1803 People drive me nuts

I’m honestly not sure why this entry is 100% boldfaced.  I’ve tried to fix it, but I can’t get rid of the bold.

Saucy Scale: 9

Rain, Rain, Go Away!  Well, rats! 

Today was supposed to be the "kick-off" of our summer fun.  Once nursery school ends for the man, I’m scrambling to find activities to keep us busy and me sane (not always an easy mesh of tasks, I assure you). 

One activity that we’ve enjoyed for the previous 2 summers is Park Day.  The families from church spend the day together at a park.  The moms all huddle under the shaded comfort of the picnic pavillion while we watch our children.  We all bring a picnic.  The little kids take over the playground equipment & the older kids play sports together.  We all watch over eachother’s kids & share lunch & sunscreen & parenting advice. 

To accomodate the large geographic area where all the families live, Park Day has 4 regular rotating locations.  There were 3 rules about Park Day (not including, "don’t talk about Park Day"):

1. A playground
2. A covered picnic pavillion 
3. Restrooms

This summer there are 4 parks in rotation.  I had a bad experience at one of the parks.  I choose to skip Park Day when this park is the location.

Today was the official opening day of Park Day Season.  The weather is too iffy.  It’s been sprinkling on and off here.  I’m not even gonna bother loading my crew into the car.  If we had to abort Project Park Day, The Big Boys would have a total meltdown.  Frankly, I’m not in the mood to deal with that.  Knowing the weather report was sketchy at best, I never even mentioed that Park Day was starting this week (I’m that smart, at least).

Bummer.  I have really been looking forward to hanging out with The Mommies.  Maybe next week will be better.

I am in a real pickle regarding Gusser’s 4th birthday party.  He decided he wanted a "Mach 5" birthday (as in Speed Racer) for a group of his nursery school friends. 

Problem #1 None of the party planning stores had Speed Racer invites.  I did a quick online search and was thrilled to find some "old school" Speed Racer party supplies (as opposed to "the movie" Speed Racer).  This actually made me quite happy.

Problem #2 The delivery was less than speedy (no pun intended).  I ended up sending out an email asking the mommies to "hold the date" for our party until we could mail out real invites.  So tacky.

Problem #3  I had a very easy & rather cheap party planned.  We were thinking we could meet out at one of our favorite parks/playgrounds.  The boys could run around & have a blast together.  We hoped to use the picnic pavillion without actually incurring the rental fee to reserve the pavillion (which was a total rip-off).  I called the Parks Dept. to see if the pavillion is already rented & learned that almost 100% of the city parks with a pavillion are rented for that day.

Problem #4 What do we do?  These invites need to go in the mail & we no longer have a location!  I am also trying to plan this party on the cheap.  Nice combo of problems.

I will poke out my eyes before taking the party to a Chuck E Cheese.

<span style=”font-family: Garamond”>I swear that I am surrounded by the dumbest folks possible.  Seriously, all the time. Big Dummies are everywhere.

Yesterday I went to get a coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  I ordered: A large iced decaf coffee with cream and 3 splendas.  I also ordered a chocolate donut to split with The Big Boys.

The coffee I was handed was a medium, not a large.  Which means, that with 3 splendas it was too freaking sweet.  I asked her to correct my drink (but secretly I feared that I would get regular instead of decaf in the remake).  She huffed and puffed & made a half-hearted attempt to correct the drink.  It tasted awful, but I didn’t bother asking for another re-make.

Later, when I looked in the bag, our chocolate donut was in fact a cake donut with chocolate frosting.  Seriously?

The chick working the drive-thru is there all the time.  She’s obviously deficient – I never trust our order to turn out correctly.  I don’t know if I can only blame it on the language barrier.  They mess up my coffee order every stinking day.  There’s only one dude there that can ever get my coffee correct.

I have so little patience for food service stupidity. 

When I was 14 years old, I worked at Burger King – and I handled the drive thru like a pro. 

Later on, I managed a Starbucks.  I’m "old school" Starbucks…we didn’t have little stickers that print out the drink customization.  We weren’t even allowed to write on the cups to keep orders correct!  We had to use a method called "cup management" to remember the drink orders.  (Cup Management is all based on the position of the cup – it’s a code.)

I’ve worked plenty of customer service & food service positions.  Like I said, my patience for bad service is quite low.

It’s not only food service, but all levels of customer service.

With TBU’s job about to come to an end, our insurance coverage will be coming to an end.  We are scrambling to get all family members to all medical, vision, & dental appointments before the end of June.  Trust me, it’s a lot of scheduling for 6 people!

I needed to have an eye exam and get some new glasses/contacts.  I looked at the frames sold at the doc’s office, but the selection was slim at best.  My current glasses are rimless frames (weightless and fantastic!).  I asked if they would be able to just update the lenses and keep using my frames?  The guy wanted to check my frames – to see if they were strong enough.  He monkeyed around and bent the hinges to test them.  He didn’t recommend using 2 year old frames.

The next morning I was cleaning all the fingerprint smudges off the lenses and one of the hinges just snapped out of place.  Totally not fixable.  They sit funky on my face now – all cockeyed.  Seriously, it’s the equivalent of a geek with white tape on the bridge of his nose.  Since they don’t sit correctly on my face, I literally can’t even see straight.

So, while I had a few weeks to find a new set of frames, I no longer have that luxury.

Last Thursday I went to look for frames at Lenscrafters.  I wasn’t ready to make a decision, so the clerk wrote down the style numbers/prices/etc. for 2 different frames.  On Saturday morning (a mere day and a half later) TBU & I went back to the same Lenscrafters to place my order (he wanted to find new frames, too).  Apparently, between Thursday night’s closing time and Saturday morning’s opening time, they sold the frames I’d decided to purchase.  Annoying, but ok.  You’d think that an outfit as big as Lenscrafters could re-order the frames.  Apparently not.  WHAT?  Why not?

 

I took the frame number and I called a few of the other Lenscrafters locations.  One store clerk confirmed he had the frames and could hold them for me.  So, last night…in the pouring rain…I drove all the way over to the store to order my glasses.  Only, when I got there, they couldn’t find the frames anywhere.  Not on hold.  Not on the rack.  Not in the drawers of stock.

WTF?

I had to start trying on frames all over again.  What adrag.  

Luckily the dude helping me was the store’s General Manager.  He could wield his mighty power and give me bigger discounts (which is good, b/c my new frames cost about $100 more than the others).  They also wouldn’t accomodate a sunglass clip-on (which is a bummer), so I had to buy a pair of perscription sunglasses (which he also cut a big deal).  That was the only saving grace of the expedition.  

Oh yeah, remember their whole "glasses in about an hour" slogan?  For some reason my glasses will take about 10 days b/c they didn’t have the lenses in stock.  Hmmmm.

I have opinions to share about Jon&Kate+8.  Things that I should’ve said before Jon went crazy & their relationship finally imploded. 

Kate is a shrew.  Screechy and mean from Day#1 of the show.

Someone needs to be honest with her and tell her how stupid her hair looks.  What is the deal with that hot mess on the back of her head? 

This entry has taken all day to write & edit.  It’s now time for bed.

5 Things That Make Me Happy:

1. my husband is a dear man.
2. my children are delightful.
3. my new Vet makes housecalls!  (I’m not lying!)
4. Designing Women season 1 is now on DVD
5. I love the breeze coming through the room right now.