May 21, 2003~~8:25 p.m.
Andrea
I try really hard to be patient with stupid people, but sometimes, I reach a saturation point from which there is no return. Now, let me say that I am no stranger to dealing with people lacking in intelligence and common sense. I grew up with a few of them and of course, we all run into them on the street, on the freeway, in our jobs, etc. every day. But when you have to deal with the same ONE over and over, it eventually gets to be too much. Since Omar has been away at the war, I have been a �Key Volunteer� for his platoon and the Marine Corps, which is to say that I am a mechanism for the flow of information which goes from the top Marines (commanders, generals, etc.) down to the families of the guys overseas. Basically, I am part of a large email chain. I am also each family�s point of contact for any emergent situation, questions they may have, etc. so that thousands of people aren�t calling the main �At home� Marine contact who is a Marine in charge of helping out all the families while our guys are fighting �evil.� I have been feeding information to approximately 40 families (mostly wives of Marines) for the past 3 months or so, and 99 percent of them are no problem. However, there are a select few that have been thorns in my side. There is the woman from Texas that has put me on her distribution list for Republican propaganda and email forwards telling me to �wear red on Friday to support the troops!� and large files that consist of waving flag graphics. There is the sister of a Marine who has put me on her forward list for I�m not sure what kinds of forwards, and I�m not sure why, because I have never spoken to her in person. Then there is �Andrea.� Sigh. I should have known that Andrea would prove to be a challenge from the get-go, but I was otherwise focused on getting through the first week of Omar�s deployment, back in February. The week that the guys left for Kuwait, I sent out a mailing to all the families telling them who I was, requesting their contact information, and including a large packet of information about contact numbers for services the Marine Corps provided families like legal services, counseling, etc. (This is important for the rest of the story, because by sending this packet of phone numbers, the families had all the contacts that I had for help with whatever could come up. I have NO other information or �magic� numbers to call or people to contact besides these numbers.) Right away, I received a phone call from Andrea. It seemed that her husband had been deployed to Kuwait despite having been told he would get a medical release OUT of his reservist activation and would be sent home. He was told he would not be going home, but instead would be going to Kuwait the next day. Andrea was very upset and distraught. She wanted to know the story of how this happened and was very caught up in the idea that it had happened at all. My answer to her was an empathetic �well, that�s the military for you.� She was calling me to find out if I knew anything about the situation or if I could tell her who to call. I, of course, knew nothing, and discovered that she had already called every Marine contact person I could think of. I advised her to let it go and hope that her husband wrote a letter explaining everything soon. I knew she had a long road of impatience ahead of her. During the conversation, I learned that Andrea and her husband had been married just over a year, and had a one-year-old daughter. Their entire married life had so far been spent long-distance while her husband was active and stationed at Camp Pendleton (with Omar). About a week later, Andrea emailed me. It seemed that she had �just found out� about a large sum of money her husband owed his ex-wife in back child support as well as several thousand dollars in bills and other debts. Not only that, but she had not paid her rent in a couple of months. She wanted to know who she could call for help on this issue. I directed her to the legal services number in the packet of information WE ALL HAD and wished her luck. Aside: I find it hard to believe that she had NO idea of her husband�s debts until a week after he conveniently went off to war. I also find it hard to believe that she could not pay her rent since the Marines have been paying the guys a large housing allowance since their activation in January of 2002 on top of their regular pay. Not only that, but whilst in a war zone, they get paid extra for being away from their families and in �danger� and do not have to pay taxes during their deployments. So if nothing else, Andrea should have had MORE money than usual to pay her rent. And besides, what IDIOT doesn�t pay rent? Especially when you have a small CHILD?! (Actually, she has two. A two-year-old from a prior relationship and the one with the Marine. Yes, you read that correctly.) That�s the first bill you pay every month, dumbass! The phone and electricity be damned! You pay your RENT! A month went by before I heard from Andrea again. It seems that she had spotted her husband�s ex-wife/mother of his child�s email address on my email distribution list. Andrea wanted her OFF the list and NOW! She said she didn�t want her getting information about her husband because the woman was �loony and thinks she�s still with him.� While I was checking with our �At Home Marine� officer to make sure it was okay to have the ex on my list, Andrea emailed me three times in one day, emphasizing the importance of taking care of this issue right away. I emailed her as soon as I could, explaining that since the woman had requested to be put on my distribution list and was the MOTHER OF HIS CHILD, she had every right to get the information and I would not be deleting her from my list. Andrea was miffed, but she got over it. Shortly thereafter, I discovered a message Andrea had posted on a message board for an embedded reporter who had been reporting from Omar�s unit. The message was that if the reporter should come across Andrea�s husband, would he please tell him that they �had another bun in the oven� (direct quote). I burst out laughing. I simply could not believe my eyes. I had to re-read the message. But sadly, it was true. Andrea had procreated yet again. Two weeks ago, I started getting emails almost every other day from Andrea asking if I could please tell her when the Marines were coming home (we had been receiving word that their return was imminent, but no dates were set because, well, the Marines had to organize for about 20,000 guys� flights home plus their equipment and it takes time) because she wanted to book her flight to San Diego to pick her husband up and �flights are getting more and more expensive every day.� As if I had been sitting on the information of when everyone would be home and just had �forgotten� to tell everyone else. Or that I was trying to keep Andrea from booking a cheap flight. Or that the fact that NONE of us knew when the guys were coming home wasn�t keeping ALL of us from booking a cheap flight to So Cal. I explained to her that as soon as I knew anything, I would let her know. Still, the emails kept coming. I made helpful suggestions about booking a flight on Southwest Airlines since they don�t charge a fee if you have to change the flights (which is likely in this situation) (not to mention that if worst came to worst she could DRIVE to San Diego from her house in about 6 hours and avoid spending extra money altogether). She ignored me. She kept emailing me. When her husband called her and told her what date he thought he would be home, she emailed me to verify that it was the correct date (at this very moment, we STILL do not have a confirmed date for their homecoming), ignoring the emails from commanders here and abroad telling the families not to believe anything the guys in Kuwait told us because rumors were running rampant and they couldn�t possibly know anything because nothing had been decided. Still, I got emails from Andrea. I have finally started deleting anything that comes to me from Andrea. Of course, not before reading the latest poorly written saga that is her life. The last message I received was an inquiry of where she should go to find out about marital �counceling� (her spelling) because she and her husband �have a lot of issues that we need to work out� and she �needs to get started in counceling right away�! Yeah no shit. I was very close to recommending that she find someone to give her a frontal lobotomy. I just guffaw in a mix of pity and annoyance. When I talked to Omar last, I mentioned how I couldn�t wait for him to come home and tell me all about the guys that are married to these women. He knew immediately which wife I was talking about and said that all during the past year, the husband had been complaining about her and that their relationship was �rocky.� He said that Andrea had threatened to leave him several times. I suggested to Omar that the husband should take her up on her offer. He would definitely be better off.
|
