I am currently having personal medical issues. They are not life-threatening or anything even close to that, but they are stress-related. This year is finally catching up with me physically. I will see how things progress and then if they get better, I will update you all.
My Mom is having an okay time at home but she seems to be non-cognizant to anything going on around her. Have you ever thought to yourself, “Oh, little kids have it easy; they get to stay home all day and relax,”? But if you ever actually reverted to the age of 2 believe me, you would not like it. My Mom is basically in that situation. I don’t want to talk about what has been happening specifically, but take my word for it when I say it is embarrassing.
Instead of kind of telling you guys what has been happening, let me document for you my night out on Friday. My boyfriend, three other friends and I went to the local comedy club in town. The host tried to offer us seats up front, which I wanted, but no one else seemed to, which I didn’t understand because this was not an insult comic. Well, I soon regretted not fighting them on that, because the waitress in our area was just awful.
My friend told her twice, upfront, how the checks were to be separated: him and his girlfriend, me, my boyfriend and our other friend, for a total of 4 checks. I ordered a pretzel and dip appetizer. Ten minutes later I was told they were out of pretzels. As this was the second show of the evening, I didn’t mind, so I asked for the dessert list and chose the fried cheesecake.
My friends’ food arrived maybe five minutes into the show. Meanwhile, thirty minutes later, when they were about finished, I asked where my cheesecake was. One friend at my table ordered cheesecake, but the regular kind, not fried. Here is where things got weird. The waitress said “That takes a while to make.” To which I responded “Okay.” And then she came around the table to my side and told me it only takes a minute to fry those so it will be right up. Hold it right there! Which is it lady? It takes a while or it takes only a minute? And looking around the place, most people ordered beer, so I am sure it would not take the chef thirty minutes to make some fried cheesecake even if it took “a while”. So I got my cheesecake five minutes after that, which of course makes me think what you are probably thinking: she forgot to place the order the first time around.
The next headache was when it came time for the bill. We received one check for everything. Remember we asked her twice to divide out the checks. Some of my friends wanted me to pay it and then give me cash. Not happening, as I was poor. We flagged her down and told her again how to divide out the checks. We received three checks, one for each couple and then one for the other person. Remember, we wanted four. At that point, I thought, “Whatever” and paid for my boyfriend and mine on my card and took his money, but that was still half of the total bill. I wasn’t too thrilled since I only had about $130 in the bank and that total was $32.
While all of these fun activities went on with the check, the comedians told us to fill out a comment card and give it to our server to be entered to win a prize pack. We all filled out comment cards and we were waiting for the last comedian to be done to give them to our server. We were distracted by the check ordeal and paying and then the headliner finished. Well, then the MC came back on and handed out the prize. Half of the crowd was audibly upset because they didn’t hand in their comment cards yet. I have two problems with this system: A. Why would I rate a person’s performance before they are finished? B. How could I give my card to the server when she hardly came around and when she did we had to correct her? Apparently you are supposed to rate everyone as Excellent and hand in your comment card early to win a prize.
It was a decent night though. The second comic was much better than the headliner and we bought his DVD and talked with him. P.S. The cheesecake wasn’t worth the wait.
It’s true that bad customer service stories go much further than good ones.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Attention. Attention Please!
Remember back in middle school and high school when your classroom would get going on a hot topic and almost everyone in the class would chime in on the subject? And a certain few kids just HAD to share their own personal experience. Like, Sara would speak up on the topic of daylight savings and share how one time her dad forgot to set his clock back and he rushed out of the house and that caused him to get into a fender bender. And then some kids would share and it would only kind of relate to the topic at hand. Like Jeff would say, “Every year we buy new alarm clocks.” See, it only kind of related to daylight savings.
Well guess what? These are the same people that work all around you today. You can easily identify them. They are the ones that when you go to them with a question they refuse to drop the conversation about themselves with a co-worker. I will give you an example.
I go over to all-grown up Sara’s desk to ask why the pricing is wrong on an item in the computer system. Sara is talking with co-worker Jeff. Jeff just finished asking her when she is going to buy that new car she looked at. I interject, “Sara, this price came up as $549.99 and not $619.99. Is there an ad for this time frame?” Sara looks at me, pauses, and then tells Jeff “Well I will buy the Accord when they have their winter sell off sale.” Now, I did not specifically wait to ask my question right in the middle of their conversation. I just walked up and asked her.
Work comes before chit-chat, but not to this generation. And I am part of this generation I am talking about. Guess what Sara and Jeff? You are not that important. The price for the ad is important right now. Talk about your fucking car later!
I have co-workers, who say I am not being very social because I don’t specifically get up from my desk, go over to theirs and chit-chat with them. I talk with the people around me a lot while we are working on mindless things. That seems fine to me, everyone does that without issue. I would love to talk with you, except here is my problem: you will talk my face off for at least 20 minutes. I don’t want to commit to that kind of time. I will come over and talk to you for less than 5 minutes and then try to tell you with body language that I want to get back to work. Nobody in my generation gets it! They keep talking about themselves. They jump from one topic to the next. Once our topic is resolved I want to go, but then you sigh, make some inane comment and start in on how your time out last night was. I don’t care!!!
