Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[ica171]

Maybe it's because I don't watch tv, but this hurt my brain just now.

Mom is the couch potato (I'm the computer potato). She has 270 channels of assorted tv stuff. She's grumping that there's nothing to watch.

I just don't get it. 

I have actually sat down at my computer before and thought "ugh, there's nothing to do online." Then I stopped and thought about that for a second. I made my own brain hurt.

[Adelaide]

I just had this conversation with a woman soliciting donations for the Red Cross. She spoke English perfectly well and seemed to be hearing me, but it was like we were having two separate conversations.

Woman: We have a shortage/need your blood/when would you like to schedule an appointment?

Me: I just moved to [1200 miles away] for school, sorry.

Woman: That's okay, let me pull up the list of stations in your area, we're 50k pints short.

Me: Okay, just let me know where they are and-

Woman: We have drives at X, Y, and Z. Would you like your appointment for this Thursday, or would you like it this Friday at 8:30 a.m.?

Me: Uh...I'm really busy with school. Can you just tell me where the stations are and if there are permanent ones? I could see about giving in about a month or two.

Woman: There's a station at [University Building] but they're just doing a drive, it's not permanent. How about the 28th at 8:30 a.m. for your appointment?

Me: No, I am very busy with school at the moment and I can't make it. I'll make an appointment online in a month or two.

Woman: I'll just set you up with what we call a "tentative appointment" for the 28th at 8:30 a.m. We'll give you a call the day of to confirm.

Me: NO. I will not be able to make it. I will let you know when I can make it. I will go online.

Woman: Well, if on that day you can't make this appointment please be sure and send someone in your place.

Me: I'm not making that appointment. I am hanging up now, goodnight.

[Elfmama]

I went through several exchanges of a similar nature with the Red Cross.  Because I lived in England 1986-89, the American Red Cross decided that I might have mad cow disease and will not take my blood donations.  But because I have an uncommon blood type, every few weeks they would call me and ask me to donate!  Every time, I explained and the nice lady said she would put a note on my file, but it took at least 3 years before they stopped calling.

[ica171]

DH has a high platelet count so they love when he donates. But, while his job holds regular blood drives, they stopped allowing employees to go on the clock, so he either has to sacrifice his lunch hour to do it or take PTO. When it first changed he was willing to go to a different place on his own time, but they call every day at least once and will not stop, so his goodwill toward them is quickly wearing down.

[Pippen]

I went through several exchanges of a similar nature with the Red Cross.  Because I lived in England 1986-89, the American Red Cross decided that I might have mad cow disease and will not take my blood donations.  But because I have an uncommon blood type, every few weeks they would call me and ask me to donate!  Every time, I explained and the nice lady said she would put a note on my file, but it took at least 3 years before they stopped calling.

Back when my mother started her nursing studies (around the time of the Crimean War ha ha) they picked up she had a rare blood type that had some high rate of compatibly so they would make her donate blood all the time. Didn't matter she was 4 foot 9 and barely weighed more than 40 kgs. They used to milk her like a cow. Accident coming in and they would drag her out of bed or off the wards at all times of the day and night.

[Adelaide]

DH has a high platelet count so they love when he donates. But, while his job holds regular blood drives, they stopped allowing employees to go on the clock, so he either has to sacrifice his lunch hour to do it or take PTO. When it first changed he was willing to go to a different place on his own time, but they call every day at least once and will not stop, so his goodwill toward them is quickly wearing down.

Every day? That's insane! I was pretty miffed that they called me at 9:30 p.m., and this is only my second call. I have some sort of "special protein" or something and they send me propaganda hinting that I should donate more because of that. It may be a high platelet count like your DH, I'm not sure.

And Pippen, I'm surprised your mother didn't faint from all of that! :O I think now you can't give...what, more than once every two weeks?

