My lovely wonderful Sweetie Pie is suffering from her first UTI. Apparently she's had some pressured and discomfort for awhile but never told me about it, she thought I'd be mad at her. ! So now I have the guilt– I'm a master at the guilt.
While I was at work yesterday Paco took her to her violin lesson and she didn't "make it" to the restroom and had her first accident in well... ever. Needless to say, they went home and forewent the lesson– there was much crying and sadness when I got home. Then she cried when she went to the bathroom, I knew what it was instantly what with being a girl who's had one. I made her drink some cranberry juice which proceeded to help her stomach feel upset and not much else. Sigh.
I got her in to see the doctor today and we sat in the bathroom forever to get her sample– she couldn't help herself when she first sat down before the cup made it out, I tried not to be annoyed. Then I noticed some blood, which I think I did a really great job of not freaking out about. My eight year old daughter should not have blood dripping into the toilet from her butt. She finally got enough urine out for the strip test but not enough for the lab to culture. Prognosis? She has a UTI! (I really think they should have at-home tests for this kind of thing, we usually are pretty damn aware of when we have one and it would save us a trip to the doc for the obvious. Also, apparently blood in urine is a common occurrence with UTI's. Whew.)
The 'script was for a liquid and I asked the nurse if we could have it in pill form instead. Sweetie seems to enjoy the adult-ness in her ability to swallow actual pills. She said sure and that they'd call it in in about thirty minutes. That was this morning. Sweetie was completely miserable all day so I opted to go back into town to pick up her Rx and homework from school and take her "sample" to the hospital lab for whatever they need to do with that. When I got to the pharmacy there was NO PRESCRIPTION. This was four hours after we'd been to the office.
I called the office and they told me the doctor and the nurse weren't in the office this afternoon– I knew that was going to be the answer. To which my reply was, "That is NOT my problem. My daughter needs her medicine so she can pee without being in pain!" So yes I turned into those women from yesterday. And I didn't really want to get nasty because I know it wasn't anything done intentionally, but picking up that prescription was the only reason I drove into town. I could have just as easily stayed at home and cleaned house, or zone out to my precious laptop. I was being inconvenienced and someone was going to pay!
I picked up my son and ran another errand, then called back to see if the receptionist had contacted the doctor yet, she had– and apparently it was her turn to be unfriendly. I understood. I thanked her very much and told her to have a wonderful day. With a smile on my face.
Paco picked up her Rx on his way home and she's had her first dose and I'll be giving her another one before she goes to bed. Of course Sweetie Pie thinks she's instantly cured, that one pill works magic!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
word of mouth
I had a full "work" day today. I had to find a babysitter for Cutie, travel to another town and speak to grown-ups and no children. Well. That's what I thought anyway.
These work sessions are to train us in a new way to interact with our customers, always smile, make them feel special, blah blah blah all that stuff that one is supposed to do when in a customer centric profession but after awhile we forget because we're human and we get wrapped up in our own lives.
For lunch break seven of us went to a fast-ish food place, not a BK or a McD's but not an Applebee's or Perkin's. We ordered our food, all of us sitting at one table during the lunch rush, all on separate tickets. When the wait person, Sheila, brought us our drinks we had one woman complain that she'd ordered a salad and anther complained that she'd ordered a shake and "Where were they?" Sheila said she was going to bring out the drinks first and she'd bring the other stuff in a few minutes. To my mind a perfectly logical thing, not bitchy in anyway, apparently I was wrong.
The women I was sitting with instantly starting complaining that Sheila was being "not customer centric". Oh jeeze. Here we go. I was going to blow that off but then the food came and apparently every one's fries were cold. Mine weren't scalding hot, but they weren't ice cold either, I just ate my food and let them bitch to each other. THEN she noticed. That's right, a woman noticed that her glass which contained her shake HAD A CRACK ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT. Holy shit. You would have thought that the wait staff had just gotten caught putting arsenic in her drink. The vileness that spilled out of her mouth. She instantly called for the manager. Complained about the fries, complained about the glass, refused replacements for us all because we were on a time constraint (which was completely true) and was just generally unpleasant about it. The manager apologized profusely– what else could she do– and said she would take the fries off the tickets. And gave her a new shake ("I'll only take it if it's in Styrofoam!")
