You Are Such A Bridgett!

We're slowly getting ourselves out of debt. The land was sold, the check finally landed in our account and we began to write the checks to clear our debts. Most of them went without a hitch - locate the bill, write the check, mail it and Ta-Da!

But, of course, there's always something lying in wait to trip us up. I'm talking about a lady named, well, I'll just call her Bridgett. We got in touch with her to settle up our account. The first go-round didn't go well, at all. After she kept interrupting me time after time and repeating the same few words over and over: "When are you sending the check? When are you sending the check? When are you sending the check?" She needed a date to put in the letter she was sending us and I kept trying to say: "Just name a date, please, and we'll send it by that date." She kept getting louder and louder and I couldn't even hear myself think! Finally, I gritted my teeth and said "Just mail the damned thing."

Oh, oh, now she was all offended and "sugar wouldn't melt in her mouth". "I'm going to hang up! You can't curse at me!" Oh, puleeze! She went on for about five minutes about how I was the rudest person she ever had the misfortune to talk to. Without throwing up, I apologized to her (yeah, but she didn't hear what I was actually saying in my mind!) and quietly said to please, just mail the letter with any date she wanted to put down. Sugar couldn't melt in my mouth, because my teeth were gritted so tightly, sugar couldn't GET IN!

After the letter arrived, Jimmy decided to be on the safe side and send the letter by certified mail. That way, we'd have a confirmation number and could track when the letter actually arrived.

Today, when I got home from work, I found that she had called and left a message for me to call her. I returned the call. She wanted to know where the check was. I told her that Jimmy had sent it certified. She said "OH NO!!!" I asked what the problem was. She informed me that if I had told her we were sending it certified, she would have told me not to do that. Don't EVER send ANYTHING to her office by certified mail!!! "Why?" I asked.

My stomach was beginning to roil. She said that certified mail stayed at the post office waiting for a signature. "So?", I though. She said they hardly ever go to the post office. My mind was screaming - "So, get off your lazy butt and go to the *#@*% post office" ! Are you kidding me?? I said I thought maybe if that was such a problem for them, they should have had that written in the instructional letter they sent me. "We don't have to put that on the letter!" she snapped. "YOU should have told me!" I replied that I didn't know he was going to decide to do that, and if it had been in the letter, instructing us to avoid doing that, he wouldn't have done it. I repeatedly asked her to transfer me to her supervisor, but she said there was no one there except her. I told her that I had spoken to three different people before she came on the line. "They've all gone to lunch" was her answer. Fine, ok. I give up.

She told me to call the post office and ask them to return my check (HUH?) and then tear it up and do a check over the phone. If we didn't have the money to her by the end of the month (next Friday) the settlement deal was off. Now, how in blue blazes could the Front Royal post office get my check back from Towson, Md?

I got out the confirmation ticket and went on-line to the post office's web site. I entered the number and clicked "go". A confirmation screen appeared and said that the letter was in the Towson, Md., post office. I called her back and gave her that information and all of a sudden, I was talking to the sweetest person in the world! Now, neither butter nor sugar would melt in her precious mouth! (Gag me with a spoon!)