What Makes Me Happy?

So as you all know I'm doing the daily blog posting thing for the month of December. It's actually pretty fun but some times it can be really hard trying to think of something to write. Hard as it is to believe, I don't lead the most interesting life!

Well last night Ashley tagged me to do this thing about happiness. The rules are below.

List 10 things that make you happy.
Try and do at least one of them today.
Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.
Link back to the person that tagged you.


1. My marriage. Seriously I can sit here and say my husband makes me happy but the truth is that my entire marriage makes me happy. I have a great supportive husband who would bend over backwards for me. We have a great relationship together, we have a wonderful home, are expecting our first little bundle of joy, have the most amazing dog. Our marriage makes me happy. The complete package.

2. My pregnancy. Truth be told I thought we were going to have problems. It took me about 6 months to get pregnant and it was really starting to worry me (of course not my husband, nothing bothers him!). After going to the doctor we found out why, I had too many follicles per ovary and my eggs weren't maturing enough. A bit of medication was prescribed and within two months I was pregnant. Besides the extreme morning sickness and complete inability to eat meat unless its covered in something else, my pregnancy has been great. I was scared because of my disease that pregnancy would leave me bed ridden but it hasn't. I've been kicking some major ass...and lets be honest, I look good pregnant. I'm not all fat and round all over, I didn't get the wonderful "pregnancy mask" which discolours your face. I'm thinner and freaking glowing! Instead of complaining when little Demi kicks me, I smile and giggle.

3. Changing the radio station when Lady Gaga's song comes on the radio. Yes that makes me happy. Some may think that Taylor Swift is over rated but I stand behind Gaga being over rated. Her music is stupid, her videos are too over the top, her clothes and attitude are just out of this world. She's a walking freak show and I don't support that crap. Sure Just Dance was a great song...after that I can't stand any music she produces and I change the station when she comes on. I smile as I press the "next" button on the radio.

4. Cooking. It relaxes me, it puts me in a great mood, and of course I feel super productive. Cooking is a way of expressing yourself. If you are feeling fancy just make something fancier, having a bad day? Make some comfort food. The kitchen is my favorite place in the house and I'm happy that the smells no longer bother me like they did at the beginning of my pregnancy.

5. My Job. Sure, I complain a lot about my job but its never a complaint about the work I do its about the people I work with. They irk me to no end but its really great to leave the office everyday knowing that you are smarter than your co-workers. That their jobs really rely on you and if you don't feel like doing something because of their lack of response time or whatever that you don't have to care. I also love my boss. He's so easy going and very understanding. I get any days off I need to deal with family, personal, or medical issues. He understands and actually CARES.

6. My family. Yeah I know they should be somewhere closer to the top but I didn't want to be completely predictable. My family drives me up the wall. My sister is the most scatter brained person I know, my mom is the most stressed person I know, and my dad is just a wonderful man but I wouldn't trade them for anything. (Occasionally I have thought about it though.) My parents are my rocks. They support me in everything that I do, they trust me, and I know that no matter what they will always be there for me. Even though I'm married my parents haven't stopped helping me out with anything. My parents are the most giving human beings I've ever met.

7. My computer. Cheesy I know but its oh so true. I moved from Texas when I was 18 years old. I did all of my schooling there and had tons of friends. I moved. Without my computer and all the good things that come with it like Skype, MSN, Facebook, Myspace etc I wouldn't be able to keep in great contact with them without breaking the bank. I love coming home after work and just unwinding while chit chatting with my friends!

8. My house. I guess its part of my marriage but honestly, just being home makes me so happy. My house is big but its also cozy. Everyone comes over and enjoys themselves. Home is where the heart is and I guess that is true for me too.

9. and 10. I'll have to get back to you on that one. I'm really at a loss as to what else makes me happy. Can't I just sum it all up and say my life? My friends and family, my house and home, my job, just everything in my life makes me happy?

I tag (this is the easy way out) everyone in my blog roll. Reading their blogs make me happy and make me smile and I believe thats the best thing one should do!

Happy Friday?

Of course, just my luck. The minute I sit down to blog my friends come over. I just told my best friend to give me some time that I have to blog because I have my commitments. Remember, part of blogging was to find time for myself because that apparently disappeared and seriously, if I have no time now just imagine what is going to happen when I have the baby.

You know how everyone says TGIF? I wasn't too pleased that today was Friday. Not because Fridays are always bad but because this Friday was just hectic. I got a bunch of stuff done but it really doesn't feel (or look) like I got a lot accomplished. My desk is still overflowing with paper work and things that need to be done. Believe me, its not fun! I spent the first two hours of my day in the office with my boss just basically reviewing everything that I did, have to do, and of course what he has to do...which is nothing! Everything in the office seems to fall onto my shoulders! It's okay though, we all realize that I thrive when under pressure.

