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I really hate walmart. There is no Target near where I work (nor a Walgreens for that matter). The only nearby store is walmart. So I am forced to go there to run errands during lunch more often than I can stand. Today I had to return something. Here’s how it went:
I pull into the cluster fuck of a parking lot
*I hate walmart*
The store is oozing ghetto
*I hate walmart*
I see someone I work with who I don’t recognize at first because he’s not in uniform…I’m ghetto’d out myself in running pants, ribbed tank and flipflops
*I hate walmart*
I head towards the customer service area and I can’t see any sort of order - people standing around everywhere
*I hate walmart*
So I stand behind a woman standing behind a red line…she takes her return item to the next open register, turns out it’s an exchange so she’s off to find her exchanged item - then evidently I’m up next. OK - I’m confused, quick service at a walmart customer service desk. I begin to worry. The lady at the register asks what I’m returning - I had her the receipt and item (still with tag and on hanger). I reach for the CC on which I purchased it, she tells me it’s not necessary and quite pleasantly explains how their return process works. She’s too friendly. Paranoia is starting to kick in.
*I hate walmart*
Well this isn’t so bad, I think to myself. Now I need to go find a 3-pack of my favorite gum to buy so I can get some cash back while I’m here. I wander around a bit….wander some more…Where is the goddamn candy/gum aisle!?!?!? They’re moving stuff around, the pharmacy area is gone, there’s bicycles next to baskets and salad dressing next to bubbles. There is no candy/gum aisle in site.
*I hate walmart*
I do notice that the cosmetics aisle is completely locked up - you cannot buy cosmetics at this walmart without finding someone who works there.
*I hate walmart*
Not that I was buying cosmetics. So I give up, and move on to the “impulse buy” aisles near the check out stand to find a single pack of my gum. No sign of the flavor of gum I’m looking for - I grab some mentos gum instead.
*I hate walmart*
Then I check one more aisle. OOOOH! They now have my fave gum flavor in nifty little plastic cup containers, just like the icebreakers raspberry ice gum that tastes good but lasts 10 seconds. I pick up one of those too. Uh oh - I’m feeling a tinge of joy in a walmart store.
*I hate walmart*
Time to find a register. Stupid long lines everywhere on this end - but I’d seen short lines on the other end, so I trek the 1/2 mile to the other end of the line of registers. Lines are just as long there.
*I hate walmart*
I find a line slightly less long than the other - then find the pepsi fridge, and grab one since I’ll need a a drink where I’m going. The lady cashier greets me in a friendly manner and swiftly rings up my items…more confusion. So instead of getting a 3 pack of my fave gum for $3 to get cash back, I spend $6 on fave gum, mentos gum, and a pepsi. And the employees I interact with are not unpleasant. Stupid walmart messing with my head.
*I hate walmart*

Ok.  So I’m a training coordinator/developer/trainer.  I have been working at my current employer for just over a year.  I have spent most of that year working on, proposing, and researching a Learning Management System that will streamline the training record keeping process as well as make more training more easily available to more employees.  It was not approved the first time - not rejected, just not approved pending futher questions.  Well finally the questions have come.  I have provided documentation and answers to everything they have asked - well in advance.  I, however, am not allowed to talk to the “deciders.”  The person who is speaking to them, does not know the system or it’s capabilities like I do.  Which is why it was not approved the first time.  So now that they’re asking questions through her to me, I’m providing the answers to the best of my ability - most of the time trying to figure out exactly what they’re asking.  At one point, I mentioned that in addition to all of the safety/compliance related trainng we will have access to, there is also Management, Communicatins, Computer, and HR skills training (including Sexual Harassment and Diversity training).  Her response to that was “They don’t care about that.”  I was just told by a representative of our HR department that they do not care about training that is not specifically required by law.  The HR lady just told the training lady - we don’t care about training.

How the f’ am I supposed to stay on with an organization that doesn’t care about training, when my career choice has been training.  How the hell am I supposed to find another job in an economy like this!?

Ok - so evidently all i do now is tell you who I like and who I don’t like. 

A couple weeks ago Midas told me I needed new break pads and my roters machined.  The quoted me a big number that we didn’t like.  So we went to just breaks where they have the $99.88 special, knowing full well they’d find something else to charge me for.  Instead of the full $800 work of services they suggested, I just went with the 99.88 and the $250+ master cylinder (since it is evidently leaking) and break bleeding ~$40.  This was about 4:00 on Monday when tehy told me all this.  Of course there were no after market master cylinders (MC).  So Tuesday the MC is delivered by the dealer, and of course they bring the wrong one.  Eventually the right one shows up at the shop.  By 3:30 they needed a bit more time.  At 5:30 I called and they said it’d be ready at 7.  We got there a little after 7, and they were still working on it.  Turns out they stripped a tube connection (or something like that).  So they had to get a new one of those. 

I then asked if they could find a way to get me rental car for today.  That has to go through corporate - who I called this morning.  This is where it gets good.  I left a voicemail with “Dean” asking what the process was for requesting rental car reimbursement.  When Dean called back, this is about how the conversation went:

Me: (breif explanation of situation)  And since they cannot guarantee that my car will be done by noon today, I would like to know what the process is for requesting a rental car reimbursement in case I need to get a rental car so I can go to work.

Dean:  I’m sorry but I cannot authorizie rental car reimbursement for same day service.

Me: But it wasn’t same day service, this is going on day 3.

