask her to please check and see if the camera is at the store.

She puts me on hold.

I expect to wait a bit, and then she will come back and tell me that it will be a few more days.
But I am wrong.

Instead, I find myself transferred to Erin.
Erin is at the local Best Buy. The place I left the camera to be repaired.
She asks me what kind of camera it is.

Erin checks and tells me that the camera was not sent out to be repaired until May 23rd. The UPS record shows that the vendor received it on May 29th and that the camera is still at the vendor.

I ask the obvious question, "Why did it sit in the store for 2 weeks after I dropped it off to be repaired?"

"We were busy."

I ask her when we will get it back.
She has no idea, but it will be when the vendor ships it back.
She gives me an order number and explains to me how I can go to geeksquad.com and track it.

Now, I am stupid, but I am not that stupid.
It sat in the store until May 23rd because they were so very busy....

No, it sat in the store until May 23rd when I called and asked if it was back , yet, and they realized they hadn't sent it out , yet, to be repaired.
And they covered up the error, on May 23rd, when I called, by telling me it wasn't back , yet. Which,w as technically true, since they hadn't sent it out.
why they changed the service number? I don't' know. Maybe to cover up what happened, maybe because they really couldn't send it off with a two week old number, or maybe because they decided they didn't' like the first number. Your guess is as good as mine.

So, I am stupid, but not that stupid, and I am also angry.
I am angry because I do not like the levels of lying that this implies.

I tell her "Okay" as opposed to "Thank you" and hang up.

Then I go to geeksquad.com and put in the number. I want to see what it says.
It has been "sanitized".
According to the website, I dropped the camera off to be repaired on May 23rd.
It thanks me for doing that.
Actually, it thanks me for trusting them with the repair.

Except that I no longer trust them.

Story of the Day 6/ 2/ 2013- Saga of the camera- Part 1

I have titlesd this story Story of the Day 6/2/2013, but it is really a saga that started a month ago.
My children have a very nice camera that my husband got for them.
He purchased it using "points" he had accumulated over three years by filling out surveys for a drug company.
Drug as in prescription medicine, not as in crack or heroin.

Theoretically, this means that the camera was a good deal. However, since we pay taxes on the value of the camera, and the value is figured at some incredibly inflated manufacturer's suggested retail price from 6 years ago, when it was the newest model, instead of from last summer, when it was actually "redeemed/purchased", the amount we ended up paying in taxes was really only a little less than if we had bought the camera at it's current, no longer the newest model, Amazon.com price.

Oh well.
At least it is a nice camera, with a nice lens.
Excpet, that it is the old model and certain children seem to complain to us that it is not as good for making movies as the newer cameras.
Despite their complaints, however, they seem to have made a very nice film with it, at the end of the summer , last year, and a few others, since then.

This is the film they made , at the end of last summer. Hopefully, you will think it was worth the investment in income taxes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ixPIc2YRA

To get back to this year, about a month ago, the wonderful camera with the nice lens had a lens that didn't work.
It wouldn't turn to adjust the focus.
This is bad enough when you are taking regular photos, but it is truly disastrous when you are shooting video.

I groaned a bit when my daughter told me this.
I groaned a lot more after I looked up the cost of getting a new lens for the camera on Amazon.

A friend, Harriet, heard my moaning and groaning and remembered, about then, that she had a Nikon lens in her house left over from a camera she used to have . She went searching for it, and after she dropped it off, we did some internet research.
The lens, apparently, can be adapted to fit the newer digital Nikon camera, but it will not auto focus.
This is fine if you want to take still photos, but it was going to be an issue for shooting video.
Less of an issue than the lens we owned which wouldn't adjust at all, but still.....

So, again, I started looking at what a new lens would cost.

Then, my husband dropped a piece of information on me.

When he got the camera for the kids, he also got an extended warranty.
That covered the lens.
He did?
God bless his neurotic genes!!!!!!

I started digging in all the drawers for the warranty paper he said had come with the camera.
We had the original box, and a number of papers, but I was unable to find anything even resembling a warranty paper.

Fortunately, my husband discovered that he had an email from the purchase. And the email let him access the information about the warranty on the Best Buy website.

Unfortunately, the email indicated that the warranty ran out a few months ago.

What?
That didn't make sense.
The extended warranty was for a year.
We thought and thought and were sure the camera had been ordered during the summer.
The summer of 2012.
How could this be?
It is now the spring of 2013, and , unless I was educated incorrectly about the order of the seasons, less than a year had passed.

On May 6th, my husband checked again, and there it was, in black and white pixels, right on the website, the warranty expired on 1/7/ 2013.

More moaning ensued.

Until a day later, on May 7th, when my husband realized that they had used European date notation.
1/ 7/ 2013 meant the 1st of July, 2013.

My husband sent me the information and I contacted Best Buy- the source of the camera and of the extended warranty.

I called them on May 8th- at their 800 number, and they gave me a service number, after I let them know where I would be dropping the camera off for the repair.
I chose the Best Buy on the west side of town. It is slightly nearer than the one near Castleton Square Mall, and in an area of much less aggressive drivers.

On May 9th, I stood in line for about 5 minutes, and then left the camera and lens ( they had to be left together) to be repaired. I was told that it would be , at most, 14-17 days before it was back from being sent out to be repaired.

