Superstition dictates that bad things come in threes, but that count is just arbitrary–until living through three bad or at least very inconvenient things. My latest three: car accident, laptop incident and recent job performance.
So, the seemingly never-ending drama started one fine Saturday, nearly three weeks ago when some jackass rear ended me. I’m absolutely amazed how many drivers watch traffic rather than the car in front of them. The ironic thing was, I was pulling out onto the service road when he hit me.
Apparently, I was too discombobulated from that fender bender because I didn’t take a picture of his license’s plate nor the car, but I took pictures of his insurance card, driver’s license and the damage to my car. To make matters worse, it was his girlfriend’s car, yet her name didn’t appear on the insurance card.
Her insurance acknowledged that a claim was owed, but have dragged their feet about the estimate. In the meantime, I’ve already dropped off my car, picked up a rental and now playing the waiting game for everything to resolve itself.
I’m somewhat annoyed with the rental car situation. Since her insurance agency closed at 4:30 PM (Who does that? Only a business that doesn’t want to help!), I had to put down my credit card for $200 instead of $50. I plan to get that $150 reimbursed. Then the rental car agent lead me to a bright, shiny red car, which used no keys but remote signals for everything–even to start the car if I wanted! I chose to hit the “start” button instead. The whole time he pointed out features, I just fussed, “Brode, I didn’t want all this fancy shit! I just wanted a basic, small rental car.”
He assured me that everything was going to be all right and that things change. In that precise moment, I’d fully entered middle adulthood. I’ve been saying for a few years that I was middle aged, but in that slick, shiny, curvaceous car, I truly felt ever bit of the middle aged woman I’d purported to be.
A few days after my accident, I had training for work. Training always involved a 2-hour round trip commute to the office, which added to my 8-hour work shift. Thankfully, my car was operable, so I didn’t have to hassle with the car rental place and collision shop sooner. As a matter of fact, the commute allowed me to hear a rattle that had not existed prior to the accident, which prompted me to get it checked out despite the minimum visible damage.
Then, two days prior to dropping off my car to be repaired and rolling back with the high-tech rental, I accidentally splashed water onto my laptop when I knocked my glass off the end table. I’d been gambling with that dangerous habit for years. I’d never heard a laptop sizzle before. I pretty much did everything they tell you not to do: tried to shake the water out; turned it off and on; plugged it in. I instinctively knew not to put it in rice nor use a blow dryer, which were two other bad ideas that people try. I dropped off the laptop the day before I dropped off the car.
So, they retrieved the data off the hard drive, but a refurbish would cost $850! I bought a new laptop, using my tax refund. I’d had the lofty idea to use all of that refund for getting out of debt quicker, but I was getting behind in nearly every other endeavor without my almighty laptop. Unfortunately, my work computer has limited capabilities or else, I’d not replace my personal one for months.
In the meantime, I’ve recently learned how to sell a new insurance product. It’s rather humbling to go from being a little badass with one insurance product and essentially starting from ground zero with a new one. Additionally, there are other aspects beyond my control, such as the dramatically lower call volume.
I got one of my wishes to have a tighter script, but it’s so much longer than the old one. Even when I get a call, the conversations take much longer. Seems as if the keys to selling this insurance are sticking to the script as much as possible while infusing my personality into it. Only today, I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. Just in time for them to raise our target from 2 sales to 3, despite the fact that half of us have been getting either 0 or 1 sale a day. In the spirit of staying on the right side of natural selection, I must step up my game and show improvement.
With the triumvirate of challenges, only the laptop situation has been remedied. I still have a couple of hours worth of work to do to organize things since, although my data was saved, all the folders were saved empt and their contents were saved in a huge file, labelled “All My Files.” Now, I just take a deep breath and sort that content into the appropriate file and remain grateful that all had not been lost.
(Oh, and I now keep my beverage on a saucer on the floor versus on the end table beside the couch!)