great service, bad system

NYC is a big city and while it often works, it sometimes doesn't.

I apply for a program called SCRIE in early April. If approved, my rent will be frozen. 

A few weeks later, I receive another note from SCRIE — this time requesting two more documents. I send the requested items via certified mail with a required-signature needed. I receive back a stamped document saying everything was received on April 29, and signed for by someone named Kane something.

The other day I receive a Second Notice asking for the same documents I sent, and that were confirmed as received.

I can't call. I can't email. 311 cannot really help. I go downtown to the SCRIE offices this morning.

I arrive a little before ten and the waiting area is already filled. I take a number, literally. 95. The red number counter (exactly like the one at Fairway's deli) is lit at 76.  I'm going to be here a while.

I settle in. Between Words With Friends and the book I'm starting (Luckiest Girl Alive), I have enough to keep me occupied. But there are too many distractions to stay focused. There's...

• The hard-to-ignore woman who is loudly arguing with a state employee about why she shouldn't have to pay a ticket because the address on her summons is for an address she no longer lives at.

• The high-volume television playing the same NY One news over and over. Today is going to be 90 degrees and sticky. Oh, and those two escaped convicts from upstate New York are still roaming around and are considered to be very dangerous.

• The guy who thinks whistling is okay (it's something that makes my skin crawl).

• The people who don't mute their phones so every single letter they type is heard as an annoying click.

• The extremely loud woman who is here for "Jimmy's mother" and has pulled a chair up to a table, feet up on another chair, and is on the phone talking about Jamie's four-times-a-day showering habit, hoping to go trout fishing this weekend, her 45% investment in something (I think dog racing), and other uninteresting topics.

I am on good behavior and say nothing. Alexander would be proud.

Finally, after 45 minutes I am called. Carmelita is knowledgeable and helpful. She can't explain why I was sent a second notice on June 10 requesting the documents they received on April 29.  I'm hoping I won't be getting a third notice, but Carmelita can offer no promises.