Desite the impatience of my children, I waited a full two weeks before calling the store.
On May 23rd, I called the local Best Buy and was told that the camera was not back yet.
Well, they had told me 14 to 17 days,so this was not a problem, except for my kids; and I decided to wait until the weekend to try again.

On May 26th, it being little before the local store opened, I called the 800 number to check on the camera.
After being transferred around a bit, I was told that, "Of course it isn't ready , yet," since it was only dropped off to be repaired on May 23rd.

The 23rd?

I tell the woman that she is wrong: I left it to be repaired on May 9th.
She insists the repair order is for the 23rd.
Then she says, "Oh, this is strange" Apparently, the camera has two different repair numbers. She is not sure why , because she has never seen this before.
She puts me on hold while she calls the store to find out what has happened.

I wait on hold.

She comes back on and explains to me that because the camera took so long to repair, it went over their maximum number of days and they had to assign a new repair number to it. She assures me that it will be back in the store by this coming Wednesday. She is sorry it has taken so long.

I am not happy, but I am not very upset by the slight delay; and, at any rate, there is nothing that I can do.
I am also wondering about that second repair number.
It doesn't feel right.

She assures me, though, that it will be in the store on Wednesday.

Wednesday was May 29th.
It was also not when the camera arrived at the store.
It also did not arrive on the 30th.

On June 2nd, today, I have become a slightly less pleasant to deal with customer.
I call the 800 number.
I ask where the camera is.
I am put on hold.
I am on hold for a very long time.
I read more than one section of the New York Times.
I decide that they have forgotten about me.
At 1:32 PM, Amanda comes on the line.
The camera was never shipped.
I ask what that means.
Was it not shipped out to be repaired, or was it not shipped from the repair place back to the store?

Kristy told me the wrong thing. Kristy is the woman I spoke with on a long ago 800 call, at least, it feels long ago.
She tells me that Kristy told me the wrong thing.
The camera was not ready when she told me it was, it was not already shipped back to the store, it had not been repaired. In fact, it also hadn't even been received by the vendor to be repaired.
They do not know where the camera is and they are looking into it.
She gives me a reference number.
She assures me that I will be called back, at the latest, by midmorning , tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be June 3rd.
I have a bad feeling that there will be a Story of the Day , tomorrow.

Story of the Day 5/ 20/ 2013

I am an evil mother.
My daughter is a senior in high school and her last day of school is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 21st.

During the morning, she has a final. Or two.

During the afternoon, she has a film and animation class that is two hours and a study hall.
I offered to pick her up early.
After all, she has early dismissal, so I can pick her up one period early- and she can skip her last study hall.

My daughter didn't think this was good.
She wanted to skip her last film class.

"What?"

"I will be the only student there."

She is probably right.
After all, she handed her final project for the class in, on Friday.
But it didn't feel right to me.
Sarah was insistant.
I discussed it with my husband.
We agreed and explained to Sarah that it was not respectful to her teacher to skip out, even if she would be the only student there.

So, on Friday, Sarah informed her teacher that she would see him on Tuesday.
He was....well, Sarah said he was trying very hard not to laugh, when she explained that her parents wouldn't let her skip.

More negotiating ensued.

I , again, discussed it with my husband.
We agreed that I would ask her teacher how he felt about her being absent.

I sent him the following email:

Dear Mr. H,

As you have noticed, Sarah's parent are both equally or more rigid about rule following than Sarah is. (Remember: Apples do not come from oak trees.)
We told Sarah she could not just ditch class, because that was rude to her teachers. However, if you have nothing for her to do and no reason that you want her to show up, tomorrow, and if you would not be insulted if she didn't show up, please let me know and I will pick her up from school and take her out for lunch.

Thanks, Sarah's mother, I mean, Cassia

Apparently, my email inspired even more mirth from her teacher......

And the response that she did not need to show up for the last class.

Story of the Day 6/ 5/ 2013 PART TWO

I am using the same photo as for part one. That is to make sure you remember what the hotel in Hobart, Indiana looks like. From the outside.
The Hobart Budget Inn.

And, No.
I did not make reservations for my son at the Budget Inn.
I figured it was bad enough knowing what the outside looked like. The description from the review on-line of the inside was ....a good reason to not want to picture it.

I tried to make them at another hotel that is also in Hobart, and which costs about $50 a night.
$50 a night turns out to be substantially more expensive than the Budget Inn.
Which I took as a good sign.

I called up and asked about prices, AAA discounts, the like.
I gave them my credit card and got a confirmation number.
I told them my son was deaf and would need either a room with a flashing smoke detector or one of the ADA kits that comes with a portable flashing smoke detector in it to put in the room.
No luck.
The hotel has two "handicapped " rooms with strobe fire alarms, but both were already taken for that night.
And they didn't have a portable flashing alarm, because they had those two rooms.
I quickly unreserved the room.

I called another hotel.
I spook with two different staff members.
Neither of them knew anything about a kit with a door flasher ( for people who can't hear knocking) or a flashing smoke detector, and they also didn't have a "handicapped " room.
I told them that they must have one.
They were sure they didn't.
I will add here that they are part of a national chain.
A chain that is NOT notorious for being in violation of the ADA.
I had a momentary thought of calling their corporate headquarters and explaining the problem, but the two people on the phone seemed both friendly and trying very hard, but with the combined intelligence of one high school graduate.
In other words, it didn't' seem worth it.

