And the reighn of stupid people continuses!

How come I always tend to find the places that are firing people or have sub standard employees? Beats me, but let’s examine th elatest fiasco in my long line of them….

I needed new contacts. NO ONE would take an out of state perscription. No one. SO, I had to get a new exam. I saw the deal from America’s best. If you joined their eye care club for 99.00, you got free exams for 3 years and tons of discounts. Ok. Sounds good to me. I was getting some contacts and a pair of back up glasses, because mine didn’t survive the move. Exam and stuff, standard. No biggie. So, I tell the doc, I want BOTH contacts and classes. He agreed with mea nd wroe the scrip for both. I go to pick out my glasses, and find the coolest pair, and am totally in love with them. I go to get them made and check out. The one optometrist ignores me and another one takes care o fme. He tells me the final price and then says that the other one needs to finish it up, aned that she may cut me a deal. Ok. No biggie. the price wasn’t that bad to begin with, so I wasn’t complaining. The female optometrist comes over, and is RUDE as all get out. She snatches the frame from me and basically tries to bully me into the highest end lenses that could be placed in my glasses, telling me “you’re as blind as a bat. You need them to look thinner so no one makes fun of you.” Erm. I’m not reallly that blind. I know people with worse perscscriptions than me. So, I ended up getting the lenses the DOCTOR reccomended (polycarbonite) and those were pretty thin. This optometrist (the chick) also made some comment about how since I was SO blind that my lenses were going to cost extra. Nice, huh?

After ordering the glasses, I asked her several times how long the glasses would take to come in. She ignored me at least 5x. FINALLY, I went to the guy, and said “how long?” and he said 5 days, because of back to school. Usually it’s 7-10 business days.I said “okie dokie.” and left. Mind you, I paid cash, and for the whole thing up front.

Well, 8 days go by,a nd I call looking for my glasses, as I’m tired of wearing my contacts all day-my eyes need the break. Well, no glasses. They said “oh, they’re at the lab being made. They should be here any day.” Ok. fine. whatever. Well, I get some major contact irritation in my eye from the new lenses, and I go in. I ask about my glasses, and lo and behold, they are STILL not there. This is now 17 days after the fact. I go, and get new contacts (new brand) beacuse this is what the doc reccomended, and they had to order the trial pair. Ok. Fine. 3-5 days? whatever. I got that in writing after teh glasses fiasco.

Get a phone call on SATURDAY. My contacts, yes CONTACTS are in. No sign of my glasses. I talk to the manager on the phone, and she looked it up, and there was even no sign of them at the lab. She said she’d have an answer whenI got there to pick up my lenses. Okie dokie….

Get there…and OMG. The evil optometrist 1) NEVER SENT IN MY FRAMES and 2) CANCELLED MY ORDER about a week ago! The kicker? She’s not there to answer for all of this. She got FIRED. Plus, from what I’m hearing, she even screwballed about 10 other orders. SO, now, I have no glasses, and they can’t find my frames to make the glasses. great. SO, I had to pick a new frame, and I won’t be getting my glasses until the END OF THE WEEK!!! This is only because they put a rush on them because they screwed up. I did end up with a more expensive frame…but come on! This is insane. this isnt’ right. Now, I’m STILL stuck with only contacts…and my eyes SOOO need a break! ARGH!

and people wonder why I want everything in writing…and I’m gun shy walking into new experiences anymore. *sigh*

And the drama continues….

That moron of a “dean” (*cough* Dr. Stokes *Cough*) has chosen not to email me back in 3 weeks…yet again. I made the call to my favorite department, Resources, and then got the news that my work was prolly not on that computer. All of the more ammo to go to Dr. Parker with.

Which brings me to this point. Why do you mess with someone who has her technology all in a row? Who saves her emails….and archives stuff like this? HRM?

Just wondering….

