Fed Up

On my way to church this morning a car with out of state license plates cut in front of me. I don’t remember what state it was from because my eyes were distracted by the letters on the license plate. I looked twice to make sure I was seeing straight and on second look I was sure that it was IMFEDUP. I immediately forgot about what I was thinking of at the time and started to devote my time on the words on the license plate – I’m Fed Up.

At first I thought that it was pretty clever and then I had a feeling of wanting to catch up with the driver and ask him/her (didn’t notice who was driving) what they were fed up about. They must have had a good reason for requesting that license plate, I thought. Who were they fed up with? What were they fed up with? Those were the questions that kept popping up in my mind. The questions subsided when I finally lost sight of the car.

My thoughts now turned to me. What was I fed up with? When you have lived over fifty years there are many things one can get fed up with. I noticed that one side of my brain kept asking what are you fed up with and the other side started coming up with answers.

What are you fed up with?

I’m fed up with the bozo at the traffic department who’s responsible for the traffic lights in the city. I’m fed up with having to stop at four successive red lights in a 200 yard span. As one light turns green, the next light a few hundred feet away turns red and so on it goes. It's stop, go, stop , go, it's maddening. Why doesn’t someone synchronize the blasted lights that way you’re not stopping every 20 seconds? Talk about trying to conserve fuel – how the heck can you?

What are you fed up with?

I’m fed up with the conditions of our streets and roads. I think the streets in Baghdad even after all the bombings must be in better shape than the ones in the city. I’d like to have 1% of the money that Umbro Construction has made from continuously digging up our streets. What’s with all the construction? Is it ever going to end?

What are you fed up with?

I’m fed up with people not yielding at rotaries. I’m also fed up with rotaries. I challenge you to stand at a rotary and see if within 15 minutes you don’t witness a dozen near misses. Talk about taking your life in your hands. Yield doesn’t mean to go faster.

What are you fed up with?

I’m fed up with calling a customer service department of any large company. These are no longer customer service, but customer annoyance lines. I love it when the recording comes on and says, “Your call is important to us…..” – Bull, if our call was important, you would hire a few more people to service your customers. I feel bad about taking out my anger at the poor stiff that has such an ungrateful job.

Have you noticed that credit card companies make it hard for you to call them if you think there's an error on your bill? They ask you to take up the matter via mail.

What are you fed up with?

If you’re under fifty this is probably not of concern to you yet, but at my age, I’m fed up with the lack of restrooms available in the city. God forbid you get an upset stomach while riding the T – where do you go?
Just got an idea of how to make some money; compile a list of locations of restrooms, publish it and sell it. Let’s see Filene’s has one on the fifth floor I believe, but it’s well hidden. You see even the places that have one make it difficult for you to find them.

What are you fed up with?

The drive-through windows, especially at Dunkin Donuts, where half the time, either the speakers need to be adjusted or the newly arrived immigrant cannot be understood. I go up to the window, wait and there and then here something like, “Abar der abah?” At first I would ask them to repeat themselves, now I just assume that they are asking me what I want in Dunkin lingo and just give them my order and hope that they understand. Why is it that I can always understand, “OK, drive-Up?”

What are you fed up with?

I’m fed up with supermarkets not putting price labels on items and jacking up the price of a product whenever they have a buy one get one free sale. Why do you have to wait so long at the Express lane?

What are you fed up with?

I’m tired of credit card companies continually sending blank checks and trying to entice me to spend more than I can afford, plus I have to be careful how I dispose of these. Why don’t they send one worth some money for a change? I’ve got plenty of blank checks; I don’t need anymore thank you.
Why doesn't the Post Office charge them the same amount as I pay, when I mail a check?

I need to stop since I arrived at my destination.

What are you fed up with?