When we went to pay for our meals we all found out that we couldn't use our coupons because she'd taken the fries off the meal and now we were all paying MORE for our lunch than we would have if the big mouths had kept their pie-holes closed. Which on the one hand WTF was the manager thinking being so 'helpful' and then on the other hand I figured it was Karma biting the big mouths right back.
We went back to our meeting and I thought we would just carry on with our day but the women kept complaining, going on and on and ON about it. They even brought it up during the meeting as an example of how bad service will cause you not to go back somewhere. This is where I piped in. "This is why our company has an 'F' by the Better Business Bureau. People who've had a bad experience will go on and on about it but there were three of us sitting at that table who's experience was just fine and we've not said anything." Thankfully that shut them all up.
I can see complaining because lunch was unsatisfactory but nothing was as horrible that the people working there needed to be treated as poorly as they were today. I'm sure we've all made a mistake, not noticed one of our own glasses in our home has cracked in the dishwasher. I guess what I learned today during my day of training of client-centric business practice was that you only have to be nice and understanding if you're the one with the client. If you are the client you can be as nasty as you want. Somehow I don't think that was supposed to be the moral of my day.
These work sessions are to train us in a new way to interact with our customers, always smile, make them feel special, blah blah blah all that stuff that one is supposed to do when in a customer centric profession but after awhile we forget because we're human and we get wrapped up in our own lives.
For lunch break seven of us went to a fast-ish food place, not a BK or a McD's but not an Applebee's or Perkin's. We ordered our food, all of us sitting at one table during the lunch rush, all on separate tickets. When the wait person, Sheila, brought us our drinks we had one woman complain that she'd ordered a salad and anther complained that she'd ordered a shake and "Where were they?" Sheila said she was going to bring out the drinks first and she'd bring the other stuff in a few minutes. To my mind a perfectly logical thing, not bitchy in anyway, apparently I was wrong.
The women I was sitting with instantly starting complaining that Sheila was being "not customer centric". Oh jeeze. Here we go. I was going to blow that off but then the food came and apparently every one's fries were cold. Mine weren't scalding hot, but they weren't ice cold either, I just ate my food and let them bitch to each other. THEN she noticed. That's right, a woman noticed that her glass which contained her shake HAD A CRACK ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT. Holy shit. You would have thought that the wait staff had just gotten caught putting arsenic in her drink. The vileness that spilled out of her mouth. She instantly called for the manager. Complained about the fries, complained about the glass, refused replacements for us all because we were on a time constraint (which was completely true) and was just generally unpleasant about it. The manager apologized profusely– what else could she do– and said she would take the fries off the tickets. And gave her a new shake ("I'll only take it if it's in Styrofoam!")
When we went to pay for our meals we all found out that we couldn't use our coupons because she'd taken the fries off the meal and now we were all paying MORE for our lunch than we would have if the big mouths had kept their pie-holes closed. Which on the one hand WTF was the manager thinking being so 'helpful' and then on the other hand I figured it was Karma biting the big mouths right back.
We went back to our meeting and I thought we would just carry on with our day but the women kept complaining, going on and on and ON about it. They even brought it up during the meeting as an example of how bad service will cause you not to go back somewhere. This is where I piped in. "This is why our company has an 'F' by the Better Business Bureau. People who've had a bad experience will go on and on about it but there were three of us sitting at that table who's experience was just fine and we've not said anything." Thankfully that shut them all up.
