Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 85
September 19, 2017
Color is in the Eye of the Beholder
Because of our office move at work, I'm sitting near a new department--one I have to walk through every time I want to use the restroom. One morning while I was walking past their cubes, I noticed one of the women was wearing cute shoes. A second later, I shrugged and thought, Too bad they're brown. Then I noticed she was wearing a brown shirt and light brown slacks.
Being a goofball writer, I immediately started running down the color path. I realized that I never wear brown. I remember once upon a time I owned a super cute brown shirt, but I think that was donated years ago.
That got me thinking some more about how I don't wear pastels either. I do own a few shirts that fit this niche, but they're buried in my closet. I also have some taupe shoes hiding somewhere and some brown ones (unless I donated those before I moved from Minnesota), but I usually wear black shoes or tennis shoes. On the sneakers, the brighter the better.
Actually, almost all my clothes are super bright or black. Fuchsia--my personal most favorite color ever--dominates my wardrobe (and my knitting); aqua holds a close second. I also have bright green, violet, other shades of bright pink (again, totally my fave!). Seriously, the brighter my clothes are, the happier I am. I wear my brightest of brights either on Monday to cheer myself up or on Friday to celebrate the upcoming weekend. I tend not to wear it in the middle of the week.
I can even manage a few jewel tones, especially purple, but I don't love it the way I love the bright, happy colors.
After I thought through this, I wondered if I was unusual and realized that I probably was. A lot of people must like beige and brown and taupe. I find those colors absolutely boring. I'm sure people who enjoy the earth tones probably find my clothing choices garish. I guess what colors are considered exciting are in the eye of the beholder.
Being a goofball writer, I immediately started running down the color path. I realized that I never wear brown. I remember once upon a time I owned a super cute brown shirt, but I think that was donated years ago.
That got me thinking some more about how I don't wear pastels either. I do own a few shirts that fit this niche, but they're buried in my closet. I also have some taupe shoes hiding somewhere and some brown ones (unless I donated those before I moved from Minnesota), but I usually wear black shoes or tennis shoes. On the sneakers, the brighter the better.
Actually, almost all my clothes are super bright or black. Fuchsia--my personal most favorite color ever--dominates my wardrobe (and my knitting); aqua holds a close second. I also have bright green, violet, other shades of bright pink (again, totally my fave!). Seriously, the brighter my clothes are, the happier I am. I wear my brightest of brights either on Monday to cheer myself up or on Friday to celebrate the upcoming weekend. I tend not to wear it in the middle of the week.
I can even manage a few jewel tones, especially purple, but I don't love it the way I love the bright, happy colors.
After I thought through this, I wondered if I was unusual and realized that I probably was. A lot of people must like beige and brown and taupe. I find those colors absolutely boring. I'm sure people who enjoy the earth tones probably find my clothing choices garish. I guess what colors are considered exciting are in the eye of the beholder.
September 14, 2017
Lights Out
Those of you who've had a TV on for the past week know that hurricane Irma hit Florida with quite a punch, although a last minute deviation spared some places a worse blow than they were predicted to get. Maybe, though, you didn't know that Tropical Storm Irma decided to pay a visit to the state of Georgia after having her way in Florida.
I live near Atlanta so one of the doors Irma knocked at was mine!
Let me remind those of you who don't know--I'm from Minnesota. I was born there and lived most of my life there. We don't get tropical storms in Minneapolis. Ask me to deal with a 31 inch snowfall. I'll bitch about it, but I can handle it. Ask me when it's safe or unsafe to drive onto the lake. These are the weather issues I'm accustomed to dealing with. I had zero clue what to do for a tropical storm, remnant of a full-fledged hurricane.
I did know enough to buy bottled water and I have some battery-operated lanterns complete with extra batteries. We also had food that could last a while without spoiling, although it would have meant eating a lot of fruit.
And I was able to work from home on Monday which was a blessing because I didn't want to try to drive through wind gusts of 70 mph. (I'm not sure it ever reached that high, but it might have.)
The rain started the night before, and while there were some gusts, it wasn't too bad. Even Monday, it seemed mostly okay. Sure, it was pouring most of the day and yeah the wind was incredible. I spent a lot of time hoping none of my trees came down. Overall, though, it was okay.
Until the power went out.
