Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?

I'm going to do something I don't normally do and whine on here for a minute. We'll blame it on the fact that I'm sick. And that's actually what I want to whine about. Last Monday I started coming down with something and by Tuesday I was pretty much out of commission. I was down for pretty much a whole week (and I'm still not completely better). And in that whole time not a single person even had a clue that anything was wrong. Nobody heard from me and nobody seemed to care. I could have died and probably nobody would think much of it (besides my immediate family but that's not what I'm talking about here). Maybe I've been so caught up in school and my own little world that I haven't maintained a lot of the relationships that used to be so important. Or maybe it's just that I'm really not as important to people as I think I am. What kind of effect have I really had on people, if any? There was a time when I really KNEW what kind of effect I had on the people around me and their lives were better for having me around. This is not a post so that everybody will tell me how wonderful I am. I'm just thinking maybe there are some things that need to be changed. It may have to wait until school is done in December. Really, that's my main focus right now and it's totally taking over my life. But, still, shouldn't I still have some impact on the people around me and they would be sad if I was gone?

So Much for Satisfaction

Dear Collision Repair Company,

You wanted to know if everything about our experience with your company was satisfactory. At the time, the answer was yes and I would have recommended you to anybody who needed their car repaired. But then some things happened that I was not so happy about.

First, your method of payment kind of sucks. You don't take checks, which was just fine with me. But then you wouldn't take our American Express either. That's the only credit card we have and we like it a lot. Especially since we get points every time we use it and pay it off to go toward prizes. Do you know how many points you get for putting $2000 worth of auto body repair on your American Express? Well, it's a lot. And we were very disappointed that we were unable to obtain those points because you do not accept American Express. Since you don't take personal checks or the only credit card we have I was forced to put all $2000 worth of repairs on my debit card. That COMPLETELY wiped out our checking account but it was going to be ok because in a few days the insurance company would send us a check to reimburse us for their part of the repair coverage.

And they did send us a check. However, it had my name AND your name on it and the bank wouldn't let me cash it without your endorsement too. Which really shouldn't have been a problem, right? Wrong. This is the other thing that made me not so satisfied with my experience with your company. I took the check in right away to have it endorsed but YOU told me you couldn't do that. We would have to endorse the check, give it to you, and you would cut us a company check for that amount. Doesn't that seem pretty silly? Why not just endorse the check? ESPECIALLY since you didn't have anyone there who could cut us a check and we'd have to wait until this week to have it done. Well, I'm sure waiting a few days for $1500 wouldn't break you, especially because WE ALREADY PAID YOU AND YOU WOULDN'T GET A SINGLE PENNY OF THAT CHECK ANYWAY. But it would certainly cause serious financial problems for us for a few more days. We have bills to pay. Bills we CAN'T pay because YOU wiped out our entire checking account because YOU DON'T TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS.

So, I'm seriously rethinking my satisfaction with your company. I don't know that I could recommend you to all my friends and family. I guess as long as they weren't planning on paying with American Express they would be ok. I thought good collision repair companies take ALL major credit cards. You might want to rethink your policy.

Sincerely,
Bliss

Sometimes

Hooray!

I have successfully made it through half of my workday. Sometimes you just have to celebrate the little things. And today is just one of those days...

Update on the ten pound challege: I have lost 4 pounds so far! 6 more to go. And then I'll work on the next ten pounds... and then the next... But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Hubby bought me an iPod Mini so I have something besides the voices in my head to listen to when I exercise. Of course, that only works when he doesn't take it with him to work. MY iPod, indeed.

I'm sitting here writing up my grocery list for the week:
Caesar salad
veggie dip
baby carrots
apples
ham
Smart Ones frozen dinners
Freschetta frozen pizza
Veggies in Alfredo
Pillsbury Oven Baked garlic dinner rolls
chicken breast
cheddar cheese
black beans
water
sandwich bags
100 calorie cookies

That's what I have so far. I'm sure there will be more things to be added when I think of them. I don't know why I'm convinced that anybody cares about my shopping habits but whatever. Sometimes there's nothing to write about but the mundane.

No More Talk of Babies

We took my car in to get it fixed yesterday.