I called third hotel, this one was $70 a night. Except, they only had 4 roosm left and those where all $109 a night.
They had one kit, and it hd been reserved along with one of the less expensive rooms.
Okay, the room might not have bee less expensive, just guessing.

I called a fourth hotel. They had one handicapped room, and it was also reserved.
And no other flashing smoke detector.
The woman thinks they used to have a kit, but she hasn't' seen it in a few years. She was the second person i spoke with, at that hotel.

The fifth hotel was ....Hobart must be an interesting place.

Story of the Day 6/ 5/ 2013

My son is trying to become an EMT- an Emergency Medical Technician.
Those are the people who ride in the ambulances and do CPR on people who have collapsed while pumping gas, or who have had a stroke in their bathroom or who fell and can't get up.
Except Aaron is not going to become that kind of an EMT.

There are also the EMTs who do the nursing home runs.
Those are important, but not emergencies in the same way. That is because the patient has been seen and cared for by nursing staff before being transported to the hospital, or has been discharged and is being returned to the nursing home from the hospital.

But Aaron is also not going to be one of those.

And it is my fault

You see, Aaron got car sick when he did the fire department/ ambulance run practicum.
Twice.
They were called out twice and both times he almost upchucked on the patient, or on his shoes. I mean, Aaron's shoes.
Although he does well , normally, as a passenger in a car, riding in the ambulance while caring for a patient means riding backwards in a vehicle that is weaving in and out of traffic while constantly reading numbers from the equipment monitoring the patient.
So, my son became car sick, and this is my fault because he has Meneire's disease- which is a genetic condition.
And which causes motion sickness.
And since I am the parent who has it, it is my fault for giving it to him.

So, Aaron is hoping to become a staff EMT- the kind of person who runs around in the emergency room or in the hospital, as needed.

This lacks a few things.
It lacks the nice atmosphere of being a fire department EMT. That is because those professionals spend a lot of time at the fire house with their co-workers chatting, watching videos and using the exercise equipment.
Those EMTs get a lot of downtime and a lot of bonding with coworkers interspersed with high adrenaline runs.
It also lacks the easy workload of the nursing home runs.
Yes, there are plenty of patients transported this way, but the emergencies are limited and predictable.
This job also tends to pay better than the other options.

But a staff EMT position at a hospital does have a major advantage.
It does not make him puke on anyone's shoes.

In other words, for Aaron, this is a good career move.

Becoming an EMT requires attending an educational program.
That was it's own story, or it's own few stories.

A year ago, after deciding he wanted to become an EMT, Aaron was all excited.
He found a program just south of Indianapolis. We figured it was about 45 minutes, each way, if the traffic wasn't too bad.
And it started right after the Jewish holidays, in the fall.
This was perfect, because, when Aaron was looking, last summer, for an EMT training program, that was the only program that was commuting distance that he was not guaranteed to flunk.

You see, there are a mandatory number of training hours. He would be able to miss two classes and not fail, but the third.....
missing that third class meant an automatic fail.
And all of the other programs fell on at least three of the Jewish holy days.
So, when he found this somewhat-out-of-the-way program that started AFTER the fall holidays were over...it looked good, long drive or not.
Although, to be fair, it would mean a careful wardrobe adjustment.
Because that course was being taught in KKK and John Birch country.

My husband, who has spent 20 years working on the south side doesn't stop to fill his gas tank up, in that area, unless he has a ball cap over his kipah ( yarmulke) because he really likes not being lynched.

But, hey, we have several very nice baseball caps in the closet, so the "uniform " would not be a problem.

Aaron signed up, paid the $700 plus dollars, and ordered the textbook , so he could start reading it during the two months before the class started.

That is $700 plus dollars after the drug test, the police records test, the CPR certification class and test, and the electric heart stimulation course and test. In other words, we are well over $1,000 into this.....and we haven't even gotten to the equipment.

The Friday before it started, Aaron went on-line, and , lo and behold, they had added something.
Two Saturday "practicals".
Saturday.
He sent off emails: Were these practicals mandatory ? and was there an alternate date when he could come for that segment?

The answers were "No. " and "Yes", but, unfortunately in the reverse order.
So, the same day that he was supposed to start the program, he had to un-enroll.
And start looking for another program.

This time, he found a slightly less expensive program, only $670 dollars, and only 35 minutes away.
So, while all the other costs were the same, it was a little like getting $50 rebate on part of it.
Hey, I am trying to look at the glass as being half-full!

And the course was in a slightly friendlier area.
If I was black or Jewish , I wouldn't want to buy a house there, or send my kids to that school, but no one would lynch me.
They just might expect me to cut their grass or file their taxes and then politely dissappear.

Aaron checked the schedule and double checked it.
It didn't' have any Saturday practices.
He would miss two days for the holidays, but only two.
Now, he just had to stay well, either that or show up for class if he had pneumonia, mono or the plague.

And he already owned the book.

And we were working on getting his stethoscope.
A decent stethoscope can be purchase from a large number of places for around $20. Yes, there are fancy ones available for $150, but most EMTs find that one that costs $20 will do what hey need.
But those are the stethoscopes for people who can hear.
Aaron is deaf, and there are exactly two stethoscopes available that he can use.
The less expensive one is just under $600.
But we were working on it.

