Monday, December 31, 2007

Where have all the nice people gone?

I have come across so many not-so-nice borderline evil people in the last three weeks alone that I'm just not sure there are any nice people left in the GTA. Here are just some of the things that have happened:

1. I saw an elderly woman with a cane accidentally hit a huge box out of another woman's hands. It was clearly an accident however, the elderly woman did NOT apologize, did not help pickup the parcel and did not even seem to care that she had done it.

2. A line up in a grocery store led to another register being opened. The cashier says "can I help the next person in line please." Another elderly woman at the back of the queue barges forward. It was my fiance that said "excuse me, but we were here first and you were not NEXT in line." After some arguing my fiance proves his point and the next woman in line (who was before my fiance) was served.

3. Yet another elderly woman, this one looked more like a troll in leopard skin clothing, comes barging down the wrong way with her shopping cart hitting everyone in her path. My fiance is hit and shakes his head "what is it with the elderly? Once they've hit a certain age they forget their manners."

4. The pizza delivery guy. Now he's not elderly, but he certainly is old enough to know his manners, I could care less what country he's from, these are standard P's and Q's. He comes to our door with 3 minutes to spare before our food is free. He hands my fiance the pizza and the bill. My fiance says "we ordered pop as well, it's on the receipt but I don't see it here." Now I have already taken the pizza into the kitchen so the pizza delivery guy does not believe that we haven't received our pop. He accuses my fiance of lying when I say "actually we only have pizza here, no pop." Pizza guy then says "oh it must be in my car" and turns around to go get it. In the mean time I sign the bill including tip. I start to rip the receipt in half, one copy for him, one copy for myself. However, the rip is not going quite right and it's tearing into his copy. He knocks on the door and without an apology he hands me my drinks.... As it turns out my fiance wasn't lying but hey now, no need to acknowledge that. So I hand him the bill that I've signed explaining that I am unable to rip it in half and if he could... Before I finish my sentence he says very rudely "where is my pen?" So I pass him his pen and continue with my sentence about how I would like my half of the receipt. Again I don't get to finish my sentence because he's turned around and walked away. Completely gone. "I'm still talking here... that's OK, I didn't want my receipt anyways, but next time, should we order from you again I will not be tipping you anything... and I might even keep your damn pen."

5. The TTC subway ticket ripper. It's Christmas Eve, and unfortunately I'm on my way to work. I just got off the streetcar which I was riding for about 40 minutes. I decide to get off at the subway station and take the train only one stop as it's freezing cold outside and I'm already not feeling well. By taking the subway I can stay indoors all the way to work. So I go to show my transfer to the subway ticket guy and I notice it's not the right transfer. This transfer is from the day before. I apologize and keep looking through all of my pockets and purse. I'm pulling out all sorts of transfers but not the one I need. It must have fallen out of my pocket on the streetcar. It's obvious I ride the TTC all the time and am a paying customer. I just cannot find the transfer from today. I say to the guy "it must have fallen out of my pocket, but I've just gotten off the 501 and am only going one stop on the subway, do you think you can let me go?" He says "only if you pay a fare." I said "I paid my fare to the TTC streetcar driver, I've lost my transfer, but as you can see from all of these other transfers, I am not one to scam the TTC." He starts to get belligerent with me and says "Look either show me the transfer from this morning or pay another fare!" I'm fully shocked, I would like to reiterate my point here so when I stop coughing I say "you expect me to pay again even though I'm only going one stop?" He just taps the glass... Now I'm super pissed, who does that? On Christmas eve of all days! I couldn't control my temper "F@$K YOU!!!" I say, as I walk outside in the cold, to that next stop. It's not very far, but on principle I'm pissed, I'm cold, and now I'm crying too.

This is just one of MANY evil TTC staff stories, I seriously think "being an asshole" is a requirement for employment.

