Refund Day - NOT!

Well today started off peachy.

My buddy and I decided that we would volunteer to go down to Mississippi or Louisiana to help out since we are firefighters and figured the guys down there might need a break. I got 15 days of vacation saved up and I am sure that I could swap with some of the other guys if more time was needed. I talked to all my professors today and they had no problem with me maybe going south to help out the people there - cool deal.

So I get done with my last class, which he let us out of early, and I walk like a mile and a half across campus with my 60 pound backpack to the big gym type complex where they are handing out refunds. The whole way over there I am thinking, I am gonna pay for daycare 6 months in advance and put some money on my credit cards, and then if I have any left over I am gonna take my wife out to eat at a nice restaurant and maybe, just maybe get a little lucky later on.

Hot Damn!!

Well so I get to the little lady with the 1960's style glasses, you know the horn rim job with the little glitter on the corner, and I hand her my I.D.

"You’re the one we were talking about earlier." She says as she reads my I.D. I decide right then and there that this can not be a good thing.

The girl beside her looks at my I.D and agrees that it was me they were talking about earlier and she begins to rifle through this massive printout. You know the kind; its got the big perforation on the sides for the little blunted spiky wheel thingy to spin in so that the paper can be fed into the printer and its got those really neato green and white strips all over it!

Needless to say there I am standing there, sweating. Waving goodbye to my dreams of wealth and relaxation, I shed a mental tear or two. Then she speaks again and the words I have dreaded every semester I have attended college spill out of her mouth.

"Your gonna have to go over to Financial Aid and ask them about your check, cause we ain't got it."

Shit.

I take my I.D. back from her and I walk back across campus and over to the Financial Aid office. I open the door to the building, climb a small flight of stairs and turn the corner into the hallway that leads to the Financial Aid office and I stop dead in my tracks.

It is lined with chairs, the entire hallway. Each chair is filled by the butt of another student that had to see the Financial Aid Officers.

"Um, is this the line to get in to see the Financial Aid Person?" I ask with what I am sure was a bewildered look on my face.

"Yep."

"You guys been sitting here long?"

"Yep, gotta sign in on the sheet inside."

Dammit! Ok, no big deal I think. So I walk into the office and find the sheet with my last names Initial on it and...every slot is filled in. Over half the people sitting in the chairs in the hallway are here to see the same person I am. There’s not even a blank line.

Shit.

So I sign my name on the bottom of the sheet, beneath the last line, and I return to the purgatory of the hallway and I find me a seat next to a pregnant girl who looks like she swallowed a ripe melon and I wait.

I play with my cell phone, call my wife, call my brother, and call my grandparents.

Still waiting.

Talk to the pregnant girl, she's due next week sometime.

Oh, oh, they called my name - sweet action!

I go into the offices and wind my way past file cabinets and computer desks that are packed with other students filling out forms and I sit in a chair outside the Financial Aid ladies office. There are 15 people waiting to see her.

I was better off in the hallway.

An hour later...I get to go into her office and low and behold, the University lost my paperwork. So I sign a sheet, she signs the sheet and I am done. Takes like 3 minutes tops.

As I wearily climb in my car and settle my bag on the passenger seat I have to wonder. If they knew I was missing some paperwork, why didn't I get a letter saying I was missing this paperwork? But then that would make sense wouldn't it.

As I am driving home I call my buddy. Still no word on if we are going to be going south. We made the offer, and that's what counts. I hang up with him and I turn the radio on.

Siouxsie and the Banshees are playing.."Cities in Dust". I like the song but it takes on a whole new meaning for me as I am driving. Gets me to thinking.

Anyway that’s today in a nutshell. I should get my refund back next week. I hope to hear something from our local Emergency Management guy tomorrow about going south. I'm working all weekend, what could be better on a holiday weekend?

As always I remain..

Respectfully Yours,

~ Terhune