Monday Listicles - Class Reunion

Link up with Stasha at The good life for Monday Listicles. It's a different topic every week - follow along and join in. And look at her beautiful pictures while you are checking out her site.

This weeks topic was picked by my friend, Rachel at Totally Ovar It, and she chose 10 Pros/Cons Of Attending Your Class Reunion. Great topic!

Here's my list of totally superficial pros and cons:

Pros:
1. I find it a great excuse to get, or stay, in shape.
2. There is, of course, a handful of people I really do want to catch up with.
3. I get to see the guys that were nerdy who are aging really well. And the guys that were hot that are now... not so hot.
4. I get to show that guy I had the crush on way back then what he missed out on.
5. I get to see which people will still get drunk and act stupid, all these years later.


Cons:
6. Being on Facebook means I'm already caught up on more high school classmates than I probably would catch up with in person! What will we talk about?
7. I get annoyed by the gal who thinks she's an entertainment reporter (she has a podcast that no one watches) and name drops like she hangs out at the Academy Awards.
8. The food usually sucks.
9. I have to see that person who totally intimidated me way back when, and stupidly, still does.
10. I get to see which people will still get drunk and act stupid, all these years later.

***Ally
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A Follow Up On Customer Service

You might have seen my previous post about a negative customer service experience my son had at Guitar Center.

I posted about it, and my son tweeted about it.

We were both contacted within 24 hours by reps asking for more information. Our experience was quickly relayed down the chain to the store manager where we had been. He emailed both my son and myself.

I'm happy to report that they have been incredibly responsive, and seem very willing to make it right.

The interface my son was interested in has been ordered for him and the manager assured us he wanted him to get it for the price he was quoted when it comes into the store next week.

My original intent in posting about it was airing my frustration over a customer service problem that resulted in disappointment for my son, who is really a great kid and really tries to do things the right way. I started in retail at 16 years old, and customer service was primary at the major department store where I worked. I know we've all had more than our share of poor customer service, and sadly it's gotten worse over the years.

The people who contacted us genuinely seemed to want to change that. And THAT I truly appreciate. The store manager even relayed his own experiences as a teenager who was into music, but felt like he often got the runaround at music stores. He told us it is his goal that his customers don't have that same experience, and he was willing to do what he could to change it.

I'm not usually the squeaky wheel. It used to drive me crazy that my MIL was so willing to verbally air her complaints if service wasn't exactly what she expected, no matter where she was. I usually wanted to crawl in a hole. And it is certainly not my intent to get an employee in trouble or, worse, fired, for goodness sakes. I do hope what results is a boost in communication to employees on how to execute good customer service.

So, my thanks goes out to the management at Guitar Center. My son is learning some valuable life lessons and improving his own communication skills, both of which he will take away from this experience.

***Ally
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Hawaii Sunshine In A Glass - Yum!

I work next door to a local store that has wonderful produce. They have recently been stocking Maui Gold pineapples and they have been awesome. Ripe, sweet, juicy. None of that still half green, half flavor stuff you get sometimes. They've had them at a great price, so I bought a few and froze some chunks.

*I'll insert here that I can cut up a pineapple like nobody's business, with little waste. We all have to have some skill to be proud of, right?

 Mmmm, doesn't that look like a tasty snack?

I'm also a smoothie queen. I'm sharing my Hawaii In A Glass Smoothie. It really does bring a little sunshine to my taste buds in the middle of winter. And with the right additions, you can make it as a snack, a meal, or an adult drink.

To start, you need frozen pineapple chunks. You also need frozen banana chunks. When bananas get too ripe around here, I usually peel them, cut them into bite size chunks and freeze them.

I add a handful of each of the frozen fruit chunks in the blender.
Then I add a splash of orange juice. Use any kind, I use orange-mango. Yummy!

Then I add some milk (1/2 cup? more?). You can use any milk. I normal use unsweetened vanilla almond or coconut milk, or a mix of the two separately, but I recently found this (new introductory sale price, too!) and had to try it, even though it has a little extra sugar in it:

Now, depending on what you want from your smoothie, you can add:

-A big spoonful of plain yogurt (great protein boost and creamy)
-A half or full scoop of vanilla protein powder
-Or even 1/3 to 1/2 of a cup of oatmeal (5 minute quick cook, not instant and not steel cut) - it makes it a little more filling to have for breakfast, and it grinds up pretty fine in the blender

You're still wondering about that adult beverage option? Skip the oatmeal and protein powder and add a little rum. YUM! The yogurt will still make it nice and creamy.

Now it's time to apologize. What kind of recipe is "a handful of this and a splash of that"? That's just how I do smoothies. There's no right or wrong. My only advice is start out conservative with your liquids, you can always add more if it's too thick.

Enjoy!

***Ally
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Hanging On For Friday - And A Little Humor

This has really been a bad week. And it's only Wednesday.