I'm not cutout for pioneer life. I tried to knit, but the lantern light wasn't bright enough and I made a mistake. I tried to fix it, but I fear I made it worse in the near-dark. Too dark to read. Can't read on my iPad because I'll run the battery down. No TV, no computer, no phone because I have one bar inside my house and there's that pesky battery thing again. I finally went and took a nap.
Dinner was cold Szechuan and then more sitting around until I was like, okay, might as well go to bed. For real. Now I know why in the olden days they got up with the light and went to bed when it got dark.
The true test was Tuesday morning when I woke up to no coffee!!! The horrors! This was the first thing I rectified when I got to work.
I heard on the news that this is the first tropical storm to reach Atlanta since 1995 or 1996. I hope it's at least that long before I have to go through something like this again! Still, I know how lucky I am and how unlucky others were. Keeping the peeps who've dealt with worse in my thoughts.
I live near Atlanta so one of the doors Irma knocked at was mine!
Let me remind those of you who don't know--I'm from Minnesota. I was born there and lived most of my life there. We don't get tropical storms in Minneapolis. Ask me to deal with a 31 inch snowfall. I'll bitch about it, but I can handle it. Ask me when it's safe or unsafe to drive onto the lake. These are the weather issues I'm accustomed to dealing with. I had zero clue what to do for a tropical storm, remnant of a full-fledged hurricane.
I did know enough to buy bottled water and I have some battery-operated lanterns complete with extra batteries. We also had food that could last a while without spoiling, although it would have meant eating a lot of fruit.
And I was able to work from home on Monday which was a blessing because I didn't want to try to drive through wind gusts of 70 mph. (I'm not sure it ever reached that high, but it might have.)
The rain started the night before, and while there were some gusts, it wasn't too bad. Even Monday, it seemed mostly okay. Sure, it was pouring most of the day and yeah the wind was incredible. I spent a lot of time hoping none of my trees came down. Overall, though, it was okay.
Until the power went out.
I'm not cutout for pioneer life. I tried to knit, but the lantern light wasn't bright enough and I made a mistake. I tried to fix it, but I fear I made it worse in the near-dark. Too dark to read. Can't read on my iPad because I'll run the battery down. No TV, no computer, no phone because I have one bar inside my house and there's that pesky battery thing again. I finally went and took a nap.
Dinner was cold Szechuan and then more sitting around until I was like, okay, might as well go to bed. For real. Now I know why in the olden days they got up with the light and went to bed when it got dark.
The true test was Tuesday morning when I woke up to no coffee!!! The horrors! This was the first thing I rectified when I got to work.
I heard on the news that this is the first tropical storm to reach Atlanta since 1995 or 1996. I hope it's at least that long before I have to go through something like this again! Still, I know how lucky I am and how unlucky others were. Keeping the peeps who've dealt with worse in my thoughts.
September 12, 2017
Claustrophobic Introvert
Recently at my day job, my entire department was moved to the new standard remodeled area. This includes brand new cubes. I'd like to share with you a claustrophobic introvert's living hell.
Yes, that's all the personal space I'm allowed and when I turn around in my chair, I frequently bang into the wall or the bookcase. Notice how at least a quarter of the bookcase is basically unusable because of the desk. I keep my gym bag down on the bottom shelf in the back because I can grab the strap and pull it out. If not for that, that space would be sitting empty because of accessibility.
The upper left hand side of the bookcase originally had yet another shelf, making that space virtually unusable as well, but I took out one of the three (!!!) shelves jammed in that quadrant to allow taller items to be placed there. And the drawer space? Horrifyingly tight. Maybe it works for the men in the office since they don't have purses, but for women, it's grossly less that what's needed.
Also when we moved into the cubes, we were given new chairs. Chairs with only two controls to adjust it for ergonomic comfort. My back aches after sitting there for a while.
Let me also complain about the short cube walls--the better to spread germs with during flu season--and the complete lack of privacy. Awesome! There's supposed to be some noise cancelling system in there, but apparently it's not activated yet because I can hear a lot of conversations.
I didn't want this entire post to be a bitch session--I'd hoped to inject some humor--but sadly, there's nothing funny about this new corporate standard. Let me close out with the one cool thing (absolutely the only thing I like about this new arrangement). That shiny white surface on the right-hand side? It's a white board! OMG, do I love this! If I ever get my office at home usable again, I might have to do a white board in there. It seems like it would be super awesome for laying out characters/plot points and other story things.
