Tag: NaBloPoMo

guess they didn’t want my money

I experienced some terrible customer service this weekend at Scrapbook Parade. I was looking for blank calendar templates, which I get every year from them. I went into the store and they were sitting right on the counter. There were two women behind the counter. One of them was doing something with the till, and the other was watching her.

I picked up the calendars and the woman doing nothing said they’d be with me in a minute. No problem. Since she wasn’t doing anything, I asked her if the calendars were returnable. She didn’t know, so she asked the other woman, who was obviously in the middle of concentrating on something. The till woman said they weren’t, but if I had any questions about them to feel free to ask.

The only reason I wanted to know if they were returnable was that I was planning on checking Micheals as well, and if they were a lot cheaper at Micheals I was going to return them. So I sort of laughingly said my only question was whether they were cheaper anywhere else. The till woman got immediately defensive, and said they were specially made for the store. Whatever — they are calendar templates. Nothing special.

But I was there and the calendars where there, so I said as much, and grabbed four of them to buy. The till woman was still doing something else, and I was prepared to wait. Then she says to the other woman: “This isn’t working. Did I screw something up while I was talking to her?” It doesn’t sound so bad when I write it down, but the way she said it — I was horrified. First by the way she referred to me as “her” when I was standing right in front of her, second by how inconvenienced she seemed by me interrupting her. But she had said to ask any questions. AND, I’m a frickin’ customer in the store. Sorry if I’ve inconvenienced you.

Anyway, right after she said it, I said: “Look, I’m going to go. I need better customer service than this.” And I started walking out. Her response? “Okay, bye.”

I was seething. I’ve never received very good customer service from them, but that was the worst. I don’t plan on going back. And I don’t even think it’s worth complaining to the manager because I got the impression she was the manager!

So I went to Micheals and got crappy customer service there as well, but that’s to be expected. And in the Micheals case I think the sales lady was just stupid, and I can’t really fault her for that.

I ended up getting the calendars at Memory Lane.

that was a $300 mistake

I’m getting good at filing ICBC claims. No, I didn’t run into another post. This one was Yoshi’s fault.

I went for a run this morning, with Yoshi, and then afterward I swung by the house to pick up the rest of the family and we headed to the rec center to watch a friend’s hockey game. We left Yoshi in the car instead of dropping him off at the house, as he usually prefers to hang out in the car instead of being left alone in the house.

We parked behind the arena. Which is beside a big soccer field. And it’s Saturday. So people were playing soccer. And there were referees. With whistles. And they were blowing them. And Yoshi’s noise sensitivities have gotten way worse over the past year. Bad, bad combination.

We got back to the car after being gone for an hour. I opened the back door to put the stroller in, and my mouth dropped in horror. The back of our seats were trashed. And I mean seeing the metal innards, stuffing and fabric everywhere trashed.

My first thought was, oh crap, we’re never going to be able to leave the dog in the car again. But then we made the connection to the whistles. The poor dog was doing his darnedest to get away from the whistles, which meant trying to get to the front of the car. Thankfully he didn’t make it, because who knows what the rest of the car would have looked like. We felt terrible. There was even blood on some of the stuffing, so he definitely was chewing hard.

Lesson learned.

good thing the second list is longer than the first

What I will miss about this house:

  • Having the sunroom to use as a dumping ground and as a place for Yoshi to get his paws clean before coming into the house
  • The garage
  • The short walk to the dog park
  • Both our kids were born while living here, and it’s the first place Greg and I lived together

What I will not miss about this house:

  • None of the doors work properly
  • Having one bathroom
  • Nine stairs to the front door
  • Carpet in the bedrooms
  • Having to walk across cat litter to get to the washing machine and dryer
  • The leak in the sunroom
  • The broken seals in practically every window
  • The lack of wall space to hang pictures
  • The rats (okay, they are long gone, but the memory persists)
  • Drunk people on the street in the summertime, swearing at each other as loudly as they can
  • The loud furnace

a first for me

I did some Christmas shopping last night. I went to the mall for about 45 minutes and got a bunch of stuff, then I came home and ordered a few things online.

I have never Christmas shopped in November, and I have to say that it feels awesome! I got motivated because I realized my mother is leaving for New Zealand in the beginning of December, so if I want to get any gifts to her or to my sister, nephew and brother-in-law by Christmas (and not have to worry about expensive shipping), I have to get stuff done before Mum leaves.

