Expand Your Mind!

I understand that there is a large percentage of the human population out there that is not capable of thinking "outside the box." And people act like doing that is so difficult, but it's really simple, actually.

I used to work with a woman who was completely incapable of learning new things or doing any work outside of what she had been doing for the last 5 years. It was like she was a robot - programmed to do only one task, and any upgrades would be incompatable with her software. Never did I think I'd meet someone who aggravated me as much as she did on that point... until this weekend.

So A.D. and I were headed up to Baltimore for a baseball game. We were planning on staying there for the night, so I was going to leave my car at her place. Apparently, her community is cracking down non-residents leaving their cars overnight, so now you have to register your vehicle with the desk, which entails the desk person signing a permit that you leave in your windshield. Okay... fine. I can get down with that. I go in and ask the woman at the desk for a permit to leave my car overnight. She looks at me for a second like I have 3 heads, and then goes searching for them.

Desk: It looks like we don't have any more...
Me: Okay... so do I just sign something in the book or can you make new ones?
Desk: No, we don't have any more here... Let me see if I can find them.
She starts slowly moving around the desk area, arbitrarily lifting pieces of paper and pushing stacks around.
Desk: No, looks like there are none left.
She stands there staring at me.
Me: Umm... So what am I supposed to do then? You don't have a master copy that you can just photocopy and give me?
Desk: (staring blankly at me) No, let me call over to the other building and see if they have some.
Me: Well, we're kind of in a hurry here... We're late for an event (which we were).
She calls the other building, who does happen to have some one-day passes, then tells them that she's sending a resident over to pick them up... i.e. me and A.D. When we come back with them, I notice that they say that my car has to be gone by 9am the next day, which is obviously not going to happen.

Me: I was looking at these and they say that I have to be gone by 9am... Is that 9am tomorrow morning?
Desk: Yes.
Me: Well, I'm not going to be able to leave before 9am.
Desk: Well tomorrow morning, just come downstairs before 9 and we'll give you a new one.
Me: No, we're leaving and not coming back here until tomorrow afternoon. I'm not going to be here to get a new pass from you.
Desk: Ohhh... Well, I don't know then. You should've told me that before.
Me: Well, "before" I didn't know that the permit would expire at 9am. I thought it would be a 24 hour permit.
Desk: Well I thought she (pointing at A.D.) knew.
Me: How is she supposed to know if this is new and she's never had to get a pass before?? Can't you just cross out the time and put a "12pm" on there or something?
Desk: No, I'll get fired if I do that.
Come on now... Really? I seriously doubt she'll get fired for allowing me to park an extra 3 hours.
Me: Are you serious? Holy cow. Well can you just give me 2 passes, then? One for today and one for tomorrow, and I can put them both in my window?
Desk: No, management won't allow that.
Me: You gotta be kidding me...
Desk: Let me call the other building again and see if they have 2 week passes...
Me: No, forget it. We don't have time to drive over to the other building, nor do I need a 2 week pass. This is ridiculous. We'll just take my car...

We were taking A.D.'s car because she had just filled her tank with gas, and mine has been acting up. But anyway, I wish you could've been there for all of this, because this narrative doesn't even BEGIN to describe how aggravating it was dealing with this woman. We could've solved everything in one of two ways:
1.) Ask the person in the other building to give you some of each kind of pass, not just a stack of one-day passes or
2.) JUST GIVE ME 2 PASSES TO PUT IN MY WINDSHIELD!

I mean, really. Are they REALLY going to fire you for giving me an extra pass to park for an extra few hours?? Who stays somewhere overnight and is gone by 9am anyway??? The point is that this woman in no way tried to think of any solution to the situation. It was like she couldn't see past the "by the book" procedures... no way to bypass her programming. I swear, I don't know how Natural Selection has weeded all of these people out...