B.I.O: Another Terrible Mishap!

I took a little break from blogging to enjoy my time in Virginia. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I have lots to blog about but I'm going to try to blog in order of occurrence. I was in Virginia for a while and I'm finally back home in South Carolina. The busiest day to travel...no doubt. It took me 9.5 hours instead of the usual 6.5 hours. Bummer but all that matters is I got here safe. I'll have a Thanksgiving blog next but this blog is reserved for another customer service blunder. 

B.I.O- Bitch It Out! I think it's going to be a new hit since I never followed through on I.T.C.C.T (If these clothes could talk) but I think these will be more entertaining and even informative. Like my last blog I have a customer service issue but this one was handled so-so but I can't believe it happened. Maybe I'm critical because I'm a Public Relations major but I think everyone likes to get there way-you know bang for your buck. So here's the deal. I went to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law after his flag football game. 

The Place: El Puerto- Staunton, Virginia (mall road)

The Situation: Dinner for three. Ordered three completely different meals. Arrived around 9:00 p.m. store hours were until 10:00 p.m. I imagined that they were cleaning up and calling it a day because only a few late dinner goers were there. 

We were eating and talking. Then half way through the meal. Steven (brother-in-law) gets an awful looks on his face and gets a napkin starts coughing and we shield our eyes. He had spit out some bites of his enchilada. Picking out two pieces of metal. Two pieces that I assume were from steel wool brushes for cleaning. I understand how it happened; cleaning the pots, then having to cook for us, putting the meat in the pan and two shards of steel mixed into the enchilada. It was an honest mistake but that doesn't make it okay, right? 

Of course not! It was a total buzz kill to the night and we were turned off by the remaining food on our plates. The waiter wasn't around and Steven was debating on telling him or not. He of course did after my sister and I encouraged him. The waiters response was "Oh my gosh" and walked a way. It didn't seem like a big deal to him and it didn't help that in an awkward situation Steven casually responded "it's okay". Steel wool in your food? It's okay?! He didn't believe us that he said that. 

On the bright side Steven rightfully had his meal comped but I think that if they were concerned about having all three of us a customers it would have been better to comp the entire meal. I think they can afford to lose $26.00 especially for steel wool and the fact we didn't finish our meals because we weren't willing to take a chance. I think I had a cut in my cheek but it might have been me over reacting because of the situation plus I had chicken. Beside the point... plus one for El Puerto comping the meal and taking blame- good PR! Too bad when we went to pay the cashier said...

"Sorry man, that's the first in a long time" 

That's encouraging. We walked out the door stunned. "First time in a long time" said Steven, "Well, that's the last time we'll ever eat here." True for them. Maybe true for me. Sure i'll chew my food cautiously maybe give it a full scan. This could happen anywhere but the fact that they obviously don't check their pots well or flip them upside down before cooking scares me. And that it happens a lot...I mean what's a long time? Weeks, months, years? I'll never know...

So I blogged about it. Bitched it out. I did it for Steven and for the people! I don't want to be known as the customer service complainer because 9/10 times I receive great/good/okay service but this might have beat out Dillard's. Grant it we were in and out of El Puerto before Dillard's wrapped a gift. I love shopping and going out to eat! I don't think it's possible for every store to suck but I get over things like this pretty easy. Over it! 

Just a heads up! 

 

Bitch It Out!

We've all had those moments where you want to be pinched because it can't be real. I'm not talking about the really magical moments or really tragic moments, I'm talking about the moments that are so stupid that you can't believe it's happening. I call them 'wtf' moments. I rarely have a potty mouth on my blog but the title says it all: it's about bitching it out. I'm a day shy of a week late of bitching this one out but I really feel it's entertaining, ridiculous and yes 'blog-worthy'!

I'm not sure if it's Glamour or Cosmo that does the 'Bitch it Out' page but I adore it. It's a way of venting out and having people agree with you on those 'wtf' moments. I am not sure which magazine it's from...I went upstairs to check but like I have said before I'm a tabloid/mom magazine girl so I only could find my People and Red book magazines.I might submit this one to Cosmo. (I'm 80% positive that's the correct one!)


