And the reason why my versatility score sucked…

I am just not a huge people person. I love my friends, I love my family, but strangers, especially rude ones, just irk the crap out of me.

If you are one of those people who is interested in personality types I fall under the title of “Analytical Analytical” in the Wilson Learning assessment of social styles. There are four quadrants that everyone is categorized under (Analytical, Driver, Amiable and Expressive – or if you work on one of my projects than you have heard them as Rude People, Assholes, Pushovers and Fake…). Then there are subsets of each. My being Analytical Analytical puts me at the extreme of one of the four personality types. Probably not a good thing. This “not a good thing” is compounded by the fact that my versatility score was abysmal. This means I rarely adapt to make other people comfortable. And being the typical non-versatile rude analytical my response is “why the hell should I?” ;-)

So I call to schedule retakes for Leif’s “school” pictures. I should have taken note by the look on Leif’s face that the photographer was not a nice person. He is shooting daggers at her.

After 30 seconds on the phone with her I decide to just ask for my money back to not waste her, or my time anymore. She reminds me that refunds are issued only after retakes are taken and they are deemed not acceptable by her. Give me a break… <>

Ok, so she starts out, “what exactly is wrong with the pictures”?

My response (in my head I am saying ‘he is looking at you like you are the devil’) but I switch to “well he just appears very unhappy, and he was crying beforehand”.

Ok, she agrees, retakes are warranted. When would I like to come in, reminder, I must be in within 2 weeks from last Friday for no charge retakes.

Well this weekend would work great, I tell her. Sorry she says, my hours are Monday thru Friday 11am to 5pm. I tell her that just isn’t doable. She asks why and I “politely" remind her that I work and that is why my son is in daycare. Well if I want retakes I will make it work evidently and why can’t I just pop him down there at noon?

Well let’s see, you open at 11am, that is lunchtime at daycare (a time when toddlers are notoriously cranky, at least mine). After that they go down for a nap. Up about 2:45pm. Going over lunch, not doable.

I plead with her, can’t you just refund the money, you have seen the shots? No dice.

She suggests I bring him by after daycare and I tell her that no, he is very fussy after daycare, ready for dinner. Well she will consider making an exception and can meet me at 8pm one night. Well great, so you want to come to my house and photograph him sleeping? We start the bedtime process at 7pm and last night he was out at 7:20pm.

Apparently I am just being “difficult” and she tells me that there is no guarantee that if she gave up her weekend (coming in for the 10 minutes she tells me it takes to shoot a picture is akin to “giving up a weekend”) and came in to take his picture that he wouldn’t be fussy then.

I responded that “actually I disagree with you. I know my son and could schedule this for when he is awake and most likely to be good for pictures”. Still a no go for a weekend slot.

She wins. Leif and I will “pop” by after daycare next Tuesday evening. There is some part of me that hopes he is in an extreme crappy mood so I can say “I told you so, why don’t you just not waste your time in developing and printing the reprints and just refund my money”.