The Lady's Rant Page

SBC
I called SBC the other day. This is going to be a sorta long rant....be warned. I asked to have them send me something IN WRITING that told me when my contract was up, how and where to cancel it if I chose to, and when I had to do so.

You see, where we used to live, we had PacBell internet. When the contract was up, I sent a note with my payment that said, please cancel. The emails I'd gotten only said that if I didn't renew, I might have some interruption in service. I didn't care if it was interrupted, I didn't want it. So I didn't renew. What they they failed to say in their emails was "If you don't cancel, by phone, we will renew you for another year. And don't send a note with your payment, because we hire morons who don't really read -- they just punch in numbers to show you've paid."

So when I sent in my note with payment....no one who cared got it. Did they send a letter back explaining the problem? Nooooooooo. The second bill came with a second charge. I sent it back AGAIN with a note -- thinking "they must have crossed in the mail" and knowing that sometimes you get one more charge even after you're cancelled.

Ok, by the time the third bill came I was TICKED. So I called, ready for them to grovel and apologize. Oh no....I'd been given a whole other year! Whoopeeee. They would NOT listen to my story, every time we called to try and straighten it out we got someone new who promised to look into and never did, and bottom line, we ended up paying for a whole new year of service we didn't want or use. Grrrrrrrr

So this time....I want to KNOW. I call. The girl on the other end says no they can't send anything like that out. Why? Because we can't generate anything like that. I can tell you what your date is. You should have gotten the contract in the mail at the time you signed up. (I was supposed to KEEP it????)

So I ask if I can talk to her supervisor, I'm told "No, there isn't one." Like this is amazing...the CEO of SBC is answering phones! When pressed "You mean you're the president of the company?" she responds "Why do you want them?" Because you're a freaking moron!

Finally, she agrees to transfer me to another department who might be able to help me. I wait on hold. Suddenly, I'm hearing a male voice talking to someone, but obviously not me. Some how the lines got crossed and he's not hearing me, I'm not hearing who he's talking to and God only knows what the person he's talking to is hearing.

I get frustrated enough that I hang up. And call right back. THIS time I get a woman who actually has a brain! She calms me down, answers my questions, empathizes, and offers suggestions. When I rant about the LAST person I talked to she says..."there's supervisors all over here. She didn't even put anything about your conversation in the computer. Everything is supposed to be logged. Not good. "

I hope she gets in trouble. Double trouble.

So -- if I decide to cancel, I have to do it three days before the end of contract. BUT there are going to be cuts in rates -- so I can sign on for less than I'm paying now! AND if I want to cancel, I have to CALL -- can't write or email for security reasons. Can't have just anyone calling to cancel my internet. I'm not sure yet what I'll do.

I hate to admit it, but the dsl service has been pretty reliable. Except at the very beginning. And much much better than dial up. I don't think I could go back to dial up. Not even for the money I'd save. But I really hate paying money to a company that was so rude and obnoxious -- and continues to be. We'll see what my research turns up.


Government
A friend of mine is on county assistance. (Welfare). Her rent went up. Her welfare payment didn't go up -- food stamps did. You can't use food stamps for anything besides food. How on earth is this supposed to help?

I swore I wouldn't do this

I swore I wouldn't start this and then desert it. But I have been notably remiss in blogging. I think I need to add a rant page...where I can rant and rave about things.

We're having a party for Halloween. On Saturday. We invited the neighbors. Well not all of them -- the ones with kids that our kids play with. And another couple with grown kids.

I've been ebaying. I ran into my first non-paying bidder. And just when I was prepared to report her and relist the item, she responds. Sigh. "I'm new -- didn't know I'd won the auction" Grrrrrr....

I've also been messing with my computer. Getting spyware, adware, and trojans off and adding a firewall. With thanks to my aussie adopted brother.

I also ordered my mom's gravestone. Sigh.

Tomorrow is the class party in my younger son's class. I'm the room parent in there. In the olden days I'd have been the room mother, but now I'm the room parent. Although I don't think there are any room fathers. But semantics are everything.

My grandmother-in-law's 95th birthday in a few weeks. I'm debating sending flowers. I'm afraid everyone will send them. And then she'll complain that it looks like a funeral in her room. She might as well be dead for all the flowers. Yes, I can hear it now.