Things were looking good.

Then, after the class was already underway, the teacher altered the schedule.
She made a test on one of the days Aaron was missing for a Jewish holiday, and, "No", she told him, there was no make up.
He would be given a zero.

I should explain: In order to pass the course, you need to get an 80% or above. By missing that test, he would need to completely ace 4 other tests in order to pull his average up enough to pass.

I had Aaron email the teacher. Aaron explained that the test was for a large enough number of points that he was, again, asking if there would be an option to make it up.
"No."

So, with this added pressure, Aaron trudged through the semester.

Fortunately , he passed.

The class.

Now he has to pass the certification test.
The test is another $150 dollars.
And it is only offered on Saturday.
That is when the college he took the course at offered theirs. They offered it the Saturday after the class was over.
When the info was still fresh in everyone's minds.
Aaron, obviously, was not going to be able to test with the rest of the students.

He got a web address from the teacher and looked on-line to see where else the test was being offered.

As it turned out, it was offered at 4,721 places in Indiana.
Okay, more like 50.
And all were on a Saturday.

Except for one.

in Hobart, Indiana.

Hobart is 2 1/2 hours from Indianapolis. It is about as far away as you can get from Indianapolis and be in Indiana.

The test is being given at St. Mary's which is a high school in Hobart.
On a Sunday morning.
At 8 AM.

After thinking this over for 3 1/2 minutes, I decided that Aaron would drive up the night before, and stay in a hotel.

There were several factors involved in making this decision. The test costs $150 and if traffic was bad, there was a detour, or he got lost and wasn't there when it started, that was $150 down the toilet.
And we are talking about Aaron, my son who is very capable of getting lost, even with a GPS.

I figured, "How much can a hotel in Hobart cost?" Certainly, less than another $150.

When I looked, on-line, you would be amazed how many of the "local" hotels were in Illinois. Like I said, Hobart is about as far away as you can get from here and still be in Indiana.

I did find one hotel, right in Hobart.
I sent Aaron the photo.
I thought about calling them, but one look at the photo told me that it was probably a by-the-hour place, or by the month.

I am cheap, but not even I am that cheap.

Usually.

Story of the Day 5/ 2/ 2013

It is turning out to be "one of those days".

Sarah's bus was late. When she had been waiting outside for it for just under 20 minutes, I called the transportation number.
I was put on hold.
At least the music wasn't too bad.
the woman got back on, eventually, and told me it was running little late.
She said this as if I hadn't figured that out , yet.
She said it would be here in 5 to ten minutes.

Less than ten minutes later, the phone rang. It was one of those magical automated calls that our school district uses. I pushed "1" to listen to the message.
The bus, #41, was now bus #...., and would be 30 minutes late.
I figured they meant from the latest time that the bus normally comes- which was now about 30 minutes ago. For Sarah who had been waiting outside the requisite ten minutes before that time...well, I hung up, and , again, went outside and explained there would be a few minute longer wait.

Sarah was less than overjoyed.
She wanted me to drive her to school.
I was still wearing my pajamas.
Worse, I hadn't had any coffee. This, after a late night meant I was not safe to drive a bike, forget about a car with my child in it.

"But I saw you drinking coffee!" replied Sarah
"That was tea, herbal tea. Sorry."
Sarah continued to wait.

When it got to be 50 minutes past the regular bus pick up time, ten minutes past the phone call's estimate, I again called transportation.
In case you wanted to know, yes, I do have their phone number memorized.
This time, I was told that the bus was coming, but the bus driver was unfamiliar with the route, so please be patient.
I was being patient.
My daughter who had been outside all this time, was not.

I , again, told Sarah that it was coming.
At this point, we were stuck.
If I drove her to school, she would be late.
Being late, and being driven by anything other than the bus, means you go to the "holding room" for a period.
And it counts as an unexcused absence in the class you miss by being in the holding room- with a zero for all assignments, tests and quizzes.
A nice kick in the butt on top of the having to stand outside all this time waiting.

At least, it wasn't 15 degrees or raining or....

The bus finally arrived.
I watched my daughter board it.
She got a seat.
This is a rarity.
Normally, the bus is full.
Sometimes there is a seat with still only one student.
In the mornings, most of the year, it is too dark to see much, when you get on the bus, so Sarah motions for permission to sit in the empty spot, to share someone's seat.
On good days, the person she asks nods.
Or even shakes their head "no".

On bad days, they say something. And Sarah cannot see their face to know what they said, or even if they said anything, because it is too dark. So she has to hope that she will not be greeted by, at the least, rudeness if she then sits down, and worse, sometimes, some physical aggression.
And those are the better mornings.
Sometimes all the seats already have two semi-adult people in them, and she has to figure out who will give her 2 inches of seat.
The third adult sized butt on a seat which is not really made for that.

Sarah has wondered aloud (if that is the right adjective to describe sign language), why her bus is so full, but some other buses only have 14 students on them, and plenty of empty seats.
Who figures out these routes?
Sarah is sure she could design a better system.
I agree .
But, this morning, it is already light out, and she gets a seat.
To herself.

I , three minutes later, hear the phone ring.
It is Sarah's resource teacher.
" I was wondering if Sarah was home ill."
I politey explain that the bus was close to a hour late.
At this point, I am not sure, although, I could check my cell phone and be more exact, if she wants.

