i am a switchboard...

sometimes i wish i could mimic one of those computer switchboards most companies have when you call... it is so aggravating to answer the phone and have to listen to 5 minutes of babble before the person on the other end gets to the point of what they are actually wanting... so i can transfer them or advise them of who they need to repeat all that bs babble to...

and again i have been yelled at by people on the phone for cutting them off mid sentence... but i do it as politely as i can... i don't need to hear the history.. i just need to hear what they want so i can direct them to the right place... i am just a switchboard... NOT the person who takes the information, complaint, whatever... ugh.

there are days i really really dislike my job because those are the only type of person i get to deal with...

then there are other days where i love my job becaise i get nice polite folks who actually know why they are calling and what they want to do without giving any backstory to me at all...

those are the few who understand that i am basically a switchboard.

of course yesterday i got the mother of all irritating calls....
we are a 24 hour company... which is why i work the hours i do... and i was on the phone with this woman for no less than 10 minutes trying to get her to understand that the person she would need to talk to would not be in until 8:30 the following morning... and during this 10 minute conversation, which was occurring at 10:30 at night, this woman said no less than 15 times, i know it late and i apologise for calling about this.... does that statement really need to be said that many times? does it even need to be justified? no... we are a 24 hour company, that is what i am here for..... but she kept saying it... and of course i kept having to repeat that she needs to call back in the morning... how many times do i really need to repeat that before it is understood?

those are the calls that really make me dislike my job...

maybe i should just start answering the phone:
hi, my name is jennie, and i'll be your switchboard for the evening...

the proverbial In-Law.....

so my birthday was a couple of weeks ago... the big 3-5...

my husband was forbidden to buy me anything until July 30th, since that is when we will have extra money for him to spend (gotta love those 3rd paycheck months where no insurance and junk is taken out)but we went to dinner with my parents and brother and his family and it was quite a nice evening.

i received presents from my parents (a new chandelier for my dining room yay!!!!) and from my brother and SIL (an amazon gift card .. yay!!)... and i got plenty of happy birthday wishes from my friends on Facebook... to include my husband's sister that lives in Arizona... she's so nice.. :)

so for the next week, i am checking the mailbox every day... and every day after that... still looking... but nothing.

what, you might ask, am i looking for? .... a card from my in-laws.... but none comes.

I have a, ummmmm... you might call it a tense relationship with my mother-in-law... tho i get along great wiht father-in-law and love spending time wiht him and hubby... as long as Mother-in-Law is not in disagreement with whatever it is we are doing with him... which causes some friction in our household... and very little of that friction is on my end... i might not get along with the woman, but at least i try to be nice... same goes with my sister-in-law who lives with them.. i am polite as i can make myself be... and they are nice to my face, but most definitely not behind my back...

to give a little background.. aparently, in their eyes, in the 10+ years my husband and i have been together i am making him unhappy, ruining his life, and forcing him to have a dangerous job...... to name a few things.... i could go on.. but i won't....

so... back to the story... about 5 days before my birthday, we decided to tell them that we are pregnant... which is such exciting news for us that we just had to share with our family.... Father-in-Law was as happy as we are.. he could not contain his excitement... but according to my husband, his mother's reaction was less than thrilled... she actually seemed bored and not to care... which was hurtful to both of us to tell the truth... we have known for a while that she has had a less than stellar opinion of me because of my infertility issues... and it came out one time that she thinks i am ruining my husband's life because i have such difficulty making babies.......
*** this coming from the woman who was 10 miles away from the hospital when i was having emergency surgery to remove the ectopic pregnancy we had 6 years ago and refused to come be with her son so he wouldn't be sitting in the waiting room alone worrying about me... luckily my parents showed up (from 300 miles away) before i was out of surgery and they were able to calm him down....

so anyway... my birthday comes and goes... no card.. no call... not even any acknowledgement of the day... i was hurt to tell the truth... i mean, they might not be my best friends... but they are family.

i don't expect a gift... heck.. no one got b-day gifts from us this year because we just didn't have the money because of how expensive making this baby is... but a card would be nice... especially since she has always sent at least a card in the past... and we always at least send that...