[violinp]

DH has a high platelet count so they love when he donates. But, while his job holds regular blood drives, they stopped allowing employees to go on the clock, so he either has to sacrifice his lunch hour to do it or take PTO. When it first changed he was willing to go to a different place on his own time, but they call every day at least once and will not stop, so his goodwill toward them is quickly wearing down.

Every day? That's insane! I was pretty miffed that they called me at 9:30 p.m., and this is only my second call. I have some sort of "special protein" or something and they send me propaganda hinting that I should donate more because of that. It may be a high platelet count like your DH, I'm not sure.

And Pippen, I'm surprised your mother didn't faint from all of that! :O I think now you can't give...what, more than once every two weeks?

They recommend six for full blood and two for plasma. At least, that's how long my sister and mom have had to wait.

[Elfmama]

DH has a high platelet count so they love when he donates. But, while his job holds regular blood drives, they stopped allowing employees to go on the clock, so he either has to sacrifice his lunch hour to do it or take PTO. When it first changed he was willing to go to a different place on his own time, but they call every day at least once and will not stop, so his goodwill toward them is quickly wearing down.

Every day? That's insane! I was pretty miffed that they called me at 9:30 p.m., and this is only my second call. I have some sort of "special protein" or something and they send me propaganda hinting that I should donate more because of that. It may be a high platelet count like your DH, I'm not sure.

And Pippen, I'm surprised your mother didn't faint from all of that! :O I think now you can't give...what, more than once every two weeks?

They recommend six for full blood and two for plasma. At least, that's how long my sister and mom have had to wait.

US is every 8 weeks.

[Nikko-chan]

Had a woman reply to my email for ASL club with... "What club is this for?"
 O.o

Note that the name of the club was in the email and in the subject heading. Oh and on top of that... she signed up for the club. which is how I got her email...

[twiggy]

I had a brain hurt with my SIL this past week. It's important to know that I have 4 children, Andrew-passed away at age 3, Benjamin-4yo, Cindy-18mo and Dylan-2mo.

SIL was complaining that it's impossible to find neckties for little boys, her son is 2yo, and asked where I got all of Benjamin's. I told her that my favorite place to get little boy neckties is Children's place, but you can usually only find them around Christmas and Easter. That doesn't work, she needs a tie for her son because they're going back to church. So, she asks if her son can have some hand me downs from Benjamin. I told her no. First off, I'm not giving away anything of Benjamin's because I'm saving it for Dylan. Second, most of Benjamin's ties were originally Andrew's and I don't give up his things. SIL breezed right past the no and told me she would love to have something of Andrew's to remember him by, and that it would mean a lot to her son to have something of his cousin's (Andrew died 6 years before my nephew was born...not to mention I think that his brothers would like a connection even more  ) I told her no, I don't give away Andrew's things, they're special to me. She kept telling me how she would love to have something of Andrew's and it would mean a lot to her and nephew, and she was touched that I would give her a tie since she knows how precious the few things I have left of Andrew's are.
Did you ever see the episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica are engaged and trying to get through to Janice that she won't be invited to the wedding? But instead of getting that a small, intimate wedding with just family means that she's not coming, Janice interprets it as they consider her close family? That's kind of the situation I was in. No logic was able to get through to her. Not the fact that I have another son who would be inheriting the ties as he grew into them, and not the sentimentality involved. I finally ended up saying "SIL, pay attention. You can't have the ties. I'm still using them for my boys, and even if I wasn't you still couldn't have one. They belong to me, and I said NO"

Her reply: "Oh, that makes sense, I thought it was weird since you never hand down Andrew's stuff. So do you know what stores sell them? I can't find any right now."

[LadyJaneinMD]

DH has a high platelet count so they love when he donates. But, while his job holds regular blood drives, they stopped allowing employees to go on the clock, so he either has to sacrifice his lunch hour to do it or take PTO. When it first changed he was willing to go to a different place on his own time, but they call every day at least once and will not stop, so his goodwill toward them is quickly wearing down.

