When I started this blog the point was that I get annoyed easily and needed an outlet other than my husband, to vent at. But it morphed into just an occasional diary I suppose. Until today. Now I'm gonna let loose and get it all out.
I did something bad today, it was not nice. It started about 6 months ago when a co-workers kid was selling magazines to go to camp or something. I paid $40 for a three year subscription to Parents Magazine. I kept the receipt in my purse all this time. Last month the first issue showed up. Only it wasn't Parents, then sent me Parent and Child, a magazine Scholastic gives my kids daycare for free. That is not what I wanted. And they spelled my name Karistan. Like the rug people. Oh yeah and Weard.... is that even a real name?
Anyway, I kind of forgot about it until today when magazine number 2 showed up. I told myself this time I'm getting that receipt out. I called the number at the bottom.
The girl answers the phone "Data Processing how may I help you"....data processing?? Okay. I told her my problem. She looks it up, we talk about the gross misspelling of my names, she corrects and verifies address. Then tells me Parents magazine went out of business....um hello?? No they didn't. But I let it slide. I politely explain that Parent and Child Magazine is not comparable to what I paid for. She said to get a refund I would need to fax in my receipt. Okay so normally this wouldn't be a problem for me. Except I'm at home, no fax machine there and really I don't think its appropriate to be using company resources to fax personal items, when we have to lay off 8,000 people in the next month.
So I ask her if they are going to refund me the cost of the fax at Kinko's. No she says, mail it then. Well are you gonna pay for my stamp. Huh, she says, what's the problem? Its not that hard. Okay now she's ticked me off. I was going to let it go, I was going to just fax the receipt from work like a good little girl, and work 15 minutes of unpaid overtime to cover it ;)
But now I'm arguing on principal. The receipt says to call this number if I'm not satisfied. Well I'm not satisfied, what are you going to do to fix it? She says well if you don't like it you can call the publisher. Fine, give me that number.
"Hello, hot singles are waiting for you" Damn her. She gave me a porn line to call.
I called back and home girl answers again. This time she knows its me and says immediately I don't know what your problem is? Just fax the receipt so we can prove you didn't get what you ordered.
Uhuh, I want to talk to your supervisor. I am the supervisor. Okay girlie, now you've done it. I used to work in a call center, I know the people who answer the phones ARE NOT THE SUPERVISORS. And besides that, just because your a super doesn't mean you don't have a boss. Go ahead now tell me you own this "data processing center".
My boss doesn't come in a lot. Her name is Kimberly. Uh huh. Maybe try back on Friday. Oh what? She doesn't have voicemail or email? I'm not giving you those numbers. Please...I'm not dumb.
Oh, here she is she just walked in. Yeah right, whatever. Like I said, I've done this before. Hand the phone over to your cube mate. Maybe she's more pleasant.
New lady gets on the phone. Sounds about 30 years older and much more pleasant. However she immediately starts asking me why it matters, if they got the correct address?? Huh, what? I'm not complaining about the my address.
Oh my bad, wrong person. Well I've never had anyone refuse to fax their receipt before. She chuckles. Why don't you just donate the magazine if you get two copies? Because I paid for it. My hard earned $40, which at the moment takes me two hours to earn, but by March it may take me 4. The economy sucks, companies are laying off people in the thousands, or haven't you heard. Just give me my money back. Oh yeah, and check your list of publisher's numbers. They're porn sites.
Oh we don't give out numbers, who gave you a number? Mumbles to previous girl ...what number did you give her? You're not supposed to give out numbers.
Well what magazines do you like? I'll give you two subscriptions to whatever magazines you chose.
What? That's an option? Why didn't home girl just say that? Would have saved me a headache and guilty conscience.
So I picked Weight Watchers and Women's Day. Oh yeah, shes not cancelling the Parent and Child, she thinks I would feel good about donating it to a woman's shelter.
When I actually start receiving the magazines, I might call and apologize for calling home girl a PITA. Or maybe I said the process was a PITA. I don't really remember now. Its all so fuzzy.
I was in the mood for a fight apparently. How stupid was that? I really need to learn to pick my battles better. This wasn't worth it.
