Home For the Holidays..
Long time no blog... But here I am on Thanksgiving Day home alone. This is what happens when you have no family of your own. My sister works on TG day because she is a nurse. My mom isn't yet up to driving over to my house, after her recent heart attack, and I have to wait til tomorrow when the mail, and hopefully my unemployment check, comes as I don't have a dime to my name to go anywhere. Have to get the funds into the bank or I'm a dead duck..... er, turkey!
No one in our family invited the three of us for TG. But they all have their own family so they all go their own way. I understand, but still it hurts. Therefore, my mother, my sister and I will celebrate TG belatedly on Sunday which is my sister's day off.
To make matters more jolly, the Unemployment Dept. totally botched up my weekend. They have been holding my unemployment checks hostage (!!!), as they now have a 'new rule' (so they say!) that when you file a new claim, they have to verify who you are!! They informed me that I had to PROVE MY IDENTITY and requested I provide them with copies of my birth certificate, driver's license, a communication letter from SSN (just your social security card won't do!), my bank statement, last payment stub, utility bills and a vial of my blood.... well, just kidding about that last one! Anyway, I complied and sent all this info over a MONTH ago! I did not hear a word for weeks, nor have I received any of my unemployment payments, so I have been trying to phone them every day to get information on whether they even received my info and when I would be 'validated'... And they absolutely positively will not send any payments until you are 'validated'! Gads, you would think that my last name was Bin Laden or something!
Well, you would have thought I'd been trying to contact the North Pole in trying to get ahold of someone at the Extremely Dastardly Dogs (i.e. the Employment Development Dept). Press 1 for English.... yada yada... press 3 for new claims, press 2 if you received Form 3126, press 4 if you are working out of state, press 5 for job services, press finger into your ear and scream.... This was ridiculous... Everytime I thought I was getting somewhere, it would take me back to the main menu or say 'Due to heavy response, we cannot help you at this time. Please call back at another time' and then would disconnect me!!!! All this after spending chunks of time on the phone over and over!
Ok, thought I'd get on the Internet and try to contact them that way. You should see the menu you have to go through just to get to a teeny tiny 'contact us' in small print....!! So I did that. Next day I got a response. What did it say? "You cannot receive benefits until you send in your documents for verification"..... ACHHHHH!! Puzzled and totally frustrated, that message then left me wondering if they had even RECEIVED my documents!! And how long was this whole procedure going to take? When would I ever see my payments! Would I have to send all this stuff all over again!? Meanwhile, the bank was chewing up my little remaining funds, charging me overdraft fees day after day! Let me tell you, 'tis NOT the season for me to be jolly.
Anyway, I finally got ahold of a HUMAN BEING (or maybe a robot?) at the EDD yesterday! They told me that I had finally been cleared and that my 3 weeks of checks had been issued. Hallelujah!! But of course, this all has to be happening on Thanksgiving week, when, of course, the mail is going to be slower because of the holiday! So I am sitting here waiting like a turkey with its head on the chopping block for my checks!! I couldn't go home today for TG as I have no money for gas for the car! So hopefully, the money will be here tomorrow!
Meanwhile, I'm sure the Juan Lopez's and Ahmed El Zahari's or such are easily receiving their unemployment monies or, better yet, do not even have to go through this as they are most likely GAINFULLY EMPLOYED in our country!!! But here I sit, trying to find a job in my own country, and when I can't, I cannot even get my rightfully earned unemployment benefits as I have to PROVE WHO I AM!!
On the other hand, while I had to prove I am ME to the EDD, the Voters' Registration People think I am TWO people!! They keep sending me voter information pamphlets to my old name AND my new name. This is after 15 or more years of repeatedly informing them that I no longer go by my old name!! I technically could go down in the morning and vote in my old name and then go down in the evening with my new name! Go figure!
Am I nobody?.. Or am I two people!?? Well, right now, I am going to go pour TWO glasses of Wild Turkey for both of me....!! So, HAPPY TURKEY DAY to you too!
No one in our family invited the three of us for TG. But they all have their own family so they all go their own way. I understand, but still it hurts. Therefore, my mother, my sister and I will celebrate TG belatedly on Sunday which is my sister's day off.
To make matters more jolly, the Unemployment Dept. totally botched up my weekend. They have been holding my unemployment checks hostage (!!!), as they now have a 'new rule' (so they say!) that when you file a new claim, they have to verify who you are!! They informed me that I had to PROVE MY IDENTITY and requested I provide them with copies of my birth certificate, driver's license, a communication letter from SSN (just your social security card won't do!), my bank statement, last payment stub, utility bills and a vial of my blood.... well, just kidding about that last one! Anyway, I complied and sent all this info over a MONTH ago! I did not hear a word for weeks, nor have I received any of my unemployment payments, so I have been trying to phone them every day to get information on whether they even received my info and when I would be 'validated'... And they absolutely positively will not send any payments until you are 'validated'! Gads, you would think that my last name was Bin Laden or something!
Well, you would have thought I'd been trying to contact the North Pole in trying to get ahold of someone at the Extremely Dastardly Dogs (i.e. the Employment Development Dept). Press 1 for English.... yada yada... press 3 for new claims, press 2 if you received Form 3126, press 4 if you are working out of state, press 5 for job services, press finger into your ear and scream.... This was ridiculous... Everytime I thought I was getting somewhere, it would take me back to the main menu or say 'Due to heavy response, we cannot help you at this time. Please call back at another time' and then would disconnect me!!!! All this after spending chunks of time on the phone over and over!
Ok, thought I'd get on the Internet and try to contact them that way. You should see the menu you have to go through just to get to a teeny tiny 'contact us' in small print....!! So I did that. Next day I got a response. What did it say? "You cannot receive benefits until you send in your documents for verification"..... ACHHHHH!! Puzzled and totally frustrated, that message then left me wondering if they had even RECEIVED my documents!! And how long was this whole procedure going to take? When would I ever see my payments! Would I have to send all this stuff all over again!? Meanwhile, the bank was chewing up my little remaining funds, charging me overdraft fees day after day! Let me tell you, 'tis NOT the season for me to be jolly.
Anyway, I finally got ahold of a HUMAN BEING (or maybe a robot?) at the EDD yesterday! They told me that I had finally been cleared and that my 3 weeks of checks had been issued. Hallelujah!! But of course, this all has to be happening on Thanksgiving week, when, of course, the mail is going to be slower because of the holiday! So I am sitting here waiting like a turkey with its head on the chopping block for my checks!! I couldn't go home today for TG as I have no money for gas for the car! So hopefully, the money will be here tomorrow!
Meanwhile, I'm sure the Juan Lopez's and Ahmed El Zahari's or such are easily receiving their unemployment monies or, better yet, do not even have to go through this as they are most likely GAINFULLY EMPLOYED in our country!!! But here I sit, trying to find a job in my own country, and when I can't, I cannot even get my rightfully earned unemployment benefits as I have to PROVE WHO I AM!!
On the other hand, while I had to prove I am ME to the EDD, the Voters' Registration People think I am TWO people!! They keep sending me voter information pamphlets to my old name AND my new name. This is after 15 or more years of repeatedly informing them that I no longer go by my old name!! I technically could go down in the morning and vote in my old name and then go down in the evening with my new name! Go figure!
Am I nobody?.. Or am I two people!?? Well, right now, I am going to go pour TWO glasses of Wild Turkey for both of me....!! So, HAPPY TURKEY DAY to you too!
posted by LADYGOLD at 6:39 PM