Um wow. I wrote that and then went away for about 3.5 hours because my friends were over and we ate dinner and all that good stuff. I completely lost track of what I was talking about. I am going to blame that on my pregnancy. It's like placenta brain or something, my baby is sucking my brains out.

So my mommy called me today at work bitching for a good two hours about a situation that happened last night and it honestly pissed me off. It irked me that my mom lets things bother her, it irks me that people can't be responsible when they should. The entire world isn't going to always be there to pick up YOUR messes but hey, who am I to talk?

Anyway after work I came home and went with George to go to my mom's house to unload some things that she had sent to my sister as part of her wedding dowry and of course my mom smuggled some things in for me. :) Actually I wasn't too excited to see what she got me (things for my house, some pretty bathroom rugs and new decorative towels) but more for the things that she got Demi before we knew if we were having a boy or a girl. Well its very obvious that my mom was hoping for a boy. The outfit was brown and cream with a little airplane pilot and the other one was white with little teddybears and lions and looks pretty boyish. I mean, sure Demi can wear them because they ARE gender neutral colors but they are just boyish looking. I don't mind. I'll still put my little girl in clothes from Grammy. I'll just be sure to wear them on her when shes home... with just mommy and daddy.

So yeah, its nearly 10:40 and I totally lost the steam that I had when I started this post so I'm going to end it now and read all the great blogs that are in my google reader.

Can we add more hours to this day?

Goodness gracious! Do you people even know the meaning of busy? Just to give you a little info on how long my day has been I woke up at 5:00am and its now 11:00pm and I'm just now sitting down to blog in order to get my post done in time for Dec. 3rd! I've honestly considered hiring a personal assistant to help me out with my everyday life things especially until this work load blows over. I still have to take care of my house, get Demi's room ready, do Xmas shopping.... UGH. It's just never freaking ending! Heather has volunteered to be my personal assistant and then Demi's nanny once she is born! Isn't that swell!?

I'm not much of a procrastinator and it really irks me when other people are. Since about mid September I've been trying to get my boss and co-workers to prepare for the end of year activities we have to do. Every year the first of December we end up scurrying around to figure out what kind of corporate gifts to give to companies that we work with, prepare and send out Xmas cards, come up with a new promotional binder that has product information, price list, important contact info and all that jazz. I didn't want to scurry this year. Oh and our graphic designer is leaving for vacation on Dec. 19th and wants to quit working by the 16th.

So what happened on Dec. 1st? My boss calls me into his office for 4 hours to discuss all of these topics, changes to make, what to order for who and so on and so on. 4 hours. I had a crappy lunch delivered to me and ate it during the meeting. We took notes on what to change and of course I'm the one who puts it into action.

So I email my co-workers discussing what I need from them and giving them deadlines. Of course they ignore the deadlines yet complain if I'm like 3 minutes late replying to their emails. I re-send the email with the little "high importance" exclamation point and copying my boss on the email. Of course I then get a half assed reply from one co-worker and not from the other.

Added to all the stress of end of the year, this is the first year that my boss decided that we should send the promotional calendars from our marketing office in Canada. Oh wait, that means from MY DESK! Yes. I didn't have enough work now I need to print out over 200 labels for dealers, 200 return address labels, stuff the envelopes, seal the envelopes (thank God for self sealing envelopes), apply the labels, apply the stamps, and put them in the bucket for mailing. It's not THAT bad but it is just at the wrong time. We have so much to do before the 16th and this is soooo freaking time consuming.

To boot, I had the day off yesterday for my check up on how my little girl is developing. So of course I'm a day behind. I wanted to stay late at work today but then George called me and told me he was staying late (he owns a toy store, its X-mas season you do the math) so I had to come home to let Dallas out of his cage. George calls me at 4:30 and tells me that he's going home so I can take my time. I worked until about 7pm and eat dinner and then started working from home until 11pm. JESUS! Talk about a freaking burn out just waiting to happen.

On top of that, my head office (in Germany) has requested I have something done by Dec 4th which is like 99% impossible to get done unless I wake up early again tomorrow to start on it. I'm not looking forward to it though. Maybe I'll just work straight thru lunch tomorrow to try to get some stuff done. Even if I send it in on Monday or Tuesday it won't really make that huge of a deal right? My head office is so slow to reply to my requests why should I rush to reply to theirs?

Seriously, I complain too much right? At least I'm cute. That's my excuse for everything thats negative about me. LOL :)

So this is day two for me of NaBloPoMo and to be honest with you, I was really looking forward to blogging all day! For the first time in a long time I couldn't wait to finish up what I had to do in order to do my blog and of course read and comment on other blogs.

