Tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day, is my DD's birthday. She's here for one more day on her "Spring Break" and is happy to have this winter storm. She'd missed the snow, being in school in Florida. I'm just hoping Sunday everything is clear so there's no more airport difficulties. I do not want a repeat of what happened for the Feb. break.
So, happy birthday, Christy! I love you, my girl!
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
How Best to Endure Idiots
Even tho' I promised myself I'd do the taxes early this year, get the financial aid stuff done for our colleges, and hopefully get a refund instead of paying, here it is mid-March and I hadn't started yet. This morning I didn't have to go to a school, so I could sleep in. My body didn't realize that, and the built-in alarm clock went off at 5:45 a.m., in a panic, thinking I'd overslept. (sigh) I didn't have to be up so early, but I was, so...no time like the present to finally do those pesky taxes. (One must continue to support the reigning beauracracy, even when one does not agree with 95% of what they spend my money on.)
I had bought one of those computer tax programs, and plugged away at it, step by step. Finally I came to the end, and it asked me if I'd like to E-File. Of course, since they're giving me a little money, instead of the other way around. Then, it decided it wasn't going to let me E-File after all, so I had to print the returns and mail them. Only it wouldn't let me print either. So, I figured I'd take it to the library and print it there. Couldn't figure out how to do that, so I called the 800 number for customer support.
Why do they have idiots answering phones, when they're supposed to be manned by experts? It didn't matter how I phrased the question, "But what do I have to do to be able to print this?"...Mr. Bright Light on the other end kept talking in circles about the expertise of the program and all the wonderful things it could do...blah blah blah blah blah. After 2 call-backs, trying to get a different operator, with no better results, my DH started laughing in the background..."HHHOOOWWW do I print this???" You'd think it's a basically easy question. It's not all that unusual for people to print a paper copy of their tax returns and mail them. This is a company who specializes in doing taxes, and it's this guy's job to answer software issue questions...so...this isn't brain surgery...I just want to know How Do I Print This???
2 hours later, after trying various methods myself, I finally got another genius on the phone who said they could email the return to me, and then I could print it. (This sounds ridiculous, but at this point, I didn't care any more.) I had to say...and spell...my email address at least 10 times...very slowly...and he still didn't get it. Finally, he asked if I had another email address, which I do, so we tried that. I'm not even gonna say how many tries that took.
I am convinced that idiots rule the phone-answering customer-service business. They can't help being stupid, and one must be nice to stupid people...but all I want to do is print my taxes already!
Ok. Rant officially over.
I had bought one of those computer tax programs, and plugged away at it, step by step. Finally I came to the end, and it asked me if I'd like to E-File. Of course, since they're giving me a little money, instead of the other way around. Then, it decided it wasn't going to let me E-File after all, so I had to print the returns and mail them. Only it wouldn't let me print either. So, I figured I'd take it to the library and print it there. Couldn't figure out how to do that, so I called the 800 number for customer support.
Why do they have idiots answering phones, when they're supposed to be manned by experts? It didn't matter how I phrased the question, "But what do I have to do to be able to print this?"...Mr. Bright Light on the other end kept talking in circles about the expertise of the program and all the wonderful things it could do...blah blah blah blah blah. After 2 call-backs, trying to get a different operator, with no better results, my DH started laughing in the background..."HHHOOOWWW do I print this???" You'd think it's a basically easy question. It's not all that unusual for people to print a paper copy of their tax returns and mail them. This is a company who specializes in doing taxes, and it's this guy's job to answer software issue questions...so...this isn't brain surgery...I just want to know How Do I Print This???
2 hours later, after trying various methods myself, I finally got another genius on the phone who said they could email the return to me, and then I could print it. (This sounds ridiculous, but at this point, I didn't care any more.) I had to say...and spell...my email address at least 10 times...very slowly...and he still didn't get it. Finally, he asked if I had another email address, which I do, so we tried that. I'm not even gonna say how many tries that took.
I am convinced that idiots rule the phone-answering customer-service business. They can't help being stupid, and one must be nice to stupid people...but all I want to do is print my taxes already!
Ok. Rant officially over.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Music on a Cold Winter's Afternoon
My students had a music recital at the Riverhead Library this afternoon. Even though I'm not the one performing (except for a little accompaniment), I get so nervous...by proxy, I think. I am always headachy and exhausted afterward.
Now, 10 hours later, the music is still buzzing through my head, and there's this lovely feeling of accomplishment. Another successful one down, how many to go???
One of the joys of being a private teacher is that I get to totally design my own curriculum, without any Big Brother adminstration peeking over my shoulder, and no "state standards" to satisfy. My students and I can explore pieces, composers, and styles of our own choosing, and the recitals are always a delicious blend of the result. Some students even compose their own pieces to perform. J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven sit side-by-side with Joplin and Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, with a little Ibeniz and Paige & Plant thrown in for good measure.
I absolutely love that electric ripple that runs through the audience when a particularly talented student plays a well-prepared piece, chosen to impress. When a 7-year-old, whose feet don't even touch the floor, swinging gently in the air beneath the piano bench, pounds out Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5", I can hear little gasps echo around the room. And then, when a 5th grader zips through "In the Mood", of the Glenn Miller Orchestra's fame, I can feel the people smiling without even looking out at them. Later, when a little boy deftly fingers the classical guitar piece "Malaguena", moving from soft, frenetic fingerpicking to driving Spanish style strumming, the energy pulses through the room with the beat of his hand. Piece by piece, the listeners are absorbed in the performance, finally sated with the last dramatic chord of "Rhapsody in Blue."
ahhh...another day's work is done...
Now, 10 hours later, the music is still buzzing through my head, and there's this lovely feeling of accomplishment. Another successful one down, how many to go???
One of the joys of being a private teacher is that I get to totally design my own curriculum, without any Big Brother adminstration peeking over my shoulder, and no "state standards" to satisfy. My students and I can explore pieces, composers, and styles of our own choosing, and the recitals are always a delicious blend of the result. Some students even compose their own pieces to perform. J.S. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven sit side-by-side with Joplin and Gershwin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, with a little Ibeniz and Paige & Plant thrown in for good measure.
I absolutely love that electric ripple that runs through the audience when a particularly talented student plays a well-prepared piece, chosen to impress. When a 7-year-old, whose feet don't even touch the floor, swinging gently in the air beneath the piano bench, pounds out Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5", I can hear little gasps echo around the room. And then, when a 5th grader zips through "In the Mood", of the Glenn Miller Orchestra's fame, I can feel the people smiling without even looking out at them. Later, when a little boy deftly fingers the classical guitar piece "Malaguena", moving from soft, frenetic fingerpicking to driving Spanish style strumming, the energy pulses through the room with the beat of his hand. Piece by piece, the listeners are absorbed in the performance, finally sated with the last dramatic chord of "Rhapsody in Blue."
ahhh...another day's work is done...
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