I could check this because immediately after getting on the bus, I got a text from Sarah- which gives a time.
She texted me because she was worried about what to do when the bus arrives at school. She can't just go to class without a pass, but she is unsure how to get a pass, and she has no one to interpret her situation to anyone stopping her in the hall.
With our luck, some staff person is liable to grab her roughly by the arm and take her to the dean's office, assuming she is too obnoxious to reply when they call out to her from behind her.
My son was grabbed and shaken once for "ignoring" a teacher like that.
And he wears hearing aids that are very visible, especially since in high school he wore neon colored ear molds.

The resource tecaher realizes the problem- since we had complained about the other incidents ( yes, there was more than one), and says someone will go grab Sarah. Of course, she means grab in a figurative sense.

What I really wanted to say, I do not say.
This resource teacher has known me for over 11 years. She was Aaron's resource teacher, first. That was for 7 years, and I actually met with her before he started at the middle school.
And she has been Sarah's resource teacher since Freshman year, and sarah is now a senior
When one of my children is ill, I call the attendance office.
Then I email the resource teacher, and I also call and leave a message for her.
Then I email and text the interpreter.
And if I still do not feel secure in the belief that someone has gotten the message, I might also email her first period teacher.
I do this exact sequence each and every time one of my children is out for an illness.

For 11 years.

Even I think it is overkill, but I cannot stop myself, because the one time I didn't do that, the message I left was missed.

And, if I know my kid might be ill, the evening before, I email and call the resource teacher, and I email the interpreter, but I do not contact the attendance office.

And if it is an absence for an upcoming Jewish holiday, I send an email to each and every teacher, and to the resource teacher and to the interpreter, and I call the attendance office.
Twice.
Because, once, they messed up.
And then, two years later, they messed up again, and then we had three years in a row with a minimum of one mess up per year.
So, having already alerted everyone, once, at the beginning of the semester, I now also remind the teachers and the interpreter, just before the absence.

And yet, despite all of this, I have had kids with unexcused absences for Jewish holidays, with teachers giving them zeros on tests and not allowing makeup, with a teacher claiming I never informed them ( despite the fact I not only had a copy of the email I sent to him, but an emailed response from him right afterwards that I had not deleted).....
So, this level of neurosis is what they have trained me to do.

So, what I really wanted to say to her was, " You are asking me if I somehow managed to not inform half of the school?.... Are you stoned? "

Story of the Day 5/ 1/ 2013

Sometimes a Story falls right into my lap.
Literally.
Except this one didn't.
It was handed to me.
Literally.
Sarah brought home some papers she had given to a teacher. They were the script, the synopsis, the story board, etc, for the movie she is working on. This is a step they do , for the class, and useful in getting the students to organize and think before messing up. i mean doing.

One of the things Sarah had to do was to fill out a paper stating who would do each of a number of jobs in making the film.

This part is called "the " Crew List"

This is what she wrote in bold. I have taken the liberty of ( in italics) putting down my translation/interpretation:

Director: Sarah Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: Organized and committed to this project

Asst. Director: Aaron Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: Reliable, responsible

Audi technician: Aaron Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: He can hear. ( Only compared to Sarah. Technically, he is deaf , although, he can use a hearing aid to try to fake it.)

Director of Photography :Sarah Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: Great w/visual. She can see.

Asst. Director of Photography: Aaron Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: My wing- always will be available when I need help. ( This means that he is unemployed, and still living at home. Making you wonder about what she wrote for why she chose him as the Asst. Director....)

Editor: Sarah Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: Organized and focused.

Soundtrack?Foley artist ; Mike Blejer
Strengths: He makes good music. ( Not that Sarah has veer heard any of it, or would know what good music is.)

Graphics/ Title Creator: Sarah Margolis-Greenbaum
Strengths: Only knows a little about graphics/ title creating. ( Honest. Which is a strength, but you must wonder how she thought what she wrote was one.)

Costume/Prop Master: Cassia Margolis
Strengths: She finds a lot of good things that i would never have found myself. And she has money.... ( The Goodwill Queen. Which used to embarrass them, in their younger days.)

Story of the Day 4/ 30/ 2013

This story should have been from April 15th.
Tax day.
Because it is about income taxes.
My neighbor asked me, this morning, if I was going to the post office.
She had received a piece of mail back , for missing postage, and wanted it to go out, TODAY.
It was her taxes.The federal ones.
She had owed a bit, and, as a result, decided to wait until the last minute to send her forms and her payment in.
Why pay them early?

But, somehow, she had either not attached the stamp well enough ...which, in this days of self-adhesive stamps is unlikely- or actually sent it off without first affixing a stamp.

I was impressed.
Normally, those letters take at least a month to wind their ways back to folks, but this one had done it in Only just over 2 weeks.

And caused my neighbor a bit of panic.
Especially since her car is out being repaired.
And she didn't want to give the forms to just anyone to mail, since , well, it had her social security number and other information enclosed.

But she felt she could true me with it.
Even though I am also airheaded enough to mail things ...and to forget to attach stamp.
Which you should have already figured out, since i know how long it takes for such a piece of mail to find its way back to me.