Every day? That's insane! I was pretty miffed that they called me at 9:30 p.m., and this is only my second call. I have some sort of "special protein" or something and they send me propaganda hinting that I should donate more because of that. It may be a high platelet count like your DH, I'm not sure.

And Pippen, I'm surprised your mother didn't faint from all of that! :O I think now you can't give...what, more than once every two weeks?

They recommend six for full blood and two for plasma. At least, that's how long my sister and mom have had to wait.

US is every 8 weeks.

May I say that I really appreciate all of you folks who can give blood?  I can't give blood, and never have been.  Far too anemic.  Meanwhile, my dear niece has a health problem that has her getting blood transfusions on a much-too-regular basis, and I can't even donate to help her!

THANK YOU ALL!

[rose red]

There's a restaurant where a pot of hot tea is free (complete with refills), but ice tea is not free.  They have no problem giving you cups of ice to pour hot tea in though.   

[Margo]

8 weeks? Here in the UK they will only take donations once every 12 weeks from men, 16 weeks from women (you can give platelets more frequently)

[Snooks]

8 weeks? Here in the UK they will only take donations once every 12 weeks from men, 16 weeks from women (you can give platelets more frequently)

I give whole blood every 12 weeks, generally if you're a regular donor they let you even if you are a girl.

[Sirius]

I just had this conversation with a woman soliciting donations for the Red Cross. She spoke English perfectly well and seemed to be hearing me, but it was like we were having two separate conversations.

Woman: We have a shortage/need your blood/when would you like to schedule an appointment?

Me: I just moved to [1200 miles away] for school, sorry.

Woman: That's okay, let me pull up the list of stations in your area, we're 50k pints short.

Me: Okay, just let me know where they are and-

Woman: We have drives at X, Y, and Z. Would you like your appointment for this Thursday, or would you like it this Friday at 8:30 a.m.?

Me: Uh...I'm really busy with school. Can you just tell me where the stations are and if there are permanent ones? I could see about giving in about a month or two.

Woman: There's a station at [University Building] but they're just doing a drive, it's not permanent. How about the 28th at 8:30 a.m. for your appointment?

Me: No, I am very busy with school at the moment and I can't make it. I'll make an appointment online in a month or two.

Woman: I'll just set you up with what we call a "tentative appointment" for the 28th at 8:30 a.m. We'll give you a call the day of to confirm.

Me: NO. I will not be able to make it. I will let you know when I can make it. I will go online.

Woman: Well, if on that day you can't make this appointment please be sure and send someone in your place.

Me: I'm not making that appointment. I am hanging up now, goodnight.

This is very similar to what happened to the young man who used to work next to me.  In our military hospital, the people working in the blood bank were all military, and most of the donors were also military.  Jim (not his real name) had agreed to give a pint, but because of work wasn't able to go over.  The officer in charge called him at least twice that I know of to remind him that he had agreed to give a pint.  (He told me she wasn't very polite about it, either, and kept emphasizing the fact that she outranked him.)

The very next morning there was a commander's call.  For those who aren't familiar with the military, it's an assembly for the military people in a squadron, and it's always mandatory for the military members; as a civilian I didn't have to attend.  Jim went to commander's call, and while he was gone his phone rang several times in succession.  After about the fourth or fifth time I answered it, and it was the officer in charge of the blood bank wanting to know where Jim was and why he wasn't at the blood bank.  I explained that he had gone to commander's call, and she exploded, "What's he doing there???  He should be over here donating!"  (Or something like that.)  I reminded her (nicely) that commander's call was mandatory, but she didn't seem to think that Jim going to commander's call was a suitable enough reason for him not going to donate blood.

I got the very distinct impression that she was getting pressure from higher-ups about the stock in the blood bank.  However, it seems to me that a good way to drive people away is to more or less force them to donate and give them a hard time if they don't show up immediately.