6. The Home Depot Cashier. This is by far the worst story and I'm just not sure I'll be able to do it justice. My fiance, at this point I should tell you his name, Danny and I are doing some Christmas shopping. We know what we have to get, we've been given specific instructions. We printed the details from The Home Depot website. We need a tool box and a tool organizer. We find them with ease and proceed to the checkout. For some strange reason there is only one person working the cash but hey, Danny and I are very patient and understanding. There is only one woman in front of us who is paying in what appears to be pennies. The Home Depot cashier, who will now be known only as Evil Bitch, says to us "how are you paying?" even though the woman in front of us is still counting her pennies. We say "credit card." Evil Bitch says "good, because I don't have any change and I'm closing as soon as the next cashier comes" while looking at her watch. The woman in front of us who was obviously forced to pay with all her pennies, finally leaves and we are next. Evil Bitch tries to scan the tool organizer but finds there is no bar code or price tag. She looks at us like this is our fault and proceeds to help the next person in line explaining the "exact cash or plastic only" rule. She also calls the department for a bar code of some kind. Danny explains that we have a print out from their website that gives an in-store SKU number. Evil Bitch continues to push us aside and help the next person in line, rushing everyone out the door. She says to us "that won't help, I need a SKU" and dials the number for the department again. Danny tries again to say that we have the SKU but she just ignores us and moves to the third customer behind us now. Danny waits for the right moment and says "according to the flyer here we have the SKU." Evil Bitch yells (and I'm not exaggerating) "LOOK I JUST NEED TO CONFIRM WITH THE DEPARTMENT SO RELAX!" Danny says "OK I was just trying to help, the least you could do is be polite."
Well you can only imagine what Evil Bitch has to say about this. She goes off on one of her rants saying that we are the ones being pushy as she's tried to explain to us several times about how it works here at the Home Depot.
Danny says "you know what, it's just not worth it. You can have this, we'll go elsewhere." This whole time I've been good and quiet, Danny can handle his own. We walk out of the store. Let me say this again... We are no longer in the store. Evil Bitch is still yelling! Can you believe that? We've already left, we no longer care to purchase anything and she is still going off on one of her rants saying something about how she was just trying to help us. This is when I say "No you weren't trying to help, you were trying to finish your shift." Believe me, I held back, I did want to tell her just where to go. But Danny and I just continued walking away, laughing at the current situation.

Now to top things off, Danny and I have decided we really do need those items, it's too close to Christmas and we have to get these things. So we went back making sure that Evil Bitch was not there. There was a new cashier and our items were still sitting on the counter. There was absolutely no line up. We tell the new lady that we'd like to purchase the two items behind the counter and she gladly gets them for us. She starts to ring them in when low and behold, there is still no bar code. Danny takes out his paper and says "I printed these off your website, I believe it has a SKU." New Lady looks at the paper and says "yes you are right." She punches the SKU in and hey now, surprise surprise, it works! Too bad Evil Bitch didn't giver-a-go...

Again I ask, where have all the nice people gone? If you're out there, please give me a ring... I'm starting to lose my faith.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Too long!

I haven't written a blog in what seems like ages!

I've just been so busy. Work is overkill, they assign me so much more work per day and I'm not even sure why, so no time for blogging anymore... Maybe that's why? Maybe they are on to my time management skills where I allot so much time to Blogging and things.

So here is the update...

I had the last week of November off and had planned on catching up on all school work and making my wedding invitations. Sadly, I came down with and awful cold and spent the majority of the week locked in the bedroom with a box of tissue.
I did get ahead on schoolwork because I was able to read, but I only did half of the wedding invites so that's a drag. I still have a couple of months to get those all finished though, so no pressure yet...

I also had a birthday recently, which most people know :) That was awesome, I went out with work buddies and then on my actual birthday, my fiancé took me out to dinner where he surprised me with my parents and a couple of friends ... very nice


Now we're almost all ready for Christmas, just a few last minute things to get and we're good to go! Now we can sit down with a bowl of popcorn, a glass of eggnog, and watch those silly but classic holiday movies!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Orenthal Munchausen?