i ask my husband the other day to check with his parents to see if maybe the card got lost in the mail... his father truly forgot, and he actually sounded sorry about it... but his mother knew, even mentioned my birthday to him before he did... but no hint of regret for missing it...... did she forget? did she ignore it? did she just not care?

i mean... wouldn't you be offended and hurt? i know i am.

so tonight, hubby called his parents to talk about a completely unrelated topic and casually mentioned how i had been looking for a card from them.. his mother said "no, sorry, didn't send one"... and that is it... didn't even sound sorry about it and changed the topic immediatly.... ugh i guess i am just never going to win her approval.

well my sister-in-law who lives with them, her 48th birthday is next week.. and we will definitely be sending a card.. because we are nice people like that... and to make a point.

nothing i can do about this tho... i married my husband for him, not for his family... and nothing i do will make them like me if they refuse to... at least i got one great sister-in-law in the deal ... but too bad she's in arizona...

the joy of ignorance...

it has occurred to me that i really am just terrible at blogging... i never feel like i have enoguh to say that would be even remotely interesting for anyone else to read.... but my observance tonight deserved mention.....

and of course i cannot give specifics about work, because that would be unethical...
tho i do have to laugh at the irony of the law...

woman came in wanting to report domestic violence... little did she know hubby had already called from their house to give his story, and met first... when she was finally giving her side, she admitted to hitting him leaving marks... she claimed he hit her, but she has not a mark on her.... by law, she goes to jail... welcome to the wonderful world of "Manifestation of Injury"... in our state, if one or both parties has visible or proven injury from a domestic disturbance, one or both go to jail (it is always fun when both go for hitting each other)... she was not a happy camper but surprisingly did not put up a fight...

this is where i hear in my head "can't we all just get along?"

that's as good as those people who complain about getting arrested because they're good poeple... well... if you're really a good person, then you wouldn't be breaking the law. truly. we don't arrest you just because we don't like you... we arrested you because you broke the law! lol...

but hey... it's job security right?

seriously?

a moment to rant...

so for the last week or so, i have come to realise just how many people in this world truly truly aggravate me... and i usually get along with everybody... usually...

but it took getting the job i have to realise how much i truly hate dealing with idiots. now not everyone i deal with is an idiot.. just a large percentage of them.
how hard is it to start a conversation with a statement of what you actually need... instead of giving 15 years of backstory in which you never get to the point of what you actually need... or has nothing to do with your current issue... i mean seriously...

yesterday i called the company that controls my medical credit card, right? when the lady answered and asked "How can I help you?"... the first words out of my mouth were "My card is not working even tho your system says I still have money available. Can you help me find out why?"... i had briefly stated what i needed and she got me to the person i needed to speak to to handle it... is that REALLY that hard to do?

but me?... if i had her job, when I answer the phone and ask "How can I help you?"... these morons would start that conversation by saying this:

"yeah... i went to the doctor the other day... and you know it's a doctor i go to a lot... and i had this account thing set up with work.. you know... where i can pay for it by credit card... well anyway i went to the doctor the other day and couldn't pay for it... later i even tried to buy something at wal-mart and it wouldn't let me... and i don't know why i couldn't, but it wouldn't let me... ya know?"

uhhhhhhhhhhhh.... i think i just lost some brain cells waiting for them to get to the point... which they never really did, did they?... in response, i then have to try to decipher through the information they did provide in that ramble and figure out enough to ask a question like "do you need to speak to someone about your card not working?".... to which they reply "well... i don't know is that what i need to do?.. i mean i went to the doctor and (and they start the WHOLE story over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

how hard is it REALLY to know what you want, and ask for it without going through a bunch of superfluous information? ... or am i just assuming they are smart enough to know?

seriously. i ask what you want... not what happened to you... sooooooooo tell me what you want... not what happened to you... so i can put you through to the person who will want to know what happened to you.

oh, but i forgot... half the people in this world do not listen to the greeting you give when you answer the phone in the first place so some of them don't know who they are talking to, let alone what they actually want...

usually i love my job.............. usually.

singing....

so lately, i have found myself singing... a lot... in the car, at home, while showering, walking the halls at work....
now, i am known to spontaneously break out into song, so the singing itself is nothing surprising... but i have been doing it more and more, sometimes without even noticing.. and when someone else mentions it, that is when i realise i was singing, humming, whatever... weird.

i would love to join a community chior to continue my singing, but i worry about not being able to go to all the rehearsals and/or concerts because of this schedule i work... that is also why i decided against trying out for community theater again... i would miss so much because of working at night.....

i also decided i really need to find a church to go to and maybe joing the choir there? i mean, i work nights, right?... so i could go to church on sundays... but again, practice is the hard part because of this rotating schedule i work... i'd only be able to go half the time.... i wonder if i should try...

sometimes i wonder if working this schedule that i love affects more of my life than i realise.........

