Bother...

My friends were kind enough last night to treat me to a bit of nostalgia. They had told me a few weeks ago that upon their return from their summer trip to Canada, they were planning to try to create a cholov yisroel version of poutine. Well, last night was the lucky night, and the husband popped over with a nice bowl of it for me.

Their phone call to notify me that they were going to stop over with the said bowl served as the catalyst for my going downstairs to collect the mail; I had not yet exited the house, despite yesterday being an unseasonably beautiful day weather-wise. Anyhoo, down I went to deposit the trash in the receptacle and scoop up the mail. And what was waiting for me? A letter from UI. UGH.

Turns out, I have a mandatory appointment next week, to which I have to bring a copy of my CV and the completed application that came with the mail. The application is, of course, nothing more than a duplicate of the information found in my resume and my claim application. It always frazzles me when, in this e-age, I am required to duplicate information that has already been provided. Case in point: you call customer service, enter all your information, and then have to reiterate the same data to the representative once your call is connected. WHY? If anyone knows the reason for this inefficiency, please let me know, because it runs counter to my yekki Virgo nature.

A clue about the nature of the appointment was on the form itself: "If you do not have a resume or fail to bring one with you, you will be scheduled to attend a Resume Writing Workshop.". Just what someone who is in the middle of a job search but left their resume at home needs- to have yet more of their time wasted with appointments, when they could be using that time to contact companies and hmmm, actually procure a job. Having attended one such appointment in the past while on UI in the South, I have an idea of what is store for me. In brief, a small room crammed full of other suckers, where one UI representative ostensibly informs us of our rights and duties under UI, when really the purpose of the appointment is to keep tabs on claimants. I mean, it's basically like detention. Not that I know anything about detention, of course. ;=)

The one good thing about the appointment is that at least it didn't fall on my birthday. B'H'. And, the timing of the letter couldn't have been better. Because, after opening the letter and fuming for a bit, I had a still-hot bowl of poutine to salve my sorrows. You just can't beat that! It really is good to have friends...