My entire life I’ve always been obsessed with learning. I loved going to school and getting good grades, even through high school. I did have some difficulties in university but I almost never missed a class and I attempted to take good notes and study all the time. Even though I’m a university graduate, I still find myself doing everything I can to learn a little bit more.

I’ve enrolled in a photography course so that I can learn the history of photography, the basics of all types of cameras and developing methods, and perhaps in the process I’ll also learn how to take a good picture… This remains to be seen.

When I am not studying for my photography class, I am reading anything interesting or entertaining. Currently I’m reading an encyclopedia on women killers, a book about stupid celebrities, and a text book on forensic science. What I’ve learned so far, is that O.J. (as in O.J. Simpson) stands for Orenthal James, who knew? Celebrities are pretty ignorant, but who didn’t know that already? And what I’ve learned from the killer encyclopedia book is that there is a disorder called Munchausen syndrome, that can let you get away with just about anything.

There are different kinds of Munchausen syndrome, so here is where I go into detail. The first “is a psychiatric disorder in which those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves.” It is a factitious disorder. This means that a patient diagnosed with Munchausen will simulate illnesses just to get attention. They go as far as self-induced vomiting, inflicting pain, or taking random pills to see what symptoms they cause. A lot of the times a person with this disorder are “highly knowledgeable about the practice of medicine” and go to extremes to get medical attention.

This is different from the well known hypochondriac because someone with this disorder actually BELIEVES they are suffering from whatever illness. Munchausen Syndrome patients are aware that they are faking it and exaggerate everything.

Well if you’re not into masochism, there is also something called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. This is when the diagnosed person will cause pain and illness (and sometimes death) to another person. This generally happens when the Munchausen person is a caregiver or nurse. They have all the medical knowledge AND they are responsible for somebody’s life. It won’t take long for that life to end. Check out “Meadows’ Law” … I won’t go into details because I don’t want you to get the wrong ideas… But although not everyone agrees with this ‘law’, it’s helped enough murderesses get away with anything…

Here I am believing that in this day and age, and our technology, we can pretty much trace the origins of the common cold. If I sneeze even once, I’ll know who to blame! Unless of course you have Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, then you were only faking that sneeze and I won’t be able to blame you at all. All the trials and cases I’m referring to in this article all took place in the ‘90s. Maybe we really haven’t advanced as far as I thought. Just look at ‘innocent’ Orenthal. I’d be interested in reading his never-published novel “I didn’t kill my wife, but if I did, this is how I would have done it”


Oh ya, that guy is innocent for sure. Innocent-by-Proxy…




(Quotes taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_syndrome and that is the best foot note you are getting from me)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

More intelligent?

So I was thinking that my blogs are quite silly. They are just whatever I happen to be thinking about at that specific moment... Or maybe, they are representing me and my venting at outrageous situations... Believe me, there will be more posts like that in the future.

But I wanted to write something of substance... a little research article if you will. Tell me what you think.

In trying to do a little background check on some Greek mythological Gods and heroes, I’ve discovered some interesting “facts.” Zeus, the king of Olympian Gods, was the youngest of six children to his mother, Rhea and father, Cronus (of the Titan Gods). Cronus had children with other wives but my investigations only concern those of Rhea.

Going back even further, Cronus was the youngest son of Uranus (father) and Gaia (mother). This is where I find the story quite fascinating. Uranus (the primeval God of the sky) and Gaia (the Goddess of Earth) had 12 sons and 6 daughters. It is said that Uranus didn’t like the way they looked so he hid them in the bowels of Gaia. Now Gaia found this quite painful and when she could take no more, she asked her Titan sons to help. Sure enough, on the night of the next love-making session between Sky and Earth, four Titans pinned down the four corners of their father Uranus, and the youngest Titan Cronus ambushed from the centre of Gaia, cutting off his father’s manhood.