So homegirl in Escondido California, working your $10/hour data entry job: I'm sorry. You don't get paid enough to put up with people like me.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
A quickie...post that is
Just a quick one because I need to get my tush home. Work has been so busy that I can't keep up. Thus the lack of updating. Because by the time I get home, eat dinner, bathe the little one, go to Jazzercise, I'm too tired to do anything but read a book. And I'm currently hooked on the Matchmaker books (ask me if you want to know about them).
I am thisclose to hitting my 10% WW goal. Only 3 lbs away. Actually by my home scale, I'm there, but the WW scale always says something different come Saturday morning. We'll see. I've done Jazzercise 9 of the last 11 days. Maybe I'm building muscle?
I am thisclose to hitting my 10% WW goal. Only 3 lbs away. Actually by my home scale, I'm there, but the WW scale always says something different come Saturday morning. We'll see. I've done Jazzercise 9 of the last 11 days. Maybe I'm building muscle?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Rethinking my career
Edited 01/28
Oops. So this was a weird premonition. Layoffs were announced this week. 8,000 employees by March. 36o from my measly department of 1,000. Good chance I'm gonna be on unemployment soon. Good chance I won't be either. So what's the point? The point is that no one knows anything. We've got to work for the next 4 weeks not knowing if we have a job and should be searching the classifieds. This sucks!
So back to work today, yay! No, not really. This sucks. I'm bored. I've got stuff to do, but I don't want to do it. Normally I want to get back to work. I want new stuff to do. That's the problem. I don't have anything NEW to do. Everything is old, and tedious. And boring. Did I mention boring?
On to better things. One of the highlights of my week right now, is going to my Weight Watcher's Meetings. We've moved to a new store front that's all shiny and new. And I love shiny and new. And of course last week there were a ton (no pun intended) of new people, with their New Year's resolutions in their hands. Lose weight, must lose weight. I predict about 75% of the new people will fall off the wagon around Valentine's Day. We'll see.
I've lost 18.6 lbs so far! That's almost an entire toddler. A really small toddler, but MY toddler only weighs 21lbs, so I've almost lost a Lily. Wow! When I hit the 23lb mark then I have to set my WW lifetime goal. It'll be somewhere between 139 and 105 lbs. I don't think I'm going to spilt the difference and being realistic, I'll probably go with 135. We'll see. I also don't expect to hit that 23lbs by next week. That's asking a lot. Maybe in 2 weeks. Wish me luck.
Oops. So this was a weird premonition. Layoffs were announced this week. 8,000 employees by March. 36o from my measly department of 1,000. Good chance I'm gonna be on unemployment soon. Good chance I won't be either. So what's the point? The point is that no one knows anything. We've got to work for the next 4 weeks not knowing if we have a job and should be searching the classifieds. This sucks!
So back to work today, yay! No, not really. This sucks. I'm bored. I've got stuff to do, but I don't want to do it. Normally I want to get back to work. I want new stuff to do. That's the problem. I don't have anything NEW to do. Everything is old, and tedious. And boring. Did I mention boring?
On to better things. One of the highlights of my week right now, is going to my Weight Watcher's Meetings. We've moved to a new store front that's all shiny and new. And I love shiny and new. And of course last week there were a ton (no pun intended) of new people, with their New Year's resolutions in their hands. Lose weight, must lose weight. I predict about 75% of the new people will fall off the wagon around Valentine's Day. We'll see.
I've lost 18.6 lbs so far! That's almost an entire toddler. A really small toddler, but MY toddler only weighs 21lbs, so I've almost lost a Lily. Wow! When I hit the 23lb mark then I have to set my WW lifetime goal. It'll be somewhere between 139 and 105 lbs. I don't think I'm going to spilt the difference and being realistic, I'll probably go with 135. We'll see. I also don't expect to hit that 23lbs by next week. That's asking a lot. Maybe in 2 weeks. Wish me luck.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
I hate this part
Well its Sunday, the last day of a 2 week vacation. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I don't know how I feel about that. Truthfully, we ran out of stuff to do at home on Tuesday. We're kind of bored. And when we are bored, we shop. Not good for the wallet. But it's also going to be boring at work. This is the time of year where we aren't too busy; things don't pick up until the Spring. So where would I rather be bored? At home in my sweats, hair unkempt, glasses on playing some Wii or PS3? Or at work in uncomfortable heals? However, I only have to work 2 full weeks and then its MLK day and we are off work again. I love that, we are back at work for 2 weeks and then we get a three day weekend. We don't get presidents day off, we don't get Columbus Day or Veterans Day either. I think they picked MLK day because the powers that be knew we'd need another vacation after being back at work just 10 days. And you know what? They'd be right! I'm also taking this Wednesday off, but that's because I have to go to the dentist and the dr. I might try to squeeze an eye Dr visit in too. Make a day of it.