BTW: The entire 23 minutes its taken me to write this post my mom has been on the phone with me bitching about something. Being on the phone with her just basically means that I just have to listen and mumbled "uh huh" "yeah" while she talks...for 24 minutes straight now.

I also realize that my blog posts are just too long and since my move I've lost a lot of followers and commenters. :( Stupid poopieheads! Stupid move.

NaBloPoMo 2/31.

NaBloPoMo - A day late

So I don't know if you guys have heard of this or not but there is a thingie going around that bloggers call NaBloPoMo where bloggers will post one blog a day for an entire month. It's usually done in November but some are doing it in December. Some including me. Ari who is the most active blogger I know, Heather who has taken a long hiatus, and Ashley who was a bit spotty with her postings. So thats basically my ENTIRE blogging circle. I read a lot of blogs, have some followers but those are the bloggers I keep in touch with the most. Hopefully doing this together will help us all stay motivated. I've been so busy lately and just always feel that I never have any time for myself that hopefully NaBloPoMo will help me set aside some much needed me time!

So enough of NaBloPoMo. I did something very very interesting today. Interesting in an eerie way. Today my husband and I, along with his brother and sister in law, went to Mont Royal Cemetery (MRC) to reserve our plots. Yes, you read that right. We reserved our graves. Interesting right? Kind of freaky too? Why in the heck would I do that if I'm only 28 years old?

Well, George's mother died unexpectedly a bit under two years ago. We were all emotional and shaken up and then struggling to find a nice place to lay her to rest. On top of that, when you go to make funeral arrangements they want to charge you an arm and a leg for their services. The funeral home charges you for the wake, the flowers, the hearse, and of course the casket and of course they are going to charge you premium rates. I can honestly tell you that we paid over $30,000 to bury my mother in law because the funeral home takes advantage of you when you are in need.

Last week George's partner buried his father. They were a bit smarter about it. The father was ill and they had been expecting this for quite some time so the went to the funeral complex AHEAD of time and booked a package. They pre-paid for everything and the only arrangements they had to make for the wake and the funeral were actual small details like, "what type of floral arrangements do you want? What time do you want the funeral to be."

Of course being curious we had found a nice way to ask about how much they paid vs how much we paid and we found out that it was a lot cheaper. My sister in law called the MRC to find out if there were any graves available close to where our mother in law is buried. It turns out that they are making another circle and that there is a waiting list. When we told them that we were looking into purchasing 10 side by side double plots they bumped us on the waiting list and gave us an appointment for today. The cost of a double plot (27 sq ft) is $7,500. When we buried my mother in law it was $5,000 so basically its increasing at about $1,250 a year. Let's just do some math shall we? I'm 28 years old and plan on living until at least 80...can you imagine how much a plot would cost in 52 years? $72,500 IF there are spaces available. Okay so maybe I'm over doing it. At the meeting today we had said that in about 20 years from now these plots would be going for about $30,000. Could you imagine leaving your spouse or children with that kind of expense? George and I put 20% down on our plot and signed an interest free contract to pay it off over the next 5 years. I think its a great investment because you won't be burdening your family with these kind of decisions when you pass away.


My parents don't live in Montreal right now but they do plan on moving back here eventually. I discussed this with them and also discussed with them how the other family did an entire package and my parents were completely on board. For the time being I just put their 20% down and gave some post dated checks and when they get here in the winter they can decide on what kind of package they'd like as far as a 1 or 2 day wake, type of casket, and tomb stone they want.

I know it sounds eerie, creepy, and a bit sad but we look at it like planning for our future. Let's be honest shall we, we will all die one day. Why not be prepared? You can get taken advantage of when you are feeling extremely emotional or you can have everything prepared and you can just mourn without having all these big decisions to make.

What I found the creepiest is that one of George's cousins bought a plot for his mother, a plot for him and his wife, and one for his kids. Um your KIDS? You have two young and healthy kids. Two kids that will probably grow up and get married. Get married to people who might not want to be buried with their inlaws. Let's be honest, most times the women go get buried where their husbands are. He has one boy and one girl. Does he plan on them sharing? Give it to just one of the kids? Sell it to someone else at a later date? I dunno, I found that part really weird.

Oh lets talk about something a bit more cheerful. I went to my OBGYN today. I lost a pound (I still weigh less than when I joined Weight Watchers)but the baby is growing just fine. She kind of freaked on me (OBGYN) she was like, "I can't yell at you for not gaining weight because your stomach is growing fine, your uterus has expanded properly and your daughter is growing at a great rate (length/weight)."