So this morning i watched the season finale of Greys Anatomy... which is my favorite show... the one my husband knows never to interrupt me during unless it's while i am fastforwarding thru a commercial.....
Well... All i can say about this episode is "holy fuck!"... And i am not one to curse... But "holy fuck!"... If you saw it, and are as addicted as i am, then you will understand...
The problem i am having now is i can't get it out of my head... I have always made a point of avoiding violent movies, books and/or shows that put me in close personal contact with a murderers thoughts and feelings... It gets too real for me that way, and i cannot handle it.... But this show did just that... I was practically having an anxiety attack while watching it, but i couldn't stop because it's "my show".... I thought i could deal.... Apparently not because i just can't get it out of my head now... I don't know what to do to make it go away... And i know this sounds rediculous, but i am afraid to go to sleep today because i don't want to dream about it....
There are some things i know i can handle... But others... Well, i guess i am not as strong as i thought....

there's no place like home...

Yesterday i spent the daylight... When in reality i should have been sleeping... Painting a room at my parents beach house... Have you ever had one of those days where you find yourself hating and loving something at the same time? Well that was my day... I love to paint... But i would have rather been sleeping.... Hell, i would have rather been at my own house, with my own husband, and doing something lazy like play xbox... But no... I am a good daughter and let my parents kidnap me for the weekend to do manual labor.....
So i woke up really early this morning, and spent the majority of this morning painting yet another room.... This one looks like a lemon threw up.... and poppa calls it "ungodly yellow"... but momma picked it out, so he deals.. lol
so now it is the afternoon, and i am ready to go home.. to my husband... to my pets.. and curl up next to each other on the couch and do somethig lazy... like play xbox... but i have to wait for momma to decide if she is coming home with me (she drove me here) or if she will stay the extra day with poppa and i drive myself home... a 5 hour trip... during the daylight... when i am usually sleeping right now... not something to look forward to...
so i wait for her to decide...
this is one of those days i wish for a pair of ruby slippers....... or a star trek teleporter.

So here i am in st augustine... The one place i would rather not be.... But momma voluntold me to come because she needs my help... And of course i love my momma and couldn't say no... Not when i didn't have anything else to do this weekend... So here i am.
The window guys are installing the new windows... A beach house needs good windows after all... But we can't start painting because of the dust and mess they cause... So i am bored.
Technically, i should try to sleep some since i have now been awake for 23 hours.... Worked 12 last night and chatterd the entire ride here (5 hours) to keep momma awake... But i can't.... The window guys are too loud.... Oh well...
I did get a haircut after we ate lunch tho... The almost-a-mullet look is gone... Yay... New hair always makes a girl feel refreshed...

people of walmart?

i am the last person to sit here and rip on other poeple... but sometimes the story just HAS to be told.....

before work today, i stopped at walmart to get some juice and munchies for my shift tonight..... why oh why did i not have a camera on me?

i swear i saw the weirdest looking people in wal-mart today... usually the freaks come out at night... but this was 5:15 in the afternoon...

i saw no less than 3 women who REALLY should not have been wearing what they were... i saw a rather large woman looking at bikini's.. thank goodness she wasn't wearing one of them... and at least 4 men whose clothes were so dirty they left a mess on the ground around them....

i just want to scream "people! look in a mirror!"

but the worst was the 5 year old who was dressed like a 17 year old Lindsay Lohan/Miley Cyrus/Brittney Spears (take your pick)... and the mother, who HAD to have been older than me and much much frumpier, was dressed exactly the same....

holy crow.. talk about dressing out of your age range.... lol

i wish i had had a camera.

So here i wonder just how mobile blogging works.... Will i get to complain about the smelly woman in front of me in line at walmart?.. Perhaps this is exactly what i pay for unlimited texting for...;)