Religulous Preaches to the Choir

Bill Maher, you disappoint me. I watched you on The Daily Show and The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, promoting your movie Religulous as an intelligent documentary that pokes fun at religion by pointing out how otherwise rational people can believe the irrational stories of The Bible. I consider myself both a person of faith and a person of intelligent thought and logic. I looked forward to seeing how you would challenge people like me to explain their beliefs in a book that says a man lived in the belly of a whale and came out alive. This is not what you did. You did not interview what I, or I believe most, would call "normal" or "intelligent" people. You talked to extremists.

You went to the south and picked out the type of uneducated hicks that makes us intelligent folk cringe. You went to a trucker's chapel and expected truckers to be able to answer complex theological questions. No offense to the truckers, but a group of southern truckers doesn't exactly represent the "normal" church-goers I grew up with in California. You picked extremists knowing they would be easy targets and would make for funny clips in your film. I wouldn't fault you for that if you hadn't promoted your film as thought-provoking and intelligent. It's not. It's comedy. It's quite pathetic, actually.
I know you are an arrogant man, and your arrogance sells your comedy, but you didn't even give these people a chance to talk. You treated them with complete disrespect. You gave some respect to the scientist who believes in The Bible, but still, if you actually let him explain his beliefs, you didn't show that part in your film. The rich, bling-wearing minister who used to be in 1970’s soul group is not a "normal" person. How many "normal" people have had a chart-topping song? The man who claims to be the second-coming of Christ and the people at Holy Land Experience are good for a laugh, but their ignorance is not going to open anyone's mind.

Why didn't you interview the ministers with doctorates not only in theology but also in subjects like philosophy and history? Why didn't you interview the young 20something who grew up in the church, graduated college, and is able to balance her beliefs in an unseen God with her beliefs in tested science? Most of us aren't talking in tongues every Sunday at church. Some of us believe the stories in The Bible happened as written, and some of us believe they were written to exemplify morals. But did you talk to us and ask us to explain why we believe in Jesus as savior, but don't necessary believe the stories in The Bible are meant to be taken literally? No, Mr. Maher, you did not.

What bothers me most about your film is your hypocrisy. I've watched you for years and you claim you "don't know" what the truth is, and you're not an atheist because you don't want to be as self-righteous as the religious folks who claim to know "for sure" that their beliefs are true. Yet, you sure don't act like an agnostic. If you "don't know" how can you then claim the Christians, the Mormons, the Scientologists, the Jews, and the Muslims are wrong? 

You conclude your film by pointing how these religions are completely detached from intelligent thought and rational thinking, so they should be laughed at. You in fact, ARE saying "you know." You may not have the full answer, but you're full of yourself enough to claim you know what isn't the answer. Isn't that just as bad as the Christian or Muslim who believes they know all other faiths are wrong? It is. It's the same thing. And by the way, most of us Christians don't believe we're the only ones who are right. 

My old minister had a saying, "I believe our way is the way, but it may not be the only way." This minister from middle-town America was open-minded enough to believe in something while not excluding the validity of the beliefs of others. Maybe if you could deflate that big head of yours, you could do the same.

Maintenance Update

As my loyal readers will have noticed, I haven't been blogging recently. This is due in large part to lack of Internet. In order to save money and cut ties with the evil Comcast, my husband and I canceled our Internet and have been running into roadblocks trying to find a replacement. My Internet use has been limited when we travel to our parents' houses so that I can pay bills, check my email and publish articles for my new job at Examiner.com. My husband uses this time to search for a new job as he is one of the millions whose place of employment has closed down under the weight of the failing economy. Blogging has had to take a backseat to the more pressing issues.

I would like to direct any and all readers to check out my Examiner page where I will be posting around four times a week as the Sacramento Rock Music Examiner. Tell your friends, your family, and the stranger you met with Internet access.

I would also like to encourage everyone to support this site by visiting my Google sponsors and my Amazon store linked on the sidebar where you can buy the movies or books I blog about so that I can receive a small portion of the sales. Every little bit helps, and trust me when I say, I need it.

Below is a fresh new blog post! Happy reading!