The appraiser came Monday and appraised the damage at nearly $2000! All that for such a small accident. After dropping my car off Hubby and I were driving into school and listening to the radio. They were talking about hunting ghosts. In fact, they had a recording that had been taken in a haunted building here in the valley. It was kind of hard to hear but it sounded like water, and you could almost make out a couple of voices. What it sounded like was a man drowning a child in the bathtub and the child saying, "I can't breathe." Freaked me right out! It sounded so spooky and real.

Yesterday was not a good day for cooking. Yesterday really wasn't a good day for anything, but especially cooking. I was trying out two new healthy recipes that sounded really good but really were not. I was baking apples and pears and they were supposed to be dry and crispy but they turned out wet and slimy. Ugh.

Then I made this soup that sounded a lot like my mom's yummy Butternut Bisque but it didn't turn out that way. It must have been the parsnips. I'd never tried parsnips before but discovered I didn't like them. So dinner was ruined. By the time Hubby got home from work and we realized how disgusting the soup was it was too late to do anything else so we just scrounged around the kitchen for anything quick and easy. Some night. I think I'm not allowed to try to make soup anymore. They never turn out quite right for some reason.

While I was waiting for Hubby to get home I turned on the tv to see if there was anything good on. I got hooked on this brand new show, "Supernatural." Don't ask me why. I think every episode is going to be a mini scary movie. This one was reminiscent of "The Ring" and I was freaking myself out watching it. Especially after listening to those ghosts on the radio that morning.

Over the weekend, Hubby decided to wrap my car around a pole.

Ok, so it really wasn't as dramatic as it may sound. There was quite a bit of damage but the car is still salvageable. However, I can't drive it until the headlight is secured in place instead of hanging off the front bumper by a thread. Or, well, a wire, I guess. Everyone involved is ok, even the little kids playing in the parking lot we were trying to avoid hitting which was the cause of the accident. I almost wish we'd just gone ahead and hit them. There would have been less damage to my car...

The last time my car was in an accident was about a year and a half ago. The following week my backpack was stolen at school with my purse in it. The backpack was recovered but not until after all the books and my purse were taken out of it. I had to cancel my phone, credit cards, get a new drivers license, etc. I was beginning to think the Universe was conspiring against me.

But a few short weeks after that I met my husband. I guess really good things follow really bad things. I'll be expecting something good really soon.

How Do You Measure a Year?

I can't believe tomorrow will be a year since I started this blog.

A lot has changed in that time but this blog has helped me stay in touch with friends I don't see very often anymore. Writing this blog was a big step for me. I'm not good at letting people in and sharing myself publicly but this has helped me make progress in that area. I'm grateful to friends who encouraged me to start this and for those who read and make comments. I feel like I was a lot more entertaining when I first started this blog, maybe I can get back to that. This is starting to sound like I'm accepting an Academy Award or something so I'd better stop.

Congrats to two dear friends who are getting married today. I love you both and hope you will be as blissfully happy in marriage as I am.

Obsess Much?

While grocery shopping the other day I came to realize I'm a little bit OCD about my groceries. Not so much the shopping part although I do go the same route around the store every week. But I think most people do that. You have a specific way of driving the cart around the store so as not to miss anything you need to buy.

No, my OCD kicks in when I get to the checkout. I have a specific way I place things on the belt so that things get put a specific way into the grocery bags. Well, at least that's what is supposed to happen. Some checkers don't seem to know how to group groceries when placing them in the bags. I put them in a specific order so that it's more convenient for them when placing them in the bags but you would be surprised how difficult it can be for the checker sometimes. The girl on Saturday did it right and it made me want to cheer. That's when I realized how OCD I am about it.

First, I put all the produce on the belt. Fruits and veggies. And I buy A LOT of those. Then comes anything refrigerated and frozen. Frozen entrees, popsicles, dairy products. I like to have all the cold stuff together in a bag or two. Next comes any food products that don't need to stay cold. Boxed, canned, bagged, bottled. Last is anything non-food. Toilet paper, shampoo, notebooks, etc. It HAS to be this way.

Think I'm a little obsessed?