The problem with the last day of vacation is that you either try to cram so much stuff in that you make yourself crazy, or you don't do anything at all so then you feel lazy. I'm going to go for a combination of both. I'll do laundry, haul the Christmas decor to the basement, maybe work out, but for me that's really doing a whole lot of nothing. If I don't have to get in the car and go somewhere, then it's a lazy day.
Enjoy the last day of vacation, where ever you are! And join me in celebrating "coming of age day" in Japan on Jan 12th. I think we should get a day off for that.
The problem with the last day of vacation is that you either try to cram so much stuff in that you make yourself crazy, or you don't do anything at all so then you feel lazy. I'm going to go for a combination of both. I'll do laundry, haul the Christmas decor to the basement, maybe work out, but for me that's really doing a whole lot of nothing. If I don't have to get in the car and go somewhere, then it's a lazy day.
Enjoy the last day of vacation, where ever you are! And join me in celebrating "coming of age day" in Japan on Jan 12th. I think we should get a day off for that.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
2008 A Year in Review
Aww who am I kidding, there is no way I'll remember all of 2008. I have a kid now, somehow that also equals forgetting anything and everything that happened more than 24 hours ago, but I'll try because everyone else did (and I'm stealing my recapping skills from Stephanie):
January: Baby gets sick on NYE, with cold. DR says she's fine. Two weeks later we take her to Children's Mercy so she can have her lungs sucked out. 5 weeks later we finally get some sleep, and she's all better.
February: Baby gets first bout of stomach flu. Baby dislocates elbow at daycare only no one notices except BIL who asks if she's left handed because she is only using her right. Dad notices next day she won't suck her right thumb per the norm. Back to Children's Mercy. Discussions with DR and Social Worker. Dr can't fix, wraps her up and sends her home. Next day we start the new daycare search, we will not take her back to the old one. On call Dr at our Dr office practiced in Africa without modern medicine, he fixes elbow in a jiffy. Baby back to normal. Start new daycare. Family comes to visit. My beloved kitties Zeke and Zoey go home to live with my parents. Lily freaked Zeke out. He suffered from stress induced urinary problems.
March: Dressed baby up in Bunny suit and she hated it. Lily starts crab crawling. $600 water bill shows up. Waterline burst in neighbors yard. Find out neighbors are 90 year old cousins. Costs $5,000 to fix water line. Sell Durango to recoup water pipe costs. Buy a $1600 beater for James to drive.
April: celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with dinner at Pierpont's, see the Body's Revealed Exhibit, hotel room at Harrah's and poker playing.
May: Lily turns 1 on May 21st, I turned 29 on May 22nd. Threw a "Tinkerbelle" party on memorial day weekend.
June: Little sister gets engaged on her 22nd birthday :) wedding planning begins. Lily stands alone at toy for the first time. James' Aunt Barbara passes away from Leukemia. I get promotion and raise. We get stranded in OK after the funeral thanks to the car. Spend extra time with Great Grandma Wear. Eventually make it home.
July: Vacation to Grammy and Papa Dude's in St Louis for a week. Go to STL Zoo. Spend holiday weekend in Bennett Springs. James quits job and becomes stay at home dad. Trying to finish the house so we can list it. Lily takes her first swimming lesson and becomes teachers pet. Lily starts pulling up on stuff, finally. I start driving the beater.
August: Lily starts staying at home with Dad. We get a pool pass so they can go to the pool a lot. Family reunion at Lake Wappapello. Aunt Nai spends lots of time walking Lily up and down the hallway for practice. I win the Washer Toss tournament with cousin Billy. We are not rednecks. Hang plaque on the wall. I stop driving the beater.