1/31 NaBloPoMo

Gosh I'm Bad at this Blogging Thing

Seriously, how bad can I possibly be at this entire blogging thing? I keep on telling myself that I'm going to blog and I never get around to it. Mainly because I just don't feel like I ever have time anymore. It seems that for the last three weeks every single day I am rushing home from work only to have to go somewhere else, do something, pick up something. GAAAAAH! Does it ever end? I'm actually looking forward to the snow so I have an excuse for not being able to do anything else... "Oh sorry I'm pregnant and its slippery outside..." "Oh I'm sorry, my husband took the SUV and I'm not going to take the convertible out in this weather..." Yep, being pregnant has more perks then just bringing a little person into the world!

So before I get to the actual subject of this blog I thought I'd share some news with you all. I went for my ultra sound on Nov. 11th and everything is great. My baby is developing perfectly and I no longer have to call the baby "it" "lil person" or any other cute nicknames, its a GIRL! Oddly enough EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE thought I was going to have a boy but like I said, my baby just to spite everyone would come out a girl! At first I was shocked and maybe a little disappointed. I really wanted a boy first. We want 3 kids and I've always wanted the boy to be first so he could be the protective big brother but I'm very happy with my little girl. Her name is Demitra Hope Ourlastnamehere. But we will call her Demi for short.

I did a 3D ultra sound and we were able to see soooo many wonderful details from the baby. Like, I can tell you that she has my lips and she has big eyes like me. She opened her eyes for a spilt second and all 3 of us were like WOAH! Big eyes! My husband has small eyes so we knew she was looking like me! I'm totally down with that. I think I'm pretty freaking cute and apparently my baby is on the right track.

Things with work are going pretty okay as well. I still hate my co-worker and think shes a lying sack of shit but I am working well with her. I figure if my boss wants to ignore all the signs then its just not my place to step in and say something. I mean, this girl is in the early to mid 30's and constantly needs emails or telephone calls to remind her to send in expense reports, she wants to go against everything our head office says...she's just a huge pain in the ass but the way I see it...I'm going to be on mat leave by Feb 2010 and I won't have to deal with her for another 14 months. What do I care if she pisses off my replacement? Good luck to them!


Now onto the subject of this blog post: MONEY!!!

Now I totally get that times are tougher this year than other years. Our economy is in the crapper, people are losing their jobs left right and center and of course to even out the playing field everything is more expensive but is that any excuse to be living paycheck to paycheck?

I've been reading things on Facebook and other friends blogs where all the do is complain about the lack of money. It's like, "If I buy shoes that I really NEED, I won't be able to eat lunch for the next week". Um excuse me? Most people whose blogs I read and who I friend on Facebook are people who are employed full time and have been for some time now and in their mid 20's to early 30's. Didn't we already pass that paycheck to paycheck time in our lives? The times that we just made the minimum payment on our credit cards and immediately spent it after the transaction went through?

For those people who do live paycheck to paycheck, how do you handle an unexpected expense like your car breaking down, getting into a car accident and not being able to work for a few days/weeks? What if you need to take time off of work to help a sick parent? How do you handle that loss of income?

Now I'm no money guru and I'm horrible with saving money but I do it because I'd hate to be in a position where I had to choose between putting gas in my car and eating dinner. (And no I'm not being extreme in my examples, this is shit I've read!) How can you be so tight for money? How can you live in such a bind? So restricted, so...not living?

I'm 28 years old, married, and expecting my first child. I'm a homeowner, a pet owner, and we have two cars. Unexpected expenses ALWAYS happen. A trip to the vet, a car in the shop, something at the house not working 100%, renovating the basement, business expenses (husband owns his own companies) and I'm just thinking if we spent every single penny we made before we even made it how in the heck could we afford anything else? We like to shop and buy new clothes (hey I AM gaining weight slowly here), we like to buy our dog new treats and toys, we like to eat out every now and then, of course we are getting Demi's room ready and planning her baby shower...and I just couldn't imagine being happy if every penny I had was allotted somewhere. I don't think I'd be very happy if I always had to tell myself if I do one thing then I can't do another. And I'm not talking big things either here folks, its not like I'm debating between a 7 day trip to a 5 star resort or a 5 day trip to Vegas. I'm talking about either a new pair of winter boots not having lunch money for a week. Ummm? Kinda hard to decide and be happy about the decision right?


I dunno, maybe I'm crazy but I don't think that anyone in our age bracket that is employed full time should ever be in these positions!