I can see complaining because lunch was unsatisfactory but nothing was as horrible that the people working there needed to be treated as poorly as they were today. I'm sure we've all made a mistake, not noticed one of our own glasses in our home has cracked in the dishwasher. I guess what I learned today during my day of training of client-centric business practice was that you only have to be nice and understanding if you're the one with the client. If you are the client you can be as nasty as you want. Somehow I don't think that was supposed to be the moral of my day.
Monday, November 30, 2009
nectar of the moms
I overslept today. I forgot that I had changed my alarm clock last week to a later wake-up time. I'm sure forgetting had nothing to do with the fact that I went to bed really late. Which I'm sure had nothing to do with the fact that I'd taken a 90 minute nap yesterday afternoon. I figured it would all be okay because I'd just slam some coffee after I woke up and be raring to go for the day. Only... (whimper)... I couldn't. Our beloved coffee maker stopped doing its job! Woe is me!
It's like this see:
Paco made a pot of coffee to take to school like he always does in the morning, then he set the coffee maker to brew a second pot for me and it...didn't. If it had eyes it would have blinked at him and said, "Que?" Which would have been amusing since Paco was looking at it blinking his eyes in disbelief thinking a much more crass version of "Que?" The coffee pot's clock worked. The lights all lit up like they were supposed to. The little click happened like it always does, but then our beloved electronic device just sat there refusing to brew our sweet elixir of morning joy! My morning was shot to hell, which of course meant the kid's morning was shot to hell to, remember the saying, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." that is especially true if there's no morning cup of Joe.
I somehow managed to make it out the door with the kids, and drop them off in a timely manner. For all of this I was rewarded with my favorite flavored coffee of the day at my Coffee Stop: Butterscotch Toffee. I know it sounds horrible, but it is so so yummy! After a couple of cups of that I was off to buy a new brewer of liquid gold. (You know, when I was breastfeeding that was a completely different thing... but I digress.) I get to the store and of course they're out of the $25 auto-shut off programmable brew master. After fuming for about thirty seconds I opted for the $10 coffee maker (cheap= no auto shut-off or programming) and a $15 coffee decanter that will keep my coffee hot for 12 hours, we're way too lazy to remember to turn the coffee maker off. In a perfect world we'll make the coffee and then put it in the carafe. (Shall we take bets on the number of times this actually happens?)
So I pickup Cutie, we get home and I decide to call Mr. Coffee. After all, it's his product he should know if there is some sort of voo-doo dance I need to do to get it to work again. I call and I wait... and I wait.. and I.. Oh! Hi! Peter answers the phone, he asks what he can do to help me, I tell him my problem, he says "Oh yes, the good ol' ISx24. Let me get your address.... Okay, what we're going to do is send you a new machine, but I have some bad news. (I'm thinking this is where the other shoe drops) we no longer have it in red. Is that going to be okay?" Um, well, YES I think that will be just fine! "Okay that will get to you in 6-8 business days."
So ladies and gentlemen. Yes. My coffee maker croaked and all I have to show for it is... two new coffee making machines and a delightful new coffee carafe. It was a successful Monday!
It's like this see:
Paco made a pot of coffee to take to school like he always does in the morning, then he set the coffee maker to brew a second pot for me and it...didn't. If it had eyes it would have blinked at him and said, "Que?" Which would have been amusing since Paco was looking at it blinking his eyes in disbelief thinking a much more crass version of "Que?" The coffee pot's clock worked. The lights all lit up like they were supposed to. The little click happened like it always does, but then our beloved electronic device just sat there refusing to brew our sweet elixir of morning joy! My morning was shot to hell, which of course meant the kid's morning was shot to hell to, remember the saying, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." that is especially true if there's no morning cup of Joe.
