Marvy...

It was quite a while back that I first noticed that folks in the bureaucracy often had differing ideas about how the rules are to be interpreted. And now that bumping up against bureaucracy is an ever-more frequent affair, I'm noticing how many more opportunities there are for those varying interpretations to occur. It's not like you can really do anything about it, so I guess this will require a certain store of serenity to overcome.

And it's bureaucracies of all types, mind you, although I guess different things drive different bureaucracies.

For example, Galina and I went to T-Mobile, ready to switch over from Verizon, but learned that the former's offer to "buy out" an existing contract was predicated on buying a device from T-Mobile. Based on what I saw at the store, those prices would appear to be "manufacturer's suggested list," and not discounted, I would imagine to help to offset the cost of a buyout. Daunted, we went to Verizon, where we learned that if you own a Verizon smartphone, you have to have a data plan.

Ye gods.

It was mostly that kind of day.