The Thrill of Thrifting

Thrifting:
refers to the act of shopping at a thrift store, flea market, garage sale, or a shop of a charitable organization, usually with the intent of finding interesting items at a cheap price. -Wikipedia.org

Thrifting is like searching for buried treasure. The thrill is in the hunt and the surprises you find along the way. I usually thrift with a specific goal in mind, but it's also fun to thrift for the sake of thrifting. I first got into thrifting with my best friend Nicki when we were around 14 years old. Sometimes our good friend Patrick would join us in the hunt for cheap, cheap treasure. Patrick is no longer with us, but thrifting with him is one of my favorite memories.

Because of the special hunt that comes with thrifting, the things I've collected from thrift stores tend to hold special meaning for me. There's the vinyl copy of London Calling I found at the back of a used hippie store in Old Roseville (the only part of Roseville I find remotely tolerable). It was the first Clash album I ever bought, and there's something special about hearing The Clash in its original raw and pure form. Then there's my collection of bendy fabric flowers. My husband found these flowers in various colors on our first thrifting adventure very early into our relationship and bought them for me as the first flowers of any type he ever bought a girl (and that's not for lack of girls). Throughout the years, my collection has grown as my husband continues to find the flowers at thrift stores. I even have flowers four feet tall!

My husband and I braved the cold, wind and rain on Sunday for a trip down the thrift-strip of Fair Oaks and Manzanita. The thrift stores in Carmichael are great because a lot of really rich people live in the area and donate their clothing, but the stores keep the prices low to serve the varied community. You can usually find the same high-end designer jeans at Thrift Town that you'll find at that overpriced trendy used clothing shop.

I entered through Thrift Town's doors and wiped my feet on the soaked mat with one very specific goal: to find a black jean jacket to replace my beloved one that mysteriously disappeared. My 25th birthday is just around the corner, and that's what I really wanted. After coming up empty-handed at Country Club Mall on Friday, Thrift Town was the next logical step.

I weaved my way through the crowded aisles and headed straight to the wall of women's jackets. I reached my destination and there it was: a black jean jacket appearing to be my size, just waiting for me at the end of the rack. Not only did the tag confirm it was my size, but it was a pink tag, and pink tags were half off for the day. I tried it on and stared at myself in the worn mirror. It wasn't as stylish and not quite as perfect as my first jean jacket had been, but it was in like-new condition, cost just $2 and was very close to what I had envisioned.


I held onto the jacket and searched the racks some more, just in case my original jacket had somehow gone through a vortex and ended up at Thrift Town. I didn't find my old jacket or its doppelganger, but I did find another little black jacket that I had to try on it.

This jacket was lightweight, a crisper black and very stylish, although made out of a polyester blazer-like material. It was only $4. I took both home as early birthday presents and couldn't be happier about my good fortune.

I did have one smaller goal in mind when shopping: finding a sexy formal dress for my "forever young" birthday party where everyone dresses up as what as children they wished to be when they grew up. I had many lofty goals as a child, and the job I chose to dress up for involves such a dress.

I found the perfect dress after sifting through a long, color-coded rack at the Goodwill on Manzanita. When I came across this very formal, backless, slinky, satiny black number with rhinestones filling in the naked space between the breasts, my husband and I thought it would be too big, but I had to try it on just the same.

At first my upper half drowned in the dress, but then I realized that unless the dress had been designed for Anna Nicole, it was missing a clasp to pull in the breast of the dress. Once I held the straps in their proper place, the dress hugged my curves like it was meant to, and the dress fell to the perfect spot resting on my feet. Admittedly, I don't have the flat tummy a celebrity wearing the dress on the red carpet would have, but the dress made me feel like a star even with the extra pudge, and when I coyly stepped out of the dressing room for my husband to see, his eyes lit up and he broke out into his giant "my wife is hot" grin. The ladies at the cash register oohed and awwed over the dress and told me how stunning I will be in it. I can’t wait to unveil my $5 dress at my party.

Valentine's Day Shows

The following was originally written for a job opportunity and is being reprinted for readers of Resolution Road.

Do you get warm and fuzzy on Valentine's Day? Or do you get cold and bitter over the Hallmark holiday? Either way, Sacramento's got a local music show for you.

