The Jas Says. . .

Before I get to the main attraction, I want to make a little sidebar rant on something that has annoyed me for a long time. I have always hated Thetruth.com commercials, and even though I’m no longer a smoker, they still annoy the crap out of me. I really don’t like the fact that a bunch of aggressive teenagers with bullhorns are on my television trying to tell me how to live. I was a teenager once, too, and I remember how it felt like you knew EVERYTHING and you were SO SMART and everything was so freaking OBVIOUS I mean MY GOD are people totally freaking RETARDED or what? And unfortunately, that’s exactly how these commercials come off: a bunch of superior, smug, condescending teenagers walking around all cocky and trying to make the adults see how moronic they really are. However, since we got our DVR I’ve had to see much less of this because we skip past all of the commercials. Whee! The other night, I happened to be watching live TV and a Truth commercial came on. I noticed their new slogan is “Whudafxup?” And my question is, how did they get that one past the FCC? Is it just because they’re not spelling out the word “fuck’s”? Is it because they never say their slogan, but rather just display it? Normally, I wouldn’t care because I have a rather salty vocabulary myself, and I’m certainly not going to begrudge anyone else the use of profanity, but I really don’t like this organization already, and to see them skirting the line of standards on the airwaves with no one even mentioning the profanity really twists my shorts. We can’t say “shit” in programming clearly intended for and marketed to adults, but we can hide the word “fuck” in commercials seen by all ages in all kinds of programming. Just because who wants to come down on the earnest (cocky), do-gooding (superior) young people? Blech.

Anyhow, that’s really not what I intended to write about when I opened up this page. What I really intend to write about is canceling my credit card. One of my credit card companies has been slowly pissing me off for years. I recently decided enough was enough, and started using a different card as my “main” card. I wanted to cancel the annoying card, so I called them up today. First problem: no toll-free number. I had to call long distance to talk to these people. And once I called, I had to listen to the longest, slowest, list of things in the world. My account information. My balance. My credit limit. Who to call if my card was stolen. What to do if I wanted to request a new card. Procedures to take if I needed to file for assistance getting rid of garden slugs. Finally: press 0 to speak to an account representative. I press 0.

Lady: Hello, and thank you for calling Account Services. May I have your account number, please?

Now, when I was listening to the Longest List In The World, one of the things I heard was that they had identified my account number based on my telephone number. So, I know she had the account number in front of her. What was all this about? But, I told her my account number, my first and last name, and my mother’s maiden name. Just to roll things along. Oh, did I mention this lady had a very quiet voice and a thick accent? Woo!

Lady: How can I help you today, Miss Jas?
Me: I need to close my account.
Lady: I’m so sorry to hear that. Can I ask you why you would like to close your account today?
Me: There are a lot of reasons. I just need to close it.
Lady: All right, Miss Jas. Please wait while I connect you to an Account Manager.

More time on hold. Did I mention I was paying for this call? Good.

Account Manager: Hello Miss Jas. I am Alissa. (um, sure you are. Your accent is thicker than the last lady’s.) How may I assist you today?

Me: I want to close my account.

Alissa: I’m so sorry to hear that, Miss Jas. May I ask why you would like to close your account today?

Me: *sighs* Well, there’s an annual fee on the card. And you kept raising the credit limit even though I asked you not to. And, you called me all the time with offers that I’ve already said “no” to multiple times.

Alissa: I’m so sorry, Miss Jas. You paid the annual fee on the card in…um…August, so it will not be charged again until next August. I’m so sorry you…um…were disturbed by our constant calling. We make these offers to…um…make your service better, Miss Jas. Can you tell me, Miss Jas, what…um…is more important to you in a card: low interest rates or no annual fee?

Me: I don’t really want to talk about this. As far as I know, I’m paying for this call. I didn’t dial a toll-free number. I would like to just get this closed and get off the phone as soon as possible.

Alissa: I’m so sorry, Miss Jas. As you know, this card will help your credit rating because you do not…um…carry a balance and -

Me: Ma’am, I know all that. I don’t care. I would like to close this account, please.

Alissa: Are you sure you would not…um…like to keep this card for holiday spending, Miss Jas? As you know–

Me: MA’AM. Close. This. Account. Now.

Alissa: I’m so sorry, Miss Jas. This account is now officially closed. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Me: No, thank you.

Alissa: You have a good day, Miss Jas.

Me: You too.

ARGH!
ARGH!
ARGH!

I hate talking to customer service at any time, but when you are canceling something it is like annoyance in triplicate. They don’t want to believe that you have actual, valid reasons for stopping service. I realize it’s these people’s jobs to try to stop people from canceling, because it used to be MY job to do that. But when it was my job, I also realized that when someone said they were in a hurry, or really didn’t want to talk about options, that they MEANT it. More often than not, if I ignored that warning and tried to go on with my “please don’t leave” spiel, it resulted in someone yelling at me and demanding a supervisor.

Bottom line is: I feel like the only time anyone in the service industry actually LISTENS anymore is when someone is about to cancel, and by then it’s usually too late. I asked my credit card company multiple times to stop calling with offers and to stop raising my credit limit. I asked if there was any way to get rid of the annual fee. And all I ever got was an elaborate list of excuses that boiled down to: NO. And they’re surprised when I don’t want their card anymore?

This year I decided I was going to put up more outdoor lights. Normally, just one strand goes on the well, but this year! Oh, this year we have icicle lights hanging from the front porch eaves and colored lights wound into the pine garland on the front porch railing. This is in addition to the lights on the well. That’s triple the holiday magic, people.

