The State Fair - and Declined

Two experiences from this week I felt compelled to share.

1. My grandma (who is confined to a care center due to health reasons right now) called to say she went to the State Fair today. The animals were good, interesting things to see, but she didn't have any money to buy stuff. Hmmm....tricky to do since the fair ended in September, but hey, why burst her bubble when she's content in her own version of reality. In the past I thought that it would be sad to lose your mind, but now I'm kinda starting to rethink that - she believes she had a great day at the State Fair....maybe if we all spent more of the day imagining that we were in places we enjoyed, the world would be a happier place. Perhaps.

2. I went to pick up/drop off my dry cleaning yesterday and after I gave the guy my debit card to pay, he announced (in front of a lobby full of people), "it's been declined". I was surprised and said, "No, that couldn't have happened. Try it again". So he did twice more - and then again loudly announced (to me and everyone else in America - or at least what felt like it), "Nope, ma'am. Your card is still being declined". I was mortified, but fortunately had enough cash in my wallet to pay for the dry cleaning, so I could grab all of the clean clothes and quietly skulk out of the dry cleaners.

When I got home, I opened up my online banking to see what was going on and don't worry - ALL of the charges had gone through just fine so I had effectively paid the bill over and over and over and.....you get the picture. The dry cleaners had closed by the time I arrived home, but fortunately when I called back today, they could see that he had swiped my card multiple times (and that they all did go through just fine, thank you very much). The manager claimed he couldn't put the money back on my card (what?!) but would give me store credit for all of the money, plus an extra 50% of the total for the trouble. Although I wanted to tell him I would never be returning again to his establishment, I pay way too much for dry cleaning and he was offering me some for free, so I caved in. Lame Sarah.

When I asked the manager why the cashier would have thought the card was declined when clearly the charges went through, his excuse was, "he doesn't really understand the card machine very well". I bit my tongue but wanted to say, "Look, he only has two job functions - locate clothing and take customer money. If he's only has 50% of the job nailed, might be time to free up his future". Decided instead to simply say thank you and move on - with my dry cleaning credit that should last awhile since it's 3.5 times what I intended to pay.

And I know as I am typing this, my Dad will read it and call me to say, "Sarah, are you okay? Do you need money?". Dad, everything is fine - and I love you.