But, on the oher side of things,

I’m already behind on my homework..Yep! The Grad school “slacking” has begun. Eh. I’ll get it done, but oh, has it begun. AS OF TODAY…I have 3 article summaries to get done for Research, a “therapy session” of the Rogerian type with a fictional character (I’m using Alias’ Sidney Bristow) and an article review and outline to prepare to present to the class for Child Psych. Admittedly, the child psych bit I can do anytime before week 12, but I’d love to have it done earlier. BUT the rest is due..or overdue for that matter!

anyone got any “easy” buttons for me?

Things I swore I’d never do

When I got pregnant with Isaac, there was this laundry list of things I swore I’d never do, ever. I’ve found that some of them still stick, but others, forget it. Those are just lifesaving tactics that guarantee a few seconds of either “chore time” or just a breath.

Let’s talk about the cardinal sin (or so I thought) that I’m committing right now. I tossed a DVD in so that Isaac would sit down and watch it for a few seconds so he would stop dunking the rechargable batteries in the cats’ water and I could finish the dishes. Right now, I’m using “Finding Nemo” as a babysitter so I can get a bunch of things done before I take him with me to Lee, Mass. to the outlets. He’s sitting on the floor, in the midst of about 20 megablocks and his medical kit, mesmerized by Nemo, Marlin and Dory. In the time since I put this sucker on, I’ve finished the dishes, dried them, put them away and got the diaper bag ready for the trip today..and sent Doug to take care of my parents’ cat and put gas in my car. It’s actually kinda funny.

Another thing I SWORE I’d never do is point out things and refer to them as characters from a movie, like “Bambi” for deer. Here we go. Yesterday, we went to Petco to get some food for my African Dwarf frogs. We’re in the fish section, and I pointed out the clownfish, and said “Look, Isaac! NEMO!” There went that one. It’s just easier than saying “Look, Isaac. That is a clownfish. It’s orange and black and white.” Forget it. Nemo it is.

Hey. You have these whole lofty ideals of what a good parent does, because the media tells you that you should have those ideas. THEN, you find out the truth. There are tactics that you need because you need to preserve your sanity. The commercial for Johnson and Johnson stuff says it all. Having a baby changes everything. I think that means the delusions of what a “good parent” does.

as I’m tyiping this…Isaac opened up a box of mini donunts and got one out and is now back plopped in front of Nemo watching Bruce and the Sharks. I swear I’m going to earn my spot in parenting hell for that one.

Early intervention and St. Rose Grads rule!

Yesterday’s eval was amazing. I’ve never been so impressed with a set of evaluators (and I’m picky. VEERRRRY picky) and come to find out, one is a St. Rose grad in the School Psychology program. Angela (the psych) and Jennifer (the SLP) were just so good with Isaac and just got a great picture of him.

So, for those who are interested- Isaac does qualify for early intervention. He’s about 31% delayed and since NYS says you must be 33% delayed, Marie (our coordinator) and Angela (the psych) decided to throw professional judgement in there and give him the services. We have the IFSP (the plan) meeting on the 29th, and on that day, we’ll get everything set up. Marie knows a teacher who works around our area and has an opening on her caseload for Isaac. I’m very happy. I’d like the teacher to come to the IFSP, just to get everyone on the same page, but that may not happen. Eh. No biggie.

What made me the most happy was seeing the competence in the evaluators. They were a YOUNG team and that’s what I wanted. BIG TIME. I was also happy that a St. Rose grad was so good at what she did. It proves my theory that schools that base their programs on a combination of theory and experience based learning produce the most competent grads.

I think I may want to do EI when I get out of school. I could use the “cuddle time.” I tihnk that pre-school work would be good for me for a while. I reallllly think so.

Another reason for me to HATE movers…

After all of the fiasco yesterday, we get a NASTY note in the mail that says that we owe them another 1,000.00 for the move. LIKE HELL I’m paying this! Now, originally, I was going to forget about the few little things, but now, I’m going to slam them for EVERYTHING. I’ll take the 1,000 in exchange for the lost item, the broken items and the lost top of the chair. Plus, I’m sic-ing Doug’s dad on them. That will fix their wagon. BIG TIME.

why can’t anything go easily here? Why?

