Because I haven't done one in a very, very long time...steal it for yourself if you like.
1. How old do you look? - Considering I haven't gotten carded for ANYTHING in a very long time I must look old *sigh*.
2. Where do you live? - Iowa Quad Cities
3. Are you waiting for something? - Yes. I'm waiting for 7am so I can go home.
4. What’s one pet peeve of yours that is not common? - You mean I have to list just one? I can't stand people that don't do things my way. Oh, and also the way my sister and husband eat their cereal. So obnoxious.
5. Do you want/have kids? - Like you don't know already, I have a daughter, Emily who is 7 and a son, Blake who is 4.
6. Have you ever thought about converting your religion? - No but the Scientologists have been trying to get their alien hands on Adam for years. Even followed us through two moves. Persistent little buggers.
7. Last shocking news you heard? - I wouldn't call it a bombshell but it's something that made me go, "What? Are you kidding me right now?" It's when I found out that my cousin only lost 2 pounds after eating nothing but water, jello and broth for a week and a half in preparation for lap band surgery. They were expecting her to lose 20-30 pounds.
8. What was the last thing you drank? - Water and before that a Mt. Dew.
9. Who do you most look like in your family? - Probably my mom.
10. If you could have something right now, anything, what would it be? - Angelina Jolie's bod pre-17 babies. Maybe then I could land Brad Pitt too.
11. Where does most of your family live? - My immediate family lives here in the QC but I have family all over the US. Texas, Maine, and California to name a few.
12. Where do you want to go on vacation? - Anywhere lazy and tropical with a beach and fruity drinks with little umbrellas.
13. Have you ever had a panic attack? - Yes.
14. What can’t you wait for? - Didn't we sort of cover this in number 3? I'm rather impatient so I can't wait for a lot of things but guess what? I do.
15. When’s the last time you told someone you loved him or her and meant it? - about 4.5 hours ago when I hung up from Adam and told him I loved him.
16. Have your parents ever smoked pot? - I 100% doubt my mom did. I think my dad was more of an alcoholic than a drug user.
17. Want someone back in your life? - My mom. I would like to have the relationship with my friend Tanya that we used to have.
18. What do you order at the bar? - Beer and shots of So Co.
19. When was the last time you cried really, really hard? - Probably last month just before Aunt Flo came to town. I tend to get a little hysterical.
20. Ever licked someone’s cheek? - Probably.
21. What is your favorite thing to eat with peanut butter? - Jelly and bread
22. Where were you on July 4th, 2008? - First we went downtown for the parade. I came home and slept and then we went to our town's street fest and fireworks. It was a lot of fun.
23. What are your nicknames? - When I was little I had a friend that lived across the street who's alcoholic dad called me "Famous Amos". My friend Tanya sometimes called me "Aim toothpaste". Adam calls me "babe", "pookie bear" or "pook", my best friend Jim calls me "WaWa" and my babies call me "mama".
24. If you could go back in time, how far back would you go? - Ugh. I don't know that I would go back in time. Sometimes I think I'd like to go back to the last time I saw my mom but to have to go through her death again, I don't think I could do it.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
XYZ
So my goal to post everyday this month was foiled by an open out. I will explain what that is momentarily but I'd first like to talk about our night out at karaoke. It went perfectly well, thank you. Since Iowa banned smoking in bars almost a year ago, there are not many crowds in the bars anymore. What this means for The Adamnator and I is that he gets to sing a lot more often. We were there all of 3 minutes when he got up to sing his first song and he sang again about two songs later. He did awesome as always although I was a little nervous that the tiny bar might light up like a roman candle ala 'The Station night club' when he decided to sing "Once Bitten Twice Shy" but due to the lack of pyrotechnics, we were all saved.
I got a little excited when I heard that a chick was going to sing "Ballroom Blitz". This is one of my favorite songs and one I used to sing with my friend Audrey back in the day. We retired it at my wedding reception and I haven't sung it since. That's right, Interneters. I had karaoke at my wedding reception. Adam and I met at karaoke so it has sentimental value, ok? At least that's what we keep telling ourselves in order to make us feel less white-trashy. So, chicky gets up there to sing "Ballroom Blitz" and she sounds like a muppet. Dammit! I was so bummed. Nothing will take away your favorite-song-euphoria like hearing Fozzie the Bear sing it.