For those who want to give cupid the finger, pogo out your angst at the punk rock anti-love fest happening at the Java Lounge Friday the 13th. "Rock n Roll Threeway" bands, The Secretions, Ashtray, and Final Summation unite for this pre-Valentine's Day show, with special guests Smash the Glass. You don't have to be a dateless deviant to enjoy this show, but happy couples might want to watch their backs in the pit. The fun begins at 8 p.m. $5 gets you in.

If you want to spread the love on Valentine's Day, check out the UC Davis Children's Hospital Benefit Show at Club Retro. This show has a little bit for everyone with an eclectic group of artists from the metal-infused sounds of The Grumpy to the female-fronted alternative rock of Larisa Bryski. Man Automatic, Save and Continue, Tyler Weinrich, Steve Mahoney's Posse, For Steven and Fair Game also perform. Show starts early at 6:30 p.m., cost is $8.00.

Looking to combine local music with a romantic evening? Impress your date with fascinating fine art, tasty wine and cheese, live music and a walk underneath the stars at the Second Saturday Art Walk. Best of all, it's free. Live music by You Versus Me, From Soil to Sand, Chelsea Wolfe, and Ayla at the corner of 4th and F Street in West Sacramento. Check out 2nd-sat.com to map your rendezvous with the arts.

Digging Deeper Into Digital TV Delay

Today many Americans are outraged that the U.S. House of Representatives delayed the switch to digital television until June, giving the unprepared 6.5 million households more time make sure their TVs are digital ready. Those upset about the delay think that because televisions stations have been airing commercials about the switch for a year, everyone should be prepared. "You'd have to be living under a rock to have never heard of the switch." Conservatives and liberals alike think that Americans who aren't ready don't understand the concept of personal responsibility. On the surface, this argument could almost tread water until it bumps into a deeper analysis and drowns to the bottom of the ocean like the Titanic.

I knew all about the switch to digital. Like many Americans, I'm sick of the digital transition commercials. Also like many Americans, I had cable. I was covered. Then less than a week ago, I got the nightmare call from my husband: his company would close it doors on March 30th. Insert panic and immediate budget sacrifices. Goodbye cable TV and perfect reception. Hello waiting list for government rebates on converter boxes. My household is hardly the only one having to tighten the budget belt.

The national unemployment rate is at a staggering high and continues to grow. In California, the unemployment rate is 9.3 percent, and the unemployment fund is running dry. More and more businesses close down every day, and those that stay open are laying offing workers to stay afloat. Many workers who have escaped layoffs are likely to see their hours cut, if they haven't already experienced a significantly reduced schedule. I don't have to Google the news to find examples. I see it firsthand with friends and family.

Layoffs in the media industry have been especially tough. I'm no longer surprised when another friend from college gets laid off from the news outlet they worked for. Unemployment must be filled with recent college grads with journalism or communications degrees. My best friend was recently laid off from her job with a local library. She too has a college degree. My stepfather has seen his hours cut with Safeway. He is working part-time probably for the first time in his adult life.

With the economy in such dismal state, many Americans are having to make sacrifices and cut the fat wherever possible. Doesn't it then follow that so many households are unprepared for the switch to digital TV because they were prepared until they found themselves unemployed or underemployed and cable was turned off or canceled? When it comes down to paying the mortgage or paying for cable TV, the decision is not that hard to make. Additionally, the price for cable has recently taken a pretty steep jump. For the last five years, I've always paid $25 to $30 for cable service. The same cable service I was subscribed to for $30 just two months ago has gone up to $57 before tax. Even if my husband wasn't losing his job, paying $27 more for the same service would be more than we could swing. That's an increase of over $300 a year!

I'm sure there are individuals out there who waited until the last minute to sign up for a converter box rebate when they needed one all along. That fraction can be blamed for "lacking personal responsibility." I'm not sticking up for that group. I'm sticking up for the growing number of Americans, including myself, who were prepared until the failing economy hit too close to home and sacrifices had to be made. My thanks to President Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives for understanding our situation.

