The Never Updated Blog

So, Saturday was my last exam - my first Saturday exam in 3-1/2 years of university. I had to book time off work just to go to it. Not that I particularly missed spending my day at work mind you. I was done my exam by 11am so I could have done 5/6 of my shift, but seeing how I'm wouldn't have received my wages for working on Saturday until two weeks from this upcoming Thursday and I will most definitely have done all of my Christmas shopping by then, I didn't really feel like going in to work . . . .and it was my last exam . . .. I slept most of the afternoon away - very exciting, but oh soooo good - then I was supposed to go to the annual eggnog party. That's right, a party where the main focus is drinking eggnog - the non-alcoholic type 'cause I don't drink. It is a tradition dating back to my gr, 9 year. Anyhoo - it got cancelled, well ok, rescheduled until Thursday - so I'll post on Thursday or Friday letting you know the details and the history. So, I was left with the problem of my first free night in ages and not much to do. Most of my friends had gone home already for the holidays. I guess that's one problem with living at home and going university five blocks away: when the holidays come, it gets really quiet. At any rate, my brother, David, suggested that we go see a movie with a couple of his friends that he had stood up for something or other during the day. I agreed and we set off to Hamilton to watch King Kong with a nagging suspicion in my head that I was forgetting something that I had to do, which I promptly remembered halfway to Hamilton(good movie by the way). My credit card bill was due. I normally pay it online, and normally at least a day early, especially if it falls on the weekend. Now, I don't like carrying a balance, but even if I just decided to carry the balance, I would still have to make the minimum payment. $10. If I was going to pay, I might as well pay the whole thing, I mean I had the money, so what's the point of paying interest, right? Luckily, David had his new laptop in the car with us, so we set about trying to find a wifi hotspot. We found one(the simplified version) - but then I realized I didn't remember how much the balance was. So, I called home and got mom to go and get the bill off my desk and tell me the balance. She did so without complaint - thanks mom. Then, I go into the Second cup where I had seen the hotspot sign in the window. Coincidentally, it was where we were meeting David's friends before the movie. I get a drink, hot apple cider with cinnamon, and try to get on the internet. I couldn't. Well, I could, but access was restricted to second cup's website, rogers.ca etc. In order to really use the internet you had to pay. $6 for 1 hr. I didn't clue in that that is about what the interest charges would have been(maybe more actually), but went straight ahead and purchased 1 hr with my credit card. Upon the completion of the transaction, it notifies me that my username and password will be emailed to me shortly and that I should log into my email and get the username and password then log into their network with them. But wait just a second . . . . . .I CAN'T USE MY EMAIL BECAUSE THEY NEED ME TO LOG IN FISRT. AGHHHHHHH!!!!!! The stupidity of this system is mind boggling. So, I ask the girl behind the counter what they do in this situation as it must come up a lot. She shrugs and says, "I don't know, it's not my problem, the Rogers people look after that wireless stuff." and walks away. At this point I was pretty ticked off as I had wasted $6 and still hadn't been able to pay the bill. Finally I admitted defeat, watched the movie and payed the bill when I got home - after midnight by a fair chunk. I will definitely be contacting the hotspot folks to demand my money back - for advertising a service that you can't actually use unless you can connect to the internet on your own anyway in which case you wouldn't need their services. I'm also going to complain to second cup about how rude the girl behind the counter was. Even if she couldn't help, there was no call for her to be so rude about it. Anyway. Though defeated, in my on time bill paying saga, I fell I must not remain silent. I'll let y'all (I talk to Americans wayyyy to much) know the outcome, but I suspect it won't come of anything. Grrr, greedy corporate houses of coffee - I don't even drink coffee. . . . .they put a little bah in my humbug - and I was having such a good Christmas season - ok, well I still am. :) noggins on Thursday people . . .noggins on Thursday.