Cronus, being free of his mother’s belly, is now able to move on and marry Rhea. To avoid the same fortune of his father, Cronus eats all of his children as they are born. By the birth of the sixth child, Zeus, Rhea can no longer bare the pain. She saves Zeus by hiding him on an island and tricking Cronus into eating a stone dressed as Zeus.

Years later, Zeus takes revenge on his father, forces him to disgorge the other five of his offspring (now known as the Olympians) and a war breaks out between the Titans and the Olympians. Ten years later, the war ends and the Olympians win and the Titans are banished. Zeus is now the king of the Olympians and he divides the government of the world between him and his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Zeus rules the heavens and the upper regions, Poseidon governs the sea, and Hades is the God of the underworld (the land of the dead).

My original intentions were to discuss the similarities and differences between Cronus and Uranus; however I don’t believe this would be much of a challenge. Anyone can see that history repeats itself twice over. The only difference is Uranus disposes of his offspring by burying them inside his wife; Cronus ensures his own safety (so he thinks) by swallowing his offspring himself and not relying on the body of his wife for burial grounds. What I find more interesting than Uranus and Cronus is the relationship between Hades and his nephew Hermes.

Now you would think that Hades is an intriguing character because he is the Lord of the Underworld (also known as Hades, thus Hades is the name of a place and a God) after all, however it’s not the case. He’s very drab and gloomy and is described as scruffy with a dark beard and hair that falls in his face. He’s generally hated and feared by mortals, although he is not considered an evil God. Hades is depicted as a grim but passive, impartial figure. His main job is to uphold relative balance.

Hades was known to carry a staff and/or a two-pronged fork. These are the things he used to force the dead into his underworld territory. He also owned an invisibility helmet (much like Harry Potter’s cloak). Unfortunately there aren’t many stories of him actually using this power. That’s a shame. He probably just used it to recapture lost souls.

Once you get into the underworld there is no way out (only a few people have done it). The dead are pretty boring, they don’t talk aside from the occasional whisper, and they have no emotions. On occasion, Hades will allow one of the dead to drink from the pool of Lethe which erases their memory. This is preferred because there is absolutely no excitement down in Hades’ world and after the soul drinks from the lake they can travel back up to land with no recollection of the past. This is often perceived as reincarnation, and is the most enthralling thing that happens in the lower world.

Hades had complete authority over the dead and anything else (Gods or living creatures) that roamed in the underworld. He was married to Persephone, whom he also had control over but only for a portion of the year. Hades was known to get quite enraged when anyone tried to leave (or if someone tried to convince the souls to leave) his realm. Apparently he didn’t hold back any anger for those that tried to cheat or escape death. He had a few assistants to help him with underworld management, namely his nephew Hermes (the son of Zeus and a mountain nymph).

It seems Hermes was the God of many things, but was mostly known for travel and trade. He guided the dead souls to Hades and was branded as the messenger of Gods. Unlike Hades, Hermes is a happy, helpful character. Hermes protected travellers and punished those who refused to assist those that had lost their way. He’s helped other Gods in their battles and quests and has loaned out his own personal, magical items such as his flying shoes and the invisibility helmet that was given to him as a gift from Hades.


With all the Gods, the godly powers, and magical tools, you would think that this would be more interesting. It’s really not. And I’m very bored now. I might revisit this later. I might not.

Maybe now you'll prefer me venting over the mundane?

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Cleaning people

I think I want a new job.
I want to be on the cleaning staff here at my company. They get paid to sit around all day and chit chat in the lunchroom.

There aren't very many chairs to begin with as people only go to the lunchroom when they have brought their lunch to work. Most people will get together with their friends at lunch and go out some where as there are many options downtown.

But I digress...

Every single time I go to the lunchroom these foreign cleaning people are all sitting around speaking whatever language. They are not eating any lunches, they are just taking up space. And it doesn't matter what time of day you go to the lunch room, there they are... just hanging out.

