Friday Frustration

I'm definitely frustrated. I'm stuck in an endless voicemail loop from hell! Here's the story. 

We paid a bill to a local medical facility. In fact, we paid it twice--which I didn't discover until they billed us a third time. Once I received that third bill, I knew I had paid it. It's that investigation that made me realize that I paid it twice! Then, I went to my bank account to see if those checks from the bank had cleared--and they had. Sooo, thus the phone calls began.

Call:

#1. Me:  It went straight to voicemail because they are helping others and cannot answer right now. I explained the problem and asked someone to call me back. Their voicemail message said that I would get a return call within 48 hours. So, I waited--all the time thinking that they will tell me that they needed to be talking to Butch--who was the recipient of the bill. You know, all that privacy stuff!

#2. Them: they leave me a message saying they need more information as they cannot find "him" in their system. (What? What the heck kind of system do they have? Isn't everything computerized?).

#3. Me: I call back and it goes straight to voicemail again. I leave the account number and Butch's birthdate. Once again, I explained that we are due a refund for the overpayment. I request a phone number that someone will answer. Due to dozens of nonsense, scam calls, I have unknown numbers blocked.

#4. Them: They leave me another message for me to call them and actually mention the fact that possibly I have unknown numbers blocked. 

#5. Me: I call back and it goes straight to voicemail. I leave the message that all I want to know is when I can expect to be refunded. Seemed like a simple message to answer.

#6. Them: Another message for me to call them--ignoring what I've asked for. Now I'm really fired up.

#7. Me: I call back and go straight to voicemail. This time, I'm really ticked. I say, "It's obvious that we are never going to talk in person. I just want to know when to expect my refund! Please leave me a message letting me know!" 

Now I'm in the waiting mode again! I told Butch about the whole frustrating scenario. I suggested he call the office and ask to speak to someone in the billing department. That's when it hit me--we'll still get the voicemail. They NEVER answer the phone and don't intend to. 

#8. Them: This message makes me feel like we might getting somewhere. They have turned this over to the "review" department. Actually, I'm not that hopeful. I think "turning it over to the review department" might be code for "it'll be a cold day in hell before we get back to you!" 

Do I sound cynical? That's how I feel. We'll see.

So, speaking of frustrations, I have another bee in my bonnet. 

For Christmas, I got ALL of the girls (7) these really cute monogrammed necklaces with matching earrings. They loved them--well except for one. The monograms were these block letters all interwoven and pretty cool. But Mindy's is indecipherable. You really cannot tell her initials. 

The day after Christmas, I contacted Mint & Lily customer service via email. Someone got back to me right away and said she understood my confusion (I had sent a picture of the necklace). Although the gal was very nice, it couldn't just be a simple exchange. She issued me a gift certificate so I could re-purchase the necklace and earrings. But what she failed to do was re-imburse me for the postage and handling. 

So, she issued another gift certificate with a link to just click on. Well, it wouldn't "click!" Ugh! After a little more back and forth, I finally got a link that worked. Honestly, I don't know why it just couldn't be handled from her end. That seemed like the simple thing to me. Oh, and she said that I did not need to return the first set. I don't know what made me keep them, but I'm glad I did. 

The new set arrived a couple days ago. IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME!

This time I contacted customer service and said that if this is what it's going to be, then I wanted a refund. 

Someone got back to me and asked me to send a picture. I did. A few hours later, she asked for a picture of the original one. I considered just sending her the same picture. But then, since I still had the first one, I put them side by side and took the picture. 

Like I said, exactly the same. 

We cannot make this out at all. The only letter that makes sense is the "M."

Late yesterday afternoon, I got this message:

"I completely understand your frustration, Barbara. I can see from the photos that both the necklace and earrings aren't meeting our quality standards, especially since this was meant to be a replacement order. I'm going to have our management team review this situation right away to determine the best resolution for you. We'll get back to you very shortly with a solution."

Hopefully, they'll try to do the monogram again. If not, I'm pretty sure I'll get a refund. We'll see...

Okay, that's the end of my frustrations for now! Well, not really, but since the other one is scrapbook related, I'm saving that for tomorrow!

Ten Thing Thursday

Let's talk books today! It's freezing. Great time to curl up in front of the fireplace with a good book--and a cup of tea!

1.

2. 

3. 

4. 

5.

6. A truck loaded with thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus crashed yesterday losing its entire load.  Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed.  

7.

8.

9.

10.

What I Buy Wednesday...

...the short answer is nothing! You know what happens when we get any sort of prediction for snow or ice. This:

I cannot believe there were no carts! There has to be at least 100 or more--usually! It started in the parking lot. Not a single place to park. I waited while someone loaded her groceries. She took her sweet slow time to put her cart in the corral. Little did I know I would need that cart! Then she fixed her hair and checked her phone--all the time knowing that I was waiting for her spot. Rude. Just plain rude! 

Then I get in the store to NO carts. Not one. The one you see here is mine--offered to me by a man who happened to be rolling it in when I went our to track one down. 

Once I got in the store, I was ill-prepared for all of the empty shelves. Here are just a few.

There was definitely a run on onions. What seems to be left are the things that no one knows what they are and how to prepare them. At least I didn't know what they were.

Then I came across this:

I have no idea what was in this bin, but I needed it. There were more than one of these on other aisles too.

I don't know what was in this bin.

On the other side, there wasn't a single banana left. Even the spotty, bruised ones were gone. 

I didn't take pictures of the many other things that were gone. Few eggs were left. Same goes for lunch meat. The store was stocking as fast as they could, but I heard more than one time that everything was out--in particular categories. 