I came over to ask you if we are off on Christmas Eve, a semi-work related question. By the time I am excused to leave your desk, and by that I mean you shut your face off, I have heard about how hung-over you are, what new video game you bought and how hard it is, what new movie you want to see, how your cell phone is broken and what your kids did that was annoying or cute. My consciousness left 13 minutes ago and while I look around your cubicle I nod mindlessly.
It’s not that I don’t like you as a friend. You are cool, but learn when the conversation is done. I feel like I was verbally raped. You got to unload your mind but when I do the same thing you aren’t genuinely interested, so I learned not to do it. In fact, I like that phrase. I give it over to you, the masses. The next time someone won’t shut up on the phone or at work, or even if you run into a Sara or Jeff in the grocery store, say you were verbally raped.
That is all.
Well guess what? These are the same people that work all around you today. You can easily identify them. They are the ones that when you go to them with a question they refuse to drop the conversation about themselves with a co-worker. I will give you an example.
I go over to all-grown up Sara’s desk to ask why the pricing is wrong on an item in the computer system. Sara is talking with co-worker Jeff. Jeff just finished asking her when she is going to buy that new car she looked at. I interject, “Sara, this price came up as $549.99 and not $619.99. Is there an ad for this time frame?” Sara looks at me, pauses, and then tells Jeff “Well I will buy the Accord when they have their winter sell off sale.” Now, I did not specifically wait to ask my question right in the middle of their conversation. I just walked up and asked her.
Work comes before chit-chat, but not to this generation. And I am part of this generation I am talking about. Guess what Sara and Jeff? You are not that important. The price for the ad is important right now. Talk about your fucking car later!
I have co-workers, who say I am not being very social because I don’t specifically get up from my desk, go over to theirs and chit-chat with them. I talk with the people around me a lot while we are working on mindless things. That seems fine to me, everyone does that without issue. I would love to talk with you, except here is my problem: you will talk my face off for at least 20 minutes. I don’t want to commit to that kind of time. I will come over and talk to you for less than 5 minutes and then try to tell you with body language that I want to get back to work. Nobody in my generation gets it! They keep talking about themselves. They jump from one topic to the next. Once our topic is resolved I want to go, but then you sigh, make some inane comment and start in on how your time out last night was. I don’t care!!!
I came over to ask you if we are off on Christmas Eve, a semi-work related question. By the time I am excused to leave your desk, and by that I mean you shut your face off, I have heard about how hung-over you are, what new video game you bought and how hard it is, what new movie you want to see, how your cell phone is broken and what your kids did that was annoying or cute. My consciousness left 13 minutes ago and while I look around your cubicle I nod mindlessly.
It’s not that I don’t like you as a friend. You are cool, but learn when the conversation is done. I feel like I was verbally raped. You got to unload your mind but when I do the same thing you aren’t genuinely interested, so I learned not to do it. In fact, I like that phrase. I give it over to you, the masses. The next time someone won’t shut up on the phone or at work, or even if you run into a Sara or Jeff in the grocery store, say you were verbally raped.
That is all.
Working Records
Last year right around this time, I embarked on working the most days in a row that I ever had: 36 days. Some people at previous jobs told me hoping for pity that they had to work two weeks straight. Well I put that to shame. And I’m also sure people have worked more than that consecutively. Consider the people that work for Kellogg’s and UPS. I hear they work 7 days a week, but I also heard they get paid bank.
Those thirty-six days were stressful to me and my streak only ended because of Christmas Day. I worked from November 19th to Dec. 24th. Somehow I managed to buy Christmas presents for all the people on my list.
Maybe I should have seen this terrible year coming from how last year ended. I also remember that once New Year’s was over, I had an overwhelming longing for the holidays to return. That was a feeling I hadn’t gone through in previous years.
From what I can tell between my two work schedules I work on Friday the 20th through the 27th. Based on how schedules have been, I will continue working from the 28th through at least the 2nd. That is thirteen days in a row, which I think I can handle. We will see if I beat last year’s record or get more days off.
Come on Holidays, get here quick!
Those thirty-six days were stressful to me and my streak only ended because of Christmas Day. I worked from November 19th to Dec. 24th. Somehow I managed to buy Christmas presents for all the people on my list.
Maybe I should have seen this terrible year coming from how last year ended. I also remember that once New Year’s was over, I had an overwhelming longing for the holidays to return. That was a feeling I hadn’t gone through in previous years.
From what I can tell between my two work schedules I work on Friday the 20th through the 27th. Based on how schedules have been, I will continue working from the 28th through at least the 2nd. That is thirteen days in a row, which I think I can handle. We will see if I beat last year’s record or get more days off.
Come on Holidays, get here quick!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Not a Complainy Rant
Update to the birthday concerns. Today, my boss got me a big, delicious chocolate cake and the people working sang “Happy Birthday” to me. And two co-workers left me cards and one of them gave me a my little pony because I always tell her that I want a pony named “Butterscotch”. Although two people on my team didn’t even tell me happy birthday, and that doesn’t cost a thing. I have to admit, I am ticked off at them.
