Inane Conversation

So I work at a college. And sometimes while at my job we have to send employees out with checks to pick up things we need immediately that we cannot wait to come in with a delivery. As a state run institution we are tax exempt, it is in big bold letters on every check we send out.

The other day one of our food service employees needed to make such a grocery run. Upon returning he brought me the receipt and check stub and informed me that the store would not deduct the tax because they claimed that they did not have the appropriate information to prove we were really a tax exempt entity. Well, I thought to myself, this is easy to resolve. I will simply call them and get an email to send off a copy of the proper forms. Well our conversation went something like this (if only I could include copies of my facial expressions during this conversation, I was told they were highly entertaining):

Me: Hi this is so and so from such and such company and I understand that we just had one of our employees come in to your store and he said that you needed documentation showing that we are tax exempt. I was wondering if I could go ahead and email you a copy of a W-2 that should have all the information you need on it.

Manager: (deep long suffering sigh before she continues, sounding very angry throughout the entire conversation) Well, your employee just walked into our store, took what he needed off the shelves and then just took it all up to the cashier.

(long pause. I was scratching my head and repeating to myself what she had just said trying to find the problem)

Me: Is there, um, another proceedure that we need to follow?
Manager: Yes! He just expected the cashier to just ring everything up right then and there!

(another pause, with me biting back the numerous funny yet so unprofessional comments coming to mind)

Me: Ok, so...... is there a different proceedure that we need to follow when making a purchase?
Manager: Well my cashier didn't know that it was tax exempt until after the fact and then we would have had to issue a return, and then go  ring everything up again and..... (I'll spare you all the long explaination she gave as to why issuing a return was such a hassle. I mean really, if it's that much trouble to fix a mistake a cashier or customer makes then this store really needs to analyze the way it does things, I mean really this went on for several minutes)
Me: So in the future what do we need to do if we need to purchase anything else from your store?
Manager: You guys need to call ahead of time so that we can have everything pulled and so that we have warning that you are coming into our store and be ready for you.
Me: So you would like us to call ahead if we are going to purchase anything from your store?
Manager: Yes! I just said that!
Me: All right ma'am thank you for your time and we will be sure to give you advanced warning if we need your services in the future. (I figured the conversation was a lost cause at this point).

Seriously, we have never had these kind of problems from any grocery store we have gone to ever before. I made a note to the department director that she may not want to use this branch again.

April Fools Days Gone By

This year I did not pull any April fools pranks--mostly because I just didn't care enough to do so. However I did get a good chuckle remembering April Fools pranks I used to participate in.......

--Such as putting alarm clocks in the heating vents
--kool aid in the shower head (I simply stood by on this one, it seemed a bit more mean than funny to me)
--silverware in a bucket of water in the freezer
--filling up someone's basement doorwell with balloons filled with tootsie rolls and confetti
--filling someone's car with same balloons
 --wrapping saran wrap in front of a roommates door and filling the opening with balloons
--tying the doorhandles together from opposite facing bedroom doors
--placing a mattress in front of a roommates door
--a strategically placed poster of the joker from Dark Knight to a poor roommate who is creeped out by said joker
--snap-its under the toilet seat or on the hinges of doors

The last one had me laughing out loud. I had an old roommate who tried to pull this on myself and the girl I shared the bathroom with. She put snaps under the toilet seat. You know, the snaps that you get on the fourth of July that you can throw on the ground and they make a loud snap sound, yeah those ones.

Well, neither my roommate or I were home much and were both tiny girls. So the snaps never went off. My roommate playing the prank was disappointed thinking that she had simply missed the snaps going off. Well a few days later we had a game night at our apartment. One of the boys went in to use the bathroom. Shortly after he shut the door we all heard a long snap followed my this poor boy making a yelping/screeching sound. Everyone turned and watched the bathroom door when he came out, curious as to what on earth was going on. When he came out he exclaimed loudly that he thought our toilet had just blown up on him. My roommate who had played the prank suddenly burst out laughing and sheepishly told us of the prank.