Done being polite.

You heard me. I'm done with it. It gets you nowhere. Cases in point:

1. The waitress spilled half a pitcher of ice water on me Sunday. The manager saw it happen and apologized profusely. I told them everything was fine and calmly blotted at my clothes with the damp towel they gave me. In the end, they gave us the check -- and comped *nothing.*

2. I spent last week politely calling the doctor's office to renew a prescription for a pain medication. They spent the week dicking me around. The long weekend came, I ran out of the pain medication and they still hadn't called the refill into the pharmacy. So I had to go through the weekend in serious pain and couldn't do shit about it. Then I called again today and politely reminded them that they were dicking me around. The woman tried to tell me that my other medication (an anti-inflammatory that does jack shit for pain) is "the same thing" as the pain medication. This is when I flipped out. She apologized and said she'd call the prescription in immediately.

But then, flipping out didn't work either. I went to the pharmacy to pick it up and they said nothing had been called in.

3. Last week I politely told my editors that my circa-1990 computer blows. They said I was next on the list for a new one and that I'd get said new one last week. A week later, I still have the same circa-1990 computer and when I came in today it refused to start up. So now instead of having a barely-working, no-memory piece of crap, I have no computer.

After sitting at my desk, reading the New York Times, waiting for the "help desk" to call from Neptune (the town, not the planet... I'm told) for hours, I said fuck it and told my editor she could call me at home if she needs anything.

So yeah. I'm done with politeness. I'm done with everything. Maybe I'll move to Thailand and open my own brothel...