Crash!

I hate movers. Did I mention this to anyone before? I prolly did, but just in case, I’ll say it again. I hate movers. What caused the loathing? It’s very easy to see.

FIRST- when we moved from Banbury to Magnolia in CA, the morons not only traumatized Jasmine to the point where she wouldn’t come out of her crate for days, but they trashed our fridge and a few other items. It was not pretty or fun. I fought the company for weeks,a nd ended up calling almost up to the president because the service I was getting was substandard.

THIS TIME- They lost the top of my favorite director’s chair, and now I have to buy a new cover for it. NEXT, (this is the biggie) They dissasembled Isaac’s crib and lost a screw. Gee. You’d think that if you disassemble something, you’d put all of the parts with it? When they reset his crib, they put it on the highest setting, which I didn’t notice, because I was more concerned about the screw.

Yesterday afternoon, after visiting Gram for her Ice Cream social, We put Isaac down for a nap. about an hour later, we hear CRASH and a scream. It took us a second to figure out it was Isaac and not the people upstairs. We go flying back to Isaac’s room to see what’s going on, and there he is, standing in the middle of his bedroom ON THE FLOOR screaming, with this huge welt over his right eye. He had vaulted himself out of his crib, an hit the hardwood floor! This is all because the stupid movers didn’t reset his crib to where we had left it. We had it on the 2nd to lowest setting because he was standing in his crib. They put it on the HIGHEST setting when they reset it. I was livid.

So, Doug finds an allen wrench and resets it to the lowest setting possible, and complains about the screw.

Great. Now Isaac’s going to have a huge bruise for his EI evaluation tomorrow. Great. Just absolutely great.

I so hate movers.

The Chocolate Gecko, The Periwinkle Sheep and The Yoga Loft

A week-ish ago, my mom was talking about picking back up knitting. I was drooling over that “knitting for dummies” at Barnes and Noble, so I told her I’d like to learn. So, we go on a hunt for classes in the area. Turns out, there is a class at the Periwinkle Sheep. This place is about a block from my house and is next door to the Chocolate Gecko (a chocolate shop) and the Yoga Loft.

At first glance, one would think it’s an odd combo. It really is, until you realize taht in there, there is another shop called “Will you marry me?” So, in essence, you can get engaged, get some chocolate (the apples are to DIE FOR) and then go meditate the lbs you have gained away at the Yoga loft before you go and Knit at the Sheep!

BUT, I did learn how to garter stitch and purl. YAY! I’m working on a scarf made out of alpaca yarn. The owner, Karen, said that it’s like working with cloud. I also picked up some Yin and Yang yarn so I can work on another scarf. Karen had that on sale. I was looking at it out the window, and said it looked “zen-y” and Karen started laughing telling me it was called “Yin and Yang” because you can blend it. It’s really neato. It was amazing. I had so much fun today! I’ll most likely be back so I can figure out how to cast on again. I tried it myself today and I was like “oopsie!” This means, I’ll go back later in the week for a refresher on how to cast on. I ‘m not soo bright when it comes to that.

The other good thing about today was that I made a ton of new freinds. The Periwinkle sheep is just a great treasure trove of people and so is The Chocolate Gecko. I can’t wait until I start Pilates at Yoga Loft. I bet I’ll find more people who are as “oddball” as me, and in a great way. I have to hand that to Smallbany. The people are odd, eclectic and wonderful all rolled into one, and they love you for who you are, and what you think and dont’ care about your politics. It’s quite nice.