Competing Resolutions

Resolution Road was not my only new year's resolution. I always make more than one resolution; blogging just happened to be the resolution that I began as soon as the year started. I realize I have been neglecting this blog a bit in favor of another resolution: to lose at least 10 pounds by getting in shape (no fad diets). I procrastinated on this particular resolution because for me it was a very daunting challenge.

I've never had to lose weight before. In fact, I've spent most of my adult life trying to gain weight! At age 18, I was 5 feet, four inches, and probably weighed in at 100 pounds sopping weight. I was just always skinny. It's in my genes. My older brother is a sweater-wearing twig. I was always pretty content with my body, but then my doctors gave me a complex about it because they always suspected I had an eating disorder, which was the furthest thing from the truth. I've always naturally eaten like every doctor will tell you you're supposed to: small, frequent meals. I don't eat a lot at once, but I have to eat all day long because otherwise I get really bad low blood sugar. When I was 18 or 19, I even took a prescribed hormone to help increase my appetite to put on the pounds. I gained weight and also had a pretty strong allergic reaction which included rashes, hot flashes complete with horrible night sweats, and best of all, I skipped a period and had to deal with my mom accusing my virgin-self of being pregnant. That was a lot of fun.

It took moving out of my parent's home for me to gain weight without the help of drugs.

I grew up eating very healthy. My mom made almost everything from scratch, and I ate a home-cooked meal at the dinner table at least six nights a week. My mom covered all the food groups in her dinners, with usually two to three vegetable choices. I didn't even know there were such things as cake mixes until I was a teenager. The only food I was used to eating from a box was my favorite, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

I spent my teenage years in a household of seven, with a very limited food budget. It was always a fight for the last roll at dinner time, and food disappeared out of the cupboard almost as soon as it went in. I never had the option of eating much junk food, and I certainly never had the option to pig out on anything unless I wanted to be the jerk who ate two of something when there was only one of it to go around, and my obese stepbrother was happy to be the selfish jerk.

My eating habits changed at age 20 when I began buying my own groceries for my own apartment. Kraft Mac n Cheese, Pasta Roni, spaghetti with homemade sauce (my specialty), turkey dogs, Top Roman...these were my staples. I also started drinking whole milk instead of 1 percent. It took a little while, but I put on some weight and was happy about it.

When I went on birth control before my wedding, I put on a little more weight. As anyone can tell by my wedding pictures, I was still tiny, just a little more healthy looking. I've switched birth controls a few times, and every time, I've gained more weight. I was perfectly content with these weight gains, and my husband was thrilled that my always big booty had grown even larger, and I had more meat on my bones. It was a bit of a shock when I went from a size 5 to a size 7 pants, but I eventually adjusted and felt "ok" about the change.

This past winter I put on weight I am not ok with. In early fall I began feeling really ill all the time, with my main symptom being that I had even less energy than usual and was sleeping around 14 hours a night, and falling asleep in the middle of the day. I had a number of other symptoms, but the main point is that I couldn't work; I could barely do light housework. Walking from one end of my house to the other was about the most exercise my body got. Eventually, the only pants I owned that fit came with an elastic waistband.

I wanted to begin exercising as soon as the new year began, yet I couldn't find the will-power to start. In addition to being tired all of the time, I am in pain every day of my life. I have a horribly crooked spine that coupled with permanent damage from a car accident, causes horrible back pain. When I go to a new physical therapist, the first thing the therapist says upon examining my spine and feeling the tightness of my back and neck is, "Wow!" I'm also at the beginning of Osteoporosis, even though milk has always been my favorite drink, and while I was never forced to clean my plate, my grampa taught me at an early age to finish my milk. My body is in bad, bad shape. I get winded walking two flights of stairs. My body creaks and cracks all day long. I'm hypermobile, so that adds to the pain and the difficulty in safely exercising because my joints overextend. All of this made it easy for me to procrastinate on my resolution to lose weight.

Things changed at the end of January. First, I used Amazon.com money to order Richard Simmon's Sweatin' to the Oldies. I generally hate working out. The only exercise I like is gymnastics and swimming. I don't have access to a pool, and I'd probably kill myself if I tried to seriously get back into gymnastics. Sweatin' to the oldies seemed the most realistic option.

