What happen to the customer always being right? and other complaints from the old man...and me

Ok, so maybe there is some kind of Karma thing going on here or maybe customer service just sucks these days. Either way today we experienced the second experience in less than a week where the lack of good customer service or common decency, for that matter, left mike and I feeling a bit kicked in the old crotcharoo.

Last weekend Mike and I went away to Island beach AKA Tom's River,New Jersey. Mike and I had been there before and were in good spirits but it was after we couldn't find the hotel, were made to feel incredibly stupid by the manager of the hotel and then told they were charging us an extra 50.00 from the price quoted to us in an email that I was feeling mighty grumpy. This guy was so rude to us for no reason we both had to hold our anger at bay. My annoyance grew after mike started driving in circles looking for another hotel while they all looked like you could rent the room by hour. IF you know what I mean. I said in a snippy voice, "Can we just go to beach".Mike tried to find a place to park but for some reason was driving really slowly, which pissed me off more. COME ON! I said. I knew I was acting like a giant bitch but at the moment I couldn't stop. I couldn't. Bitchiness was flowing out of me like the river of life and I could NOT put a cork in it. I stomped out of the car and stomped down the beach. Literally. Stomped. Like a child. Like ME as a child when I would stomp up the stairs and into my room. If the beach had a door I would have slammed the hell out of it. This was my birthday celebration and it was ruined by a rude man with a graying bowl cut. I kid you not. He had a friggin bowl cut. It was graying. I was thinking the whole time, "seriously dude? you are going to be rude? Cause you have a BOWL CUT and you are like 50." Anyway, I stomped down to the beach expecting Mike to feel sorry for me. I am wondering what is taking so long for him to come down and do one of his, "listen babe..." speeches which always ends up with how he loves me so much and he just wants me to be happy so he'll do whatever I want. I turn around to see what is taking him so long and he has his big camera out and is snapping pictures like a tourist with nothing on his mind. I stomp up to him and say, "Can we LEAVE ?! I hate this place right now. I hate it. I want to go home. I am ready to have a panic attack!" I start stomping away and Mike, snapping a few more pictures, gets in the car. I start to cry and say that I realize I am acting like a brat but I am just so mad at the retarded guy with the retarded hair. Mike turns to me and proceeds with his," Listen Babe..." speech. He found a nice comfort inn and the rest of the night was really nice.

TODAY, Mike and had another bad experience with customer service. without going into it, it wasn't as bad as our trip experience but it was still frustrating. Mike made me feel better by taking me to the really nice restaurant called...something. I forget the name. Like, Federal, no CAPITAL, that's it...Capital Grill. Actually, it was a swanky place so I'm pretty sure there was E on the end of Grille. I had this amazing crab and lobster cake and Truffle fries. Truffle as in mushroom truffle. Not chocolate. Anyway, it was DELISH. The kind of food that makes you wonder what you were eating before cause it sure's the hell wasn't food.

Oh update...I wrote this post last night and today Mike got a call from the GM of JCPenney where we had the issue yesterday. He rectified the sitch so good customer service still exists. Hooray for the world.

Oh, and lastly, Mike just got a log term job today. It isn't permanent but seems to be a really good thing for us right now. Hallelujah.

Spring and things

It's almost officially spring but it is already spring in my head and heart. My flowers are starting to bloom, the weather is getting warmer and I have been celebrating my birthday with people. I might rush spring a bit but with all the cold weather in my town and in my heart I'm ready for some serious warming all around. My depression was particularly bad this winter as was my substance abuse. If you have ever experienced such emotional pain then you know how life feels like spring when you start to see the flower buds of hope popping up. When you have severe depression you don't really see the flowers though you might be looking straight at them. You can't feel the sun though you know that it is shining on you. It is like everything is colored gray like a black and white movie. The movie isn't interesting though, it is just on in the back round creating noise when you are trying to sleep. So when you start feeling better it is like little parts of the movie have color again. Maybe a woman's lips are red. Maybe there is a green blade of grass. Then more and more things are turning colors until you are intrigued with the movie. Then you start to hear the dialogue and you start laughing until finally you think,"Oh I REMEMBER this movie. It's my favorite." It's a great feeling. a great great feeling.

This is all I want to say now.

Double Shift

Today I'm working a double shift. Teaching a morning and night class. Wait, I just have to real quick say that the stink is still an issue so I am pressing through the impulse to stand up and shout, "LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT, PEOPLE" at the top of my lungs. However, being the day it was I don't want to press my luck. I am talking about the fact that several people from our campus got laid off and one got fired. A friend of mine, a teaching assistant, was one of the heads on the block. I feel sad that he is gone but also a sense of relief that I was told that I was "safe". That was the word used. You know, while he was really fun to have around, he had some strange habits.A. He sniffed me. Like he would put his nose to my arm and breath in my scent. He would say I smell wonderful. Now, I am aware that I have achieved that intoxicating mix of fresh.light.clean. But well, I'm a married girl and if I weren't it would still be kind of odd to just breathe in my arm, albeit the intoxicating fresh. light. clean. So that's weird. He does have a good sense of humor and made me laugh. He also thought I was his age, 24, so that's pretty cool.

Moving on to my other friend that I work with. This friend I love. This friend is hilarious and really sweet and super cute. This friend has been flirty with me for about a year but I didn't think anything of it because he IS a homosexual after all. He is openly gay. This friend told me today that he has a crush on me. Like, a for real crush. I said, "You're GAY". He said it doesn't matter because he still can get a crush on girls and he thinks I'm so cute. That's really flattering and sweet and all but...um. I'm confused.

In between classes today I didn't have enough time to go home so I went into a dark room, played music and took a nice little nap. As I was leaving the room I saw a super cute man walk in the door. It took me a few seconds in my freshly napped state to realize that it was Mike. My husband Mike. He had come to visit me because he loves me. He said I had a really sweet expression on my face like I was totally happy and surprised to see him. I was. It was so so sweet of him to come and I just felt so warm and safe and special to him. It was a small moment in time but for some reason it was one of my favorite ones thus far.

This room literally smells like one giant stinky armpit. Like maybe the walls are made of pits or something. I had to announce that it smells. I said, "OK, so it smells like stinky arm pits". Everyone was like, "It's not me". I said, "well, I'm just saying". One of my students, that I love, said in his cute little Spanish accent, "Well, she is just saying that good hygiene is important". He is not the one that smells. I know who it is. She was the first to say,"It's not me, I'm wearing deodorant". I said in my head,"Reapply." I should have said it out loud.