Wal-Mart Photo Fiasco

*bangs head on desk*

Never again will we get film developed at Wal-Mart. We dropped it off, came back and waited in line about 20 minutes. I spent 20 minutes getting bumped in the ass by someone’s screaming children. We get out to the car and discover the pictures we had weren’t ours. Back into Wal-Mart we go where we spend yet another 20 minutes in line where I end up getting bumped by someone’s 2 kids, they were quieter but they were still bumping me. ARGH!!

We trade the film and are informed that we’ll have to go to the customer service desk for our refund. This results in yes, another 20 minutes in line. When it’s our turn the girl tells us we’ll have to go to the photo department, no way, they sent us here for our refund. Hubby had to explain two or three times that we had the right pictures now, we just need the refund that they couldn’t give us in the photo department. So, she starts looking at the receipt and is confused by the receipt. The photo processing charge is one price and the doubles were another price, she seemed to think we were full of shit. Hubby tried and tried to get her to listen and she just couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say, I couldn’t take it anymore so I spoke up, which I rarely do, and spelled it out, as politely as possible (I never really sound pissed off, I’m good about that), in words a pre-schooler could understand. See, compare this to this, this is from the old film, this is from the new and see, you owe us $1.86. Finally it clicked. ohhhhhhh, she said. Then she couldn’t figure out how to enter that into the computer. I was seriously ready to say eff my $1.86 and leave but we’d come that far and even though I wouldn’t have been pissed when I said “Forget it”, she would have probably took it that way. It’s hard to say “forget it, it’s okay, it’s only $1.86 without looking upset”. But she finally got it figured out, checked it with her supervisor, gave us our money, and sent us on our way. It’s now 7pm and I had expected to be home no later than 5-5:30pm.

I was annoyed by the inconvenience but the thing that annoyed me more than anything was the children screaming and bumping in to me. I was never, ever, allowed to run around and scream and kick and throw crackers in the store. Never. No kid SHOULD be allowed to do that and I cannot tolerate loud noise and I HATE being touched. The feeling of someone’s touch lingers on my skin for a good 15 minutes. I have extremely sensitive skin, when it’s someone I like touching me or a good friend hugging me I like the feeling of that lingering, but someone I don’t know touching me repeatedly makes me crazy. Even if I did’t have sensitive skin and ears I would have been annoyed by these kids though. They actually left crunched up crackers all over the floor and crap.

UGH

Anyway, I ordered ear plugs. Musicians ear plugs. They allow in a full range of sound, keeping it even, but just turn it down a little, like turning the volume on the world. Hopefully this will help my sound sensitivities and stuff, we’ll see. They’re supposed to be clear and hard to spot so I won’t look funny. We’ll see, they should be arriving in the next 3-5 days.

I want to get my hearing tested. I don’t know if they can test how hypersensitive my hearing is but I know it’s pretty significant. That’s something about me that my mom noticed when I was just a baby. I’d flinch and when I got a little older I’d cover my ears at sounds that didn’t even make her blink. She commented on that about a year before I found out about AS, she sent me something about some ear disorder that distorts hearing and makes things louder saying she thought I might have that. She said she’d seen it and it made her think of me. As a kid I was also terrified of the vaccum, the hair-dryer and the toilet because of the sound, it hurt, all those things still hurt but at least I understand why now. I can’t wait to find out how well the ear plugs work.

Also, there were no pictures of Sophie or Sara on the film. *pouts* I know I took pics of Sophie so they must not have come out, it was a little dark in the room at the time.

Anyway, I feel better after that rant. I’m going to go cross-stitch now.