I asked her if she wouldn't' rather go on-line and file. It was free, I assured her.
I happen to know what her approximate income is, as she is retired and considers a trip to Goodwill to be a major financial transaction , so she falls into the " can use a free program to file" category.

She , slightly nervously, explained that she wouldn't file on-line because none of that information is secure. People hack sites all the time and someone could easily get her social security number and steal her identity.

I took the envelope from her, refusing the quarters she tried to give me.
I explained, " I have a stamp and will drive by and put it in the blue box outside the post office, is that okay?"
"Oh yes, that would be wonderful!"
I drove off thinking, her mail was left in her mailbox in the early afternoon.
It probably art there for a a few hours, until she took her evening way and brought it in on her way back into the house.
On a good day.
Because, she has on occasion, let it sit in her mail box for a day or two.
And with our neighbors and our mail person.....

She would be a lot safer filing on line.

Story of the Day 4/ 29/ 2013

I am very popular.
I am so popular that within a 5 minute period, today, I received two text messages, one email and two phone calls.
That is because my youngest child, Sarah, wanted a ride home from school.
Really wanted it,
And wanted to make sure that I had gotten the message.

The first message read, "Can you pick me up at 1:44 at nc door 1?" and arrived via email.
The second was a text which read " Can you pick me up after school at 1:44 at door 1?"
This was quickly followed by a phone call from the same child.
I did not answer my cell phone.

I also hadn't read the texts , text, because I was driving.
And I hadn't seen the email, because I was driving .

Well, that and I have a dumb phone.
A dumb phone is what those of us who do not have smart phones have.
It means we cannot check our email when we are not at home or at another place at a computer that is attached to the internet.
We are very deprived.
Not.

But, at any rate, I had not checked her text, her email or answered her call.
This is probably a good thing, because , as I was reading the second text, I got a phone call from a different child, Aaron.
He wanted to ask me if I could pick Sarah up after school at 1:44 at door 1.
Before he could get that message out, I said, " I am in the driveway."
Remember, I do not check my phone for text messages or answer calls while I am driving.
I like being in one piece.
And alive.
So, after I arrived home, parked in the driveway and turned off the ignition, I checked my phone - which had been very busy.
I felt this was an important bit of information, letting my son know where I was.

Since I was parked in the driveway right behind his car.

Nothing personal, but I prefer my conversations to be face to face, especially if we are in the same place, more or less.
The more or less part being that he was inside and I was still outside because I was busy reading texts and answering phone calls from him.
And because, he is deaf and , on a good day, a cell phone conversation with him is frustrating.

I also did not bother to call my daughter back, because she is deaf as in doesn't' speak on the phone.
At all.
She does, however, call me on occasion.
When I see a call from her it means, " Did you get my text?"
or " Did you get my email?"
It does not mean , " Please answer the phone", since she wouldn't be able to hear me answering it, or speak to me on it. .
So why call?
Think of the phone as a dog whistle.
I am the dog who hears it and comes running, and she is the master, who cannot hear the dog whistle.

Hey, it works.
She is one heck of a smart dog owner.


And I am.....

Story of the Day 4/ 17/ 2013

This is actually an addendum to Story of the Day 3/ 15/ 2013- the story of toilet paper.

We were all eagerly awaiting an update from Ely.
What would happen when he stopped buying toilet paper for the house?
Since, all year, none of the other three residents had figured out that toilet paper had to be bought and put in the bathroom, but , instead, seemed to believe that the house elves magically replenished the supply, we could not quite guess what their response would be to that empty roller.

Ely, on Friday, April 12th, texted to tell me : " I kid you not, someone noticed we were low on toilet paper and bought a single roll of toilet paper. "

Both Ely and I were curious what the next thing to happen would be. Ely was not worried, after all, he had his own stash ( a roll hidden behind something in his room), and he was also headed out of town to visit friends, over the weekend.
What would be the state of things in the bathroom when he returned? Would someone have anted-up and purchased another single roll?

As things had it, while standing guard at the doorway to the staircase where his younger siblings were filming, I noticed the above installation.
I took two photos of it, and sent them to Ely, along with the message:

"Art installation. If your housemates were here, it would be disappearing one roll at a time."

Ely let me know that the single roll had run out.
But his roommates had replaced the single roll after it had run out.

With a box of tissues.

Hopefully, when this runs out, the napkins will be safe.
Since they are cloth.

Story of the Day 4/ 12/ 2013

My children are trying to fill a role in Sarah's upcoming video.
You might have noticed that a lot of the recent stories revolve around this topic.
That is because it is a big video- her senior theses film- and it is consuming high parts of our lives.
That and our family room, breakfast room, kitchen, garage....

The part they are trying to fill is that of a high school student. A girl.
She has to look innocent, and guilty.
Filling this role has involved a lot of strange things.
Asking friends for referrals. Stalking people on Facebook. Making obscene phone calls.

My kids and I all asked numerous friends to refer women who looked the right age to play high schooler and who had some acting experience, and were willing to work for imaginary peanuts.
Hey, peanuts are expensive!

We got plenty of referrals.
Most were of 25 year olds who looked, 25.
A few of them looked 24 or even 23.
One looked at least 35.

Why is there such a dearth of high school girls?
Well, there isn't, but they were all busy.

