Totally Unauthorized

Some people just have to be different

Society want us all to be the same, to follow the rules and never make wave. I’m just not wired that way.

We bought some handmade coffee mugs from a woman in South Africa, and I had to pay her.  She refuses to make my life easy by getting a PayPal account, and insisted that I send the money to her daughter in New York–not by check, which would be normal,, but by transfer into her bank account.  Fortunately, the account was with CitiBank, so I thought I’d just go to the local branch and effect the transaction.

it seemed easy.  I plopped my credit card (also from CitiBank) on the counter and said please send some money to this account.  Silly me.

Rather than just making a payment, the bank decided they had to treat this as a cash advance, then make a cash payment.  OK, knock yourself out.

In order to make the cash payment, they insisted that I tell them my phone number.  It’s illegal in California to ask for that for a credit card transaction, but that doesn’t stop Citi.  Although I had my phone on the counter to read the email with the account numbers, I said I didn’t have a phone. (Citibank already knows my phone number from the dozens of times I have to call them about charges on our business cards)

Not satisfied with one impertinent question, they now insisted on knowing what I do for a living.  I guess most sheep just answer, but I’m not most sheep.

I told her I was a criminal.  I steal cars for a living.  For some reason, she didn’t believe me, and suggested that I might actually be retired.  I said sure.

Then, astoundingly, she told me that was insufficient and she had to know what I had done when I worked.  How can this be any of their business?  Why do they care?  How dare they ask such absurd questions before I spend MY money for MY purposes? I was incredulous.  I was incensed.  I was livid.

I told her I was a retired felon.

She gave up and completed the transaction.

There is nothing I can imagine that would justify this absurd inquisition, and no possible reason why I would be impelled to reply.  Banks get away with this crap because sheep just do what they are told, and don’t question the system. Don’t be a sheep.

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Giving up on home remedies, I went to Kaiser today.  The first step is to check in and pay the $20, so I walked up to the counter.

The woman working today was quite large, kind of like my size, clad in a skirt way, way, way, way too tiny. The mysteries of the universe are mysteries no more.

What she does on her own time is her business, but this was pretty clearly inappropriate for a work situation.  I mentioned it to the nurse taking my blood pressure :(130/84!!!!!!!!) and she said everyone in the office was talking about it, and they were hoping some executive would come down from on high and address the situation.

What has happened in the world? Why can’t one of the women who work there just go up and tell her that her skirt is too short and she needs to cover up?  The world isn’t interested in her panties.  You just can’t do that for some silly reason, this will take an entire human resources project, with reports and paperwork.

Maybe they are afraid the woman will be offended at being told she is being offensive, and rain bureaucratic hell down on everyone.  Maybe the world has gotten too involved in everyone’s feelings and needs to get back to the basics–you need to be dressed appropriately for work.

If only Kaiser had a black sheep who would speak up when speaking up was needed.