September: James gets job with Lifetouch National Studios as school photographer. I start driving the beater again. I stop one week later. We buy a mini van. James starts small business as photographer. Put house on the market. Go to the KC Zoo. Grammy visits, buys Lily some Stride Rite shoes. Lily starts walking the next day.
October: Take house off the market. Decided its a pain, we won't get what we want thanks to the housing crisis, and we really love our cute bungalow. Lily has two Halloween costumes, a lady bug and a pink three eyed monster. Go to Boo at the Zoo. Go to a Bariatric Surgery seminar. Learn I'm not fat enough for lapband or gastric bypass. Make Dr appointment to discuss weight.
November: Start Weightwatchers and Phentermine on November 1st with all the other guilty Halloween eaters. Lose 15 pounds by the end of the month. Go to STL for Thanksgiving. Go wedding dress shopping with sister and mom. Sister makes lots of cookies. Blackfriday shopping trip from Hell. James' work goes on hiatus until mid January. Lily starts staying at home again. James' has lots of business coming in.
December: Bad luck on vacation in Branson. Rent smaller car than we drove down in. Take Lily to Silver Dollar City. Freeze butts off. Host work holiday party at my house. STRESS EATING takes over, don't lose any weight. Decorate house. Buy all new lights AGAIN for outside. Buy our first real Christmas tree. Vacuum up needles. Go shopping every single weekend. Wrap gifts. Vacuum up needles. Make cookies. Get the Flu. Make more cookies. Vacuum up needles. Have the in laws over for pre- Christmas Eve Church gathering. Vacuum up needles. Go to children's Candle light Christmas Eve service. Eat dinner at PF Changs, per tradition. Vacuum up needles. Have Christmas dinner at the in-law's. Open gifts. Trip over all the new toys. Vacuum up needles. Replace big screen TV bulb that burned out three years to the day after we bought it. Pick up parents from train station. Big Midwest storm, 80 MPH winds uproot neighbors tree. No power for 36 hours. Dad buys new gas log for our fireplace. The flu knocks me down. Power comes back on. We watch Tinkerbelle the movie. Go to Fritz's and see the trains at Union Station. Wave bye bye to Grammy and Papa Dude. Sleep in. Go shopping. Buy nothing. Do nothing on NYE except recover from flu and watch episodes of the Office.
Whew there it all is. 2009 is going to be a big year for my family. My baby sister is getting married in October. Planning had been somewhat on hold until she passed her Series 7 exam for stock trading. The location has been reserved, the reception hotel has been reserved, the dress has been bought, photographer reserved. But lots more planning to come. We need bridesmaid dresses and a flower girl dress. And I have weight to lose. I'm also hosting her bridal shower in August. On a personal note, I'm going to take the Kansas Certified Nurse's Assistant Course in March. You have to be a CNA before you can be accepted into a nursing school in KS. I have a degree in Biology and an MBA, but I need a "fall back" option in case I do get laid off. Nursing school will be that fall back (nothing like going back to school for an Associates degree after you have a masters, I'm expecting lots of funny looks) plus its something I've always wanted to do and regret not doing.
Happy 2009~
January: Baby gets sick on NYE, with cold. DR says she's fine. Two weeks later we take her to Children's Mercy so she can have her lungs sucked out. 5 weeks later we finally get some sleep, and she's all better.
February: Baby gets first bout of stomach flu. Baby dislocates elbow at daycare only no one notices except BIL who asks if she's left handed because she is only using her right. Dad notices next day she won't suck her right thumb per the norm. Back to Children's Mercy. Discussions with DR and Social Worker. Dr can't fix, wraps her up and sends her home. Next day we start the new daycare search, we will not take her back to the old one. On call Dr at our Dr office practiced in Africa without modern medicine, he fixes elbow in a jiffy. Baby back to normal. Start new daycare. Family comes to visit. My beloved kitties Zeke and Zoey go home to live with my parents. Lily freaked Zeke out. He suffered from stress induced urinary problems.
March: Dressed baby up in Bunny suit and she hated it. Lily starts crab crawling. $600 water bill shows up. Waterline burst in neighbors yard. Find out neighbors are 90 year old cousins. Costs $5,000 to fix water line. Sell Durango to recoup water pipe costs. Buy a $1600 beater for James to drive.
April: celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with dinner at Pierpont's, see the Body's Revealed Exhibit, hotel room at Harrah's and poker playing.