Either that or their mothers took one look at the filmmakers and said, "No"
Or, worse, heard Aaron calling on the phone and asking to speak with their daughters , and said, "No!"
That is because of the heavy breathing.
Although, as far as I know, that was only for the one phone call.
And he was breathing heavily because he had been exercising.
Heavily.
Just before making the call.
Although,not just before, since Sarah realized he was going to appear to be "creepy" and made him rest for ten minutes before calling- although, his breathing was still a little heavy , even then.
But, at least, significantly less creepy,

And stalking.

My kids would get a name of some girl who was a friend of some friend, or a coworker,and then, since no one had met the young lady, we would locate her on Facebook and carefully evaluate each picture.

"Well, maybe she looks younger in this one...."
"If we had her unstyle her hair, would she look a little younger?"
"Clothes? Maybe she would look younger in different clothes?"

You would be amazed how many dressed-up, make-upped-up, trying to look 30 years old pics people who are 25 post on their FB walls.
Not just the one profile picture, but in their albums and in their....
You see, I have also found out that all of these tech savvy youngsters have zero security on their FB accounts.
Zero.
I know the names of their boy friends and girl friends, if they like Papa John's pizza with mushrooms, and which bar they prefer......

I have to keep resisting that Jewish mother urge to send them a message saying " Change your FB security, I can see too much!!!!"
And why am I looking at their FB pages?

Because I have a FB account, and my daughter, the filmmaker, doesn't.

Because of that, I am better at locating people.
Although, usually i am trying to locate old friends who moved 17 times since college and ......Not trying to locate actors for a video.
But I have some FB locating skills because of this.
So, when given the name of a potential actress, by a friend or a friend of a friend, or by the guys who mow our lawn, my daughter asks me to get onto my FB account and look them up, so she can see if they might just fit the role.
And I can, at least for a brief moment, impress my children with my feeble internet skills.
Oh, they are 22, 23, 26? They went to which high school? I can get to them via a friend named........
etc.
This is especially helpful when their name is Debbie Stein. You do not want to know how many FB users have that name.
Actally, I have no idea, since that was just a name I made up, not wanting to use some of the ones we actually checked.

At any rate, my kids, after much FB perusing, decided that one suggested actress might, just might, look young enough.
And she also seemed animated, in her pics- a good sign for an actress, although, one that can fool you.

So, we got her number, and Aaron, with some slightly dampened heavy breathing, called her.
She was interested.
He asked for her email address to send her the script.
You see, I am the one with the FB account.
And Aaron is the one who can talk on the phone.
Sarah could have a FB account, but since she hears nothing, and doesn't speak, Aaron, who hears, to some limited degree, with the use of a hearing aid, and speaks, even if with heavy breathing, gets that job.
He gets it because it is less embarrassing to have your brother with the heavy breathing call than to have your mother making phone calls for you.

Not that Sarah couldn't call...even though she cannot hear or talk, you see, she could.
There is this wonderful thing called a videophone.
We have one.
Sarah could call the girl with that.
Of course, the girl probably doesn't have a videophone, but there is this other wonderful thing called relay service.
Sarah could call them, give them a phone number for the young lady, and they would call and interpret between the two of them, being the voice for Sarah.
However, past experience has taught us that this can be even creepier than Aaron with his heavy breathing, because having some middle aged guy call up and announce "Hi , this is Sarah calling" tends to freak hearing people out more than a potentially lascivious call from a heavy breather.

I have no idea why.

At any rate, after Aaron had successfully called this young lady and gotten her to divulge her email address, Sarah sent a copy of the script and a note as to which pages the role was on.

And, the next morning, the email was back in Sarah's inbox and marked undeliverable.
We weren't sure if it was because the young lady's mailbox wouldn't' accept the script as an attachment, or because the email address was somehow "wrong."

After deciding the problems was probably the second one, Aaron made another call.
He asked the woman, "Is your email address... and he carefully spelled it out.

"No"

As it turns out, my son had missed hearing an "h" in the address.
For which, my deaf son, who was using a cell phone, was very apologetic.
The young lady may have thought he had been inattentive, on the first call.
Aaron was very apologetic to her, and afterwards, to me and to Sarah, for messing that detail up.
I meanwhile, was laughing that he thought he should need to apologize for that.

As Sarah will tell you, it is still better than having your mother make phone calls for you.

Story of the Day 4/ 9/ 2013

My son had to call a girl.
I mean a young woman.
She is even Jewish.
Unfortunately, despite the heavy breathing, it wasn't that exciting.
You see, it wasn't for a date.

And the heavy breathing really didn't have anything to do with her.
It had to do with the fact that my son had been exercising.
A dozen pull ups, some push ups, some other stuff, and then repeat.
He does not get this desire to exercise from my side of the family.

Aaron and Sarah had just decided to give the young woman a call to see if she would be able to act in Sarah's film.
This left Aaron needing to make a call, since he can at least fake talking on the phone.
But it was Sarah who told him he couldn't call, not yet.

Aaron didn't understand why.

So Sarah had to explain to him that his rapid, heavy breathing, on a phone call to someone he had never met, was likely to creep her out.
As Sarah said, "I am deaf, but even I know that!"

Guest Story of the Day 4/ 7/ 2013

Guest Story of the Day by Cynthia Harp

I worked as a very minor character in a film today. The filmmakers are deaf. This does not present the problems you would think -- it presents others.

