Naughty and Nice List

Well the holidays are finally wearing down, and in fact I am sick of them a few days before New Years. But I wanted to take the time to commend the nice people who have made my holiday season better and rant about the naughty people who irritated me in my holiday adventures.

Naughty:
(I would like to put a little note here and say that I hope some of this behavior was from these folks being just plain sick of the holidays themselves and the crappy customers they tend to dredge out).

1. Waitress at a Carlyle Group restaurant.

Me: Excuse me, this steak is not the cut I ordered (I ordered a filet, this steak had a bone which made me think it was a t-bone) and it isn’t cooked medium rare (I had cut it and it was well done).

Waitress: Can’t you just eat it?

Me: What?? No, this isn’t what I ordered, this isn’t a cut I like and its cooked in an inedible way.

Waitress: (grabbing the plate) Well fine!

Mr. FY: Could you please keep my plate warm back there so we can eat together?

Waitress: Are you serious? Ugh, fine, just give it to me!

Now, I can understand her frustration I have been a waitress myself. And really if the steak was the cut I ordered and cooked a little past medium rare I would have eaten it and not really bitched. However, I wonder if her initial response was the best way of dealing with it, if I had planned to eat it anyhow I wouldn’t have said anything to her! In any case, I hope she’s gotten over her case of the holiday grumpies.

2. Sales Associate at non-so cheap department store:

We were purchasing a few special glass ornaments for our tree and we were paying for them. This woman was just plain violent, she slammed the ornaments into the bag and broke one. While the Mr. was paying I was checking to see if the ornaments had survived and when I confronted her with the broken piece.

Her: Well you bought it and if you break it you cannot return it.

Me: Actually you broke the ornament when you put it into the bag.

Her: Well you’ve paid for it now.

Me: Manager please!

3. Oblivious mom with giant SUV stroller (and sadly it wasn’t just one and it isn’t just moms!).

Me: Walking on the right side of the corridor.

Mom: Walking against traffic with SUV stroller.

Me: Trying to dodge her

Mom: Slamming into my shins with stroller and shooting me a filthy look as if I had just killed her kid’s puppy.

Moms and Dads, please be aware that you are walking with a large item in front of you. Even if you didn’t personally kick me, its no less annoying to have your stroller pushed right into me. You have just as much right to be in the mall as me, but you have to be more careful because you’re pushing something ahead of you. I am sure you don’t always want that enormous thing with you either, but alas you chose to take it in. so watch where you’re going, walk with traffic not against it, and for heavens sake apologize or say excuse me if you assault someone with your child. Which makes me wonder, there IS a baby in there right? If so, aren’t you the least bit concerned with hitting people basically WITH your child or just people jostling the little bundle of joy? I would be worried about that.

Nice:

1. CVS Clerk

There was a long line for the register and of course there was only 1 person checking people out. The women currently at the register (Lets call her Oblivious Women or “OW”) decided that this was the best time for her to voice various opinions about the stock and all types of over things the clerk had no control over. Well after about 5 minutes the clerk had had enough.

Clerk: Ma’am I am sorry but I’ll have to take the next customer unless you’re purchasing something.

OW: Its MY turn and I am not done!!!!!!

Clerk: I can give you a customer service number so you can voice your concerns to people who might be able to offer you a resolution to your problems, but I need to check out the people behind you trying to purchase merchandise.

OW: Are you DEAF? I am not done here and its my turn and you have to help me until I am finished.

Clerk: Actually, this line is for people trying to check out. Since you are not buying anything you are actually done here.

OW: continues to rant and rave

Clerk: Moves down to another register, sets it up and says, “Next customer please”

The other patrons in line: Clap and cheer.

Thank you store clerk. You are probably a high school student but the class and tact you displayed are well beyond your years and well beyond what most people acquire in their entire lives.

2. A small child (6-8 years old)

Eating at a restaurant a random child decided to become a terror (Satan) and another small child was getting more annoyed then any adult (Angel)

Satan: Runs up to Angel’s table and starts instigating Angel

Angel: Get away from me! Sit down with YOUR mommy, you’re not supposed to run around in here!!!

I am sure his mom was thrilled. Satan’s mom on the other hand was involved in a cell phone call and missed the entire episode.

3. My Fed Ex guy

I just wanted to thank you! I did a lot of our shopping online and most of our family members know to use only FedEx because UPS is the high of incompetence. So through the whole month of December you trekked about 3-7 packages a week for me, some heavy, and some cumbersome. I appreciate it, and I hope you have a good chiropractor!

Sometimes Working at Home Doesn't Work

Not that I am anti-social or that I hate all of my coworkers but when I need to buckle down and get some work done I prefer to do it from home in my home office with my bigger desk and without the constant distractions of the workplace.