Unfortunately, I bought all of my new lights at Meijer. Meijer stocks a line of lights called December Home. I not only bought all the lights for outside (six strings), but I also bought new lights for the tree (six strings). Out of twelve strings: one crapped out entirely shortly after being put on the tree, one light only halfway, one has a section that doesn’t light (maybe 1/4 of the string), and almost all of them have at least one bulb burned out. The icicle lights have one bulb PER DANGLE out. These are, I must restate, all brand new lights. If I was another kind of person (my mother), I would write a nasty letter to the December Home people, but since I am this sort of person, I’m just going to bitch about it on my journal and then never buy Christmas lights from Meijer again. Target all the way, baby.

I have some of my shopping done already, thanks to going out with Mom and J-bird on Black Friday. Did we score sweet deals? You know we did! Did I buy five shirts for myself? You know I did!

In other news, I’m still not smoking. However, my nose is still stuffed up, I’m still sneezing, and my throat still hurts. Wow, good thing I quit smoking so I could reap all of the exciting health benefits! In doctor-orientated news, the bills for our first round of tests are starting to roll in. Apparently, our insurance company either lied to me, or has a very strict definition as to what constitutes “infertility treatment”. I guess only the actual treatment is covered, not all of the fun lab and doctor visits associated with treatment. I find it very typical that we have gotten bills for our tests before we’ve gotten the results.

And, since I’m posting this at 1:10 AM EST, it is technically my wedding anniversary. I feel kind of badly about tacking that on at the end of a long session of bitching, but it makes me feel better. The Man and I have been officially married for three years today. Happy anniversary, my love.

Tomorrow is, of course, Thanksgiving here in the US of A, and I am doing some baking. I’m supposed to take an apple pie and green bean casserole to my Grandma’s for dinner. The pie is in the oven, and I’m a little worried about it. I’ve never made an apple pie before. I mixed Northern Spys and McIntosh together – Mom says it should be good, so here’s hoping. I’ve got a bunch of apples left over so I guess I’ll make an apple crisp after the pie’s done.

Here’s some pictures of my holiday decorations. The other day I dug the rest of them out of their boxes, so now the only stuff that’s left to put up are the lights and stuff outside. That’ll get done after Thanksgiving. I’m not happy with how the picture of the tree turned out, but I don’t have the time to mess around with my camera to get the shot that I want – a “medium light” shot where you can see both the lights and the ornaments and the light isn’t so harsh. Bah.

My Santa nesting dolls from my dad.

Part of my little village from my sister.

Christmas tree.

I’m one of those people who HATES to wait to use new things. If I buy new clothes, I want to wear them right away. New shoes, same thing. Even something as dumb as a new kind of shampoo – I want to jump in the shower and wash my hair.

I went to the store today and bought a whole bunch of cute Christmas stuff, and now I’m of course wanting to put it up and decorate. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving to put up the tree and decorate the front porch, but awwwww. . . . Thanksgiving is a whole week away! I don’t want to wait! But at the same time, I don’t want to be annoying – one of those people who “rushes” the season by decorating too early. I’ll probably wait anyways, because I noticed on my drive home that no one else had decorations up yet, but I was wondering when all of you start decorating your homes or put up your trees?

I finally signed us up for Netflix last night. Too many people showing up for a Karazhan raid (it’s World of Warcraft, peeps) left me with a spare four hours to kill, so I decided to use that time doing something we’ve been talking about for over a year. And because I was the one who took the trouble and had the time, I thought it was only right that I fill up the queue with all the movies that I want to see. We started out with the “one movie at a time” deal, just to see if we’d actually like this service enough to use it, so it looks like The Man will have a long, dark wait. Tee hee!

In other news, remember how I got stung by that yellow jacket back in September? Well, my knuckle has never gone back to normal after that. It’s still bigger than it’s supposed to be. I could still get my rings on, but getting them off was a trick, and sometimes involved a bit of soap and pain. So, I finally went and got them resized. Now they fit over my knuckle, but spin crazily once their past that oversized obstruction. Because the rest of my finger is back to its regular size and all. But it had to be done – I was getting a callous on my knuckle because of all the ring-yanking I had to do.

Not smoking is going okay. I’m slowly starting to sleep better. Last night I don’t think I woke up at all, so hopefully I’m almost done with this insomnia bullshit. It’s been a week now, but it seems SO MUCH LONGER. Now I’m starting to wonder at what point I won’t be thinking about cigarettes multiple times during the day. When will I go from someone who is quitting to someone who is actually a former smoker? A true non-smoker? Someone who can pass a whole day and not think “Gee, it would be nice to have a cigarette right now.” My circulation certainly seems to be better than it was, because my hands are presently very warm and I’m not wearing socks or slippers.

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday so I could have another test done. I have to go in for blood work next Wednesday. I have a lab slip with a whole bunch of stuff checked off on it, but I don’t know what any of it is. I figure my part of the deal consists of going to a lab and getting a needle shoved into my arm. That’s enough for me to be thinking about. We’re not yet sure what direction all of this will be taking us – we haven’t even met with our doctor yet. We need to get all this preliminary testing out of the way first, so he will have a better idea of the problems we actually have. At any rate, since some of the stuff we’re likely to encounter falls on this side of the line I’ve drawn for this journal, expect to see a few locked entries here and there.

Finally, it was snowing today when I got up. Not hard or anything, and it didn’t stick, but it was definitely snow. Winter, ahoy.