May: Lily turns 1 on May 21st, I turned 29 on May 22nd. Threw a "Tinkerbelle" party on memorial day weekend.
June: Little sister gets engaged on her 22nd birthday :) wedding planning begins. Lily stands alone at toy for the first time. James' Aunt Barbara passes away from Leukemia. I get promotion and raise. We get stranded in OK after the funeral thanks to the car. Spend extra time with Great Grandma Wear. Eventually make it home.
July: Vacation to Grammy and Papa Dude's in St Louis for a week. Go to STL Zoo. Spend holiday weekend in Bennett Springs. James quits job and becomes stay at home dad. Trying to finish the house so we can list it. Lily takes her first swimming lesson and becomes teachers pet. Lily starts pulling up on stuff, finally. I start driving the beater.
August: Lily starts staying at home with Dad. We get a pool pass so they can go to the pool a lot. Family reunion at Lake Wappapello. Aunt Nai spends lots of time walking Lily up and down the hallway for practice. I win the Washer Toss tournament with cousin Billy. We are not rednecks. Hang plaque on the wall. I stop driving the beater.
September: James gets job with Lifetouch National Studios as school photographer. I start driving the beater again. I stop one week later. We buy a mini van. James starts small business as photographer. Put house on the market. Go to the KC Zoo. Grammy visits, buys Lily some Stride Rite shoes. Lily starts walking the next day.
October: Take house off the market. Decided its a pain, we won't get what we want thanks to the housing crisis, and we really love our cute bungalow. Lily has two Halloween costumes, a lady bug and a pink three eyed monster. Go to Boo at the Zoo. Go to a Bariatric Surgery seminar. Learn I'm not fat enough for lapband or gastric bypass. Make Dr appointment to discuss weight.
November: Start Weightwatchers and Phentermine on November 1st with all the other guilty Halloween eaters. Lose 15 pounds by the end of the month. Go to STL for Thanksgiving. Go wedding dress shopping with sister and mom. Sister makes lots of cookies. Blackfriday shopping trip from Hell. James' work goes on hiatus until mid January. Lily starts staying at home again. James' has lots of business coming in.
December: Bad luck on vacation in Branson. Rent smaller car than we drove down in. Take Lily to Silver Dollar City. Freeze butts off. Host work holiday party at my house. STRESS EATING takes over, don't lose any weight. Decorate house. Buy all new lights AGAIN for outside. Buy our first real Christmas tree. Vacuum up needles. Go shopping every single weekend. Wrap gifts. Vacuum up needles. Make cookies. Get the Flu. Make more cookies. Vacuum up needles. Have the in laws over for pre- Christmas Eve Church gathering. Vacuum up needles. Go to children's Candle light Christmas Eve service. Eat dinner at PF Changs, per tradition. Vacuum up needles. Have Christmas dinner at the in-law's. Open gifts. Trip over all the new toys. Vacuum up needles. Replace big screen TV bulb that burned out three years to the day after we bought it. Pick up parents from train station. Big Midwest storm, 80 MPH winds uproot neighbors tree. No power for 36 hours. Dad buys new gas log for our fireplace. The flu knocks me down. Power comes back on. We watch Tinkerbelle the movie. Go to Fritz's and see the trains at Union Station. Wave bye bye to Grammy and Papa Dude. Sleep in. Go shopping. Buy nothing. Do nothing on NYE except recover from flu and watch episodes of the Office.
Whew there it all is. 2009 is going to be a big year for my family. My baby sister is getting married in October. Planning had been somewhat on hold until she passed her Series 7 exam for stock trading. The location has been reserved, the reception hotel has been reserved, the dress has been bought, photographer reserved. But lots more planning to come. We need bridesmaid dresses and a flower girl dress. And I have weight to lose. I'm also hosting her bridal shower in August. On a personal note, I'm going to take the Kansas Certified Nurse's Assistant Course in March. You have to be a CNA before you can be accepted into a nursing school in KS. I have a degree in Biology and an MBA, but I need a "fall back" option in case I do get laid off. Nursing school will be that fall back (nothing like going back to school for an Associates degree after you have a masters, I'm expecting lots of funny looks) plus its something I've always wanted to do and regret not doing.
Happy 2009~
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