Usually this works out pretty well as I can do almost all my work remotely and usually people understand that when I say to please contact me only for urgent requests (I need a check cut NOW or I need some random numbers for a proposal due in today for example) that is actually what I mean.

However this week I have been trying to do all the tax planning and the bank account reconciling and all that fun with numbers I get to have on a daily basis. Well I took to my home office and something about this week has inspired my coworkers to misunderstand the word “urgent”. So far some of the requests I have received are not only (1) inane but also sometimes (2) not part of my job or even (3) completely irrelevant to anything that needs to be done this year. Here are my favorites:

1. Inane

Examples:

(a) “I forgot the password to my 401(k) online account, the website says it will email me a new password, but I want to know which email it will send it to as I have two email addresses”

What I said: “Emails from the 401(k) site arrive at your Name of Company account.”

What I wanted to say: “Why don’t you fucking click on the link and then check BOTH email accounts to see where the password showed up? Surely checking 2 email accounts is going to yield you a faster answer to your question then emailing me and waiting for a response.”

(b) “CFO said that $xxxx should be charged every month but I thought it should be $xxxx, turns out he was right. Just an FYI to you.”

What I said: “Great! Thanks for keeping me in the loop!”

What I wanted to say: “So fucking what? You thought the CFO was wrong but he wasn’t and I need to have this info why?”

2. Not Part of My Job

(a) “We are all out manila folders, I really need them to organize my files, please tell me when they will arrive, I need them immediately.”
What I said: “I believe XXXX the office manager is in charge of ordering supplies, I will forward your email to her.”

What I wanted to say: “I’m an accountant and the HR administrator. How does ordering the supplies fit into that? You wrote this in REPLY to my email about taking only urgent requests…..what did it remind you of your urgent need for folders? Grow a brain please.”

(b) “Please make sure that any faxes left on our machine [me and this person as well as half the office have a common copy machine plus there is someone whose job is handing out faxes, and this was sent in reply to my email about working from home…] are delivered to me and not left on the machine for long periods.”

What I said: “I am out of the office for most of this week, if you contact xxxx assistant about your concerns I am sure she will be able to accommodate you.”

What I wanted to say: “Did you NOT just read the email you replied to???? I am NOT at work, thus I cannot possibly check the machine for faxes to you or deliver them to your desk. You have worked here longer then me and there has always been an admin assistant that routinely sorts and delivers faxes through the day. If you’re worried about a fax getting to you I am sure you can tell her to look out for it and she will increase the frequency that she checks it in order to get your fax to you.”

3. Irrelevant to anything that needs to be done this year

(a) “In April we are going to need to put together a proposal for xxxx could we meet this week to plan for this?”

I said: “I am afraid I will be occupied for remainder of this year with tax work, however I should have a lot more availability in January.”

What I wanted to say: “Fuck you. I am busy; it’s the end of the year. Perhaps I don’t have time to have a meeting to schedule a series of meetings with you because as I stated I am extremely busy with tax work but I am also working at home! What are you stupid?”

(b) “Well the xxxx is finally closing in March, in preparation for this we will need inane work. Its due by 2/28 but I wanted to take a look at what you have now since this is such a quiet time for me.”

What I said: “Unfortunately this is not such a quiet time for me. I will produce this when I have finished my tax work.”

What I wanted to say: “WTF is your problem? You have no work so you think its just fine to expect me to do hours of working during my busiest time in order to save you from boredom? No, well actually no fucking way. Go home early and do some shopping. You’ll get your info when you actually need with plenty of time to review it. You don’t need 2 months. Now leave me alone!”

Ahhh, it felt good to get that out. Now I can go back to work. Though I did just spend more time posting about people’s bad behavior then it took to deal with the misfits, I think it cleared my mind to do some work :)

I am Such a Dork!

I think I may be a total dork. But this morning I FINALLY finished choicing my final schedule for next semester. No more switching allowed for me. And get this…. I am actually *excited* about going back! That was definetly surprising. Its not that I hated law school, and though I did at some points its not the reason I took a semester off. I just didn’t think I’d get all excited about coming back.

Since an commentator asked me why I whined so much and wished I would post more positive posts, I figured this could be a good spot to start that, because really I do have a lot of good in my life to be happy about, its just the bad or frustrating events that stick out in my mind. So thanks to that commentator, I appreciate the little push!

But, back to the point. I am going back to law school!!!!! Back to the library, back the outlining, back to the pages of reading, back to the Socratic method. Yes back to it all!!! And I don’t dread it, I don’t wish it was later, I am glad its NOW.