Second, after talking about it for weeks, my husband and I finally took a walk together around our neighborhood on the last Sunday in January. The very next day while my husband was at work, I took a walk on my own.

These two events led to my new devotion to exercise. My goal is to walk every other day, and on the days I don't walk, I do the exercise video, and everyday I work on looking a little less pregnant by doing sit-ups. So far, I am doing really well with this plan. I am completely surprised and proud that I have an exercise regiment. I even made myself a calender to follow. The Richard Simmons' video is exhausting and I've yet to make it all the way through maintaining the aerobic pace, but I manage to keep moving the entire time, and even being able to do that much shocks me.

I have skipped the video twice in lieu of working out on Wii Fit instead. I don't even own a Wii, but babysitting for family that does has its advantages. I absolutely love Wii Fit and I know if I had one, I would be completely devoted to it, contrary to the article I read today claiming no one sticks with it. (Yes, I thought the article was horribly slanted and poor journalism, but I think that about a lot of Yahoo articles.) I am the most competitive person ever, so exercising for the top score on a video game is ideal for me. I have overextended myself on the Wii and paid for it, but I better know my limits now.

I am very happy that since creating this plan 10 days ago, I have only missed one day of exercise, and that was the day I almost fell down from pain in my lower back. (I have to be more careful with the Wii Fit yoga. Now I think I understand why my rheumatologist didn't want me doing yoga.)

It feels so great to know that I'm actively working to shape up my body instead of just complaining about it. My husband is really proud of me, and that encourages me even more. He just tells me, "You can do side bends or sit-ups, but please don't lose that butt."

Now I need to better balance my resolution to exercise with my resolution to write. My brain and body usually don't really wake up until around the time most people are going to bed, so I generally only have a limited window of when I can "function" and work on my resolutions. As of tomorrow I am canceling cable TV and Internet. I will be signing up for DSL service, but times are tough and cable TV is not a luxury we will be able to afford, especially with my husband's workplace closing in less than two months. Living without cable TV will definitely free up some time I could devote to writing. Hopefully I'll be back on this blog soon, with something the masses might find more interesting. Since this blog is a resolution, I felt it was important to discuss the other resolution that is competing for my free time.

My Hell: Customer Service

Hell is talking to a customer service department over the telephone. I think there are souls burning in Hell, with telephone in hand, trying to get some company to correct their bill or to send someone out to fix their cable. That's what hell would be for me, anyways.

I mean, really, is there anything more frustrating than dealing with customer service over the telephone? It doesn't seem to matter if I'm calling my cable TV and Internet company, Comcast, or if I'm calling Apria, the company my C-PAP machine is through. I even get a headache trying to talk to a real person about a student loan I have through Citibank.

I think cable TV companies like Comcast and Surewest are the worst. I hate them with a burning passion. They hire the most incompetent people I've ever come across.

My husband and I once got Surewest TV and Internet. About 30 minutes after our cable was professionally installed, our cable TV went out. I'm pretty good at hooking up electronics. So being the intelligent, electronic savvy girl I am, the first thing I do is I check to make sure there are no loose cables. I reset the cable box. I even unplug everything and wait for it to reboot. Of course none of these remedies work, so then the dreaded phone call to customer service takes place.

Has anyone ever called tech support and not been put on hold? Surewest takes the cake for wait-time. My husband and I once waited an hour in a half to talk to someone. I wish that was an exaggeration.

What happens after you finally are able to talk to a real person? They are almost always useless. The first thing they ask is, "Are you sure the cable receiver is plugged in?"

Now, I know how customer service generally works. They have a flow chart of questions they have to ask the customer. And I'm sure there are idiots out there who would call customer service when their cable is not even plugged in. But I do not belong in this group of idiots, and it's insulting to be asked these basic questions, especially when it's the third time I've called about the same problem.

After all us non-idiots go through the flowchart of questions and our cable is not fixed, we're usually offered an appointment time that is a four to six hour time block at least a week away, right?

The best part comes after you've made time in your schedule to be home for the four or six hour block of time and the technician never shows. That happened twice with Surewest.