Dean: But they had to wait to get the part from the Dealer which was all the way across town in Dallas (btw, they got it in Grand Prairie about a mile up the road from where I live - less than 5 miles from the Just Brakes location).  And you didn’t drop the car off until 5 on Monday.

Me: I dropped the car off at 3, and they had all day yesterday to work on it.

Dean: But the dealer brought the wrong part and they had to get the right part from across town, that is not our fault, and is out of our hands.

Me: But it was their fault that they stripped the connector tube, which is why they were unable to complete the service yesterday

Dean: (talking over that last bit I was saying) Yes, but they’re doing all they can to fix that.

Me: And I need to get to work.  What do I need to do to get a rental car reimbursement.

Dean: I cannot authorize rental car reimbursement for same day service

Me: And if it had been done “same day” I wouldn’t need a rental car.  I need to get to my job.  I’m losing a day of work because they were unable to repair my car in a reasonable amount of time.

Dean: They are doing all they can to get the repair done today.

Me: And they cannot guarantee that they will be able to fix everything by noon today. 

Dean: (again cutting me off) No, we cannot offer any guarantees as to time frame.

Me: And if they cannot get the car done today, what do I need to do to request rental car reimubursement.

Dean:  We cannot guarantee when the work can be done, and I cannot authorize reimbursement for a car rental.

Me:  If you are not going to work with me, then I will never go to Just Brakes again - and neither will anyone I know.

Me: *click*

So - the point:

DON’T GO TO JUST BRAKES - AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT JUST BRAKES SUCKS, AND HAS HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AT THE CORPORATE LEVEL

In the interest of full disclosure, the service desk guy at the Just Brakes on Collins in Arlington, Corey, is a really nice guy and was very apologetic, but his hands were tied.  I obviously was not impressed with the techs their either since as it turns out Ford Mustang GTs are hard for them to work on.   Something about my GT having a similar configuration to the Cobra - again - not that I car - it’s thier job to be able to fix brakes - just brakes.  I thought when you focused on just one thing and one thing only, you were supposed to do that one thing well.

/rant

I’m sure most everyone has heard some sort of saying implying the things come in threes.  Bad news comes in threes.  Well have damn well surpassed my 3 a good while back.  So I’ve decided that the fates didn’t think 3 people in my family with cancer was enough. It had to be 3 people with lung cancer.  Leukemia doesn’t count.  I found a little while back that my great uncle (my maternal grandfathers youngest brother) has been diagnosed with lung cancer.  Last night I heard the prognoses.  6 months.  Maybe a year or 2 with agressive chemotherapy.  Any one who has been through or has been close to someone who has gone through chemo can understand why a person might choose to foregoe the treatment.  I’m not real sure if he know what he wants to do yet. 

Last night my dad informed me that his father also has lung cancer.  And it’s metastesized.  And he has a bleeding ulcer.

So seriously folks.  STOP THE DAMNED SMOKING.  And go to the doc once in a while.  Don’t wait until the neighbors have to call your son to find out where you’ve been for the past several days.

And on that note…I need a drink.

So,  my 9:20 flight out of Dallas didn’t leave Dallas until 11:20, and I didn’t get to tulsa until 12:15.  Turns out the plane I was on had a rounte of Dallas > Houston > Midland > Dallas > Tulsa.  The storms Thursday night in Houston delayed the flight to Midland, thereby delaying the flight to dallas, and my flight to Tulsa.  The flight left Midland about the time I was supposed to be landing in Tulsa.  It was a long night.

However, there is some good news from the weekend.  My grandfather is back home, and out of the hospital, his lungs are doing as well as they can.  No results as of this afternoon as to the 2nd biopsy they had to do, since they royally fuXX0red the first one.  I sersiously think my grandfather has a suit on his hands.  But we’re not an overly litegious family.  Puncturing a hole in your lung on accident, instead of taking a biopsy of a tumor is evidently just a minor incident.

My dad is responding very well to his first round of treatment his white blood cell counts are back to normal.  He’ll do it again at the end of the month.  My hope is to go visit him in a couple of weeks, or mid June.  I’ll talk to him this week and find out exactly when.

I deleted about 650 spam comments today. Fully expect to see the requisit number entry as was on Phlome’s site before, sometime in the near future.

I hate spammers!!!!!
So, if I <3 = love then would >3 be the opposite of love - or do we need to find the opposite of 3?

anyway - off to eat a sammich then get ready for the gym
fun fun fun

Didn’t get my hair done.

7.5 weeks til completion of my MBA

Work = beatdown

I hate when word are elongated just to make the spearker/writer think he/she sounds more intelligent - when it really makes them sound like idiots.

On NPR this morning some folks were taking about the affects of media/marketing on child discipline etc. Basically saying that the instant gratification shown in the media makes it harder for parents to say not to their kids. Then one of the interviewees said something along the lines of “parents then spend more money to ease their guiltiness”.

The word is GUILT. No need change the adjective form into a noun - the noun form already exists.
So not only do we have to deal with verbing, but we also have unnecessary nouning to deal with.

I got to stay home from work today cuz for my birthday I got Strep Throat! I’ve actually probably had it for a day or two, just got really bad last night. Went to the doc this morning, got some drugs, been downing Vitamin C and lots of fluids.

Am I a spoiled brat for making my own bday plans then making my husband do the actual arranging so that it seems like I’m not actually planning my own bday party?