This summer, when I made the decision to skip a semester I was not ready to go back to school at all. Mr. First year was sort of in ill health, my job was a ton less steady, my condo was in ruins because of the flooding and we were sleeping in our living room. Everything was just a mess. Its amazing how things have really gotten so much better in the past 5-6 months.

I know I am going to eat these words sometime around finals next time around, but I can’t wait to add law school back into my life. I am ready, my mind is in the right place, I miss my friends, I miss the mental stimulation, and I really miss further my actual career goals.

Not much will change, except I will need to leave work a little later and become a lot more dependant on my PDA. I bet I will also have law school related banter like the good old days :)

Go ahead call me a geek :)

First Year-

Back to the Regularly Scheduled Programming

Well all, my dental woes are over and I have returned from vacation. I will be back to posting regularly, because god knows how much ranting can revolve around the holiday season.

But before I get into all that I have a little rant about the hotel we stayed at during the trip. This wasn't a discount chain like a motel 8 type or a Holiday Inn. It was a chain hotel with a 4-5 star rating (depending on what source you go by) and since we have stayed at their hotels before when travelling we felt as if we could be reasonable assured at their quality and service. Well, we were only partially right. Their front desk staff was perfect, their bell hop incredibly friendly. And while the room was not as nice (by far) as other rooms we have stayed in with the same chain but in different cities it was nice and had 2 balconies instead of 1 because we scored a corner room.

However there were several things at this hotel that made us never want to stay there again.

1. Breakfast- Now I am 100% aware that there is a huge markup for anything at a hotel. Other properities in this chain charge between 13-15 bucks for a full buffet breakfast on weekdays and more on weekends. There was usually a nice array of options, carving stations, waffle makes, omlete chefs, etc. Not so at this property! Breakfast buffet was $25! Wow....60 bucks for breakfast for 2 every moring? Thats an awful lot. Now, this wouldn't be so bad if there was anything even remotely good at the buffet. However, there was no omlete station, waffle station, caving stations/meats of any kind. There was only runny eggs, potatoes, sandwhich fixings, bagels, oatmeal, cold cereal, bacon/sausage, and some fruit. For 25 bucks.... I have to wonder where the money is going...this isn't a champagne brunch.

Me and Mr. First Year compared the price of the buffet to every other meal we had (it was a running joke). When we ate at an Argentinian restuarant that featued a lunch buffet for 13 bucks which included a beer/glass of wine/softdrink a salad station with a million types of authentic salad, an appetizer station with all sorts of delicious dishes (almost tapas style), and a meet station which was a huge grill with any type of meat/stuffed meat/vegetable/etc known to man on it where someone carved you pieces you wanted. All unlimited. The name of that place was The Knife, if any of you are in Florida check it out :)

2. Service- Like I said the front desk, the bell hop, and the conceirge could not have been more helpful. However, the service in the higher end restuarant (they had one for lunch/dinner/breakfast service and another for a romantic dinner, business dinner etc) was absolutely horrific. It wasn't just us, looking around the half filled place people were looking for non-existent servers everywhere, sitting with their plated without silverware, waiting 30 minutes for a drink/to be greeted. We waited for 15 minutes and asked for a server, another 20 minutes later still no server in sight we ask again. Finally a sloppy looking person comes up, sighs, rolls his eyes and asks us what we want.

Listen, if you want to have a crappy restuarant thats fine. What we came for was what was promised in how you hold the place up. As a place one can have great service $50 main dishes of amazing food, and a good bottle of wine or two. We got so hungry after waiting 40 minutes for the waiter to bring our appetizers when we decided to leave, which was just as well because he didn't place our order because he forgot.

I hate to admit it, I did go whine to management, but it was just so irritating. We were staying in an area where it was now too late to find another dinner options. We ended up with room service.

So, my point is this. If you're going to hold yourself out as a nice hotel, with exceptional service, excellent food and charge the prices to reflect that....you need to stop acting like a super 8 motel.

Ahhh that feels good to get off my chest :)

First Year-

Ouch

If anyone wonders where I've gone to...I am still here but recovering from some emergency dental work.

It was a fun time. First my tooth hurt like someone was beating me in the side of the face with a bat. Then it got so bad I couldn't eat or sleep. At this point my hopes of it going away were pretty much non-existent so I resigned myself, it was time for the dentist.

Luckily I found a great dentist who took me in the same day and did the procedures I needed right away. Now I am spending some time in this weird medicated and sore state. Its a good time. Whats even more fun is trying to get some work done like this.

I have to mention the meds in all my emails, as in "FYI boss, I'm not illiterate, I am just drugged".

I am hoping to resume normal life tommorrow or friday.

Ouch!

First Year-