Ughhhh!

Well, over lunch Eric was reminding me that some of you guys actually have links to our blogspot from your own sites. That was his subtle way to urge me to use some of my free time to post a blog since Camden's in school a full day now for Kindergarten. Although, every time I think about posting something, I think, my...how dull my life is. Well, I mean, I love it, but I'm not sure that you care to read about the daily things that excite me. I am an accountant at heart, so my thrills come from getting the 1040 booklet in the mail so I can start my taxes, paying bills, and this time of year, closing out my own little version of an accounting system on our personal finances. I know, you are yawning. Or shrieking in terror at the thought. This is my world. I don't work anymore for pay, so I have to use all that knowledge somehow!

Well, for the UGHHHHH title...today has been a challenge. Perfectly lovely in many regards....a lunch date with Eric at Applebee's, errands run, some sunshine after all of yesterday's flooding (but it also hailed on me at one point this afternoon in between the sunshine...go figure), and even a Dairy Queen blizzard for me and the baby before picking up Camden from school. On the other hand though, here are my gripes:

I go to Applebee's to eat one thing (yes, I'm picky)--Tortilla Chicken Melt...it's by far the most enjoyable healthy item out there...or WAS. You got a rainbow of finely chopped up veggies (so, not able to taste too well the broccoli or other less desirable veggies) with melted cheese and chicken in a sort of quesadilla thingy with some good dressing stuff on top that's sort of a ranch sauce but not exactly...better. UNTIL TODAY! Well, officially, they changed their menu on Monday, but it didn't effect me till today. They no longer carry my favorite dish! This is the story of my life. I will find something I really, really enjoy (I would say love, but Eric reminds me that we love people and use things, and food falls in the "things" category), and then once I'm hooked on it, they discontinue it. I can't tell you how many facial moisturizers, makeup, clothing brands, foods, menu items, etc have been discontinued probably only because someone found out that I like them. So, I had the fajitas (not without nicely but disappointedly making my point to the waitress that I only came there to eat the melt) that were perfectly fine except they are much like the ones I make at home because there is no distinct "seasoning" to set them apart from my own frying pan. We'll call this irritant #1.

I get home and check my mail to find a bill from one of my doctors (if you know me, you know I've seen many in the last couple of years to try to get my undiagnosable illness resolved...which I did and was able to get pregnant thankfully) saying I owe almost $100 balance from visits back in June. JUNE! It's January. Again, noting my above love of year end closing on my personal finances, 2008 was closed! I had posted all the expenses (so I thought) and came out under budget (YAY!) for the year, and I was happy to be starting 2009 organized and ready to go. Now, this is where I have to turn from griping to praise to the Lord because in Eric's last check from 2008, there was a little bit extra in it b/c they didn't have to take out any more SS $ cause they had all they needed already. Given that we have almost already spent everything in our Flex plan that is supposed to last us through June for medical expenses, I figured it would be good to put that bit extra into a medical "account" (not an account like you think....it's more of a designated portion of our savings account...every dollar in savings has a "name" or designation). Well, guess what? That "extra" I was hoping to save for future expenses just happened to be 96 cents more than the happy little bill I was sent. Praise God for His provision when I don't even know I need it! But I'm still gonna gripe that my doc waited forever to bill me for something I didn't know I owed. On to irritant #3 or the one I like to call "the doozy of them all".

"The Doozy of them all": December 26, partly in response to that under budget thing I mentioned earlier, we bought a new TV for our bedroom. We had thought about it and prayed about it and had the money to do it, so we found what we wanted in a great deal online from Circuit City. We even get a free Bluray player with the TV which we are excited about using in our living room. Well, when we ordered it, we noticed that on one screen, it put the player in our cart, but when we checked out, it wasn't there. So, we call their happy little customer service number, and a sweet woman named Mercy told me that it didn't show up because it was out of stock but she did see that we should get one, so she put in a special order at no cost to me to get me my bluray player. YAY! But wait...you thought I said this was an UGHHHH.....WELL, today, I get a call on my answering machine (right after opening that bill) from a guy stumbling over himself obviously with no real clear explanation that something about because I used my $100 off coupon and that they have no more bluray players that we would NOT be receiving our player. Hmmm....now, I didn't call immediately because I have a very short fuse and at this point was steaming mad. I know myself well enough to not talk to anyone I'm mad at until I've had time to calm down. It's that whole...be angry but do not sin thing....I try REALLY hard not to throw the sin on the backend of my anger. (Praise God for grace though.) After detailing the medical bill from looking back at old Blue Cross forms and receipts and resolving that yes, I guess I do owe the doctor more than what he billed me in August that I paid (yes, I thought I had paid all that was left once insurance settled then), I decided to give Dantel a lovely phone call. Only, I get voicemail. Of course! Talking to a real person who doesn't want to hear back from their angry customer is difficult. I left a nice little voicemail for Dantel basically letting him know that I wanted my bluray player and this to be resolved and if the person answering my voicemail did not have the authority to talk to me and make my situation better, they might as well go ahead and have their manager call me back. Guess what? No phone call yet. I doubt it will ever come.

So, will we ever get our bluray player? My answer is yes. My next idea is to go have a nice little meeting with our local store manager. And I do mean nice. I need someone real to plead my case on the inside. However, Eric called another number, and he seemed to be told by some lady that we would indeed get our player, but we would have to wait until they came back in stock. That's fine. So long as one day, we get it. It's about customer service and getting what you thought you paid for. They advertised the deal. It's not like we negotiated a special deal. It was right there on their site. We clicked the little button that says "I'm a sucker and I believe you're gonna give me this deal" (how my mind views it now, obviously), so we expect a TV and bluray player. Note: a side irritant of this ordeal too is that we still don't have our TV yet, and no one can seem to tell us when it will ship either. Moral of story: avoid Circuit City's website for sure. Unless you like a giant headache and lots of your free time on the phone with incompetent people!