Yes, that's all the personal space I'm allowed and when I turn around in my chair, I frequently bang into the wall or the bookcase. Notice how at least a quarter of the bookcase is basically unusable because of the desk. I keep my gym bag down on the bottom shelf in the back because I can grab the strap and pull it out. If not for that, that space would be sitting empty because of accessibility.
The upper left hand side of the bookcase originally had yet another shelf, making that space virtually unusable as well, but I took out one of the three (!!!) shelves jammed in that quadrant to allow taller items to be placed there. And the drawer space? Horrifyingly tight. Maybe it works for the men in the office since they don't have purses, but for women, it's grossly less that what's needed.
Also when we moved into the cubes, we were given new chairs. Chairs with only two controls to adjust it for ergonomic comfort. My back aches after sitting there for a while.
Let me also complain about the short cube walls--the better to spread germs with during flu season--and the complete lack of privacy. Awesome! There's supposed to be some noise cancelling system in there, but apparently it's not activated yet because I can hear a lot of conversations.
I didn't want this entire post to be a bitch session--I'd hoped to inject some humor--but sadly, there's nothing funny about this new corporate standard. Let me close out with the one cool thing (absolutely the only thing I like about this new arrangement). That shiny white surface on the right-hand side? It's a white board! OMG, do I love this! If I ever get my office at home usable again, I might have to do a white board in there. It seems like it would be super awesome for laying out characters/plot points and other story things.
September 7, 2017
What I Learned From Having a Smart Phone
About a year ago, I got my first smart phone. It was a company iPhone so that I could be reached when needed. Before this, I had my simple pay-as-you-go slider phone because the wireless companies were charging ridiculous amounts of money each month. I was too cheap to pay that kind of money for a phone.
Well, as it turns out, I love my iPhone. It's connected to my iPad and my MacBook and that rocks, too. I can answer texts on my laptop. With a full keyboard! I'm sorry, but I just don't have the patience to type on that tiny phone keyboard. I'm used to speed, not hunt and peck. :-)
I have found apps that I can't live without, and yeah, I had them on my iPad, but it's not half as convenient as the phone. There's Facebook, of course, and email, but I also have MLB At Bat and Michaels, Joann, and my Stand Up app to get me out of my chair when I've been sitting for too long. I can listen to music or podcast or audio books. I can check on my doctor appointments, see how much my health insurance covered, and ask my doctor a question. All from the phone.
Sadly, my work phone is the smallest about of memory Apple sold which I think is 16GB. I'm constantly struggling with space. For this reason and because this is a work phone, I don't have any ebooks loaded. Those stay on my iPad. I also only keep a few audio books on it.
Before my iPhone, I didn't get why people freaked when they forgot their cell phones. So what? Now? I understand it much better.
Bottom line? I learned that if my company ever decided I didn't need a cell phone and took it away from me, I'd be going out and getting my own plan because honestly it's life changing. Mostly in a positive way, although not completely. I think I'll save the challenges it creates for some later blog post, but OMG, I love the iPhone.
Well, as it turns out, I love my iPhone. It's connected to my iPad and my MacBook and that rocks, too. I can answer texts on my laptop. With a full keyboard! I'm sorry, but I just don't have the patience to type on that tiny phone keyboard. I'm used to speed, not hunt and peck. :-)
I have found apps that I can't live without, and yeah, I had them on my iPad, but it's not half as convenient as the phone. There's Facebook, of course, and email, but I also have MLB At Bat and Michaels, Joann, and my Stand Up app to get me out of my chair when I've been sitting for too long. I can listen to music or podcast or audio books. I can check on my doctor appointments, see how much my health insurance covered, and ask my doctor a question. All from the phone.
Sadly, my work phone is the smallest about of memory Apple sold which I think is 16GB. I'm constantly struggling with space. For this reason and because this is a work phone, I don't have any ebooks loaded. Those stay on my iPad. I also only keep a few audio books on it.
Before my iPhone, I didn't get why people freaked when they forgot their cell phones. So what? Now? I understand it much better.
Bottom line? I learned that if my company ever decided I didn't need a cell phone and took it away from me, I'd be going out and getting my own plan because honestly it's life changing. Mostly in a positive way, although not completely. I think I'll save the challenges it creates for some later blog post, but OMG, I love the iPhone.