The Scenario:

Last Thursday mom had work off because of Veterans Day and we had planned a girls day to go shopping for my future sister-in-laws bridal shower on Saturday. We went to Dillard's around 11:30 a.m. to purchase somethings off her registry. We had an idea of what we wanted to buy and I had memorized the registry so well we didn't even have to hassle anyone for a 12 page print out of the registry. We looked around a bit and I spotted the Le Creseut crock that mom said they didn't have and it was in her color! It looked like a display so we took the twenty some utensils out of the crock and scooped it up. Next we found two other requested items and went to the check out to pay. It was probably close to noon at this point.

We found two check outs and only one cashier and maybe 5 old ladies going back and forth to the checkout and in the mean time checking out the 99 cent table in between. It was bad enough the cashier had zero help in her department but the 99 cent table hadn't even been marked down from their old sale prices. That meant the cashier had to input each tiny bar code number into the register manually no scanning. I had found 3 mismatched place mats that I wanted from the table but the lady in front of us had 20 items from the table. You could imagine this took a while but our patience levels were still high. No big deal not the cashiers fault she doesn't have any help. It wasn't bad enough to pass up on the free gift wrapping. Apparently (maybe) Dillard's offers free bridal registry gift wrap. Mom and I thought 'sure why not?' We had three fairly large ceramic pieces that would be awkward to wrap, we didn't have boxes and we'd have to buy at least two rolls of wrapping paper...so it's seemed like a great idea. Free gift wrapping.

We carried our three pieces over to the customer service/gift wrap section of Dillard's where we were less than enthusiastically greeted by two ladies working. We sat our three items on the counter and explained how the cashier said we could get free gift wrapping since it's was on the registry. We thought it would be quick and painless. We thought wrong. The first lady told us to pick out wrapping paper. We chose a shiny silver for the two pieces that were alike to be wrapped together and then the second a pretty blossom print. We told her and she said 'Oh no you can only have silver or white' Umm. 'Okay silver.' I said. A few seconds later they're shifting around for boxes and they have one large Dillard's gift box that fits the two alike items together and are making calls to someone to get more boxes because they don't have a tall rectangular one. Then another lady comes in and the lady that was helping us originally left to take her lunch. The lady that steps in doesn't work in gift wrap and the other later that is still there is training and clueless.

Let's take a time out for me to bitch:
Training? I get that she has to be trained on certain stuff at the store but if she was hired shouldn't she know how to gift wrap? I assumed that like the customer service in the middle of the mall these people would be pros too. Pros like the bow makers in Michaels. Michaels wouldn't hire someone to be the bow maker if they didn't know how to make bows already. I was blown away. She looked older than my mom so she should have several years of gift wrapping experience unless she has bagged everything her whole life.

Okay back to the story...
The lady that stepped in was on the phone again to find a gift box. Does Dillard's realize that it's prime time Christmas shopping.? How do you not have gift boxes? I get that ours was complimentary but what about the ones that are planning to pay $3-7 per package?! The lady seemed annoyed that we were standing at the counter and told us we could look around or sit.

We've already made our purchases so why would we want to look around? Before we left we started to peel the price tags off and the lady told us not to worry about it she would get them.We realized it was going to take awhile so we went to the dresses. I tried on a couple and looked around and came back to a half wrapped package and the lady putting the other gift into a UPS brown box. WTF. Still not done. Minutes later the wrapping was almost done and the lady in training was making bows slowly peeling the double stick tape and inching each ribbon. I felt like I was in slow motion not to mention it was ugly. I know it's free but where is the talent? We knew we should have wrapped them on our own but it was too late. We saved our breath to even comment on the brown UPS box and just stood there wide eyed as she made that damn bow. A couple minutes later.. mom told her that was fine and to trim the bow instead of doing that inch worm crap. She didn't say the last part but I wanted to. After they were finished the lady said we didn't have to pay for it. We looked at her like she was insane. "The cashier said it was free anyway" "Well thank you for your patience" WTF. It was 1:35 p.m. It took over an hour to wrap two packages! Are you kidding me? As we were picking up our packages another couple came up with two sizable pocketbooks to get gift wrapped and they tried to put them in brown UPS boxes too and the couple said no thanks.

