Behind the Smile
I’ve been a little annoyed lately. Oops! Did I say little? I mean super annoyed. However, I was put to the ultimate test. which surprisingly I passed. Since the old me would have started an argument.
Have you ever had a week where bad shit kept happening and there was nothing you could have done to prevent things from happening, but thank God there were things you could do to fix it? When fixing these issues, I was stressed the fuck out and my anxiety levels went through the roof.
So 2 things happened in the span of 2 days. I did my daily routine after work. I walked Peanut and after our walk, we would stop by the mail room to pick up our mail. So when we got the mail, we got a letter from the State of California tax board. I was assuming it was just something about our business, but when I read the letter it said the DMV notified them that we haven’t paid our registration fees for our 2010 Mercedes GLK that we use to own.
Hold the fuck up! When I read the letter my mind was going 100 miles per minute. I do not deal with stress very well and I was diagnosed with high anxiety. I couldn’t think. When I finally got my shit together, I remembered I filled out a notice of transfer when we sold the vehicle on the DMV website. I even have a confirmation when it was sent successfully. I looked at the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability document and thank God it was time stamped with the date and time when it was originally sent.
I took the day off to walk my ass to the DMV. There wasn’t a line for registration! Yay! But there were hella people waiting to get a “Real CA Id.” I remember being so nice to this woman. I wanted her to help me. I wanted her to help me solve my problem. But was she nice to me? Oh nooo.. I showed her the letter from the state and she said right off the bat, “you should have filled out a notice of transfer blah blah blah.” I told her I did with a smile and showed her a copy of my confirmation where it was sent successfully through the DMV website. She accused me of filling it out after I received the letter from the state. I told her the confirmation had a time stamp of the date and time. She was furious that she was wrong so she said it’s not in their system and couldn’t do anything about since my account was in collections with the State. Man she was talking so loud. I wanted to scream at her, but I still thanked her before I left. So I walked in the little lobby area to make my phone call to the state. I called the day we got the letter, but calling the state is like calling the IRS. It took hella long. So long, that the phone line just hung up! When I called the second time after speaking to the woman at the DMV, it took 50 minutes for someone to pick up. The lady was so kind and told us that this would be very easy to fix because it happens a lot. She told me to fax the letter and the release of liability to them and they can update their records. She also gave me an address to where I can mail it to for double protection. Yes, we sent that shit certified!
Phew! Problem solved. So I was so happy that I decided to go to down town, grab a coffee, and people watch while waiting for my husband to get off work, which took about 4 hours.
While sitting at Union Square people watching and enjoying my coffee, I get another phone call. It was another fucking collection agency. What the fuck now? The lady told me that LabCorp sent my file over. I called LabCorp when I first received the bill back in August. They told me the insurance did not cover it because they requested medical records from the referring physician, but never received it. I called the office and Angela said she was going to take care of it. So last week when I got that collection call, I called LabCorp again and they said they still never received it. Wtf Angela! I called the office again and she admitted she forgot. I told her to have my obgyn call me. She said she can’t because she’s on vacation. I emailed my doctor to call me and I didn’t get a response until a week later. I told her that this really needs to be taken care of. It wouldn’t be fair to me if her employee caused a ding on my credit score. She said she was going to make sure it will get done. So after the conversation I had with my obgyn, Angela has been giving me updates. LabCorp pulled my file out of collections. I’m finally at ease.
This thing is though, this could have been avoided if these employees didn’t let my paper work fall through the cracks. I dealt with unnecessary stress which I shouldn’t be going through because my IVF doc said my body can feel it. I need to get my body ready before the egg transfer that will happen the end of November.
I know I probably over shared by writing this blog, but there are a few things to remember. Why was I still giving the DMV women respect, even when she was so unkind to me? There is always a reason why people are being so negative. We are not living in their shoes and they are not living in mine. I know what it feels like to feel broken. Having a hard time getting pregnant makes you feel like a failure. You slowly start to have negative feelings. Feelings no one should ever feel. So you never know who you are bringing down. You never know what someone is going through. The person could be feeling at their lowest and their weakest. With unkind words, we never know who we are beating up inside. I believe it’s our job to raise people up with the kindness. So always be kind.
On a similar note, my husband and I wanted to be kind and give back. A percentage of our sales will be donated to the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Please think about us when you buy your next baby shower gift or even a gift for yourself!