September 5, 2017
The Years Are Short
I watched a TED talk recently that was amusing and fun and then the speaker put up on the screen the most terrifying graphic I've seen in a long while. It was a white screen filled with boxes. One box equaled one week. In your life if you lived to be 90 years old.
There weren't that many boxes.
If you want to share my fear, you can visit Tim Urban's website and read his blog post about it. Complete with graphics and not just the scary one from his TED talk. He made other, even more terrifying graphics to really hammer the point home.
Before my mom died, my dad said that she told him she'd had a good life. I guess that means that she colored in her life boxes with good things, productive things, things that brought her satisfaction. I want to be able to say the same thing she did when it's my time to go and that means reassessing life, I guess. Making decisions on how I want to color in my boxes.
Even with the fear of wasting life, this isn't an easy thing to do. Gretchen Rubin has a quote that's appropriate here: "The days are long, but the years are short."
It's too easy to think I'll do it tomorrow. I'm already doing this in a way, blogging about it instead of mulling. When I was a teenager, I mulled over life a lot. I read philosophy and I subscribed to Socrates' theory The unexamined life is not worth living. As an adult, with so many different demands on my time, it's harder to do this.
Much harder.
There weren't that many boxes.
If you want to share my fear, you can visit Tim Urban's website and read his blog post about it. Complete with graphics and not just the scary one from his TED talk. He made other, even more terrifying graphics to really hammer the point home.
Before my mom died, my dad said that she told him she'd had a good life. I guess that means that she colored in her life boxes with good things, productive things, things that brought her satisfaction. I want to be able to say the same thing she did when it's my time to go and that means reassessing life, I guess. Making decisions on how I want to color in my boxes.
Even with the fear of wasting life, this isn't an easy thing to do. Gretchen Rubin has a quote that's appropriate here: "The days are long, but the years are short."
It's too easy to think I'll do it tomorrow. I'm already doing this in a way, blogging about it instead of mulling. When I was a teenager, I mulled over life a lot. I read philosophy and I subscribed to Socrates' theory The unexamined life is not worth living. As an adult, with so many different demands on my time, it's harder to do this.
Much harder.
August 31, 2017
Review: Rogue One
***WARNING: There might be spoilers ahead. I'm going to try to avoid them, but I can't promise. Proceed at your own risk.***
Rogue One is the latest installment to the Star Wars universe and one about which I'd been hearing a lot of good things, so I was eager to watch it. To recap the plot, the events in this movie take place before the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope. If you remember, that entire movie revolved around a droid with the plans to the Death Star and how there was a hole in the security that allowed Luke to blow it up at the end.
Rogue One shows how the rebels got hold of the plans to begin with and the movie explains why there was such a blatant flaw in the design of the Death Star. Our heroine is Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones). Her mother was murdered by the empire and her father forcibly impressed to design the Death Star. She's pushed the by the rebels to help them. Her partner is Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna).
The movie is very dark and very gritty from the start. We get to see the empire kill Jyn's mother and force her father to work for them. We see the little girl hiding after watching her mother die and the empire is looking for her because they want her as leverage. The movie never lightens up from this beginning.
I'll admit that I thought the beginning was slow and I was disappointed at first, but somewhere along the way--I'm not sure when it happened--it became super good and full of tension. I was knitting while I was watching it and shortly after the halfway point, I had to put it aside because the movie had grabbed me and was riveting me, preventing my attention from wandering, even to my yarn.
The ending was every bit as dark as the beginning and was pretty much the only downtime from the tension was the last couple minutes of the film.
That said, I'd probably watch it one more time immediately after watching the original Star Wars: A New Hope. It's been years since I've seen the movie that kicked off the franchise and I've forgotten things that I think were referenced in Rogue One. But on its own, I don't think this is a movie I'll rewatch after this reminder run because it was grim.
I'm glad I saw it, I'm glad the flaw in the Death Star was explained. I liked the characters of Jyn and Cassian, and it's a shame that they didn't take a little time for a romance to develop between the two characters. I wanted one and it would have relieved some of the stress!
Overall, I recommend it if you don't mind dark, gritty, and grim. This is not a feel-good film, but it fits nicely in the Star Wars universe and I think it was necessary that it have the tone it had.
Recommended.
Rogue One is the latest installment to the Star Wars universe and one about which I'd been hearing a lot of good things, so I was eager to watch it. To recap the plot, the events in this movie take place before the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope. If you remember, that entire movie revolved around a droid with the plans to the Death Star and how there was a hole in the security that allowed Luke to blow it up at the end.