Now, you would think a company would want to rectify their mistakes and offer some sort of compensation for the trouble they've caused? Hahahaha. That's a good one!

I did not have working cable TV with Surewest for over a month. I did have working cable in the bedroom, but not in the living room. From the day we signed up, the cable was out for a month. In this time, we had two no show appointments and two appointments where the guy was able to fix the problem for about 10 minutes, and within 30 minutes of his departure, the cable was again out.

With Surewest, we had a contract, but per the contract, the first 30 days were a trial period, and we were supposed to be able to cancel. We tried to cancel from the start because it was just unacceptable that we did not have cable TV and that every time we called, we were put on hold for average of 45 minutes to one hour. It took battling with Surewest for about two months, including countless hours on the phone and four scheduled home appointments, that Surewest finally let us cancel our cable TV. They would not let us out of our Internet part of the contract, but we were free of their cable non-service.

Next comes the "credits," right? Obviously since we did not have cable TV for over a month, we were not going to pay the bill. We received a bill in the mail with some of the credits posted to our account, but not all that was promised.

I've found that talking to the billing department is just as worse, if not worse, than talking to technical support. I am a pretty even-tempered, reasonable woman. The incompetence of Surewest's billing department had me yelling and shaking on the phone. After arguing with billing support that my bill was still not correct, I literally had to walk the moronic billing support guy through the math, step-by-step, to prove my point that they had not credited my bill properly. He was not able to do the very basic subtraction on his own.

If that's not ridiculous, I don't know what is.

Comcast is just as evil. I've had Comcast many different times. I despise them, but in the past, they were not as bad as Surewest, and their promotional rates can't be beat.

Whenever I've had had Comcast, I've signed up for a package where the cable TV installation is free, and I avoid the Internet set up fee by setting up the Internet myself. Every single time, when the bill comes in the mail, Comcast has charged me the set up fee. I think they do this to everyone in hopes that the customer won't notice or won't fight it. So, this leads to a phone call with the billing department. I can handle that. I've come to expect it when I sign up for Comcast.

When my husband and I moved into our first house in June, we signed up with Comcast for TV and Internet. The Geek-Squad guy came, hooked up the TV and left the modem and self-install kit for me to set up. I set it up like I have many times before. After going through the self-install process, a message on the computer pops up saying there has been an error, and to call 1-800-Comcast. I call. The guy on the phone is actually very nice and knows exactly what the problem is, but he cannot fix it because his tools are down. I understand that. I have to call back the next day. I am able to get this problem fixed, but I still do not have Internet. The guy on the phone has me check everything that I already know to check. Nothing is fixed, so he gives me an appointment for the very next day. Wow! That's good service...except, no one ever shows. No one shows for the next appointment, either.

I could go on and on detailing this horrid saga, but I'll save you the details. Comcast had failed to activate the line for my Internet, and had they had given me a bad coaxial cable. I figured all of this out on my own, but it took over a month from someone to come to my house and fix it.

Then came the battle to receive compensation for our troubles. This part got really bad. We were promised a phone call from a manager, which never happened. My husband was hung up on, not once, but twice. It took my husband contacting Comcast in writing for our bill to be properly credited and to receive an apology for all they put us through, which included shutting off our service twice while we were in dispute over the bill.

The jaw-dropping kicker with Comcast (other than being hung up on) was that we were calling them day and night trying to get our bill fixed before my husband went in for surgery. After his surgery, he wouldn't be able to talk for quite awhile, so we wanted to get it dealt with beforehand. The night before his surgery, our bill still had not been credited. My husband had his surgery, and we didn't bother calling Comcast until he was healed up. You know what the Comcast jerk said to him, "It's been too long since your last complaint. I can't do anything for you." (And then he hung up.)

We will be canceling our service before the end of the month. We signed up with them in June and it took until January for our bill to be properly credited.

But it's not just cable companies that put me through this hell. It's a universal thing in the world of customer service. I just had to write a dispute to a collection's company because Apria sent me to collections 10 days after I made my payment! Oh, Apria, how I loathe thee. Let me count thy ways:

Number One: You sent my monthly bill, which I had no idea existed, to an address I have not lived at for almost five years. You did this for six months, even though I was diligent in making sure the incorrect address was crossed off on my contract and my current address was filled in. I have the copy of my rental agreement proving it.

