Number 10!

I went to the IRS office recently. Oh great...here goes my entire day, right? I needed something "official" that reported how much money I owed the IRS for an attorney that was helping me with a legal matter. What a lovely way to spend my afternoon. It would have been easier to tell my attorney that I owed somewhere around...oh, let's just make it easy and say my first-born son. So I walked in, and there was one man being helped at the counter. That's it. I was amazed at my good fortune. The IRS worker (who was the only worker there) was helping this other customer, and as soon as I entered, he ordered me to take a number and have a seat. He was very bossy about it. I did as commanded. I was number 10. I waited about 5 minutes until this other customer finished his inquiry. I could have told him what he needed to know...just send half your money in; it would have saved him his time. I stood up in anticipation of my turn with the government, when to my utter astonishment, the IRS worker looked up and scanned the room like he was trying to spot someone in particular. Right...like the room was packed with eager tax payers. He then burst out with, "Number 10?, number 10!" Was he kidding me? I was the only person in the room. Was this IRS humor? I don't know. I wanted to laugh out loud, only I was afraid he would put some sort of mockery penalty on my already sky-high bill. I actually looked down at my little paper to make sure he was addressing me. It was indeed my turn. He processed my request quickly (and happily I noticed), and I was on my way. On my way out, he asked me to fill out a survey about how the service was. It was one of those "fill in the bubble" things, like you do in school. It had to be filled out with a pencil, but I didn't have one on me, and he wasn't offering any from his very well-stocked pencil cup. Cheapskates. I give them half my money, but they can't loan me the lead from a pencil to fill out a survey on how well they are serving me. Tell ya what, if this were any other store, I think I would ask for my money back!