Outside of work, I had a very mixed birthday celebration. My mom fell down in the shower and it took me 40 minutes to help her out of it. I really didn’t want to call the fire department, because she kept yelling not to and wouldn’t put on any clothes. But I got her out and that made me happy.
With that bad news out of the way, onto the good news. I was very nervous that my birthday party would be lame. How wrong I was! I had a great time with lots of people. And, the best part, my friends chipped in and bought me a new camcorder. Mine broke several months ago. This one is a JVC Everio. The best part about that? No more tapes to deal with, it’s all done on SD cards. To top it off, my friends each recorded a birthday message for me and when they gave me the gift, I got to see their warm wishes.
I still can’t believe it. I have a new camcorder. I can go back to work on movies. I was wanting to tackle a full feature length film but then my other camera broke. The genre? Horror/comedy of course! I have the camera, a stand and plenty of willing actors. The only thing I think will be an issue is the sound quality. People will have to yell to get good sound. You can only fix sound in my low grade editing programs so much. I think I will get going on a story treatment for my friends to recruit some as willing victims, er actors next week.
I also got $110 in gift cards to Lane Bryant. Cash from each of the grandparents. With that money I got a new printer/scanner and the new Kathy Griffin book. One friend also bought me a gift before he knew about the chip-in; he got me Simpsons Scene-it and Simpsons Uno. Yeah, I like the Simpsons.
Definitely the best part of the year that I am going to have.
Outside of work, I had a very mixed birthday celebration. My mom fell down in the shower and it took me 40 minutes to help her out of it. I really didn’t want to call the fire department, because she kept yelling not to and wouldn’t put on any clothes. But I got her out and that made me happy.
With that bad news out of the way, onto the good news. I was very nervous that my birthday party would be lame. How wrong I was! I had a great time with lots of people. And, the best part, my friends chipped in and bought me a new camcorder. Mine broke several months ago. This one is a JVC Everio. The best part about that? No more tapes to deal with, it’s all done on SD cards. To top it off, my friends each recorded a birthday message for me and when they gave me the gift, I got to see their warm wishes.
I still can’t believe it. I have a new camcorder. I can go back to work on movies. I was wanting to tackle a full feature length film but then my other camera broke. The genre? Horror/comedy of course! I have the camera, a stand and plenty of willing actors. The only thing I think will be an issue is the sound quality. People will have to yell to get good sound. You can only fix sound in my low grade editing programs so much. I think I will get going on a story treatment for my friends to recruit some as willing victims, er actors next week.
I also got $110 in gift cards to Lane Bryant. Cash from each of the grandparents. With that money I got a new printer/scanner and the new Kathy Griffin book. One friend also bought me a gift before he knew about the chip-in; he got me Simpsons Scene-it and Simpsons Uno. Yeah, I like the Simpsons.
Definitely the best part of the year that I am going to have.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
This is it - No not the MJ movie
This is it. My last day of being 24. Every time my birthday rolls around I try to use the day before to reflect on the year. You know like will I be a better person? Will I be smarter finally? All that goofy, sappy stuff.
Last year I worked on a different team at my primary job. And those people got me presents and a cake. This time nobody did. I can’t complain though. I mean you can’t get mad at someone for not spending money on you. But even a card would have been something uplifting after the year I’ve had. And what do those cost? $2? Well, the fancy new ones with sound are more like $5, that’s a bit crazy I know. Maybe when I come back, the people that were off today will have left me something. I’ll let you know.
Tomorrow, on my actual birthday, I need to stay with my mom at home. So I won’t be doing much until my dad gets home from work. And even then, I need to help my b/f clean his house to host my b-day party. So definitely a quiet birthday but a tremendous aftershock with the party I hope. I even scheduled a hangover day. I know, I am so smart.
Recall back to the theme of this whole blog. This is the worst year of my life to date. I am very apprehensive to what my birthday party will bring. So far, nobody seems to care that it is even my birthday. We all got ‘em right? I know, but that is just another thing that depresses me on top of everything else in my life.
On the bright side, this year is almost over. Less than two months to go.
Last year I worked on a different team at my primary job. And those people got me presents and a cake. This time nobody did. I can’t complain though. I mean you can’t get mad at someone for not spending money on you. But even a card would have been something uplifting after the year I’ve had. And what do those cost? $2? Well, the fancy new ones with sound are more like $5, that’s a bit crazy I know. Maybe when I come back, the people that were off today will have left me something. I’ll let you know.
Tomorrow, on my actual birthday, I need to stay with my mom at home. So I won’t be doing much until my dad gets home from work. And even then, I need to help my b/f clean his house to host my b-day party. So definitely a quiet birthday but a tremendous aftershock with the party I hope. I even scheduled a hangover day. I know, I am so smart.
Recall back to the theme of this whole blog. This is the worst year of my life to date. I am very apprehensive to what my birthday party will bring. So far, nobody seems to care that it is even my birthday. We all got ‘em right? I know, but that is just another thing that depresses me on top of everything else in my life.
On the bright side, this year is almost over. Less than two months to go.
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