Tuesday, August 28, 2007

"The system is down"

Two main themes of my blog are:  Day to day life in poverty

 and 

                                                    The system is down/ everyting is broken



 Back in May I found a sheet of paper on the ground with scotch tape on it, so apparently it blew off of someone's office door. I smiled and thought "Oh my god" I have to pick that up and save it. It said:

"THE SYSTEM IS DOWN"

 I'd love to hear from you if you've also experienced every level of society as broken and chaotic. (I seem to remember something from a grade school science class where they describe the universe as chaos)

I wake up and check my voice mail messages. The first one said:

a. this is sally, i need to speak to jane. jane, I'm here at the pediatric clinic in fort worth, texas. call me back. i hesitate to fax the paperwork to this number,  so call me back. (sally did not leave a phone number)

b. is a taped message. "so your warranty will expire in 90 days if you don't call us back, so get back to us" (no phone # or company name mentioned)

I ask myself if I should even bother going to the job fair at towson university. After all, most employers won't look at me since I don't have a car. I dress, get my resumes together and head out the door because it's important to me that I always feel like I've tried my best at making a better life for myself. I go to Brick Wall's Pharmacy for a cold coffee. I have to purchase it at the pharmacy rather then up front because their credit card swiper is broken.

I leave there and head to the bank.

I ask the teller for a check card register.

"This?" she asked me.

"No" I replied.

"This?" she asked holding up a large check cover.

"No" i said. "This?"

"Yes" I replied.

"How should I have phrased my question so you would have known what I needed?" I asked.

 transaction thingy!? "I have no idea how you should have phrased it!" the teller said.

"Well, thank you" I said.

I head for the bus stop and take the bus to the university. I head for the union. I start asking students.

"Where is the job fair, do you know?"

"no" the first student said.

e (elana)-"Where is the job fair , do you know?"

"no" the second student said.

e "where is the job fair , do you know?"

"No, they are giving blood in that room there." the third student told me!

e-"I'm not here to give blood! but thank you anyway." (funny, my friend casey goes to goucher and said they are constantly trying to get blood out of her!)

I head to the info. desk.

"Where is the job fair" I ask.

"I have no idea the clerk said."

A student overheard me. She said: "Oh, they really blew it when they advertised the job fair in the towson university paper, they said "Tuesday" but they meant next Tuesday!"

e-"That's pitiful when the job fair people can't even put out a correct ad, that's ridiculous!"

"It sure is." she said.

Now, I am over here at the Towson U. library. It's shockingly quiet. The kids came back to school yesterday. Normally, after the kids come back the library sounds like a zoo. Perhaps it's because I'm here early in the day. Oh well. I'm going to go check my email now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope if you go back next Tuesday it will go better and you'll get some aid ~The Barista

elana r. snyder said...

forgot to go back, as i failed to write it into my calendar. but have made many more calls since then. most of the jobs i've looked into require car, however there are 3 that dont.

;)