We passed that couple out the door and told them they made the right choice because it took over an hour. Afterwards mom and I were in a state of WTF shock. I couldn't believe that happened. Seriously, we had other things to do but didn't know if we could take anymore shopping. We took a break for lunch and finished out the day.

We told our story to dad and I was still in shock about how stupid it was. I like Dillard's it's a great store with a lot of nice things. I was disappointed in their customer service. I mean they're competition is Nordstrom, Macy's, Belk, Bloomingdales and here JC Penny's. (Did you know that the JC Penny's here has a Sephora in it?!) I wonder if the Northwoods Mall Dillard's is aware of that? I probably should have said something but I'm not that confrontational of a person so instead I blog a 'Bitch it Out!' It was an hour and half wasted but makes a great story.

Of course you want to see pictures right?

Some of you might not think it's that bad but I think we can all agree that it shouldn't have taken over an hour to freaking wrap. If you know me you know that I wanted to unwrap them as soon as I inspected them. I took pictures so I could blog about it! It's funny having a blog you always have moments and when they happen you think this could make a great blog. Too bad I don't get paid but I like to write so at least it's entertaining.

So I managed to control myself and didn't unwrap them but I didn make some adjustments...

Hey when life gives you lemons make lemonade right, haha.

I carefully unpeeled the tape and made a new ribbon combining the packages! I'm a bit crazy it's true.

It gets better or should I say worse...

Saturday morning we're at the bridal brunch for Anna Brooks and she's opening presents and she unwraps her first present from us that was an adorable dog ring holder at BB&B and then her Dillard's gifts that I wrote an apology for the gift wrapping in the card and then she holds up the pieces for all to see and there is the freaking price tags beaming off them. Oh what the hell! Mom runs over to her and we briefly explain the disaster in much less words than above. Mom peels the stickers off. So tacky Dillard's! I mean it's not a big deal on a gift registry because she knows how much everything cost she registered for it. But still  :( Dillard's gift wrapping!!!!!!!!

Okay that chapter is over. I will shop there again but will never get anything gift wrapped there again besides I'm clearly capable myself. I'd rather pay for a box and $3.98 for gift wrapping then go through that again even if it's free.

Thanks for reading and allowing me to bitch it out! I'm so over it. :)

Love!

Weekend

I had a 'blog-worthy' weekend. Nothing spectacular just a great time with the family!

Friday afternoon those with jobs arrive home the last one filing in around 5pm. Mom, Dad and Scott. Scott came in for the weekend! He lives less than an hour away but is so busy with work I don't see him as much as I'd like to! I love my brother. And I'm learning to love South Carolina more and more. A job would really be the icing on the cake. One thing South Carolina does have is some incredibly talented football players which is why Friday I went to my THIRD High School football game.

Friday

High School Football?! That's right. It's crazy because I found myself being the exact way I was in high school about getting dressed for Friday night. It's about comfort, the weather and fashion. I know some people detest Uggs but I'm not one of them! It was actually chilly at night and I was thinking while getting dressed how do SC high schoolers dress? Am I in style here? What if I wear Uggs and everyone makes fun of me? Okay, so it wasn't that serious but I laughed at myself. I opted for a purple long sleeve tee, moccasins and a scarf and guess what? Froze my butt off! Thank goodness for the blanket and sitting strategically in between Scott and dad. My brother on the otherhand wasn't as fashionable. He packed for the weekend and either forgot jeans or only brought shorts because he wore his khakis and tennis shoes! I joked on him all night about not knowing if he was my dad or my brother. A hot chocolate and a popcorn later the game was a blow out and we left at the beginning of the fourth. Summerville High School killed the other team and we saw their all-star get his 2,000th rushing yard and we were out.

At home the lame fam went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and left me downstairs to watch television, facebook stalk and rate clothing on fashism. I went to bed fairly earlier to read my new book and get some rest! My new book? You may refer to an older blog about Nora Roberts Bridal Quartet- the fourth one is out now. Love! Anyways it was lights out because in the morning it was YARD SALE day.