Rogue One shows how the rebels got hold of the plans to begin with and the movie explains why there was such a blatant flaw in the design of the Death Star. Our heroine is Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones). Her mother was murdered by the empire and her father forcibly impressed to design the Death Star. She's pushed the by the rebels to help them. Her partner is Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna).
The movie is very dark and very gritty from the start. We get to see the empire kill Jyn's mother and force her father to work for them. We see the little girl hiding after watching her mother die and the empire is looking for her because they want her as leverage. The movie never lightens up from this beginning.
I'll admit that I thought the beginning was slow and I was disappointed at first, but somewhere along the way--I'm not sure when it happened--it became super good and full of tension. I was knitting while I was watching it and shortly after the halfway point, I had to put it aside because the movie had grabbed me and was riveting me, preventing my attention from wandering, even to my yarn.
The ending was every bit as dark as the beginning and was pretty much the only downtime from the tension was the last couple minutes of the film.
That said, I'd probably watch it one more time immediately after watching the original Star Wars: A New Hope. It's been years since I've seen the movie that kicked off the franchise and I've forgotten things that I think were referenced in Rogue One. But on its own, I don't think this is a movie I'll rewatch after this reminder run because it was grim.
I'm glad I saw it, I'm glad the flaw in the Death Star was explained. I liked the characters of Jyn and Cassian, and it's a shame that they didn't take a little time for a romance to develop between the two characters. I wanted one and it would have relieved some of the stress!
Overall, I recommend it if you don't mind dark, gritty, and grim. This is not a feel-good film, but it fits nicely in the Star Wars universe and I think it was necessary that it have the tone it had.
Recommended.
August 29, 2017
My TBK (To Be Knitted) Pile
I seem to collect knitting and crochet projects the same way I collect books. At least now I buy ebooks so I have no space issues to deal with, but it's a different story with my yarn stash. I was storing my yarn (and most of it is still there) in big, plastic zippered storage bags, but this created one huge problem for me. I'd buy yarn for a project I wanted to do in the future, but then I'd forget what I bought the yarn for.
The solution came with repurposed bags. My mom had bought bags in which to store her magazines. That's what they were designed for. When my dad and I cleaned out the house, we recycled all the magazines and brought the bags to Georgia. I don't collect magazines, but they were nice bags. And then one day, while dealing with my project dilemma, I had an epiphany.
Use the bags for my TBK projects!
And another view:
The clear plastic lets me see what's inside without opening the bag. I also printed out the pattern that goes with the yarn so that I don't forget what project the yarn belongs to. This bag has two projects in it, with both patterns stored with the various yarns.
This is working great and the bags stack fairly well even though they have soft stuff inside them. Now when I want to start a project, I can just go to the bag and grab everything without having to dig through the monster bags of yarn stashed in my closet. I just wish I'd thought of this before I forgot why the heck I'd bought some of the yarn I have.
The solution came with repurposed bags. My mom had bought bags in which to store her magazines. That's what they were designed for. When my dad and I cleaned out the house, we recycled all the magazines and brought the bags to Georgia. I don't collect magazines, but they were nice bags. And then one day, while dealing with my project dilemma, I had an epiphany.
Use the bags for my TBK projects!
And another view:
The clear plastic lets me see what's inside without opening the bag. I also printed out the pattern that goes with the yarn so that I don't forget what project the yarn belongs to. This bag has two projects in it, with both patterns stored with the various yarns.
This is working great and the bags stack fairly well even though they have soft stuff inside them. Now when I want to start a project, I can just go to the bag and grab everything without having to dig through the monster bags of yarn stashed in my closet. I just wish I'd thought of this before I forgot why the heck I'd bought some of the yarn I have.
August 24, 2017
95 is Not 100
By the time I realized that I wanted to see a total solar eclipse, everything was sold out. Even finding approved eclipse glasses turned out to be super difficult. Luckily, I got those in the nick of time. And I consoled myself by saying: It'll still be cool. Atlanta is going to have 95% eclipse. That's close enough to 100%.
I took eclipse day off from work, put an alarm on my phone for maximum eclipse time, and on the afternoon in question, I brought a card table, chair, and laptop onto the front porch. My plan was to keep an eye on the eclipse and write a little while I was waiting.
BTW, no writing was accomplished until after the eclipse.