The saga roars on…

I so needed a bathroom break during child psych and of course, the bathroom is all the way down the hall, past the Touhey forum and a fast right. it’s also right by the education office where alll of the professors in the education department (for the most part) are. So, as I’;m about to turn into the bathroom, who do I run smack into? Dr. DeLuke. The infamous, twitch inducing, Dr. DeLuke. The thought of Her severely handicapped class is still enough to bring me to nightmares for a week. I figured this would be the perfect time to “break the ice” so I can get into her Autism/PPD class for the spring, as well as one other, so I don’t have to take introduction to special education and classroom management.

WELL, I think she’s mellowed out over the years and has really toned her scary-ness down! She was actually NICE and glad that I was interested in taking the class! holy cow! SO, I’m setting up an appointment to talk to her in November when we register for classes so I can take the autism/ppd and emotional disturbance class. Not like I need more experience in ED kids, but hey…it’ll be fun,a nd I think someone “normal” is teaching it.

hey…it’s a good tihng..I think.

What I did on my summer vacation…

Besides the move, this tops it all. Trust me.

Mom and Dad said there was a “heritage festival” downtown at the Corning Preserve, right on the Hudson River. We had nothng better to do, and the day was nice enough, so we went. The event was sponsored by Cabot Cheese. I say this for a reason. I promise, it will all make sense….

There was an exhibition from the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown, where they were showing all sorts of vintage toys, doing custom printed name sets (Isaac got one..it’s absolutely beautiful) and making nails..all totally freebie. THEN, there was the Alpaca farm that was there selling yarn. Totally soft. I’m taking knitting classes soon, so I ALMOST bought some realllllly pretty grey yarn to make a scarf, mittens and hat with for when it gets super cold here. There were the Aqua Duck people (duck tours..aqueous vehicles! Neato-bandito!), and some other really cool exhibits, as well as a canal schooner that you could go and explore.

The highlight of the day? I milked an electric cow. Yes, you read that right. I milked an electric cow. I have the pictures to prove it. Since Cabot Cheese wa the sponsor, they had people singing songs about cheese, they had a bean bag toss, where we (Isaac too!) got prizes, such as cow print band aids, pencils, coloring books, ect. They had this one part where they had a kind of “barn” set up, with what looked like a cow’s hindquarters sticking out. Udders and all. They had buckets under the udders. You got to “milk” the cow..and water came out. It was HILARIOUS. They even took polaroids of you, and put it in a souvenir sleeve.

The reaction of my family? HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER. Nothing new here…but dang, was it fun.

And now you see why this was the highlight of my summer vacation….

perspectives

The past few days have not been “fun”. First, our fridge goes on the blink, and we lose almost all of our food. Next, I find out that my grade in Dr. Stokes’ class is all messed up. I think I can thank Shelly Rupard for that one. She’s another whole rant that I’m sending to Dr. Parker. Gloves are off right there. and Dr. STokes finds my “no nonsense” email “disturbing in tone.” Well, dude…stop losing my work and never responding to my emails (which I have all of saved because of this fact) and give me the grade I desreve! On top of all of this, I’m just tired. I havne’t been sleeping well, and Doug has forgotten to turn the alarm off several days running. Fun, huh?

SO, I finally get a note from Aleesa. Aleesa lives in New Orleans! She is safe, with family, but has no clue if she has anything to go back to in the aftermath of Katrina, and is basically starting life over with her son, Logan. Then, I see all of these people dying in the superdome and convention center because of lack of water because people are afraid of waht they hear and are afraid to even get aid into them. This was a wake up call. Why am I sitting here complaininng about my piddly little things like my friege and Dr. stokes being a complete jerk? So many people have to rebuild their lives and everything from the ground up. I have a solid roof over my head, a pantry at my parents’ house to raid (even though Dad complains incessantly about it.) and for the most part, a healthy family. I have my car, I have my cats and we’re all safe. It really does put a lot of things in perspective for me. Even at this late raunchy hour.

So, in light of all of this, I see that everyone can do their part to help the victims of Katrina. If you have leftover diapers, send them. Water, food, blankies…even a teddy bear will do some good. Just put things in perspective. No matter how bad you thin you have it right now, they’ve got it worse.