The weather is foul - windy and rainy and gray and dark.

I have to have a cracked tooth filed down and filled today, hoping to save it from needing a crown.

Remember last week, when I wrote about how our credit card number had been stolen and used to buy $2000 worth of extravagant meals in Texas? Well with the weekend and the holiday, the replacement just finally came yesterday. Read that word again: replacement. Do you see what's missing? What's missing is the 's' at the end of the word. Because they only sent my husband a replacement. Not mine. Did I mention I'm leaving town on Friday? I kinda need that card. I called the bank and they are expediting me a new card, and waiving the fees. However, it will arrive Thursday by FedEx and requires a signature. I have to go into the office to see a patient Thursday morning, so I will be racing the clock to try to beat the FedEx guy home.

I went through our budget this weekend and came up with the sad reality that this economy has almost crushed my business. I've got to find a way to increase my business two to three fold, or find a new job. That's not an easy pill to swallow after seven years of successfully being an independent contractor. It's hard not to feel like I'm personally failing, even though I know I have no control over the economy or the increasing number of providers in my area that do what I do.

But if that has reached a low point of this post, let me enlighten you with a little stressful humor and storytelling.

Saturday, I took the light rail train downtown and met up with two amazing bloggers IN REAL LIFE! I met Stasha and Rachel for lunch and a lovely little wine bar and cafe. We started with appetizers of cheese and cheese (brie and goat cheese) and then just moved right on to dessert. These are my kind of women!! Really, besides the cheese and dessert, they are fantastic ladies.

Sea salt chocolate covered caramels, vanilla bean creme brulee,

and caramelized pear cheesecake.

Heaven.

I'd love to show you pictures of the three of us, but I ridiculously didn't take any. I thought of it several times during our lunch, but the waitress would arrive at our table and then be gone before we could say two extra words. She was quick! I kept thinking she'd come back, but then we moved on to coffee elsewhere. Next time, I promise. And there WILL be a next time. 

ANYLONGWINDEDSTORY, when I went downtown, I put my debit card and driver's license with some cash in a small wallet, as I didn't want to take my big purse. I remember coming home and as I went to put the wallet away, seeing the two cards and thinking how glad I was that I saw them and remembered to put them back in my purse. Today, I went to get my driver's license out for something and... it wasn't there. PANIC.

I went crazy. I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm supposed to fly to California on Friday. CRAP. I emptied my purse and my wallet twice. I searched pant pockets, coat pockets, the floor, the counter - everywhere. Hubs came home and asked if I found it. Sadly, I shook my head no as I made my plans to spend 2 hours at the DMV to get a new one and dug out my passport. 

I told him, "I don't get it! I remember putting them back in my wallet and now it's not there. We didn't go anywhere Sunday that I would have had it out..." realization swept over me "F**K - I - ran!"

"F**k Iran?" he said laughing.

I ran upstairs and checked my running belt. There was my driver's license. I NEVER remember to take ID when I run. Ever. But Sunday I had decided I didn't want to die a Jane Doe if I got hit by a car and had tucked it in my running belt with my cell phone. And promptly forgot about it.

"Found it!" I yelled.

"F**k Iran?" he asked again.

Smart ass.

For the record, as long as I can get on that plane, I'm good. I've got back up cash set aside if that credit card doesn't arrive. I'm going. And I'm going to have a great time with Lela and maybe convince her to blog once or twice again in the future. I will relax and clear my brain and come back ready to tackle life's problems.

***Ally

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Learning Disappointment - Thanks A Lot Guitar Center

I don't like feeling like a complainer. But sometimes poor customer service just needs to be talked about. I guess I hope that if we talk about it, maybe someday employers will take notice. Maybe someday, they'll change this new status quo of the negative retail experience and bring back good customer relations.

My son has always been good about saving money. He saves and saves and waits to buy something big he's had his eye on. He's done this for years. He's never been one to let it burn a hole in his pocket.

Now he has learned from Hubs to research brands, search for the lowest prices, find the best deal.

As a parent, it makes me proud.

After a couple of days of research, he had narrowed down a purchase he had his eye on. I'd tell you what it was, but I am not quite as versed in audio recording and production as he is and I have no idea what the thing is. Some kind of audio interface thingy. Yes, he does that. Yes, he's thinking of going to college to get a degree in it. Just trust me on this part.

He was looking at two brands, two different product packages for each brand. He called the store (Guitar Center), asked their President's Day Sale pricing and was quoted. He talked them through with me, explained his reasons while I nodded my head appropriately since he was talking a foreign language and told me the price the guy at the store had quoted him.

Regular price: $499
Sale price: $219
And on top of it, he had a 15% off coupon.

Good job, kid! Way to sniff out the bargain!

