andrew61

Confessions of a Slacker
2007-01-22 00:00:00 (UTC)

Exhausted.

In my slacker life, I’ve gotten so used to doing absolutely nothing that any disruption in my daily routine is enough to stress me out and make me crabby. Today was one of those days.

I hate having people into my home — especially strangers — but today I had to have the cable guy over. I’m switching from Comcast to RCN because RCN recently negotiated a bulk rate with my highrise, so that the Expanded Basic (80 channels, no premiums) plus converter box for which I’ve been paying Comcast $64 a month, will now be available from RCN for free… it’s included in my rent, I won’t even see a bill (of course, the condo owners will see their monthly assessments increase by $20 whether they switch to RCN or not, but being a renter, that’s not my problem). And because I ordered before the end of this month, they’re waiving the $49.95 installation fee. I just can’t pass up a deal like that!

Well, the RCN guy was supposed to be here between 2 and 5 today — which is usually the time of day I go out and do my errands or whatever — so I was stuck at home all afternoon, and couldn’t even be on the internet because I had to keep the phone free so the doorman could call me when he arrived (I still have dialup, and no cellphone). At the stroke of 5:00, I hadn’t gotten a call yet — and boy, was I crabby!

At precisely 5:01 pm, I phoned RCN to find out what had happened… I talked to a guy at first who then transferred me to a different department, and I got placed on hold, having to listen to the same stupid, annoying Muzak, interrupted at regular intervals for the same stupid, annoying “announcements”… Sheesh.

I was still on hold at 5:10, when my Call Waiting cut in. It was the front desk, telling me the cable guy had arrived. Finally!

All he had to do was disconnect my Comcast converter, replace it with the RCN converter, and make sure it worked… he was here all of five minutes. But I felt like my entire afternoon had gone down the drain… an appointment for “between 2 and 5” does not mean arriving at 5:10, people. Do I expect too much?

Now I have to call Comcast, cancel my service, and find out how to get their converter box and remote back to them. My big worry here is that some years back I signed up for Automatic Pay, where they automatically deduct my monthly charges from my checking account (I did that when I thought I was going to be doing extensive traveling, gone for weeks or months at a time, and I didn’t want to worry about how the bills were going to get paid in my absence). Now I’m afraid they won’t discontinue that automatic payment when they should (I’ve heard all the horror stories) and that I’ll have more headaches to deal with.

And tomorrow I have to get up at an ungodly hour, because my bus to Cleveland leaves downtown Chicago at 9:15 am, and I need to be there to board at least 15 minutes early. I’m only going for an overnight trip… I need to close out a bank account (Certificate of Deposit) I still have in Cleveland and move the money to my Chicago bank… I was going to handle it all through the mail, but I got antsy about that, so I’m taking a trip and doing it in person instead. At least I’ll have enough time left over to meet an old friend for dinner, look around my old neighborhood and see if anything’s changed, and maybe hook up with a guy for some fun (I placed an ad on Cleveland’s craigslist and collected a few phone numbers)… then it’s back home.

This has been a very busy month for someone who’s perfected doing nothing to an art… the Friday after New Year’s I did a focus group — it was a taste test for some kind of health food crackers and paid $65 — then the following week I had my doctor appointment (again I had to get up at an ungodly hour) where I was officially diagnosed with high blood pressure… working on my healthier diet for 2007 (I do have to admit it’s been fun shopping for the foods and everything)… all the sex hookups… and so on.

I think when I get home from Cleveland I’m going to have to go to bed and sleep for 14 hours.

How did I ever work a demanding, stressful job for all those years with all those crushing deadlines (not to mention the commute)?




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