Karaoke is always filled with a lot of characters no matter how many people are there. If there's four people there and two of them are us, you can bet there's going to be at least one person to secretly make fun of for the rest of the night. I'm the queen of this. I could walk up in that bar with my hair in dreadlocks, a wedding dress and soccer shoes and think it's ok to make fun of the girl in the Ghostbusters t-shirt. That's just how I roll. I always give them names too like, "tight sleeve girl", "slicker girl", "Buddha belly" and "simon says". You know "simon says". She's the white girl that gets out on the dance floor with all of her black girlfriends and does exactly what they do. So last Friday night we had "Bonnie Tyler". Bonnie looked exactly like Bonnie Tyler ("Total Eclipse of the Heart"??? Gawd, I am so not calling on you for any 80's trivia!) She had a horrible fake tan, bleached blond hair, too much make-up and the voice of James Earl Jones. While she did sing very good, she had Cher Hand. You know Cher Hand. It's the hand that's not holding the microphone that dangles limply just above the waste and has long red nails. Cher Hand.
I didn't even get drunk. In fact I even drank two glasses of water. Yahoo for me. I just don't drink as much since blackberry Brandy made me spew red all over my bedroom carpet. Meddling blackberry Brandy. I hate her.
So the open out. I don't know if I've ever blogged about my previous job before the Adamnator and I moved back to the Quad Cities but I used to work for MCI. I started out working 3rd shift as an e-Customer Service representative, which meant I answered e-mails from customers all night long. I loved it and I excelled at it. I had awesome quality and was looked upon by supervisors to help new employees with their work and check it before it went out. I loved doing it and I loved almost everyone I worked with. After doing that for two years the company took on a new endeavor (this was pre-Bernie Ebbers goes to jail). The company had bought out a smaller company that supplied local services and they were going to create a local service called, "The Neighborhood Built By MCI." We were the first company to combine local and unlimited long distance service for one price. Ten of us were chosen to be the 3rd shift local repair team. Now obviously we weren't going out to houses to perform repairs, but we did take the repair calls, do line tests, dispatch technicians and set up times for techs to come repair service. I learned a lot of repair lingo and a lot more about how phone service works during my time on local repair.
Sunday morning Adam and I woke up and had no Internet service and no dial tone. When you called the home phone it was RNA. Geek talk for Ring No Answer. I called the phone company and guess what? The main number in the phone book was not a working number. Awesome. I called a billing number I had in my cell phone that I used last week. They were closed. Finally found a repair number and after going through automated phone hell I was put through to a lovely representative straight out of Bangalore, India named "Susan". Now I say "Susan" because I know that's not her real name. My time at MCI also gave me a huge education on outsourcing. Outsourcing is the reason I don't still work for MCI today. When MCI decided to outsource "just some" of the e-Customer Service work to India, we started seeing e-mails go out to customers with our names that we did not send. That was because our Indian co-workers were using our names so they didn't have to sign Noorjehan, Parameshwari, or Abjit--their real names. After a lot of complaining we finally got them to end their e-mails with who they really are.
I told "Susan" that our phones and Internet were not working. She asked me all the right questions--did I unplug the phones, did I try a different phone, do I pray to Allah. I knew how to perform the UPT (Unplug Test) so I was right with her on all of that. I was then expecting to be put on hold for a line test. Nope. "Susan" transferred me to the DSL repair team. Oh "Susan"! DSL repair told me that they couldn't fix my DSL until I had a dial tone, which I already knew but someone needs to school "Susan" on that, I think. They started getting into a bunch of questions I had a hard time understanding and I finally just hung up in frustration. I figured I would call back Monday morning and try to get someone maybe in Denver. Sunday night Adam decided it was time to try again so I called back and spoke to "Susan" Bangalore friend, "John". No kidding. He called himself "John". John immediately performed a line test and discovered we had an "open out". When he started to explain to me what that was I told him I already knew but hearing the phrase "open out" immediately brought back a lot of memories. One in particular.