Number Two: When I finally got a bill in the mail at my residence (after receiving a phone call asking why I hadn't paid my bill), the bill had no explanation of the charges, and it was a rather large sum. You never sent me the original bill; you sent me the bill for the sixth or seventh month, which makes no sense when it's the first bill I've ever seen. Genius.

Number Three: When I contacted the billing department, I was put on hold for so long, that it took me several days to get through to an actual person because I only had so much time after work to sit on the phone.

Number Four: The first three people I talked to had no idea what they were talking about and were totally inept.

Number Five: When I finally talked to someone who could explain some of the charges, and understood my point that I shouldn't be held accountable for the total, especially all at once, since I had no idea I was being charged every month for six months for a product I stopped using within a month, I was told all I needed to do was send in ONE payment to get my account in better standing and avoid being sent to collections. EXCEPT, 10 days after your company received my not one, but two payments, you sent my account to a collection's agency.

And as a bonus, Number Six: You call my phone at all hours, most often in the morning when I'm sleeping, and when I miss the call, you do not leave a message. The only reason I know it's your company calling is that I googled the number and found a message board of people complaining that you are also harassing them.

Oh customer service, how I loathe thee.

My customer service nightmares go on and on. I spend so much of my time sitting on the phone trying to straighten bills out.

Stanford Sleep Disorders Center is another one high on my sh*t list. I never want to go back there, simply for the hell they put me through over billing and their repeated errors.

In brief, when Stanford called me to set up an appointment, they verified my address and insurance information. They had everything correct. When I went in for my appointment, they made a copy of my insurance card.

Fast forward to when I receive my first bill, not at the address they verified they had on file, but at my mother's address. This bill states that the insurance they have on file: California Healthy Families, says I am no longer eligible for benefits. Well, duh, of course I no longer have Healthy Families. That insurance is for low-income families with children. I had that insurance when I was a minor. I was 23 at this time and had private health insurance. They must have lost all of my information, looked me up in "the system," found my old address and my health insurance I had many years ago (as a minor!), and stupidly billed that.

So what's the next step, everybody? Make that dreaded phone call to correct the error. I give my correct address and insurance information, again, and am told they will bill my insurance and I will receive a new bill.

What actually happens? I receive another bill, at my current address, stating I do not have health insurance, my bill is past due, and was in risk of being sent to collections.

I went through this process over and over. After about the fourth or fifth time of being sent a bill stating I did not have insurance and they were going to send me to collections, I sent a very angry letter detailing their incompetence and explaining I was now sending them my insurance information for the fifth time, and then finally they billed my insurance.

Ahhhh! Just reliving those memories makes me want to scream! Who are these people? Where do they come from? How can they be so brainless? How much of my life have I wasted sitting on the phone waiting to talk to these imbeciles?

I'll share one more very brief story.

I had to take out a number of student loans to pay for college. I had my own personal life savings for college, and my mom helped out, but I still had loans. One of my loans is through Citibank.

I set up an account online to repay my Citibank loan. For some reason, the account says my login information is not correct, and my security answers are incorrect, which is quite frankly, impossible, and every time I try to log in, my account is locked and I'm prompted to call a number for help.

Since I opted to pay my bill online, I do not get a paper statement in the mail, and the only way I am able to pay my bill is by paying the minimum balance through the automated phone system. I always pay more than the minimum balance on a bill, even if it's just $5 more, so paying by phone is only used as a last resort.

I call the Citibank student loan number and listen to the menu options, but there is no option to get help with online login information and no option to talk to a live person. I have tried pushing every menu option available in hopes of getting a human being on the other end. I make sure to call during their business hours. I wrote Citibank an email and explained my situation. I explained very clearly that I cannot get a live person on the phone and need to talk to a live person. Their response? They tell me they cannot give me login information through email (I figured that) and they provide me with the same phone number I've been using and instruct me to call that number during business hours.

AHHHHH! It's Hell on earth.