I think I may continue this trend in years to come.

i’ve succumbed

The kids and Greg have been sick with a cold over the past couple of weeks — the kids having got better about a week ago and Greg just on the mend now, and I thought I’d dodged the bullet with this one, as I’ve been feeling pretty good. But last night I started to feel crappy and this morning I woke up with a definite cold. Thankfully it’s not in my throat, which is where my colds usually are, but my head is definitely stuffy, and my nose was squeaking earlier today. Weird.

Despite this, the kids and I had a great morning at Hillside Mall with friends. A chai, some homemade banana bread, a play in the indoor play area, and then a pretty good lunch with some excellent customer service. It was a lot of fun.

and i thought he was a pack rat

A few days ago I tackled purging the contents of three boxes of stuff that I’ve been carrying around for a few years. The boxes contained letters that had been written to me by various family members and friends.

I could have been there for days had a had the time. There were hundreds of letters, dating all the way back to when I was in grade 8. That’s almost 25 years ago. I started reading some, but realized I just didn’t have the time.

Then I struggled with what to do with it all. It felt wrong to just toss it. So much history. But would I ever read it again? Would anyone ever read it again? After a bit of internal debating, I decided to keep all the letters from my mother, my father and my sister (my brothers don’t seem to write me much!). The bulk of the letters from family were from the year I was in Quebec for university, and they wrote me a lot. I decided these letters were worth keeping, even if I don’t ever read them again. But I suspect I will, most especially my mother’s letters — there will come a sad day when she is no longer around, and she is a beautiful letter writer. I’m pretty sure I’ll cherish having her words available to me to read any time I want.

I also decided to keep a diary that I wrote in grade 10. I read a couple of pages and it was pretty entertaining. I know I’ll want to read it again at least once, if only for a good laugh. It was the year I had a huge crush on one of my brother’s friends, a crush which never amounted to much, but it sure was a roller coaster year because of it.

best laid plans

This morning I started a new mum and babe yoga session. This time round I’m taking the class at the local rec centre so I can walk there.

I woke up to some sun, so I decided to time everything so I could take Yoshi for a walk first, with Amy, and then drop him off at home and head to the rec centre. I figured the timing would be good for Amy to get at least an hour of sleeping in, and I’d get Yoshi walked as well.

I got everything ready, which included grabbing poop bags, stroller set up, child fed, child changed, child in jacket and hat, supplies ready for yoga, me showered, me dressed, Yoshi collared up, etc. About five minutes before I left I noticed it was raining, but there was sun out as well, and it didn’t look too bad.

I left the house a bit later than planned, but still with enough time to get Yoshi walked first. By this time it was pouring. I got out the rain cover for the stroller and quickly changed my jacket, and stayed the course. For all of three minutes. I got about 200 feet down the road and when the wind whipped the rain cover off the stroller I decided to abandon ship.

I still needed to give Amy a nap, though, and by this time I only had about 45 minutes before yoga started. I couldn’t really nap her at home because I’d be waking her up 30 minutes in.

So what did I do? Amy and I piled into the car and we went to Starbucks. She had a sleep and I had a chai. So no exercise for the dog, no exercise for me, money spent that wouldn’t have been spent with the original plan, and I drove to the rec centre.

I’m hoping for better luck next week.

i can just hear the conversation that must of gone on in his head

Ahhh…it’s nice to be back in the car after a good walk. Hmm…I’m pretty sore, maybe I’ll just shift around a bit.

Oh crap, the stroller just fell over on me. Stupid contraption, why can’t they put it in the front? Oh well, if I lie really still it won’t hurt me, and I’m sure one of them will help me soon.

Oh good, we’re parking. One of them will get me fixed up.

[Car doors open and shut, voices fade into the distance.]

Hello? Excuse me? Can someone help me? The stroller’s fallen and I can’t get up.

They must just be stopping for a minute. They’ll be back soon.

Hmm…it’s been a while, maybe if I just move this leg like this, this one this way, and this one this way…there, I’m free! Crap, but where do I lie down now?

Where the hell did they go? Hello? Hello?

Poor neglected pooch.

finishing up

Continuing with the blogging thread from yesterday (I’m trying to have some continuity in these daily posts, but it’s hopeless…), one thing I always have trouble with is ending my posts. I usually can type something up pretty quickly, but when I proofread it, it always seems as if it’s missing an ending. One final statement that brings everything to a close. I don’t know why I worry about it, what with my vast and judgemental readership and all, but I do.

Maybe that’s why people put those stupid questions at the end of their posts — so they can tie things up.