What makes me laugh a lot is that one of the main reasons that our high school reunion turn out was so low is because people complained about the cost of the ticket. The tickets were between 64$ to 75$ depending on how early you purchased your ticket. You KNEW for 10 years that you'd have a 10 year reunion...Although we hadn't given the location to our classmates in advance we did give them an estimated price range (between 50$ to 80$ per person) and people were fine with it...or so they said. Our reunion website had like over 100 people as "attending reunion" and the actual turn out was kinda blah. When asking classmates why they didn't come their first response was "money." Wow. Oddly enough, people didn't want to pay 70$ a person for a reunion but now they want to do a 15 year reunion on a CRUISE! Yeah okay folks. You didn't want to pay less than a 100$ per person but you are going to pay upwards of 1000$ per person to be on a cruise ship for 5 to 7 days with a bunch of people you barely want to see for a few hours every 10 years? Okay.. you plan that and let me know how the turn out is okay?

March 2006- A Repost

So I was just on one of my blogger friends blogs The Constant Complainer and he posted a blog regarding his wife and Wal-Mart. I won't get into details since you can just read his blog post HERE. But it did remind me of a time when I got GREAT service from Best Buy. Read below!




Yes its long, but read it. It gets funnier as it goes along!


I blame my sister. Seriously, I blame my sister for wasting my entire day yesterday, March 8th. Why? Well lets see I got home on Tuesday from school exhausted and as I walk into the house I hear the clicky click sound of someone typing in the kitchen. Why would someone be typing in the kitchen? Because my sister decided to move my laptop from my bedroom to upstairs so that she could watch her stupid greek soap operas while searching "myspace". Obviously the first thing I ask her is why did she bring my laptop up stairs and shes like, "because I want to watch tv and type, its not like I did anything to the computer, I just brought it upstairs." DING DING DING! The minute Alex says, Its not like I did something, when it comes to computers be prepared to have to replace something or buy a new computer.

No, I'm not kidding. Let us look at Alex's history with MY computers shall we? The first computer of mine that she killed she somehow managed to get into the BIOS settings and turn off the computer fan causing it to overheat and it fried the hard drive. My sister, who knows NOTHING about computers other than where the power button is and how to write emails, and now surf myspace, managed to get into BIOS settings and turn off the fan. If you ask her how she did it she'll still tell you that she has no idea and that the did nothing. She was just using it and POOF there goes the computer.

So the next computer that she screws up was my brand new computer that I had bought over the summer for the house in Texas. I got bored of the one I had and asked my parents to buy me a new one so that I'd have a nice computer when I vacationed. My parents agreed and bought me a really nice computer that I used for maybe, an entire week. Alex comes back to Texas to live for a few months and she uses the computer and there is the blue screen of death. No icons, no start bar, no nothing, just a blue screen of death. How? Hell if I fucken know. I had unplugged all the parts of the computer since I wasn't in town so all Alex had to do was plug in the machine and press power. Okay so maybe that's not her fault but I'm convinced that she did something to it. I mean a computer doesn't just die because its bored someone has to kill them.

So this brings me back to Diva, my new pretty laptop. Diva travels with me to and from work every day, sometimes she goes to school with me but mainly I have the laptop for downloading and watching tv shows. I use it for fun. So I get home and there is Diva in the kitchen with Alex. Alex goes to show me something on the computer when the computer writes the message "preparing to hibernate" now I see that she didn't press a button so its not like she put the computer on sleep mode but my computer automatically goes into hibernation when the battery is low so anything you were working on is not lost. I asked her why the battery wasn't charging if she had the computer plugged in and shes like "but I didn't do anything, I was just typing on it" and I tell her "I know you were using it, that's the thing with batteries you can use it up until the point that the battery dies and that's the problem if the computer is plugged in and the outlet is working why isn't the computer getting a charge?"

Good question eh? Who wants to guess the answer? Alex somehow managed to bend the pin that goes into the laptop to charge it from the ac adaptor. She tries to tell me that I did it, but how? I wasn't home all day and if I broke it, by the time she got home from work to use the laptop the battery would have already been drained and she wouldn't have been able to use it.

So now the next day I have to go to bestbuy to get my computer fixed because I bought that lovely 3 year service agreement thingie. This is where the story gets interesting. I spent TWO hours of my life in best buy trying to get this problem solved. So I park my car, grab my laptop case and walk to the back of the store where the "geek squad" is located. I have my warranty information, best buy receipt, and service plan agreement in my hand. The guy, Vince, smiles at me and goes "that's an American warranty" and I look at him and ask him, "How'd ya know" and he tells me that the best buy flyer looks different and that even though the warranty is good in Canada, since the laptop and service agreement plan was purchased in the US that things work differently.

Whats the difference? The difference is that they want you to leave them the laptop, look at it, get an estimate, make you pay for the repairs and then when the repairs are done YOU have to fax best buy and the will reimburse you within 60 days. I'm obviously not happy about this because, why else did I pay 250$US for a warranty plan that is going to make me have to pay?