The ten of us that were chosen for that third shift repair team were some of the funnest people in the center. One night a friend that was not on our team, Wes, came into the bay to talk to some of us during a break. After he left I turned to someone on my team and said, "Wes' zipper was down." He laughed and composed an email that went something like this:
Subject: XYZ
The local repair team has performed a test and found that you have an open out on your zipper. We could dispatch a technician but this is a job you may want to do yourself to save the cost.
I saved that email forever. I suppose to someone who wasn't there maybe it's not as funny but when you're forced to be a phone tech geek for a year of your life, that shit's funny, yo.
I got a little excited when I heard that a chick was going to sing "Ballroom Blitz". This is one of my favorite songs and one I used to sing with my friend Audrey back in the day. We retired it at my wedding reception and I haven't sung it since. That's right, Interneters. I had karaoke at my wedding reception. Adam and I met at karaoke so it has sentimental value, ok? At least that's what we keep telling ourselves in order to make us feel less white-trashy. So, chicky gets up there to sing "Ballroom Blitz" and she sounds like a muppet. Dammit! I was so bummed. Nothing will take away your favorite-song-euphoria like hearing Fozzie the Bear sing it.
Karaoke is always filled with a lot of characters no matter how many people are there. If there's four people there and two of them are us, you can bet there's going to be at least one person to secretly make fun of for the rest of the night. I'm the queen of this. I could walk up in that bar with my hair in dreadlocks, a wedding dress and soccer shoes and think it's ok to make fun of the girl in the Ghostbusters t-shirt. That's just how I roll. I always give them names too like, "tight sleeve girl", "slicker girl", "Buddha belly" and "simon says". You know "simon says". She's the white girl that gets out on the dance floor with all of her black girlfriends and does exactly what they do. So last Friday night we had "Bonnie Tyler". Bonnie looked exactly like Bonnie Tyler ("Total Eclipse of the Heart"??? Gawd, I am so not calling on you for any 80's trivia!) She had a horrible fake tan, bleached blond hair, too much make-up and the voice of James Earl Jones. While she did sing very good, she had Cher Hand. You know Cher Hand. It's the hand that's not holding the microphone that dangles limply just above the waste and has long red nails. Cher Hand.
I didn't even get drunk. In fact I even drank two glasses of water. Yahoo for me. I just don't drink as much since blackberry Brandy made me spew red all over my bedroom carpet. Meddling blackberry Brandy. I hate her.
So the open out. I don't know if I've ever blogged about my previous job before the Adamnator and I moved back to the Quad Cities but I used to work for MCI. I started out working 3rd shift as an e-Customer Service representative, which meant I answered e-mails from customers all night long. I loved it and I excelled at it. I had awesome quality and was looked upon by supervisors to help new employees with their work and check it before it went out. I loved doing it and I loved almost everyone I worked with. After doing that for two years the company took on a new endeavor (this was pre-Bernie Ebbers goes to jail). The company had bought out a smaller company that supplied local services and they were going to create a local service called, "The Neighborhood Built By MCI." We were the first company to combine local and unlimited long distance service for one price. Ten of us were chosen to be the 3rd shift local repair team. Now obviously we weren't going out to houses to perform repairs, but we did take the repair calls, do line tests, dispatch technicians and set up times for techs to come repair service. I learned a lot of repair lingo and a lot more about how phone service works during my time on local repair.
Sunday morning Adam and I woke up and had no Internet service and no dial tone. When you called the home phone it was RNA. Geek talk for Ring No Answer. I called the phone company and guess what? The main number in the phone book was not a working number. Awesome. I called a billing number I had in my cell phone that I used last week. They were closed. Finally found a repair number and after going through automated phone hell I was put through to a lovely representative straight out of Bangalore, India named "Susan". Now I say "Susan" because I know that's not her real name. My time at MCI also gave me a huge education on outsourcing. Outsourcing is the reason I don't still work for MCI today. When MCI decided to outsource "just some" of the e-Customer Service work to India, we started seeing e-mails go out to customers with our names that we did not send. That was because our Indian co-workers were using our names so they didn't have to sign Noorjehan, Parameshwari, or Abjit--their real names. After a lot of complaining we finally got them to end their e-mails with who they really are.
