Thursday, January 27, 2011

Llama's vocabulary

"Case it up" : Zip my jacket
"No tae-bo there" : These shoes are velcro
"Sue-mah-nah" : Banana

When applying for jobs (I've had three interviews and I'm going to another one tomorrow, I have two offers and I'm hoping for at least one more), I'm going to start adding "two-year-old" to my languages spoken.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My word is my bond, okay?

In an email earlier today, I told Sirius XM that I would never recommend them to anyone and would tell anyone who asked me that I had problems. You haven't asked, but I'm telling.

We bought a new car on September 16. It's a GM and it came with a free three-month trial of XM radio. The trial expired on December 16, and XM called our house daily with offers that got better and better, until on December 22, I agreed to a 5-month contract for $22.15. They took my credit card information, but I said I did not want to be auto-charged at the end of the 5-months. The gentleman said that they would send a bill, then, and not charge my card.

The bill came, I wrote a check (to be fair, Bucket wrote the check) and paid it. Then the credit card bill came and it was charged also. I called Sirius XM's customer care number and asked for the credit card charge to be reversed. They said it would take 7-10 days.

On the 11th day, I checked my credit card online and it had not been refunded. I called the number again, and the woman who I spoke with said that it would take another 7-10 days from that call. I asked her how my card was charged immediately but it would take this long to refund the money. She said, "That's how ev-er-y-thing works," in this sing-songy voice that I use to talk to Llama when she's being particularly toddler-ish and I'm frustrated.

I said, "That's fine, you can cancel my account altogether and refund me the balance of the contract." She put me on hold and came back and gave me a refund amount of $39.76, which would be processed by check in 3-4 weeks. The service was terminated within 5 minutes of my pulling the car out of the garage, so the kill signal was sent immediately.

I emailed Sirius XM using the link on the website to advise them that I was frustrated because they process the charges and the kill signals immediately, but refunds take so long. Also, I loved my satellite radio. Bucket has a receiver in his car that I got him when Howard Stern went to Sirius in 200... 5? Whenever. Long time ago. We've been customers for years. They offered me nothing, and continued to reiterate that the refund would take 3-4 weeks.

Bucket's contract is up in March, and guess what we aren't going to need anymore? Sirius XM radio. At this point, I would not even activate the free trial if we were to replace his car with a GM vehicle, that's how frustrated I am. You cannot tell me that it takes 3-4 weeks to process a refund when it took minutes for them to double bill me.

That is all. This is the most public forum I have, so there it is. Don't get Sirius XM unless you want to be double billed, treated like an idiot, and frustrated beyond belief.

Monday, January 24, 2011

An important lesson from my Llama.

"Mama, you don't sing with me."

She has moved on from singing with me and she now sings solo. She has a set list that includes the alphabet and "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," but her lyrics about the sheep are a little confused. I tried to sing along and help her, and she advised me that it would be best if I kept my musical genius to myself.

"Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, black sheep,
Any any wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for my lame (is that supposed to be me?)
Baa, baa, black sheep,
Any any wool?"

That's where it ends. There's also a new letter called "em-en-em-en-o."

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Following up... And random thoughts.

So, I alluded last week to having "fallen and busted my leg all up." What I did was sprain my ankle, tearing one ligament completely and partially tearing another. I get to go to physical therapy three times a week for a month, and then decide on whether I'd like some surgery or not. This must be the reason I'm unemployed!

You know how I said wine was one of my reasons to be happy? Well, I started Weight Watchers, so the wine consumption is drastically decreased. I figured that since I can't run my three 5Ks that I had planned (I should be able to run two, but I'm pretty sure I won't be running in March), I should probably do something else to keep my fitness momentum going. I'm not quite the biggest that I have ever been - that was at my wedding, the opposite of what everyone else in the world does - but I'm getting there and I don't like it. I'm almost to the end of my first week, and Bucket would like to get involved. That's saying something.

My little Llamacita was ready to watch the Miss America pageant with me tonight, but she didn't make it past the first elimination. She danced to "Dynamite," by Taio Cruz, with the contestants, and then she proclaimed it "Boring," and asked to go to bed. I know that pageants (excuse me, scholarship contests) aren't exactly the preferred viewing for preschoolers these days, but I have fond memories of watching the talent portions with my mom and my grandma. Imagine my surprise when I found that the talent portion would not be aired! I guess it's a good thing that Llama was too tired to stay up. She spent all of her energy cheering for the Steelers. She wore her jersey three times this week because I didn't have the energy to argue with her about it, and she wears a shirt under it, so... it was okay, right? Edited: Apparently ten contestants get to show their talents. The first one started playing Chopsticks. I'm not even kidding.

Llama and Tuna Roll are taking gymnastics together, and that is a sight to behold. Llama does not follow directions, because she only wants to jump on the trampoline and dance with ribbons. Tuna Roll does not want to come out from under her daddy's chair for the first half of class, and then she only wants to jump on the trampoline and dance with ribbons. We've been reassured that all new students act this way for the first couple months. I guess I'm paying for the experience of watching her not listen to someone else. It is not refreshing. Of course, she loves it and talks about it all week, so she will remain in gymnastics. I love her enthusiasm, and the class is at a cheer gym... look at what I've become! From a band geek to a potential cheer mom!?

I have a lot of unorganized thoughts about princesses, fairies, gymnastics and cheering, pageants, and socially enforced gender roles and how much I wanted everything to be gender neutral around her as a baby so she would CHOOSE her way. Yeah, she chose sparkles, pink, fairy wings and wands. But she also chooses dump trucks, excavators, backhoes and sandboxes, and she regularly approaches Bucket and me with her fists up and asks us if we want to fight her. If nothing else, she's well balanced. And aggressive.

Until such time as I have another thought that's too long for Facebook or Twitter... Good night!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

2011: Not our best year so far.

At this time last year, we were in Disney World. It was much preferable to what I've done so far this year, which is get a lot of rejection letters from companies to which I've applied for jobs, and fall and bust my leg all up.

But lo! There are many reasons why I'm happy. Behold:

1. My little Llama calls me "Mamacita." And I call her Llamacita, even though Llama certainly isn't her real name. She makes me laugh every single day, sometimes at the last possible second before I get super angry with her. Three looms large, and I've heard "Terrible Twos... Torrential Threes... F-ing Fours."

2. Wine.

Okay, I'm out of reasons. But now that I'm fairly immobile, have graduated with my M.Ed, and am unemployed (but Llama goes to daycare three days each week so that we can keep her spot and she can continue to see other people and be less feral, more social)... I have nothing to do but apply for jobs, stalk people on Facebook, obsessively read newspapers online, and blog. Ha!