Finally Found a Job!

Well finally after 3 months of searching . . . I found a job! Don't have my start date as of yet but I will post as soon as I have it. I guess I will have to put away the Bon-Bons and start recording my soaps since I am going to be re-entering the real world now. So psyched!

Why Birthday's Don't Always Suck So Bad...

So... yesterday Princess Laura celebrated her 38th year on this planet. Or as Kaci put it in my card, it is the 17th anniversary of my 21st birthday. Scary! As you get older I have found that your birthdays suck more and more. No more of the fancy schmancy parties of your youth. At work, I have a great team of people working with me, although yesterday I was not so fond of any of them. I arrive at work yesterday to my normal empty desk. There is a card on my keyboard and a bag of dark chocolates (sooo yummy). That was from my friend Sue. Nothing from anyone on the team. Not even a Happy Birthday in passing. My cubicle mate on the other side of the wall (Mark) was kind enough to buy me lunch and scrumptious carrot cake for dessert. So all day yesterday I kept waiting for someone to say Happy Birthday (other than Mark and Sue of course). The day went by and nothing. As the day was going on and on I was getting sadder and sadder. I can't believe my team did this to me. I was completely EMO. I am the one that always makes sure that everyone on the team has a cake for their birthday, even if it is not celebrated on a day that they are at work. The day continually got worse. My honey Travis, called me and told me he had to work until 4a.m. Jason had to work. There was no one else! Well, I figured, I was going to go pick up my lil pup Coley and spend time with him, since he is always happy to be with me. I go over to Arlington to pick him up, since he had been terrorizing Marmalade for a few days, and get a brainstorm, maybe Vicki would like to spend time with me! I know that I have had stuff for the wedding for her in the trunk of my car and need to finish the planning of the invitations that need to be mailed out in two weeks. I call her! Hooray - she is free and happy to hang out with me and do wedding stuffs. So off I go to West Ft. Worth. I had such a great time with her giggling about all the silly invitation ideas that we came across. I think we may have finally nailed down the final ideas for the invitations that have to go out in two weeks!

So today I come to work, still liking my wounds from yesterday and I walk to my desk to find it completely covered with balloons and streamers. There was also two amazing cakes on it courtesy of my pal Crystal! They also had a huge spread of goodies including beef brisket, beef stew, Swedish meatballs, chips, queso, home made salsa that was too die for, and scrumptious homemade egg rolls. I was completely floored. They have apparently been planning this for weeks, pretending to forget my birthday! I have to admit, they got me really good this time! I guess it is safe to say that birthday's don't always completely bite the big one. Thanks to Vicki and my team for making it a good day after all! I will post pictures just as soon as Sam provides them!

Why I Hate Fry's Electronics (Part II)

So.... you will never believe what finally happened last week. The kind repairman (from a really great company here in Plano) came to the house on Friday to repair the TV. Hooray! No more discolored picture. The same kind repairman had been out to the house the previous week but the optical engine that they received from Sony turned out to be defective and they had to get another one. I also found out from the super nice repairman and some research that optical engine failures are COMMON with the model of TV that I purchased. Big problem for Sony apparently! Those people that purchased the TV and were not smart enough (like yours truly) to get the extended warranty, had to fork over $1500 for this part. Thank goodness I had to pay nothing. I just had to wait (rather impatiently I might add) for Fry's to get their acts together and authorize and order the part for the repair. I did wind up writing a letter to Fry's Customer Service Department as well as the Chairman and CEO in California. I am sure that in the end I will wind up not hearing anything from them but, the process of putting my complaints down on paper and mailing it out did help me immensely! I cannot believe that the whole process took a full two months.



I can say with 100% certainty that I will never make a large purchase like this from Fry's again! Next time, I am going to Best Buy!

Why I Hate Fry's Electronics (Part I)

In January of 2006, as a treat to myself for all my hard work, I went to Fry's and purchased a 50" Super Cool television. Everything was great with it until this past November when the screen started looking, well funny. Everything had a yellowish undertone to it. This continually got worse and in December I called Fry's to request service on my TV, all proud of myself since I had the foresight to purchase the extended warranty. Sure it was a bit pricey, but so was the TV. So I call Fry's, and get sure no problem, we have opened a service request for you and someone will contact you within three business days. A few days later, I get a call from an outside company (not Fry's) that is contracted with Fry's to do all of their in-home repairs. They ask me about the problem that I am having and immediately know what the issue is, I need to have my "optical engine" replaced. I give them the model and serial number of my TV and they tell me that as soon as they have the authorization from Fry's, they will come out and replace it for me. Great, I think to myself, couldn't be easier. Man was I wrong!

