This is a repost of something I posted on Fetlife about a year ago:
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Really, what I'm about to describe is just such typical Chicago crap and a good illustration of one reason why it is that I don't just want to move out of Chicago, but in fact out of the Midwest - this petty passive aggression that my fellow locals love so well, that getting almost anything done around here is almost impossible.
I was going to go to the January 30 Play Party, which is announced on this page. One might think that this would not be a problem, sure nothing that would result in an experience that merited a blog post. I want to go, the organizer is happy to have me there, and it's a quick commute. We're in the same city, a few miles apart, and I wouldn't even have to use the bus to do this, probably. We're both near the El. Even if every street in the city were barricaded (and I don't know why that would happen), I could still make the trip in a little over half an hour, so how difficult could this be?
Plenty, when people at the club are having fun being a pain in the ass. I don't have a credit card, but as I said to the organizer, money is money. Right? Isn't it? In order to go to the play party, I have to purchase a $15 trial membership. I can't do that by credit card, but how about if I just bring the club owners the $15 in cash. $15 is $15, right? This made sense to the organizer, who gave me the email address for the club owners. As per his suggestion, I "reached out" to these fun loving individuals. And waited. And waited. No response.
I wrote back to the organizer, and told him what happened, pointed out that we were running out of time, and asked him what I should do at this point. He gave me two more email addresses to try, which I did, and after I did that, they wrote back, using (as I soon noticed) the first email address I used, one which they had (as far as I can tell) not bothered to check, even though a monthly event was coming up. In response to my suggestion that I just take the freaking El and bring them some petty cash, they wrote this.
"Thanks for your email! We are glad you'd like to give GD2 a try.
There are a couple of options for paying without using a credit card. Please note that regardless of the method of payment, each week your application and payment need to be received by Thursday in order for your membership to be active in time for the weekend.
The two options are:
1.Submit your application and payment via U.S. mail to:
(Address deleted)
If you choose to go this route, please let us know via email when you've mailed the application so that we know when to check the PO Box to expedite the process.
2.Purchase a gift card or a prepaid debit card and use it to pay online.
We appreciate the offer to bring cash over in person, and while we accept applications and advance payment at the club, it isn't an option for this weekend. GD2 is open only on weekends, so it wouldn't meet this week's deadline.
As far as our location, GD2 is located at (location deleted). The actual address is provided to members and to non-members who RSVP to specific events.
If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Our best,
Wilson and Jerith
Directors
Galleria Domain 2 NFP"
They didn't bother to send me this until two hours ago. It is now 1:17 am, and Thursday has just begun. For this plan of theirs to work, the Post Office has to get mail from my neighborhood to their neighborhood in the space of a few hours. That's never going to happen in real life, and they know it. As I said in the closing of my most recent message to the organizer of this Play Party that seems likely to give me a stroke, at this point,
"I found that there was no effort on their part to work with me at all. What I got was the proverbial bum's rush. I'm going to have to skip the event, not because I don't want to go, but because the people you have handling the ticketing didn't feel like being cooperative. How hard would it have been for them to say 'be at this location at such and such a time, and bring your cash'?
They just weren't willing to do that."
because, I guess, it's much more fun for them to say "ha ha, neener neener, fuck you, we get to screw with your weekend plans, and that makes us important." It's non-cooperation for the sake of non-cooperation, and as I said, it's such typical Chicago bullcrap. Chicagoans, by and large, are assholes, and I say this as a native. These two guys, obviously, had no desire to be exceptions.
This is a very big part of why I want to move. When tasks this trivial become this impossible because my neighbors love being this difficult, I have to ask in exactly what sense am I free? Free to do what? Apparently, not free to go to a fucking party, in this case.
I could list other cases (many other cases) in which I got to watch Chicagoan douchebaggery shred my plans, not the least of which would be the way in which my grad school education was rendered worthless in the local job market because the "nice" Midwesterners working in the front office decided that they didn't feel personally fulfilled by the thought of filing my resume in business after business, but forget it. I want to get out the door for a very quick, very late (and probably not very good) dinner before I feel the need to shove my fist through the monitor.
I'm pretty sure that would void the warranty on the monitor, and it wouldn't be too good for my hand, either.
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Contact information has been deleted because I'm not here to out anybody. Did you notice that Wilson and Jerith's last names are absent.
Over on Fet, after I posted this, a very brief discussion followed. A very nice lady wrote
"I have had similar frustrations.. It really sucks you missed your party
but next time just go get a prepaid credit card from the gas station.
You could've called to activate it in two seconds and then just have a
credit card you cut in half when you're done."
and I replied
"Useful information. Thank you. Having a mild care of cerebral
palsy (I probably should mention that in my personal introduction), I
never learned how to drive, so anything that happens at a gas station is
something that I know nothing about, but there are a few within easy
walking distance of my apartment.
1. I ran into a lot of rudeness from GD2's fan club, so that seems to be a bad place to hang out, and
2. Far more pleasantly (and importantly), I went to some kink events held at other locations, and had a great time with some really nice and interesting people. No hoop jumping, and I had some new experiences, and it was wonderful. At one of these events, I met my current girlfriend and to me, that, of course, is the most important news of all.
So, washing my hands of GD2 isn't leaving a void in my kinky life.
But I'll keep what you told in mind, the next time I need a credit card. Experience tells me that will be soon."
I could probably add "because having seen what the word 'kinky' means, I'm not sure that I qualify", but these points stand and I got a useful piece of information from this.