There were several things on my list that I was unable to get. But, I guess that was a good thing because my $50 food budget for this week is just about gone--only $8 left. And I have to get groceries for a big family dinner (of us) on Sunday night. I might be spending next week's budget this week. That should be okay since Butch leaves for Panama next week which means I won't be cooking!

The food budget is tight for sure, but I'm hanging in there!

Me on Monday

1 We started a new puzzle after Christmas. I don't really have the patience for them, but I give it an hour at a time. 

Then my ADD or is it ADHD--don't really know, but I have somethin'!--kicks in and I have to quit. It was our "happy hour" thing during Covid. I'm glad we're doing it again.

Finsihed. We'll start another this week.

2. I got this for Christmas which we also started. 

There are so many pieces. It's hard. The plan was that we would do one section before we do our puzzle. But it needs to be one or the other as there's not enough time for both every day.

This is all we've done so far. 

You might remember this one we did a few years ago.

It was a lot of fun. I still enjoy looking at it when we're at the beach. And then of course, Butch recreated that little sign for me--exactly!

3. My favorite spot.

Especially when it's cold!

4. Another favorite spot:

Especially when it's cold---and you have new bath bombs! Sometimes--about once a week, when my feet are cold, I just go in our bathroom and warm them up with our heated floor. It feels sooooo good!

5. Let's end with a mystery.

What???

I know who did it, I just don't know why! How do you leave half of a tiny chocolate? It's a mystery to me!

Something for Sunday

Well, it's still about me and my birthday. Let me tell you about my perfect day yesterday.

*I woke up about 3:45 a.m. I stayed in bed and read until 5-ish. 

*Worked out until 6--treadmill and weights.

*Took my shower.

*Butch had a fire going and my tea made when I got out.

*Butch made us avocado toast for breakfast. 

*Started a chicken taco type soup in the crockpot.

*I went upstairs to my scrapbook room. It's still a mess from the December layout I did a few days ago. I didn't clean up because I have a few more Christmas layouts that I want to do. I decided what I plan to do next--which is going to require a lot of computer formatting. So, that's what I settled on for today.

*Tried to fix my sewing machine. I couldn't. There are two threads coming out from the bobbin area. Have no idea how to fix it.

*Gave up and went downstairs to watch a documentary while working on my computer. 

*The birthday calls started to roll in. 

*Went outside to make "snow angels"--story below.

*Had lunch--the soup was delicious. I'll have to share the recipe.

*Did some computer journaling for a friend.

*Tried to figure out how to do mailing labels--couldn't--decided that it's going to take too long to figure out. I'll just write up a bunch of envelopes. 

*Sorted pictures on my computers. 

*Continued to get texts. 

*Read some more--I'm in the middle of a great book: The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell.

*Got ready for my birthday dinner.

*Worked on this post until it was time to meet the girls and their hubs for dinner at the Bonefish Grill.

*Had a great dinner and cashed in on my free birthday dessert!

*and took a picture with my birthday twin, Allison. She's the manager.

Here's the story about the snow angel. So while talking to my sister, Jeanne, she challenged me to go outside and make a snow angel. Well, not exactly "challenged" me, but rather "ordered" me---and she says I'm the bossy one! 

So, I did. I knew the grands would get a kick out of it. I'm ALL about the memories. I want them to always remember that I was a crazy, fun grammy!

Thanks Jeanne for "making" me do something to mark #73!!

*And now I'm home and finishing this post.

*Done.

*Crawling back into bed for some more reading.

Perfect ending to a perfect day!!

It's My Birthday!!!

Okay, so you have to indulge me. I don't think I've ever posted pictures of myself through the years. But it's my birthday, so here goes. 

The pictures are in chronological order but there are big gaps. 

This was before I grew my body. 

I loved dresses as far back as I can remember. 

Kindergarten--I loved this shiny dress, but I do remember that little rose bugged me. Still, I suffered with it because I thought it was so cute and made the dress. Now I can see you barely can tell it's a rose!

I loved my First Communion dress. Mom let me wear it all day--with the veil--and I did!

Me, rocking my very first tube top. If you look real close, you can see I never had the boobs to hold it up!

I wonder what I really looked like in the 5th grade? The only thing that's right about this picture is the dress and headband. I loved those headbands to keep my hair out of my face. The rest---cheesy smile and that rolled hair are fake!

I had to include this picture even though my brother is in it. I'm in 7th grade here. Those dickeys were all the rage. I don't think they were meant to be worn under an itchy, translucent mohair sweater!

Freshman year--about the time I started cutting my own bangs.

My softball days! I played 3rd base from 2nd grade through my junior year of highschool!

My senior picture. I remember my brother, who was a year younger came home the next year after going to the studio for his senior picture and complained to mom that he couldn't get away from me. Apparently, the photographer had my picture hanging up. Hmmm. Shouldn't I have gotten paid for that?

My wedding picture at 19 years old--I cropped Butch out. Okay, here he is!

My gosh--we were just babes! And now, 53 years later, we're still going! They say that the longer you are married the more you start to look like each other. I don't know about that, but I do have the 'stache going on!

Okay, now from our wedding picture from 1971, I don't have a single other picture of me in the 70's nor the early 80's. We skip to the late '80's when I wore my art--hand painted shirt and matching earrings!! That was in the height of the craft fairs. 

This is sometime in the mid-90's. I went on a cruise with my mom. This was one of the mandatory photos. Actually, I'm happy to have it. This is one of the few pics from the 90's up through most of the 2000's. 

From here on out, these are all from about the last 10 years.

Love my Princess Diana scarf. Sandy gave it to me one year for Christmas after I saw it in the British Shoppe at Epcot. I thought it was too expensive!

Now that I'm OLD(er), I'm taking more pictures.

Okay, so that's ME from birth to 73! Yikes--that number!

Where did the time go?