Saturday

7:00 a.m. my alarm clock goes off. So early especially on a Saturday. It was Yard Sale day. Our neighborhood has an annual yard sale it's actually pretty cool because a lot of houses participate so all you have to do is park and walk. We had a few items to sell but not a lot. We weren't the hottest sale on the block but we got rid of some bulk. Dad got out the power saw early to cut pieces of plywood to make tables, he didn't have as much as expected so we had to bring out our kitchen table. Ghetto. I wasn't embarassed we had stuff to display and sell! I think there's this misperception that only poor people yard sale but it's actually no different than going to thrift stores or antique stores. You'd be surprised what people sell in yard sales. Unfortunately we didn't have any hot ticket items like furtniture and electronics but it was a neat experience. I displayed like items together and sat. Dad has an overstock of those strap tightener things and for fun started making 10-packs of them. He made $6 off the bat while mom and my stuff stayed put. Really?! Three hours later the sale was over. We sold some glasses, jewelry, shoes, stuffed animals, 1 shirt and a bunch of those tie things. We made.....$20! On the plus side dad got his broken, in need of repair push and riding lawn mowers towed a way for free. The other stuff we either had second thoughts on like my bowling ball, two picture frames and some clothes worth consigning but the majority went to Goodwill. During the sale we took turns working our sale so we could go to others. I bought one item- a floppy picture tree that I plan on spray painting and using for one of the themed tables at the rehearsal dinner that you can't know about yet! Mom scored Yahtzee and a princess puzzle mat for one of her friends daughter. Total spent $2 - what's not to love about a yard sale?!

After the sale we relaxed all day and went to dinner. To dinner Scott had on some real comfortable jeans. Wranglers- Brett Farve! Must have picked up some jeans on his errand run, haha. We ate at delicious Logan's Steakhouse and got ice cream at Ye Ole Fashion. Arrived home and relaxed. Watched the rerun of SNL and went to bed.

Sunday

Sunday fun day. Sunday we went to Taste of the Town. It was so much fun. Summerville has two big events every year this and Flowertown Festival. Taste of the Town is a fabulous idea that I think many towns could do. It's a bunch of booths spread out all over the park. The booths are local restaurants. What you do is buy tickets $1 per ticket and go around to different stations and purchase food. There were a variety of restaurants from locally owned and some chain. We had 10 tickets each- Scott and I ended up splitting another ten later. With my tickets I got so much food but fortunately for the big purse I was able to keep some for later like the baked goods and kettle corn. It was a lot of fun. I love festivals and I'm glad that we went. I really want to go to this golf course for dinner now they had a delicious flatbread steak chiptole sandwich.

After an hour we left the event - full! Shortly after Scott left. :( Mom, dad and I hung out some more and later we played Yahtzee and watched IRT Deadliest Road Edition! That concluded the weekend. It was a great weekend!

I love my family! So blessed to have them all- we missed you Ashley, Steven and Anna Brooks! Next weekends plans consist of a shower I will be attending not hosting in North Augusta for Anna Brooks and Scott will be attending his Bachelor Party- pray for him.

Speaking of praying I have a couple of people that I would like to specifically mention and hope to have more people to continue to pray for their health and think of these families...

Tina Hunt and Family
Mark Tinsley and Family
Baby Cy Arey and Family

And whoever else is in need of prayers for strength and healing! The power of prayer is quite real- we've all witnessed miracles and know that anything is possible through God.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Amanda

What I know now that I didn't at fifteen, a letter to myself.

A couple of post ago I wrote about a blog that I was following and planning to participate in. I finally am participating and I plan to go back and do older post too. I wrote this a couple of days ago but my computer had a breakdown and I was unable to respond. Oh the irony. The founder of the read.write.heal blog challenged us to write about what we know now that we didn't know then. The age she used was 13. I adore her post and encourage you to read it. http://www.readwriteheal.com/2010/10/what-do-you-know-now.html

I am posting something similar but not to my 13 year old self. I've already said that I am in a crossroad in my life. Graduated from college, jobless, in a new town and really just stuck. For lack of better wording I'm stuck. I can't remember any insecurities I had at 13 sometimes I wish I was that little girl or tomboy. I was in what I called an ugly stage of my life but looking back at the pictures I wasn't ugly at all. I really was just growing out of my tomboy Nike athletic wear and getting into boot cut jeans and American Eagle clothes or whatever I could steal from my sisters closet. I was carefree then and actually think that my 13 year old self might have some advice to my 23 year old self.