I soon figured out that my camera was not going to handle the sun, so I taped an extra pair of eclipse glasses over the lens on the phone. This is what 20-25% eclipse looked like through the filter of the glasses.
The right hand side was where the eclipse was. I don't know what happened to the left side in the picture, but it was there to see with the naked eye.
Sadly, my glasses over the lens trick failed as we approached our maximum coverage. The camera just registered red from the glasses and no sun. Oh, well, I thought. At least at 95% I should get a halfway decent shot. I was thinking of all those partial pictures I'd been seeing and totally forgetting to factor in the special camera lenses those photographers had no doubt been using.
As my max coverage approached, I took my chair off the porch and onto the front sidewalk. And then I tried to take pictures again. Looking at the results, I can see why the experts had been warning people not to look at the sun without special glasses on. This picture (below) is 95%, and you'd never know it.
Looks like the full sun, doesn't it? You'd never know that only the tiniest of crescents was visible at this moment.
I'd expected twilight levels of light. Didn't happen. The crickets did come out for a while and start chirping away. The light was odd, not quiet what you'd see when it was cloudy, but impossible to describe in any other way. Maybe if you imagined the light traveling through an odd filter.
I'm not sure if you can see how odd the light is in this shot or not, but there we are.
The experience was way cool and I enjoyed the hell out of it, but ultimately it was disappointing. Do you think hotels are taking reservations yet for 2024?
I took eclipse day off from work, put an alarm on my phone for maximum eclipse time, and on the afternoon in question, I brought a card table, chair, and laptop onto the front porch. My plan was to keep an eye on the eclipse and write a little while I was waiting.
BTW, no writing was accomplished until after the eclipse.
I soon figured out that my camera was not going to handle the sun, so I taped an extra pair of eclipse glasses over the lens on the phone. This is what 20-25% eclipse looked like through the filter of the glasses.
The right hand side was where the eclipse was. I don't know what happened to the left side in the picture, but it was there to see with the naked eye.
Sadly, my glasses over the lens trick failed as we approached our maximum coverage. The camera just registered red from the glasses and no sun. Oh, well, I thought. At least at 95% I should get a halfway decent shot. I was thinking of all those partial pictures I'd been seeing and totally forgetting to factor in the special camera lenses those photographers had no doubt been using.
As my max coverage approached, I took my chair off the porch and onto the front sidewalk. And then I tried to take pictures again. Looking at the results, I can see why the experts had been warning people not to look at the sun without special glasses on. This picture (below) is 95%, and you'd never know it.
Looks like the full sun, doesn't it? You'd never know that only the tiniest of crescents was visible at this moment.
I'd expected twilight levels of light. Didn't happen. The crickets did come out for a while and start chirping away. The light was odd, not quiet what you'd see when it was cloudy, but impossible to describe in any other way. Maybe if you imagined the light traveling through an odd filter.
I'm not sure if you can see how odd the light is in this shot or not, but there we are.
The experience was way cool and I enjoyed the hell out of it, but ultimately it was disappointing. Do you think hotels are taking reservations yet for 2024?
August 22, 2017
Take My Money, Please
A few Saturdays ago, I received an email from a retailer telling me that that was the last day to use the promo code they had for 15% off. Since they were selling one of the items that I had specially budgeted for, I eagerly headed to their website.
I put that item in my cart, browsed a bit, and found another item to add to my cart. I clicked to check out, put in the promo code, and received a message that the promotion had expired.
Fearing I'd remembered the code wrong, I double checked the email and retyped the code in. I received the same message. I tried all capital letters. I tried changing the SUMMER15 code to SUMMER17, thinking that maybe there'd been a typo. Nothing worked.
I went to the contact page for customer service and sent them an email. I picked the option for problems with the shopping cart. That seemed accurate and I was sure that a customer who was trying to spend money in their store was having a problem doing would receive a very quick reply to their query. I was wrong.
After a few hours of waiting, I tried to put the code in again. My theory was that others must have had issues with it too and that certainly the site would have had it fixed by then.
Nope. Still didn't work.
It boggles my mind that an online retailer wouldn't be monitoring their customer service emails under topics that impact sales. I could see leaving the regular queries for the weekdays, but if someone is trying to spend money and can't, shouldn't they address that immediately? I don't get it. I also didn't get my item that I wanted to buy. Retailer snoozes, retailer loses.