Filmmaker A, whom I will call Sarah, does not pay much attention to my comments, because she has known how hideous my signing is. Unless obscenity is called for (and when is it not, really?) or some very basic reproductive information. Then I am your woman. Sarah has known I am either very stupid or communicatively challenged (or both), so she smiles and nods a lot.

Aaron , AKA Filmmaker B, is deaf but seemingly psychic (how does he know what we are talking about when we are speaking softly and looking away?), so he is very capable of understanding my contributions.

However, Aaron is terminally kind. It used to get in the way. Now it is merely amusing. After our first hideous take, comprised of mistaken dialogue, awkward body movements and inattention, Aaron said, “That was...good.” He would make a great therapeutic director of recovering or non-recovering actors. “That was great,” he would say, theoretically, “...just try not to pass out before the scene ends next time. At least not during your line.”

So Max did his first line and added the second to it. It really disrupted the rhythm of the scene. Aaron said, 'That's ok...but can you try to just, you know, separate them a little bit? And Max said, "Is this you, yelling at me?" Max only knew this was a correction, albeit a nearly imperceptible one, because he had known Aaron so long. This is as rough as it gets

Is it possible that deaf people are extra quiet? Griffin spent the morning in the basement. He came up as Sarah and Aaron were about to leave. Now, his time was spent in the basement with the dog, who was specifically put there so she would not interfere with the filming and also not run away while we repeatedly opened and closed the door for said scene. (What part of the door do most people use to knock? Eddie reaches for the uppermost part he can reach. Is that typical? But I digress...) Griffin was truly surprised when he came upstairs and Aaron, Sarah and Eddie were there filming. They had been there for 45 minutes. He was pleased and surprised to see all three, even though he had never met Eddie. Truly, Aaron and Sarah have such sunny demeanors, it almost does not matter who else is there. Almost.

It could be Griffin recognized Eddie from his previous work in Margolis-Greenbaum productions. He was wearing white face in that film. But that is not something Griffin tends to notice.

Sarah and Aaron thanked us for our time and headed for the door. I asked when they were going to film the scene with Alice, our dog. Another day, is what Aaron told us Sarah told him. It could have been “Hell, no!” but Aaron would never say that.

Story of the Day 4/ 5/ 2013

My son, Aaron, the very tall one who has not managed to move out of our basement, is trying to move out of our basement, or , at least, trying to not have to ask us every time he needs $1 for the vending machine.

He is enrolled at one of the local colleges in an EMT (Emergency Medical technician) training program.
This is the second program he has enrolled in.
The first was last summer, he enrolled to start classes in October, just after the Jewish holidays ended.

He was very excited when he found that program. It was the only one he found, last fall, that he would not automatically fail.
You see, in order to pass the course, you cannot be absent more than a specific number of days or you will miss the required number of hours of training. And, being Jewish and religious, missing classes for the Jewish holidays in the fall automatically put him over the limit for all the other programs.
But, my son found this program in Southport, just one city south of Indianapolis, that started after the last holiday.

He was excited.
He ordered the text book from the internet and started reading it in advance.
And the Friday before classes started, he clicked on the class link and found out that they had just added two mandatory practice sessions. On Saturdays.
He quickly shot off an email to the teacher. Was there any way to do those on another day?
"No," came the response, "And they are required."
So, the morning of the first day of the class, my son dropped it.

This semester, he found a course at one college that he would need to miss two classes for Passover, but , because of the schedule, only two classes; and that was just inside the limit to not be failed. As a result , he signed up and started class, and if he gets the flu, he will just have to go in and share it with everyone.
He already had his textbook, and he had been working on getting his stethoscope.
Which has been an ordeal.
Normally, you order a stethoscope. There are several which are totally fine for the generic EMT. The priciest of those is about $45.
But my son is not generic.
He is deaf.
There are two stethoscopes hat he can use. Both show a digital display of the information- no hearing required.
The least expensive is more than $500.
It has been ordered and will be here , soon.
He also needs navy pants.
He has one pair.
And black shoes, which required a trip to the store.
And, last month, he spent 8 hours in a hospital emergency room observing.
Except, there were no emergencies, on that day, so he ate a banana and drank some milk.


And , this morning, he headed off to the Fire Department to ride along on the ambulance for another 8 hours of observation.

Today, unlike his experience in the Emergency Room, was a busy one.
Before he had been there 4 hours, they had been called out for two "runs".
Aaron was riding in the back. Facing sideways.
He thought he was doing okay on the way out, but on the way back ........things weren't as good.
After that trip, they sat around the station for a while. He had a chance to recover.
Then , it was another trip out, and on the way back, Aaron sat in the back facing backwards.
His instructor, a woman, may have noticed something was wrong, even before he threw up on her shoes.

Okay, I added that.
He managed to not throw up on her shoes, which, if you have Meniere's disease, as Aaron does, which comes with some vertigo and a definite tendency towards motion sickness, you know how impressive his not throwing up on her shoes was.
Aaron is usually fine in cars.
As long as he doesn't' bring along a novel to read.
So, it had never occurred to us that facing sideways and backwards and reading all of the instruments would be...a problem.

He said to the woman who was supervising him, "And I ordered a really expensive stethoscope!"

She told him not too be too downhearted.
After all, he could always work as an EMT in the Emergency Room.