I told "Susan" that our phones and Internet were not working. She asked me all the right questions--did I unplug the phones, did I try a different phone, do I pray to Allah. I knew how to perform the UPT (Unplug Test) so I was right with her on all of that. I was then expecting to be put on hold for a line test. Nope. "Susan" transferred me to the DSL repair team. Oh "Susan"! DSL repair told me that they couldn't fix my DSL until I had a dial tone, which I already knew but someone needs to school "Susan" on that, I think. They started getting into a bunch of questions I had a hard time understanding and I finally just hung up in frustration. I figured I would call back Monday morning and try to get someone maybe in Denver. Sunday night Adam decided it was time to try again so I called back and spoke to "Susan" Bangalore friend, "John". No kidding. He called himself "John". John immediately performed a line test and discovered we had an "open out". When he started to explain to me what that was I told him I already knew but hearing the phrase "open out" immediately brought back a lot of memories. One in particular.
The ten of us that were chosen for that third shift repair team were some of the funnest people in the center. One night a friend that was not on our team, Wes, came into the bay to talk to some of us during a break. After he left I turned to someone on my team and said, "Wes' zipper was down." He laughed and composed an email that went something like this:
Subject: XYZ
The local repair team has performed a test and found that you have an open out on your zipper. We could dispatch a technician but this is a job you may want to do yourself to save the cost.
I saved that email forever. I suppose to someone who wasn't there maybe it's not as funny but when you're forced to be a phone tech geek for a year of your life, that shit's funny, yo.
Friday, March 6, 2009
...which is my problem...how, exactly?
Over a month ago two doctors associated with our hospital quit their practice and went, who knows where. I don't particularly care except sometimes people call me at work and ask. A letter was sent to each of their patients letting them know the practice was closing and they had been referred to Dr. X. It also listed a number they can call to get a different referral if they don't want to see Dr. X.
Today a man called who had been a patient of one of these doctors and he said that this doctor was supposed to have called in a prescription for him over a month ago and it wasn't done. He said he has an appointment with another doctor he was referred to on Monday but needs this script now, what should he do? I asked what the doctor's name was that he was referred to.
"I don't know."
"Do you know where the doctor's office is?"
"It's across the street from the hospital."
(The area he is referring to is like a doctor's park with seriously about 10 buildings FULL.OF.DOCTOR'S.OFFICES.)
"Without the physician's name, sir, I don't know where to transfer your call to."
"So, what you're saying is, you have no idea who my doctor is and where my appointment is so I'm basically fucked???"
"That's it, exactly." Is what I wanted to say. What came out of my mouth was more. "I'm sorry. This is only the switchboard. I don't have any access to your records or appointments and can't tell you who your doctor is."
This is when he starts yelling the word "fuck" a lot and basically the point in the call where I hung up. Good luck and good day to you, sir.
Happy weekend everyone. Adam and I are heading out to karaoke tonight. I have to go now and pretend like I don't hear Adam having pretend conversations with people in the shower.
Today a man called who had been a patient of one of these doctors and he said that this doctor was supposed to have called in a prescription for him over a month ago and it wasn't done. He said he has an appointment with another doctor he was referred to on Monday but needs this script now, what should he do? I asked what the doctor's name was that he was referred to.
"I don't know."
"Do you know where the doctor's office is?"
"It's across the street from the hospital."
(The area he is referring to is like a doctor's park with seriously about 10 buildings FULL.OF.DOCTOR'S.OFFICES.)
"Without the physician's name, sir, I don't know where to transfer your call to."
"So, what you're saying is, you have no idea who my doctor is and where my appointment is so I'm basically fucked???"
"That's it, exactly." Is what I wanted to say. What came out of my mouth was more. "I'm sorry. This is only the switchboard. I don't have any access to your records or appointments and can't tell you who your doctor is."
This is when he starts yelling the word "fuck" a lot and basically the point in the call where I hung up. Good luck and good day to you, sir.
Happy weekend everyone. Adam and I are heading out to karaoke tonight. I have to go now and pretend like I don't hear Adam having pretend conversations with people in the shower.
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About Me
- AmyWaWa
- In no particular order I'm a wife, mother, sister, daughter and general observer of humans.