Well Vince is a nice guy, a real nice guy in fact (and not bad to look at either!) and he tells the techs there to look to see if they have a spare adaptor laying around that they can just give me and not make me have to pay for anything or wait for anything. Craig, the tech there tells me that they unfortunately do not have a spare adaptor pack and that they will have to order the part but I will have to pay for it just to get my money back. This does NOT please me. Now Philippe (another nice looking foolmaybe I should work at Bestbuy?) tells me that he also has another solution for me to be able to use my laptop. He told me to purchase this adaptor power pack that has like 6 different pin heads in order to charge the laptop and once my laptop is fixed to return it for a full refund. So now basically they are telling me that my trip to Bestbuy is going to cost me 500.00 The adaptor power pack thingy to use for the time being is 183.00 with taxes and as it turns out the replacement part for my laptop is another 300.00. So basically 500.00. Now I have the money to pay for this but what if I didn't? What if I didn't have $500 just laying around? What if I had it but couldn't afford to wait 60 days for the refund of 300? (the adaptor thingy refund would be instantly because its in store, not from corporate office). Well Philippe has ANOTHER idea. He suggests that I call the Best Buy customer service number and speak to them to see if maybe there is something that they can do for me.

This is how my FIRST phone call went. I listened to the menu options on the telephone and pressed the correct numbers. Now the options were "If you have a warranty plan with us press 2" so I pressed 2, the next thing said "if your warranty plan is for a notebook or laptop computer press 1," so I pressed one. Do you know what happened NEXT? The machine prompt said, "Please bring your laptop into a local bestbuy store so that we can fix your item" WHAT THE FUCK??????????? So I hung up and called back. This time I tricked them, I said that I wanted to buy accessories when the prompt came on and low and behold I got a real life human being. I explained to her the situation and she tells me that I should dial blah blah number and I told her I did call that stupid number and their automated prompt system sucks and that she should transfer me to a human being that can help me with my problem. She transfers me to BestBuy Corporate Consumer Office. This is where the story gets more interesting.

Picture this, I am in Bestbuy, sitting at their service counter having a coffee (thanks Vince) using their phone to complain to the corporate office. Mind you, I have no problem whatsoever with the service I am receiving in the store. Everyone there is trying their hardest in order to make me happy and they are trying to find a solution, and even they don't understand why the warranty would work differently in the US and in Canada. So I get "Sharlene" on the telephone and I explain to her the situation and she says that she is very sorry but there is nothing she can do for me, but she does have a solution to get my laptop fixed without me having to pay up front for it. Care to hear it? This crazy bitch told me to "You can bring your laptop into any US Bestbuy and have it fixed without having to pay for anything" so I politely ask her if she is well. She replies that "yes I am well" and I tell her, "Maybe you misunderstood me, I don't care how you are feeling, I'm wondering if maybe you are mildly retarded?" The guys who work at Bestbuy who are sitting with me in the customer service care area are laughing now because they seem to think I am funny. Well Sharlene gets offended and replies that "no I am not mildly retarded," to which I quickly reply that "Well Sharlene, I think you should go to a doctor to get that checked out because you must be at least mildly retarded to suggest that I go to the US in order to get my laptop repaired" (Mind you, there is a bestbuy in the US about 45 minutes from where I live but WHY would I go there? Why would I drive to the US, have my laptop inspected and then have to RETURN there the next week to pick up the replacement part?) So I tell Sharlene that I would like to speak to her supervisor, "who I hope has more than two brain cells to rub together". Sharlene replies that she will get her supervisior on the phone but that she will tell me the same thing that she told me, and I retorted, "That is fine and I will tell your supervisor that you are mildly retarded for suggesting I leave the country to get my laptop replaced!"

I am put on hold while Sharlene is trying to find her supervisor and the people in bestbuy ask me if they can have my number in case they need someone to call and bitch for them, apparently its an art that I've perfected these last 24 years. Sharlene's supervisor gets on the phone and tries to fix the situation because I'm sure that Sharlene has told her side of the story, I was on hold for like 10 minutes. I tell the supervisor, I don't remember her name, it was something stupid like Kay I think, that "you have to be fucking kidding me right? Your CUSTOMER SERVICE REP just told me to leave the country to get my laptop replaced? Do you know where Canada is? Its that big piece of gray land that is above the US on those big maps they studied in grade 4 and that I don't leave right across the street from the border" She apologized for Sharlene's retarded-ness and told me that there was nothing she could do besides what the warranty plan offers and I ask her why the warranty plans is SO DETAILED that it provides exclusions and rules for each state why they couldn't add a stupid note saying "International repairs work differently, ask for more details" Or SOMETHING. But I tell her that I have another solution, "how about I just buy this replacement adaptor that isn't HP but is compatible with it, you can refund me for that and you can take my old adaptor and shove it up your ass for all I care" She replies that "its not possible" and I ask her which part is not possible, the refunding or shoving up her ass. She replies both.