So I am writing to my 15 year old self. My little freshman in high school self. I had everything I thought was important at fifteen.  I now realize I would have given up all of it if only I had been true to myself.

So what do I know now that I didn't at fifteen...a whole lot.

If I could, I would go back to my fifteen year old self and say...

You're not going to marry him you may both think so but you're not. You're too young for love!

He is going to be the first to break your heart but not the last. With each heartbreak you will get stronger. With each wrong relationship you will be more in tune with what you want. You're still too young for love. No matter how much you love and give someone it will never be enough if it's not right.You will find love and it won't be soon enough but it will be in time.

You will start some games and not some games, it's not the end of the world. You're not a star athlete, big deal--

Don't be afraid to pursue your dreams. It's never too late...

Your sister, Ashley isn't a bitch or a goody goody she's actually your best friend.

You'll never be able to please everyone but you'll try and fail every time.

Popularity really doesn't mean a thing.

Don't criticize your body because one day you would kill for it back!

The birthmark on the middle of forehead isn't a curse. It continues to fade and you actually adore it.

Same with your big gap that could double as a water gun. It gets smaller after braces but due to nature and the carelessness of you and your retainer it gets bigger but you dig it.

Cherish every single day, hour, minute, second with your mop headed friend MaDee. It'll mean the world to you. (Thank you for sticking it out my fifteen year old self)

Don't grow up too fast...you're going to miss this.

Be nice to your bushy eyebrows they don't grow in as fast anymore.

That fall on the bleachers? You'll have a lot more embarrassing moments than that. You're not graceful.

Don't dismiss compliments

Don't worry so much about what you don't have -- be thankful for what you do have

Throwing a tantrum in the morning because you have nothing to wear, no one cares

Math is hard to you it doesn't mean you're stupid

You'll go to college just like your brother and sister

Scott and Ashley aren't the bar of standards and your parents don't think so either

It's okay to want to be just like your sister

Being said NO to certain parties, trips and sleepovers isn't the end of the world and may be a blessing in disguise

Your parents aren't out to sabotage you

Dad may never like who you date until you're actually engaged to them- seen it happen!

Don't let anyone walk all over you. It's a characteristic flaw that you'll slowly attempt to 'fix'

A boy doesn't define you and certainly should never be the certain of your world-

Stay independent.

Stay beautiful- because you actually are quite beautiful and you don't need some dumb boy to validate that!

Love,

The much wiser but still learning 23 year old self.

Whew. Can anyone relate? I sure hope so. I am actually okay with my journey- I often ask myself is this the life I've chosen or is this the life that God has chosen for me? I wish I had the answers. I know he knows the outcome I just wish I did. I remember thinking how 23 was so old. When I was younger I had expectations on each age. I'm not sure where I got these expectations from probably television or the movies but at 23 I thought I'd be engaged, have a job, live in a big city and be fabulous. I think I was on some sort of 5 year plan. What was I thinking? I am 2 for 4 so I guess that's not terrible. I remember thinking that you went to college and it was a sure thing that you'd come out with a husband. I didn't and I also didn't go into hoping to get my M-R-S because thank goodness at 19 I didn't think that anymore- though in college I probably did think I was going to marry by then boyfriend...but it ended up to be another heartbreak- lesson learned. So many lessons learned. Life is a journey. I don't have much expectations anymore but I hope oneday I can write to my 23 year old self and say...you have a successful career, you found your someone, the pain of MaDee's death does heal in time. As for now I'm happy to be alive, happy to have a college degree, happy to have love and support of family and friends and happy to finally be me.
I often relate my post or life to music.
Listen to: Carrie Underwood- Lessons Learned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mSm19ETQvg



Thanks for reading!

Amanda