On the other hand, she lives across the country in small quarters. What ELSE can I get her?

If I ever____________, just shoot me.

Get THAT fat....you know what I mean.
Start complaining that no one ever comes to see me.
Only hold conversations about medical ailments.
Get so cheap I'd cheat someone.
Wear plaids and polka dots or stripes....and it's not Halloween.
Talk so loud people in the next state can hear me because I can't hear me.
Decide to wear a thong bathing suit.
Change my mind more than twice at McDonald's.
Drive 25 mph in a 45 zone.


I'll think of more, I'm sure....just give me a minute....

It's All About the Huskies...Woof

My oldest son is in highschool. I'm not old enough for this. I'm not ready for this. But here we are.

He is a Husky.
He is in band.
He is in FFA.
He was almost in football.

Now, football is serious stuff here. The Huskies have been undefeated for about 8 years or something. I mean...UNDEFEATED. We've been to every game so far this season. My son has to be at the home games. He plays in the band. But even the away games, so far we've been to. My husband keeps saying...we can't go to ALL of the away games...just the close ones.

The last away game we went to was about an hour away. We stopped at the casino buffet for dinner. On the way out, I split the quarters in my purse with my husband. He took the boys to the bathroom. My quarters were done by the time they got out. I only started with 3. I took the kids outside. We waited.

We waited.

We paced around in the parking lot.

I checked my watch.

WHAT is taking him so long?

My oldest says, "I'll laugh if Dad wins like $50 or something." And I'm thinking, "I'll kill him if he's spent $50 or something."

I say, "Wait here...don't go any where." and I go inside to SEE.

He is standing not far from the door. He is at a slot machine. The light is going off, but there's no noise. There is a thing in the coin slot so you can't do anything to it.

He has won $1500.

He's waiting for the tax paperwork. They give him cash after getting his signature.

They also give him a t-shirt, hat, pens, cards, all kinds of shit.

We have gone in and spent way more money on other trips and walked out with nada. But he literally takes $1500 after putting $5 in (he later confesses he pocketed the 3 quarters I gave him and played a $5 bill, the cheater) and he gets freebie shit.

Ah well, like I should complain.

But I digress...this is about the Huskies.

They have a tough season this year -- having been moved around a bit -- they've got some bigger schools to play (we're really a small town) and actually almost lost. Homecoming no less. But they won with a touchdown in the last ONE MINUTE. Seriously. But mainly their games have scores like 52-7. They have an AWESOME kicker.

My son almost played football. He went to camp -- in the 110 heat last June. And came home dehydrated and sick from sun poisoning. So he didn't go the other two days. He decided to wait because he knew he was going to have to work in math and with band and FFA he wasn't sure how much time he was going to have. I thought it was a mature decision -- and that he probably got scared from camp.

His PE teacher is the JV football coach. For PE they were playing football and my son played QB one day. His teacher told him he had a good arm and he wants him to go out for JV next year. So, I think I'll have a football player next year. THANK GOD it's not basketball. I actually can follow football -- well, most of the time -- and enjoy watching it. Basketball bores me silly.

So we go to the football games. And now when I see these kids get hit, I think....that could be my baby. Sigh.

The cheerleaders do this thing -- when the team scores, they do as many pushups as points made. So they do 3, 6 or 7 mainly. And they count as they do them. My husband and my son (and now most of the band) start counting with them. "1.....1.......1......1.....1" sigh.

My favoritest cheer that they do is this: (think "who let the dogs out")

"You wish you were a Husky, Woof
You wish you were a Husky, Woof
Go Mighty Huskies
It's all about the Huskies, Woof Woof!"

Another away game in two days....but only about 30 minutes away this time ;-)




Now...for the reflective part of this....

As a mom, when I say "My son is a Husky, He is in band, etc." what I really mean is "I am a Husky, etc." because that's the kind of family we have. We all go...we all cheer...we all have sweatshirts...we all have either an airhorn or a cow bell...

Sometimes I wonder just how much of myself is defined by the definition of my children. And how much of that is good. I lost myself almost completely for a while...and found a "self" that was not defined by relationship to someone else online -- through chat, games, etc. -- and then through school. Now that my school is over at least for a while and I find myself sorta at a crossroads in my online life -- how will I be defined? Who am I again?

Well....I am a blogger....lol.....

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