I Don’t Like Mondays

It started like any other Monday, which isn’t saying anything grand. The plan was to have bagels and cream cheese at the office for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and cake in the afternoon in order to celebrate three of our birthdays (including mine). So, I leave the house with no breakfast and the phantom taste of Panera bagels in my mouth. After the usual Monday office meeting, the person who was supposed to get the bagels gave us a blank look instead. She forgot.

The day progresses as other Mondays do, which, again, isn’t saying anything grand. Lunch time comes and goes. The pizza never comes. So I go to lunch.

Being a slow day, I take the opportunity to drop my car off for an oil change. (Side note: A friend of mine is away for Christmas break and had asked me to drive his car around while he is gone, so it doesn’t just sit there.) While I should know better, I decided to drop my car off at Furrin auto for an oil change. Jillian was at campus and could give me a ride home and from home I could drive my friends car to work for a few days.

Execution was perfect. I drive up to Furrin the same time Jillian arrives, I drop the car and the key off and ride home. When I get home, I get in my friends car and start to work. As I am on my way to work, my cell phone rings. It’s Furrin.

The people at Furrin auto tell me that the check I used to pay for the auto work last time I took it to them has not cleared and that I owe them about four grand. Remembering how I felt the crunch when the check cleared my bank, I tell them that I am sure that it has cleared and that they have indeed been paid. So, I go to work. I try to look up the check online, but because of the amount of time that has elapsed since last time I went to Furrin, the record was no longer available. So I try to call Furrin to get the check number from them and request a copy from my bank. I try for almost an hour without getting through. So, I tell my supervisor that I need to leave and head home. I was going to have Jillian drive me to Furrin so that I could just get my car back. But, she wasn’t feeling well, so I drive across town again to Furrin. I stand at the desk at Furrin for about 20 minutes while they try to help a guy who hit a raccoon and busted the radiator on his BMW. While they are trying to look things up in the computer, he mentions that he needs to car back quickly. This starts the conversation where I explain to him how on three separate occasions, Furrin has taken over 30 days to repair my car. He looks at them, they make some comment about the repairs being “major repairs.” I mention that most mechanics could rebuild an entire engine faster than that. He changes his mind and cancels the repair with them.

When they finally get to my, they tell me that they cannot release my car until the previous repair is paid in full. I then tell them that it has been paid in full and that I tried to contact them to get the information so that I could have the bank send a copy of the cleared check to them. They respond that their phones have been down all day.

To make an already ridiculously long and complex story short, I leave with my VW and tell them that my bank will fax them a copy in the morning (which the bank agreed to do, but couldn’t due to the phones being down at Furrin).

Of course I now have two cars at Furrin (the VW and my friends car). Trying to figure out how to drive two cars at the same time, I drive the VW to FSU and park at a commuter lot. I then walk back to Furrin and pick up the other car. Because my friends car has an FSU parking decal on it, I drive around campus looking for a non-commuter, non-faculty/staff lot in case I needed to leave the car overnight. As I walk across campus back to the VW, I call Casey (who has bailed me out of these situations numerous times). He agrees to help me again.

So, I meet up with Casey. We get my friends car and drive over to the VW. He drives my VW and follow me back home. I then drive Casey back home. Being the superior jerk that I am, I end up getting stuck in traffic and stand my friend Cuen up for a movie that I had planned to watch with him.

I don’t like Furrin.
I don’t like Mondays.