Waiting...my American pastime.

As others close to me can attest, I am not the most patient person in the world. I have a thing with time management--I want things done efficiently and correctly the first time. I always have a plan, a schedule, and make the most out of my day by multitasking. It's annoying, I understand, but it's just the way I work. BTW, I want others to value my time as much as I do.

Yesterday, that just wasn't happening.

I had a doctor's appt at 3:45, plus, they asked me to come in early to fill out some paperwork. So, in I walk at 3:30. By 4 I was put into a room where they explained how much everything would cost and made me sign papers detailing how I conceded to their money policies. Great first impression, huh? A few minutes later, they moved me to a random office room (not MY doctor's but some other room that hadn't been used since 1972) to wait for the next available doctor's room. I thought that was weird, but whatever. It was my first time there, so I dealt (and sat and stewed). Sure, they had given me a packet to look over (which ate up ten minutes or so), but in the packet was some OTHER patient's personal information. Not a good sign, right? But I sat and sat until 45 minutes later when I peaked my head out. Two seconds after that, the nurse who had put me there realized she had forgotten about me, curtly apologized, and moved me into the right room.

OK, I thought, now I'll be seen right away. Yea, not so much.

I heard the doctor visit the 3 rooms around me then say outside of MY door "Woah, where did this one come from?" She complained that it was after 5 (yea, tell me about it...my appt was an hour and a half ago!) and rushed in without even bothering to read the name on my file. Of course, when she walked in and asked how I was doing, I gathered my courage and anger, furrowed my brow, opened my mouth to voice my displeasure and answered "umm, good." I had planned a different speech in my head about my time being important too and even though this probably wasn't her fault, I wasn't getting the best impression of this practice. So how did "Good, and how are you?" slip out instead? I'm such a chicken!

She jotted random notes (underlining everything) on a quarter-sheet of paper while I talked and she checked her watch (three times). Nice, huh? So, after 2 hours, I got about 2 minutes and a $200 bill. Some health CARE. But the aggravation couldn't end there!

Later that night, I was lucky enough to spend 1.5 hours on hold with the passport application people. While eating away at my cell phone minutes, I filled out their e-mail form, exercised some more, and starting watching Idol. 58 minutes later, I got an actually human who asked for all my info, told me it was being processed but couldn't give me an ETA, told me the website they encourage you to use doesn't work, and told me to call again next week. That's an hour and a half I'll never get back. He was so vague and needed so many details about my info I'm convinced it wasn't a real government employee and instead I just volunteered myself for identity theft. Oh well.

So, this kind of stuff happens to me ALL the time. Something goes cosmically wrong when my name gets attached to something important. I'm the black hole of forms, applications, and doctor's offices around the country. But I can't be the only one, right? Please?

Today, I'm taking a deep breath and starting over. No time like the present...right?