I hang up on her because by now I'm angry and I've been in the store for almost 2 hours. Craig comes back to me and tells me that he is going to try to order the part directly from HP since the warranty from them hasn't expired yet. Everything is great until they tell him that they don't ship to Canada. So I get on the phone with the HP guy and give him my work address in NY which is like 45 minutes away. One of our employees goes down to that office once a week so I am bound to get my part, and for free. So I buy the replacement adaptor thing for the time being and in 8 days when the part is in my hands I can bring this back and get my money back.

I drive back to work all happy now because I have this adaptor thingie which is compatible with my laptop and when I get to work I'll hook everything up and I'll be happy. I make one of the employees open the package for me all nice and pretty because I am going to return it in about a week. I hook everything up and its not working. WHAT? ITS NOT WORKING? I check the compatibility charge and as it turns out this thing works with MOST HP's but apparently not my exact model number. No problem right? I'll just go to Bestbuy, get a refund and see if they have another kit in stock. I get in my car and think about going back to Bestbuy but I don't want to go to the one in Marche Central again because there will be traffic going East towards Montreal but the other bestbuy in Laval will have no traffic going there. I decide to go there instead. BIG MISTAKE! I get there and I am waiting in line in the returns department and when its my turn Robert, the customer service guy, has to call to verify that all the pieces are included. His manager says "nope there is one pin missing" so I call work and make one of the employees there check the area around my desk for that piece and its not there. The manager brings a box exactly like mine up to the front and guess what there are SEVEN heads in there, but mine only has 6. Seriously this is messed up right? I take the package and go back to work thinking that I am stuck with a stupid 183 piece of crap that I can't return because I lost a piece and its useless to me because the piece doesn't fit.

I decide to go online while I'm at work, using a work computer, to look up this stupid thing online. I go to the website of the manufacturer and I see that there are two versions of this thing. One of them has 7 heads, it's the newer version, whereas the older model only have 6 heads. Not only that but its only $79.00, I paid $183. I go back to Bestbuy Laval pissssssssed off with the print out from the manufacturers website. I don't even bother waiting in line, I cut in front of everyone and demand that they call a supervisor right away. The supervisors name is Rafaki and I found humour in that. I explain to him the situation as well as the price difference, seriously, its like 100ark up! Rafaki says that he understands and that he will accept the return, let me buy the one with the 7 pins (because I checked and my laptop needs that 7th pin to make it work) and he would only charge me the 80.00 that it is for sale on the manufacturers website. Guess what? There is ANOTHER PROBLEM now! There are 2 of these things in stock and they can't find them. They aren't on the shelves, they aren't in the return bin. Rafaki gets on the intercom and demands that all of his employees on the floor search for this Kensington 70 watt AC Adaptor with 7 pins. Suddently two of them appear, the refund gets processed, I buy the new one and I make them open it while I'm still in the store. If it doesn't fit I'm not going to come back to Bestbuy for another refund and run around. It fits I get in my car and drive hom.

What an exhausting day, all because my sister doesn't know how to use a computer! So yes, I blame my sister.

I've been doing some thinking

So, I've been doing some thinking and wondering why in the heck I can't post on my other blog. I'm just so uninspired. The URL isn't me and I'm far too lazy to come up with something else that suits me. I am Giftedly-Outspoken and I will continue to be. I can't post behind a fake name and actually feel real? Who cares if people know I'm talking about them? Since when have I been one to hide behind a computer monitor? Yeah for those of you who actually know me in real life you'll know that I don't roll like that.

Anywho, so the reason I had moved the blog in the first place is because one of my co-workers found my blog a while back and complained to my boss about it. Why? Because my blog mentioned how she was a lying bitch and a few other choice words. I'm sure scraggly cunt was one of them. I know, I'm so gifted with words. Oddly enough my boss never said anything about it. I guess he figures as long as we can work peaceful with one another who really cares what our PERSONAL feelings are towards one another right? I mean, I don't like all of my co-workers 24/7. We have spats, we have different opinions but we all get over it.

Well mostly get over it. I don't care if she stalks my blog and reads this. I still think she has been faking nearly everything "dramatic" that has happened. I think she faked the pregnancy in order to avoid getting heat for being a bitch (of course if my boss excused my emotionalness based on being pregnant it was a perfect excuse for her too!), I think she lied about the miscarriage and subsequent D&C, and now she is supposedly suffering from H1N1. I just don't believe it.