The holidays have come and gone and I realize, I still have a television with a yellow picture which is now looking green also. I call the nice contract company, and they are super nice and tell me that my repair request was submitted to Fry's and they have not approved it as of yet. The nice woman states that she is going to contact Fry's on the other line to verify that it was received. About three minutes later, after listening to horrendous elevator music that was so loud it made my head hurt, the nice woman comes back on the phone, and says: "Ma'am, I am sorry for the hold time, I spoke with Fry's and verified that they did receive our repair request. Unfortunately, the request has still not been approved". Strange I think to myself, and I ask her if it normally takes some time. She said it normally can take up to ten days, but asked me to please call them directly since the approval has not been received as of yet. No problem, I thank her and am off to call Fry's.

This is where all the problems and headaches started. My first call to Fry's, told me that it needed to be approved by the store manager, who was conveniently not in the store at the time, but promised a call would be returned. So I wait two days and call back asking if maybe the store manager is out of the office on vacation since I haven't gotten a call back. The nice and clueless woman directs me to service, where I am told that no, it doesn't have to be approved by the store manager it has to be approved by the home office. I ask when the home office was contacted and they conveniently had no record of it. I ask to speak with the manager (of service, not the store manager that is never in the store) and he tells me (apparently reading from the same screen the previous idiot read from) that the request was forward to the one person (yes, that is right, only one) in the home office that is responsible for approving those requests on January 2nd. I ask for a number to reach said one person and they are not able to provide that. Although, the person that I was speaking to (service manager) assured me that he would email him and get back to me the next day. So the next day comes and goes and I call the service manager back who has no recollection of ever talking to me. I know this is shocking, but true. I refreshed his memory and he plugged some numbers into his computer and said that he had not heard back from the one person that is responsible for authorizing this repair. I ask to speak with his manager. I get yet another service manager who is super sorry and calling the one person at the home office and getting back to me. I explained that the "other" service manager was calling him and was getting back to me and I still hadn't heard from him. He assured me that "one person in the home office" would definitely respond to him and assured me further that I would hear back from him. This was on Monday.

A note to my readers . . . honestly, I don't mean to sounds like an obnoxious bitch, but I have far more important things to do than call Fry's every freaking day. Today (Thursday) I call Fry's back. After hanging up and calling back 4x since I was left on hold for him more than five minutes each time (super bad customer service), I finally get through to the the service manager who made promises that he didn't keep (super bad customer service) and remind him of why I am calling. Amazingly enough, he remembers why I am calling (those stupid little CRTs are just so helpful) and tells me (after putting me on hold three times) that not only does that "one person in the home office" have to approve the request but the request also has to be approved by Sony since the part is costly. Curious, I ask him how much the part costs, and he does not know. For all we know it is a $25 part. Again, I ask for a way to contact "one person in the home office" who apparently now also has to receive approval from Sony, and I get a, I am sorry, but I am not able to provide that information. This person that I am speaking with identifies himself and the person in charge directly beneath the store manager (who is never in the store) and promises me that I will hear back from him by tomorrow afternoon. I explain to him (calmly which is amazing at this point) my frustration with this whole process. He tells me (rudely I might add) that his hands our tied and he has no choice but to follow the procedure that he has been instructed on. I ask him, what he does when he sees (clearly) as a manager (directly under the one never in the store) that a process or procedure is not working and a customer is extremely unhappy and ready to hand the whole matter to an attorney? The response. . . I get and bunch of, um, well, I, . . . All I can tell you is that I will get back to you with an answer my tomorrow as promised.

So here I am, Thursday evening, wanting to go home and just crash on the couch and watch some television and can't. Sure, this is not the only TV in the house but that is not the point.

Looking at Fry's website, what do I find: Fry's goal is fast, friendly, courteous customer service! What a load of crap!