We were all going out to pick a few things up anyway, so all three of us went to Guitar Center so he could make his purchase. The salesperson helping him couldn't find the thing. So he got on the computer. Five minutes later, he reported they didn't have any in the store.

"But I called just a little while ago to check the price. He didn't say you didn't have any." My son was not happy to hear this.

Ten more minutes, with us having to ASK him to first check the computer to see if another store had one (one did - they only had ONE), then having to ASK where that store was located (he didn't know), then having to ASK him to call and make sure it was new in the box and not a floor model. Then we asked if they could have it transferred to the store we were in. They could. We asked if they charged shipping for that and he said no. But another employee overheard him and corrected him. They WOULD charge shipping because "we don't have any trucks - they have to ship it UPS." Oh, and we would have to PAY for it there on the spot if we wanted the other store to hold it for us so we could drive 50 minutes to pick it up.

But the kicker came when my son was informed that the item he was looking at was, NOT in fact on sale. Whoever he had spoken to had not only failed to check whether they had it in stock, he had price quoted the wrong item.

Misquoted.
Stock not checked.
We had to walk the salesperson through his job in the store.
He gave us wrong information on shipping.
He had no answers for half our questions.

The kicker for me - he never once offered to show him something else, and believe me, they had LOTS of other brands and options. Wouldn't it have been in the store's best interest to offer to show him some comparable products? The kid was standing there with a few hundred dollars cash in his pocket, ready to spend it! The guy was perfectly happy to let us walk out the door empty handed. Crazy.

I felt bad for my son. He'd done the research, made the calls, asked the questions, found the best deal.

And then poor customer service turns the whole thing on it's head. Sometimes I hate that our kids have to learn to deal with disappointment, though I realize it's part of life. Believe me, he's over it, back to looking around for other deals.

I wish I could say it was the first lousy experience there, but it wasn't. It might be the last, though. It certainly seems like another retailer might like our business a little more.

I understand new employees might not have all the answers, but they can ask. I understand the place can be busy on a sale day, but we weren't rushed for time. There were TWO other employees being told they shouldn't be standing around on a sale day, behind us. I wish I could understand whatever happened to quality customer service. 

***Ally
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An addendum to this post is that both myself and my son have been contacted since turning to social media with our disappointment. So maybe this is a problem with that particular store. I'm happy to see that Guitar Center, as a company, is listening to the customer. I will continue my conversation with the representative that contacted me, and I thank him for reaching out to do so. 

Monday Listicles - Cleaning House

Link up with Stasha at The good life for Monday Listicles. It's a different topic every week - follow along & join in. And look at her beautiful pictures while you are checking out her site.

This week's topic: 10 things I would rather do than clean the house...


Really? I can only list 10? Bwahaha! I am the QUEEN of procrastination of chores I dislike. But I'll try to come up with some besides the obvious.

Here goes:

1. I'd rather fold and put away laundry, than clean the house.
2. I'd rather go grocery shopping, than clean the house. (I really dislike grocery shopping.)
3. I'd rather give the dog a bath, than clean the house. (The dog really dislikes baths.)
4. I'd rather wash my car, than clean the house. (Ick.)
5. I'd rather go for a 6 mile run, than clean the house.
6. I'd rather lift weights for an hour, than clean the house.
7. I wanted to say I'd rather pull weeds, than clean the house, but I've decided this might be a draw.
8. I'd rather read blogs, which is what I usually do instead of cleaning the house, than clean the house.
9. I'd definitely rather curl up with a good book, than clean the house.
10. I'd really rather hire someone ELSE to clean my house, than do it myself. Maybe again someday.

So yes, like most, I don't really like cleaning the house. There's a lot I'd rather do.

***Ally
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Five Question Friday

Just a little fun on Friday!


Join the fun and link up for Five Question Friday over at My Little Life.

1. What do you do when you are really upset to calm yourself down?

Usually, I stomp off and spend a few minutes by myself. Or, I rant a lot  little when Hubs is around to lend a listening ear. Or eat some chocolate... that makes everything better, right?

2. Do you go all out for V-day or is it just another day?

Pretty much just another day. We do exchange cards, but we don't make a huge deal out of it.

3. Are you more or less productive when Hubs is away?

More, more, more! When he is out of town, I have a rhythm I get into. I get efficient, I get stuff done. What really happens is that my ocd comes bubbling to the surface and I simply can't relax until everything is completed and organized. Totally productive.

4. What is your favorite time of day and why?

On my days off, it's early afternoon. My workouts are done, I'm usually showered, I'm home alone. Otherwise, evenings, because that's the only time I have to spend with Hubs and The Boy.

5. What is your go-to karaoke song?

Bwahahaha. Oh this is easy. NOTHING. Seriously, you do NOT want me to sing karaoke. Ever. I'm a great audience, however.

How about you? What is your go-to karaoke song? Let me hear them!


***Ally 

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