I wouldn't complain at all if the building was clean, but really it's disgusting.
They drop the rolls of toilet paper into the toilet, and then take the soaking wet roll and put it on the locked toilet paper holder.
We usually have two choices, either we can use the stall that has the wet roll, or the stall that has no rolls of paper... Either way, we're not getting dry unless we bring our own tissue.
Even if this wasn't completely disgusting and unsanitary, how does one dry themselves with something that is wet??? Useless I tell you, completely useless.

Now of course seeing as there is a lunchroom full of people, the rest of us are forced to eat lunch at our desks. This is also not very sanitary and if we want to have our desks cleaned we have to do that ourselves.

So I have my own disinfectant that I use to spray my desk before AND after I eat.
I clean up completely after myself everywhere I go. I pick up the trash if there is any, I wipe up the sinks when I'm done using them, etc...

So if I'm doing all of this, what EXACTLY are the cleaning people getting paid to do???

They make me sick. Tomorrow I'm going to stand beside them, lean over them, and slurp up my soup... I'll be sure to spill lots and see if anyone has anything to say about it.

"If you were doing your job properly, you would not be sitting here getting dirty while I eat... and I would have a place to sit"

Monday, October 29, 2007

BIG NEWS

So I had an incredibly busy weekend. We went to visit some friends out of town right after work on Friday. It turned into Game-Night at another friends and we didn't get back to the place we were staying until about 430 in the morning.

This is such a late night for us, I'm usually in bed before 11p (most times 10p) on weeknights and I couldn't believe we stayed up so late. Once we got back to our friends place the guys stayed up until 730am before crashing. We all had to be up at 11am so you can imagine how difficult it was to get up after the lack of sleep.

We did some fun house hunting stuff went for a late lunch and back to the house to crash again.
After dinner, my fiancé and I bailed on another night of partying and thought we'd return home to our cats and a night of scary movies on tv.

Sunday was a day of dress shopping for my bridal party... Fun Stuff and a crazy old lady that I could write tons about but would ultimately just frustrate me to death.

Now for the BIG NEWS,
Sunday at 4:55am, I became an aunt to a beautiful baby girl.
My brother and his wife named their newborn Breanna Ilene Marie, and she weighs an even 7lbs.
I haven't had the opportunity to meet the baby just yet, but I've seen the pictures. She's adorable (even though she's a spit image of my brother).

Can't wait for more updates!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

No Sleep - leads to this

You know when you sneeze, you can do it one of two ways:

1. Either out your mouth (usually when you say ATCHOOOO and everything sprays everywhere)

Or

2. Out your nose, hoping you can get that kleenex there before the boogies go all over the place

Well, I usually go for option number one, the bigger the spray, the better the sneeze.

But this time one snuck up on me when I had food in my mouth, so I held it in and kept my mouth shut.

But I forgot to let it come out the nose.

And I really think I burst my eyeball as it tried to get out of there.


Stupid sneeze

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Major League Soccer - MLS blows!

How frustrating is this?

I ordered a 'football' jersey from MLSGear.com for my fiance for his birthday.
I ordered it about 5 or 6 weeks before his birthday and the delivery time was 2 to 4 weeks so no matter what, I'm thinking I'll get his birthday gift on time.

Well after the four week mark hit and still no jersey, I decided to check the tracking status of the order. It says "submitted and processing" ... How long does it take to put a shirt in a box and ship it out? Well patiently, I give it some time. On the day of his birthday, there was still no gift to give him.

So here is what I write to the MLS customer service box:

Hi there,

I placed my order (N32298&*^%) on Sept 14th. It has a 2-4 week delivery time yet it still has not arrived.
When I checked the status of the order it says "submitted and processing" … Please enlighten me, how long does it take to 'submit and process' one single jersey? I wasn't aware it was so complex to put a shirt in a box and ship it out.
This was a gift for my fiance and his birthday is today… Obviously, it will not be here in time so I'd like to know what you intend to do to compensate.
If the item I requested is out of stock, I should have been informed. I expect a response.