I put that item in my cart, browsed a bit, and found another item to add to my cart. I clicked to check out, put in the promo code, and received a message that the promotion had expired.
Fearing I'd remembered the code wrong, I double checked the email and retyped the code in. I received the same message. I tried all capital letters. I tried changing the SUMMER15 code to SUMMER17, thinking that maybe there'd been a typo. Nothing worked.
I went to the contact page for customer service and sent them an email. I picked the option for problems with the shopping cart. That seemed accurate and I was sure that a customer who was trying to spend money in their store was having a problem doing would receive a very quick reply to their query. I was wrong.
After a few hours of waiting, I tried to put the code in again. My theory was that others must have had issues with it too and that certainly the site would have had it fixed by then.
Nope. Still didn't work.
It boggles my mind that an online retailer wouldn't be monitoring their customer service emails under topics that impact sales. I could see leaving the regular queries for the weekdays, but if someone is trying to spend money and can't, shouldn't they address that immediately? I don't get it. I also didn't get my item that I wanted to buy. Retailer snoozes, retailer loses.
August 17, 2017
Closet Cleanup
There are a few things that are really hard for me to get rid of including books, shoes, and clothes. When I moved from Minnesota, I did donate a ton of books--over 2500--and a pretty good amount of clothes, although not too many shoes. I didn't donate enough clothes, however, and my closet here in Georgia was bursting at the seams.
Oh, I meant to get rid of clothes. I have stuff that's frayed, stuff that has holes in it, stuff I bought and ended up never liking enough to wear. I even had clothes with tags still on them that I'd never worn and the odds were I was never going to wear them.
Clearly, it was time to tackle the closet and part with some clothes.
The items that had holes or were worn were easy to discard. Barely a hesitation. You're probably wondering why I didn't get rid of them immediately. Four of the shirts were total favorites of mine back before they'd become frayed. I wore them constantly and I'd developed an attachment to them. I kept them with the thought that I could wear them around the house on the weekends. I never did. The ones with the holes? I have no clue.
With the easy choices finished, I moved into trying things on. Did I like the color? Did I like the style? Would I ever wear it? If the answer to any of those questions was no, it went in the donation pile. Right now I have two of the super large black trash bags full of clothes to go to charity.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I discovered clothes I'd forgotten I owned and that I found new things I could wear. It was almost like buying new stuff. ;-) It's also embarrassing to admit that even with the large amount of clothes I got rid of, my closet is still full. I didn't quite get through everything, though. I basically did one half of my closet plus a little on the other side. I need to go back in on some other weekend and tackle the other side.
Also in the future is pruning the clothes out of my dressers and getting rid of some of the shoe collection, although I will admit that very few shoes will be leaving my house. :-) And with the new clothes I've discovered, I need to rearrange my closet. Sigh. That doesn't sound even remotely fun.
I think I'll bask in my accomplishment a little longer and ignore the future projects for now.
Oh, I meant to get rid of clothes. I have stuff that's frayed, stuff that has holes in it, stuff I bought and ended up never liking enough to wear. I even had clothes with tags still on them that I'd never worn and the odds were I was never going to wear them.
Clearly, it was time to tackle the closet and part with some clothes.
The items that had holes or were worn were easy to discard. Barely a hesitation. You're probably wondering why I didn't get rid of them immediately. Four of the shirts were total favorites of mine back before they'd become frayed. I wore them constantly and I'd developed an attachment to them. I kept them with the thought that I could wear them around the house on the weekends. I never did. The ones with the holes? I have no clue.
With the easy choices finished, I moved into trying things on. Did I like the color? Did I like the style? Would I ever wear it? If the answer to any of those questions was no, it went in the donation pile. Right now I have two of the super large black trash bags full of clothes to go to charity.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I discovered clothes I'd forgotten I owned and that I found new things I could wear. It was almost like buying new stuff. ;-) It's also embarrassing to admit that even with the large amount of clothes I got rid of, my closet is still full. I didn't quite get through everything, though. I basically did one half of my closet plus a little on the other side. I need to go back in on some other weekend and tackle the other side.
Also in the future is pruning the clothes out of my dressers and getting rid of some of the shoe collection, although I will admit that very few shoes will be leaving my house. :-) And with the new clothes I've discovered, I need to rearrange my closet. Sigh. That doesn't sound even remotely fun.
I think I'll bask in my accomplishment a little longer and ignore the future projects for now.
