Today I was introduced to what is the pain in the ass of the Fulton County Health Dept. I had to get Elizabeth’s Pre-K Hearing/Vision/Dental Screening done so I could finish up her paperwork, and I thought doing this today would be a better idea than the first of the week.
I missed my turn to the building, then had to deal with the hell of getting turned back around in Midtown at 9am in the morning. Stupid, stupid me. That wasted a half an hour, and when I finally got to the office, the only place to park was at a meter at a parallel parking space. Have I told y’all lately that I really don’t parallel park? I didn’t even have to do it for my driver’s license test. Elizabeth kept yelling from the backseat to just let her out, while I maneuvered back and forth, praying that I could get this done without too much trouble, and then realizing that I didn’t know how much change I had to feed the meter once I finally got parked. Slapping enough in for 50 minutes, I prayed that it wouldn’t run out.
Once in the parking space, we walked into the building and were greeted by a huge line of people just waiting to get through the security check. Elizabeth was really good, considering there were grown adults that couldn’t seem to deal with standing in line and signing in. She just played with her Hot Wheels fire truck that we brought with us and was generally quiet. She was actually really excited to get the security guard to wave the wand over her, which the guard laughed at.
We got up to the actual floor, finally, and spent an hour waiting to have someone tell me that she didn’t need another Hep B shot at this time. I know that, I replied (nicely, dammit), I just need to get her Pre-K screening. Oh, then someone will be with you in a minute.
Fast-forward another thirty minutes (remember, my meter was only filled up for 50 minutes), and finally a nurse came out and in 10 minutes had Elizabeth’s Ears, Eyes and Teeth looked at. She signed the paperwork (after having to double-check that Elizabeth didn’t need her Hep B, again), and we were out of there, Elizabeth complaining that she didn’t want to go back to school, and me praying that the meter-person hadn’t been by my car yet.
Thankfully, someone was listening, because while my meter was flashing “Expired” at me when I got Elizabeth back to the car, there weren’t any nasty pieces of paper attached to my windshield. I got her buckled in, and high-tailed it out of Midtown and back up to Elizabeth’s school, which wasn’t what Elizabeth wanted to do, of course, but it had to be done so I could get the work that I’d put off so I could get this stuff done. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to deal with them again in the near future.
