I'm an Irritable Old Lady

I think I am becoming an irritable old lady.  I am not having patience with people who don't see the big picture and who seem to value the concerns of an institution over those of the individuals they are supposed to serve.  I know I should be kind and gracious, but I can't seem to repress my annoyance.


Yesterday I was tutoring a high school student.  We were going to be done at noon.  I did not know that someone had scheduled the room we were using for a meeting at noon, but even if I had, we would have been out by then.  At 11:45 the individual arrived, entered without saying "I'm sorry to interrupt you" or introducing herself, and informed us that she needed the room for a meeting.  I said that we were in a tutoring session.  She did not ask when we would be done...just repeated she needed the room, and she had reserved it.  The white board in the room had her meeting on it, but no time indicated.  She persisted until we packed up and left.  It seemed to me really rude to make us move with only 15 minutes left in our session.  Today the student I tutored said, "Wasn't I 'in a meeting?'  Why was her meeting more important than mine?"  


Why, indeed?  As an educational administrator, the meeting chair should realize the importance of helping students to value education.  The tutoring session was as important as her meeting. It was not going to conflict time-wise with her meeting.  She just seemed to want to assert her authority.   I know I left the room with steam coming out of my ears.


Today, I placed a call to another educational institution.  I was trying to get information on GED classes for a high school dropout who needs some encouragement to sign up.  I already had all of the basic information from a prior phone call and exploration of the website.  I tried to tell the person who answered the phone that I really only had one question, but she launched into her full spiel on the need to come to an orientation session first, blah-blah-blah.  All I really wanted to know was if there were any classes available downtown, since the person in question lives near downtown and has no transportation.  The GED site is outside of the city limits and the bus doesn't go out that far.  She then went into a lengthy explanation of the process and that, perhaps, the student could do this by distance learning.  I had already told her the person's age...20.  I reminded her that the website said a person had to be 21 in order to take the course by distance learning.  


I then had to ask multiple questions quite persistently before I finally learned that although that institution doesn't teach it, there is a GED class run by another organization that meets in the downtown library.  By the time I finished this conversation, I was once again annoyed, and the person to whom I had been speaking was clearly upset with me too.

My husband just came upstairs from his den and showed me a letter he had written expressing his annoyance with a state agency that keeps sending letters threatening his deceased mother with fines for non-payment of something.  He is enclosing a photocopy of the check which paid the original fee many months ago.  He can't seem to get this straightened out, and it is upsetting to his still living 94 year old father who keeps getting these dunning letters.  My husband said the world is filled with incompetence.  He was feeling irritable.


Believe it or not....we both really do try to be nice to people.


Grumble, mutter, sigh.  Are we just getting old and cranky?