Jac Star

Well naturally I did not hear back from them for a few days, but what upset me the most was that they hardly addressed the situation at hand. Here was their response:

Dear Jac,

There was a problem processing your order causing the system to reject it. You can either replace the order online or you can contact us at 1-877-7467-657 so we can push your current order through, call (925) 609-0297 if outside the US.
Regards,


AH-Customer Support

They cannot be serious! So no where on the tracking status does it say "rejected" it says "submitted and processing" I checked again. I don't live in the US so I am now expected to call long distance if I want this fixed?
I respond to the email:

I am expected to pay Long Distance as well?
You have got to be kidding me.
Where was this email 5 weeks ago when I placed the order?
What am I going to be compensated with?


I doubt this email will get anywhere.
I hold back the rage and pick up the phone.
Basically this is what the guy says to me:

"uh... ya... can you hold on? uh... OK... do you have the order number?"
I give it to him again
"uh ... OK... hold on again... uh... OK... can you confirm your shipping address?"
You would think they had this on file, but whatever, I confirm it.
"uh... OK... ummm... can I have your credit card information again?"

Well this is where I get upset. I do NOT give my credit card information again. I asked him if he should have this on file considering they already took the payment... I also asked him to tell me when I'd get my order.

I assumed he'd say 2-4 weeks again but maybe add a "I will try to escalate, given your situation" ... You know, those calming words that every customer should hear.
Shocking, he says "Mam, I don't know. I haven't checked your order yet and I can't confirm any dates"

I'm livid at this point and I just tell him to "cancel the order, this service is incredibly ridiculous, I'll take my business elsewhere." I then hang up the phone.... What a waste of a long distance phone call.

I decide to try an email again:

The customer service is absolutely terrible.
After calling long distance, I am put on hold several times and asked all of the information that should already be registered.

I am not guaranteed any dates of when I will receive my order and I am asked to pay for it a SECOND time.

Are you kidding me?

Stop jerking me around and send me my order! Escalate this, or I will.

I'm not calling anyone and dealing with any more ignorance, this is incredibly ridiculous. Someone knowledgeable should be contacting me.

Sending me my money back, or sending me the product in which I paid for will simply not suffice at this point, however one or the other will have to be on my doorstep within 5 business days or you can expect a lawsuit.

I cannot imagine spending hundreds of dollars on things like season tickets, if you can't even manage a single shirt. No wonder MLS is suffering, the organization is appalling.

Jac Star

Surprisingly (*rolls eyes*), there hasn't been a package delivered, a refund, or even a response. But it hasn't been 5 business days just yet, they have until the end of the week.

Just for fun, I checked the MLS gear site to see the status of my order.

"Submitted and Processing"

The day so far

Whoever said it was a good idea to get married and buy a house all at the same time... Probably didn't do it.

Planning a wedding and getting paperwork sorted for financing a house is ridiculously stressful.
The wedding stuff would be a lot more fun if it didn't require thousands of dollars and I guess that goes for the house too.

But I'd like to think, within a year, we'll have it all! The perfect wedding, the beautiful home, and who knows, perhaps a baby on the way?

Check with me in a year, I'll probably be too busy to write the blog any more but we shall see!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Where to begin?

I believe that I created a blog a long time ago...

I posted all of my deepest, darkest secrets... my crushes on boys and all things complex...

I stopped posting because I felt like no one was reading, and because the odd person that might read it would know who I was and who I was talking about. Well that's just scary.

Now I'm a few years older, and light years more mature. I have a brand new life; a life that includes a fiance, two cats, a beautiful apartment, and a plan for the future.

I should have less to say given that my life is relatively easy now.
I could complain about money problems and life's daily stresses but who doesn't have those? That's not new at all.

I'll probably post comments on all the fun wedding planning and details, my search for the perfect house and ways in which to save for it... and when all else fails, the ridiculous stories of my cats... They are quite entertaining...

At the moment... I've got nothing