Why not? Let's see, I get the wonderful joy of checking her expenses and she'd have coffee daily (yes, they are allowed because they are travelling sales reps and they get X amount of money per day for meals, so if they wanna use it on coffee more power to them!), she'd enjoy her glass of wine with her meals at trade show dinners, and she had sushi more than once or twice, oh and large caffeinated beverages daily! After her "miscarriage" she went straight to work.

My boss brought her up to Montreal to discuss all of our issues (no I'm not the only one in the office with issues regarding her). He asked me before our big meeting what my problems were with her and I explained to him that I prefer to keep it professional and only mention my WORKING issues with her and nothing personal. He agreed. In our meeting I told her how I did NOT like how she had a bad day with one of our distributors and how she tried to place the blame on me. I also told her that I didn't really like it when her parents were sick in the hospital (supposedly okay?) and she emails me telling me NOT to email her as she is taking personal time. I totally get that you are taking personal time because something has happened to your family HOWEVER if part of my job is to send you emails. It is up to you to choose when and where you respond. Like, am I supposed to remember every sick day that everyone takes and make a mental note not to forward them information or maybe I should set my email on a delivery delay to accommodate someone else's schedule? Oddly enough she agreed that in both cases I was right and she was just having a poopie day both times. Seriously, not my problem.

When I'm having a poop day I just kind of avoid people. I keep my emails short and to the point and avoid all long conversations if at all possible. I don't start bitching at the first person who crosses my path.

So her first official day here in the office we had that meeting which lasted for 4 hours. Then we all went to dinner together and that was pretty fun mainly cuz my boss' wife is HILARIOUS!

The next day my boss makes me take her out for dinner. It was so much fun (sarcasm is ultra heavy here). She checks her messages on her phone (text) and is like "OMG. I'll be right back I have to make a call. A friend's friend just committed suicide." Now there I am sitting at a table with a glass of water for 30 minutes alone. I was ready to kill someone at that point. She came back, apologized for leaving me waiting and we had dinner. Over dinner I got to hear a lot of stories most of which I think were fabricated. I mean she told me about this school that someone she knows goes to, its super posh and very Catholic...and guess what? Will Smith's son Jayden goes there... Wait...aren't they into Scientology? I doubt that Jayden goes there but I kept my mouth shut and just pretended to believe everything.

Friday she leaves. The following Friday we get an email talking about how she has H1N1 Flu and how she got it leaving Montreal at the airport most likely....but it hasn't affected her job AT all! She was still going to visit stores....wow how thoughtful of you to take your disease ridden ass all around the LA area spreading this horrible virus you have. Wait...don't H1N1 make you extremely weak and tired? How do you have the energy to go visit all these stores and spread the virus? And weren't you one of the people who was saying how inconsiderate sick people were going to work and getting everyone else sick? Hmmm pot calling the kettle black I think....

So thats my latest update on the DQ co-worker. Everything is just about the drama. I feel like telling someone, "Hey if you think you are having a bad day just call DQ and I guarantee you that you'll feel better about your life because she leads the most dramatic life EVER!" In the past few months she's been in a car accident, both her parents sick in different hospitals in different states, pregnant, miscarriage, and now the H1N1 virus. I'm sure there are smaller things in between that I just can't manage to remember.


Anyway, other than that crazy bit of drama with the co-worker I am excited to announce that on Nov 11th I'll know if I'm carrying a baby boy or a baby girl. I'm not telling you what I reallllllllly want because what I realllllllllly want is a healthy baby with all its limbs in tact and nothing extra! We've already settled on a name for a baby boy or a baby girl. Elias if its a boy after my father, and we'll nickname him Eli....Dimitria if its a girl and we'll call her Demi. My best friend is also pregnant and she find out around Xmas if its a boy or a girl...and a close family friend is also pregnant and she is having a baby BOY!!

Between my sisters wedding shower, wedding, my baby shower, and best friends baby shower we have a very busy Jan thru Feb for 2010. I'm also excited to announce that whatever Nicole (my best friend) is having that my husband and I will be baptizing! I'm so excited that I'll be baptizing a baby in the Orthodox church. This will be my second God child but the first one to do with my hubby! Also, after my sister gets married and pops out one of her own Nicole and Rody will be baptizing her kid! Our family just keeps on expanding more and more!

Alex's wedding invitations and wedding shower invitations are in the mail as of today and should be here within a week! If you ever need anything designed I seriously suggest you check out Art By Ellie Awesome prices, great custom designs! I'm so impressed by the proofs I saw. I can't wait to get everything!! ;)

Oh yeah.... I'm BAAAAAAAAAACK! I have over 1000 things in my Google Reader that I will not get to. I'm going to try to go back a few days to catch up on things but if I haven't replied to your blogs in a while I'm sorry. I'm starting fresh!!!