Bottom line, Fry's and their customer service suck! Don't buy anything from Fry's!! I really think that it is time for an email to Randy Fry, president of Fry's Electronics.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood - RIP Heath Ledger

This afternoon the news broke: Heath Ledger was found dead in a NYC apartment.

According to MSN: Authorities are saying that his death is likely a suicide or accidental overdose. The report goes onto say that Heath was at the apartment for a massage and when the housekeeper went to notify him that the masseuse had arrived, he was found naked in bed and unresponsive. After receiving no response and moving his body to the floor, the called the authorities. NYPD is investigating the possibility of an overdose since pills were found in the vicinity of the bed. The full article can be found @ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22788914/?GT1=10755 for your reading pleasure.

While this is a very sad report, I have some questions:

• If he was naked and unconscious in bed, why did the housekeeper and masseuse (I presume) move him to the floor?
• The report stated that pills were strewn around him and also in the vicinity. Which is it? I have pills (Advil) in the vicinity of my bedroom as well, they can be found in my bathroom medicine chest which is not so far from my bed. If I were found dead in bed that it would be assumed that I committed suicide because pills are in the vicinity of my body?

Whatever the case may be, the sad fact is that Heath Ledger is no longer with us. There will be no more great movies starring him such as: 10 Things I Hate About You, Brokeback Mountain, Monster's Ball and a Knight's Tale.

Happy New Year!!

In the famous words of my good friend the Queen, I just want to wish my one faithful reader a safe, happy and healthy New Year.

For me, sadly, there were no festivities on this crazy night of nights, instead I was home, curled up in my chair with a nice warm blanket, a hot cup of Earl Grey, cough medicine and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve!! I thought I could watch and then jump back into my warm and smunchy bed before all of Texas was counting down. Looking back at the holidays of this year, I was lucky enough to be sick for Thanksgiving. Nothing worse than actually having time off from work and being sick. I was great for Christmas and then wouldn't you know it three days later, WHAM, bronchitis. Going out for New Year's Eve has never really been my thing, there are too many crazies out there and it is just not worth the risk of your life to go to a party! But, thinking back, the past few years, I have not been well on New Year's. I remember back in the Stone Age when I was in my 20s and we would go to my friend Chiquita's house for New Year's Eve. It was right in the same town we lived in, there were always parents and "responsible people" available to come and fetch you at 4am when you when tired of trying to party like a RockStar! There were a few times in New York when I was both young and stupid, that I went like almost every other New Yorker to Times Square to freeze my butt off just to watch an over sized light bulb slide down a pole at midnight. I know that it is something that you have to do at least once in your life being from New York but it is sooo overrated.

So when midnight came along on the East Coast, I listened to that song that no one really knows all the words to and thought about it. "Should old acquaintance be forgot" . . . How many people have you known in your life that seemed to be there one minute and gone the next? How many friends have you had that you just stopped talking to? Not because your were angry about something they said or did, but just kind of lost touch with? In my life I have noticed that as I get older, I invite fewer and fewer people into my inner sanctum. There have been so many ups and downs and changes that have occurred over the past few years and very few people have been along for the whole ride. When I was in my teens and 20s I had oodles of friends. But over the past few years, I have just simply lost touch with people. Nothing really caused it. I can't think back to a particular day in my memory and say, I remember that was the day that I stopped talking to so and so. It was never my intention to do this, but you get wrapped up in life and next thing you know months have turned into a year and you wonder what happened to people. Frequently I will be talking to two of my friends Heidi or Madi and find myself saying or thinking, yeah I wonder what ever became of that person. Unfortunately even my contact with them has been ridiculously limited to say the least over this past year. When I first moved to Texas from NY, I was on the phone with Madi almost every day. There were very few days that went by that we didn't talk and would actually think that something was wrong if we didn't. Now, if I have talked to her twice in the past 30 days it is a lot. It is not because we are mad at each other or no longer friends, we have just both gotten wrapped up in our lives.

The neat thing about these friendships that we forge over the years is that they never go away forever, unless we chose to slam the door on them. Connections grow and fade as we journey on the path of our lives.

"Should old acquaintance be forgot" the famous song goes, I certainly hope not. But in the the end you will find that it happens to the best of us. It's not the end of the world. We will remember all of them eventually. In my years I have learned that forgetting and disappearing are two very different things. My New Year's resolution, is to remember the difference between the two and not be the one that just disappeared.