can you hear the slide trombones? that crazy music you associate with new orleans or whatever they do on bourbon street... i feel charged, energized and ready for this... literally just hunched over my laptop freezing... lemme turn off my fan...
it feels good when you genuinely help someone. its better when you have someone to tell it to.
so "helloooooooo blogosphere..."
i got a call today and instead of being a dick i decided to give this guy a "hey they really do care" experience from revenue. one guy today had a good experience with his government and i was his contact. i feel good about it so here goes...
he called and i try and say my department as fast as possible because, well, i already know this call isn't for me. they usually last for about 30 seconds while i pass this guy along to the next schmuck who should have dealt with him in the first place. and the way i answer it is as if you are sitting on the side of the road while a car is speeding towards you and what you hear is the engine from far away, then becoming right in front of you, then have the roar of the engine trail off as the car goes by...
"mmmmMMMMMM-NEERLLLllllllllllll......." ... hear it?
"mmmmmmmudda-fuls" - aka "motor fuels"... call me, go for it. you'll hear me say mudda-fuls so fast you have to say WHAT?
i hear this:
"huh? whas this? who?"
and i say it again but slower yet still with a racecar engine passing in front of me cadence...
"mmmmmmmMMMMOTOR FUEllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..............................."
"oh alriiit keewl... now listen here buddy i know you aint the dude i need to talk to but i need some help."
(here we go again)...
-don't we all sir? what can't i help you with? (a standard i've used for years and only one person in my lifetime of saying it has called me out on it. he wasn't the one.)
"i need to know how much a toll is on the walt whitman bridge coming from delaware and into phili..."
-um, you need penndot or...?
"nah the walt whitman bridge... i got a truck and i know the toll used to be 35 bucks but i am not sure if it went up. i am sending a driver thru there and i need to know so i can send him with the right amount of money. and all you people are interconnected so i figure if you can't help me someone there will, yet nobody knows shit it seems... what can ya do me for?"
{this sparks my interest... i like to do things for people that noone can seem to figure out... its like a mensa puzzle that seems impossible but from a tenth of a degree of different perspective, one can see the light of the end game... knowing the genius levels of people i work with, i decide right then and there if it takes all day i'd figure it out for him, especially cause noone here could do it nor has knowledge of who to call for it... can ya hear the mission impossible theme? i can't. currently for whatever reason i have the people's court running through my head. duh-nit-nit... }
-it seems you've dealt with my coworkers before... well, let's see here. you need a toll amount for a 5 axle truck to make it past the walt whitman bridge from delaware to pa... hmmmm have you tried looking it up online?
"i ain't no good with the puter literacy thing man (giggles) i just need this info..."
-well sir, google's your friend. no need to be intimidated, just ask it what you want and it'll show up there. hold tight...
so i typed in "toll from de to pa on walt whitman bridge with a 5 axle truck"
first link...
"so you ever hear of this?"
-nah, i deal with trucks that haul fuel in PA only... rolling bombs if you will.
"yeah i like to steer clear of them"
-hmmm DRPA is the site... (literally here for the blog readers:
http://www.drpa.org/commtrav/bridge_fares.html)
"crosses over the delaware river, so DRPA would be right... you see anything for walt whitman bridge?"
-37.50
"that fast huh? how do i know you aren't just sayin that?"
-because i don't really need to help you. this has nothing to do with my job, you just issued a challenge and i completed it.
"you got a number?"
-2, one with an extension....
"woah i wasn't expecting this...do they know about you where you work?"
-nope, i'm the weird quiet guy that everybody has at their job... i just don't deal with the riffraff of the workplace. i come in, do my thing, and leave. no talk no gossip, just work.
"i gotcha buddy, i oughta come there and buy you a beer."
-as much as i'd love that, you're 3 years and 11 days too late.
"i didn't say i could have one with ya buddy... been since 93 for me. keep it up, it aint for nobody else but yourself. and you seem like a good dude so that its worth it. some of these guys are straight pigslop, but you went above and beyond today and i wanna say thanks. keep on keepin on brotha..."
-you're welcome... habbagoodn' sir...
"huh?"
-'have-a-good-one' sir...
if he only knew the hell i go through with my head every day... but this one instance i had a rush of fun run through my body and it only lasts for 5-10 seconds, but it feels good. i didnt mind customer service at other places because one in 100,000 calls would be the one that kept you going, it was finding that diamond that made the rest of the rough calls worth it.
once i saved a woman 300 bucks of errant calls on her cell made by her daughter to the same number noless but she seemed busy and it was all on the same day and she was making cookies for her mother's funeral. i figured att had enough money, i'll "save" this one. and i am sure not just that she was a happy caller, but she spent that 300 many times over to att for what i did. and guess what? from asking her a little about what she was doing and telling her how much i love cookies at the time, less than a week later i got a shoebox at the house, and it was full of oatmeal cookies with a thank you note in it. my mother wasn't exactly excited, but i knew what was up... she got some weight lifted from her shoulders for that horrible day of hers, and i got an unexpected gift of thanks... i didn't ask for it, but there they were.
today i felt like it was time to pay it forward, so i did. and he was happy. and that made me happy, if even for a few seconds.
sometimes in life its the little things that make the big things seem easier to handle and in alot of ways its the little things that help you through the big ones.
III
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