I somehow managed to make it out the door with the kids, and drop them off in a timely manner. For all of this I was rewarded with my favorite flavored coffee of the day at my Coffee Stop: Butterscotch Toffee. I know it sounds horrible, but it is so so yummy! After a couple of cups of that I was off to buy a new brewer of liquid gold. (You know, when I was breastfeeding that was a completely different thing... but I digress.) I get to the store and of course they're out of the $25 auto-shut off programmable brew master. After fuming for about thirty seconds I opted for the $10 coffee maker (cheap= no auto shut-off or programming) and a $15 coffee decanter that will keep my coffee hot for 12 hours, we're way too lazy to remember to turn the coffee maker off. In a perfect world we'll make the coffee and then put it in the carafe. (Shall we take bets on the number of times this actually happens?)
So I pickup Cutie, we get home and I decide to call Mr. Coffee. After all, it's his product he should know if there is some sort of voo-doo dance I need to do to get it to work again. I call and I wait... and I wait.. and I.. Oh! Hi! Peter answers the phone, he asks what he can do to help me, I tell him my problem, he says "Oh yes, the good ol' ISx24. Let me get your address.... Okay, what we're going to do is send you a new machine, but I have some bad news. (I'm thinking this is where the other shoe drops) we no longer have it in red. Is that going to be okay?" Um, well, YES I think that will be just fine! "Okay that will get to you in 6-8 business days."
So ladies and gentlemen. Yes. My coffee maker croaked and all I have to show for it is... two new coffee making machines and a delightful new coffee carafe. It was a successful Monday!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
seriously?
Here I am innocently watching a movie on the idiot box when all of a sudden a commercial comes on for Kellog's cereal. Not just any cereals though, oh no! Kellog's Fruit Loops! And guess what! It now provides fiber! Wow, that's amazing! Our kids can now get actual fiber with their completely non-healthful (in my view) breakfast dessert! And not only Fruit Loops! No NO!! Apple Jacks too! "That's right my friends! Step right up! I have this super sugar cereal that tastes like nothing in nature but by God we've added some colon blow to it and now it's 100% good for you! Oh– and I got a little snake oil to wash it down with if you're willing!"
I'm wondering if I'm the only one annoyed by this? Granted I'm adding fuel to my fire by reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I'm not even very far into it but already I'm recognizing how the "food" industry has broken down what we eat into nutrients instead actual foods. I saw an ad for Omega3 infused peanut butter the other day too– that's when I realized he was right. We've been capitalism's patsy for three decades and we all have a spare tire to show for it. They dumbed down all our foods and added "nutrients" back into it. Makes me long for the days of my Gramma's lard filled pie crusts, at least we knew what we were getting.
I'm wondering if I'm the only one annoyed by this? Granted I'm adding fuel to my fire by reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. I'm not even very far into it but already I'm recognizing how the "food" industry has broken down what we eat into nutrients instead actual foods. I saw an ad for Omega3 infused peanut butter the other day too– that's when I realized he was right. We've been capitalism's patsy for three decades and we all have a spare tire to show for it. They dumbed down all our foods and added "nutrients" back into it. Makes me long for the days of my Gramma's lard filled pie crusts, at least we knew what we were getting.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
ta da
Whew. I've finished my whirlwind of tax information, taken and passed all my tests. Yipee for me!
I get to completely blow off the weekend and... apparently be a captive of my uterus. Damn. I actually called my Mom hoping for some sort of light at the end of this dark tunnel: "Please tell me that menopause is easier than this?!" She actually laughed at me! "Well, menopause brings a whole host of other issues." Crap. Not the silver lining I was looking for.
In hopes of getting my girlie parts drunk so they stop sticking their middle finger up at me I'm off to have some eggnog with rum. It's yummy and seasonal!
I get to completely blow off the weekend and... apparently be a captive of my uterus. Damn. I actually called my Mom hoping for some sort of light at the end of this dark tunnel: "Please tell me that menopause is easier than this?!" She actually laughed at me! "Well, menopause brings a whole host of other issues." Crap. Not the silver lining I was looking for.
In hopes of getting my girlie parts drunk so they stop sticking their middle finger up at me I'm off to have some eggnog with rum. It's yummy and seasonal!
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