Laughing at the inconveniences, errors, and everything failing.

7:54am
I enter Buck's home, I'm on time for our 8am appointment.

We go over the paperwork between ourselves to confirm our understanding of the business part of things between us, therefore keep our friendship safe from any unexpected arguments.

I read out loud what we've decided on, and add several small details to make the document as clear as possible.

8:27am
We're ready. Two identical documents are printed, now all we need is the notary. The appointment is set for 10am, it's a 45 minute drive to get to my bank (since the bank Buck has his account at doesn't have any notary on hand on a Saturday). Good ol' Buck lives out, damn near way out of town.

So we naturally talk and joke thirty minutes away on how to spend the rest of the day. There's an anniversary even for a dear friend of ours who passed away years ago. We hadn't gone to the previous events due to scheduling, so we decide on that and then choose a writer's group event for the evening.

9:02am
We start the drive into town and toward my bank. We arrive well before 10am and patiently wait our turn for the notary to be available.

9:57am
We enter the notary's office and show her the documentation and our identification cards. She only needs a quick look at the final page of the document to know we dun goofed. "The notary's signing block is missing. And the notary can't also be a witness."

Looking at page three of our contract my mind immediately recalls all the documents I've gone over for my day job, and yeah, what Buck had put for the notary to sign and stamp wasn't what I've always seen and expected.

I was so focused on making sure the first two pages were accurate and the understanding between Buck and I was flawless that I didn't pay ANY attention to the third page beyond the fact that there were spots for he, the notary, and I to sign.

I knew that the rest of the day for the bank was already booked. I barely could book the 10am meeting on the app after Buck called me to say his bank's notary wouldn't be available. This saturday would be the only day for weeks that Buck and I would be free at the same time the bank would be open.

Ugh!

Defeated, we went back to my car and set up a bank appointment for the next time Buck and I could meet. The appointment was made for me, I wanted to make a second one later in the day just in case something else went wrong. The app wouldn't allow me - can't accept multiple appointments for the same individual on the same day. And I immediately thought of the Captain Picard meme, "Well, fuck you too!"

After a breath, I said to Buck, "Hey man, I'm sending you a link, please make an appointment for this day at 12pm."

Buck dutifully goes through the link and hits the final "schedule appointment" button.

Nothing happens.

We wait a minute.

Nothing happens.

He swipes down on the top of the screen to refresh the page, then presses the button again.

Nothing happens.

"Maybe it's because you're using wifi?" I suggested turning the wifi off, refreshing the page, and pressing the button.

Nothing happens.

W-T-F is on both our faces.

"Well, it was just to have a backup in case of something going wrong anyway," I say - which is funny since the backup was what failed.

Feeling a bit saddened, but accepting that at least we had an appointment made for later and a plan set for it, I relaxed. Buck on the other hand was mentally anxious in his physically calm body, he was checking something on his phone. Looking back to me he said, "Hey Zach, Google says UPS [he legit said "ups" not U-P-S, "ups"] has a notary."

"Really?" (Yeah, I'm not really mentally active after I've "solved the problem" as far as my mind is concerned. It didn't occur to me that most businesses actually have a notary on hand for documentation purposes.)

"It says so, I'll call and check." Buck called and the first UPS didn't have anyone. They did suggest another UPS location. Another call and yeah, they have one on hand and he'll be there until 3pm today.

VICTORY!!!

10:11am
I start the engine of my car and begin the drive back to Buck's place (he had the file and printer at home, and didn't/shouldn't sign into his network on a public terminal).

10:55am
We arrive at his house and start going over which notary signing block to add and come to the realization that there are several options. The notary at my bank suggested a basic one and she said it'll be fine, but now Buck and I are feeling paranoid and want to be sure before he prints out two more originals to be signed for us to drive to the closest UPS with a notary (28 minutes out) just to find out it's not acceptable.

11:10am
Buck calls the UPS again to ask if he could email a copy of what we have to that UPS story for the notary to confirm if what we have is acceptable. Justin on the other end agrees and gives us the store's email.

Buck can't manage to save a copy of the document to be emailed on his phone (he prefers the phone).

11:22am
I aid Buck in saving a copy of the contract to his computer (I don't really use the phone version much if at all), and help him with the email (I correspond via email everyday, Buck doesn't do so professionally, ever).

11:25am
Justin confirms all is good to go. Buck goes to print the two original documents for notarizing via the computer.

He has to setup the printer, and that fact gives Buck the most agitated and "done" face I've ever seen. (If only I took a picture.)

He goes to his phone to print from there as he did before at 8:27am.

Nothing happens.

"Uh, what." He tries again.

Nothing happens.

He clears the full history, closes every tab, opens the document back up and tries to print again.

Nothing happens.

Two other attempts trying different things.

Nothing happens.
And . . .

Nothing happens.

We're cracking jokes and desperation.

. . .

More jokes.

. . .

Then, while Buck is looking at his phone's settings he realizes, "The wifi is off, you turned if off trying to get the appointment to work!" We burst out laughing for nearly a minute.

Wifi is turned back on and the printer works.

11:50am
We drive over to UPS

12:15pm
We enter UPS and wait our turn for the notary. It's a bit of a wait, but we get seen and the documents filled-in. The total charge was five dollars and change.

Five dollars and change, that was all we were trying to save by using the bank.

UGH!

12:39pm
We're out of the UPS, and heading out to eat in celebration as we agreed we'd earned it after all that mess on a simple endeavor. A small adventure out of something that should have taken anywhere near as long, nor been such an emotional rollercoaster.

Photo by Free Walking Tour Saizburg