Bureaucracy at its Best

I know bureaucracy. After all, I've tried for the last three years to get the City of Seattle to put a handicapped parking sign in front of my house. Each call requires an hour, and each call has the same effect, which is no effect.
I had a similar experience with Direct T.V., only I called six times. Also, they finally responded when I contacted a lawyer.

I've also applied for part time disability with an insurance company. I called my friendly contact Giovanni four times, leaving messages asking for information about the status of my paperwork, until on the fifth call he by mistake answered the phone. When I asked how I was supposed to get information when he wouldn't return my calls, he commented that I had only called once. I kind of lost it.

Kind of like once when I got exasperated with an administrator in a school district's central office who wouldn't process paperwork because she was planning her daugher's wedding. I blew a gasket that day. The assistant superintendent kindly pulled me into an office and asked me to tell her what was wrong. I felt like a snivelling child, or maybe a crazy woman. And maybe I was. Both.

Lately, however, bureaucracies been working for me, so maybe I can't always assume that bureucracy has a negative connotation.

For starters, my doctors at Group Health are the best. They call me back when they're supposed to; they're nice to me; their system works for me.

Also, I've needed to call on my auto and home insurance lately, and my provider has been fabulous: they're Pemco, and if you're insured by anyone else, you should switch to them.

Last June, I was in a terrible car accident, and I got the ticket even though I stll don't think it was my fault. Both the other driver and I went to the emergency room, in separate ambulences. The other driver got a lawyer who just happened to be following the ambulances to the hospital and who sued me, or tried to. I'm not sure what happened. My fairy goddess Germaine at Pemco intervened and the case has been settled. Whew.

Then just before Christmas, some not very nice people broke into our house by breaking out two windows and helped themselves to my grandmother's pearls and such. My new fairy goddess, Muriel at Pemco, didn't find my pearls, but she did take care of our bills quite quickly.

So sometimes, even bureaucracy is a beautiful thing. Maybe that's why both bureaucracy and beautiful have that "eau" thing going on.

Maryeau