where is that application I need to complete for sainthood?

I have been out doing good, and practicing tolerance/selfcontrol. I was thinking to myself I have begun to develop so much patience for aggravating situations, I might need to change my name to Theresa (as in Mother!) but think maybe I should just wait till I get to the Pearly Gates and see just how many stars have already been placed in the 'standard issue' crown before I pat myself on the back. It has not be a particularly productive day, but certainly not due to lack of effort on my part.

I have a friend, someone that I know really as an acquaintance, mostly just casually, as a customer passing through the workplace. As she begins to struggle with problems associate with aging and has assorted health concerns, I gave her my phone number and told her she should call me if she needed help doing daily things like grocery shopping or getting to doctor's appointments. She has actually called me a couple of times and given her grocery list by phone, I would go to the store and deliver it to her door, where she would generously reimburse me for purchases and time.  She called over the weekend and needed a ride to an appointment at the pain clinic. I did her grocery buying and took parcels over when I went to pick her up on Monday for the trip to the medical office. We sucessfully nagivated the labrynth  and I returned her home.

As we were chatting, whiling away the time in the waiting room and cubicle, she talked about problems with telephone: connections, batteries, service and said that she was planning to discontinue the service on her home-based business phone. I offered to make the call for her. And had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

I have called AT&T five times. Two on Monday, and three today. And only had the delightful opportunity to talk to a real person once, when I called at 8:02 this morning right after they opened for business with the profoundly aggravating voice mail system. But that very pleasant CSR, located in Idaho could not help me because I could not prove I was the person with the business phone, in spite of the fact that I blatantly lied and told her I was. Without back-up evidence, CSR said I would have to call back and start over with 1-800-aggravation, as there is no 'shortcut' number to avoid the long annoying process of 'punch this if you mean that'.

Which I did this afternoon with evidence in hand, and left a number for them to call me back instead of spending 27 minutes on hold. They did not call back - which is, I guess, the way they get people to just keep paying and paying and paying because they get so irritated with voicemail choices they throw the phone out in the back yard and get billed for service regardless.

I plan to try again (with evidence in hand) in the morning at 8:01. Wish me luck?