Playing the Lottery

I'm pretty hotmad right now.
WOW!

I am trying to find a school for My Little One, preferably a Montessori school.

I heard about one that's right, literally, on the same street as the nursing home where Pop is living. So night before last, on the way home, my husband and I drive past it, look around the outside of the school and jot down the phone number. I find online that the school has a website and drop in an e-mail requesting more information, specifically asking if they have an opening in the 3-5 year old class in March.

No response.

Okay, I'm fine with that. Sometimes e-mail is filtered by junk mail systems, and I understand that. So, today, I call the school. I asked if they have an opening, and the nice lady on the phone relays that no, they indeed, do NOT have an opening at this time, but she could put My Little One down on the waiting list, that there's an abbreviated summer program, and that there's a $75 registration fee, blah blah blah.

Me: But I don't have to pay that until she's actually accepted, right?
NL (nice lady): Yes, you do have to pay that when you turn in the paperwork I'll send you.
Me: But what happens if my child doesn't get accepted at all? How do I get that money back? What's your policy about refunding it? Or do you use it toward the registration costs when she IS accepted?
NL: We don't. There's no refund on that registration fee.

*awkward pause*

Me (calmly but agitated): Are you KIDDING me?! You don't refund the money? That's a dumb policy. Why do you have that policy?

*NL begins to panic, shuffling papers suddenly*

NL: I don't know. That's just their policy.

(me in my brain quietly, "f*ck the elusive 'their'...who the eff do 'they' think they are?! that's totally jacked up!)

Me (calmly): Well I will call another school. That's a ridiculous policy.

*click*

I didn't even say good-bye.

And in case you didn't know this about me, I loatheloatheLOATHE the phrase "I don't know" unless it's followed by the phrase, "but I will find out and follow up with you" or "let's find out together right now, shall we?". Especially in work matters. If you don't know WHY you have a policy, then you're dumb. If you can't justify your work and why you matter there, then go home. Seriously quit wasting everyone's time, energy and money. Find your passion and do it. Either that, or be passionate about what you're doing RIGHT NOW.

So....let me get this straight. I mean, I'm just thinking out loud here, m'kay? I have to PAY YOU to hold a CHANCE for my kid to get in to your school? Hmmm. How about NO. I'm already going to be paying out! the! ass! aaaaalllll of the supply fees, the technology usage fees, some other miscellanous fees, and the freakin' TUITION! This sounds eerily like the Texas lottery. And we all know that, at least in Texas, the lottery money is NOT spent on education the way it was marketed years and years ago.

This must be the untapped into anger that my therapist keeps telling me that I'm stuffing down with food.

Yeah -- I'm pretty peeved about this.

*breeeeeeaaatttthhhhhe*

*counting to ten*

*breeeeeeeaaaaaattttttthhhhhheeeeeeeeee*

Seriously, though, it's bullshit.