Sunday, June 30, 2013
It's Been A While...
Hello again! After a long hiatus, I’m back. In that time that we’ve been apart dear reader, I would actually come and visit my own blog every now and again, and I realized that I have missed this space. Missed writing silly stories about my unremarkable life that were mostly for me, but in some (very rare) cases, connected with others too. So, I’m back. Hopefully for good.
I will be back shortly with (semi) regular posts, but in the meantime, I’d like to introduce you to my new co-blogger, Maria. She poops in her pants, and I literally have to do everything for her, but I know her dad, so it would be awkward if I fired her.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
The Time I Went Crazy
I have mentioned before that I roll the dice on some kind of weird fungal infection every time I get a pedicure at a crappy nail salon, and I also accept that the customer service will generally be pretty awful too, and the ambience is not “salon” quality. I’m okay with all of that when the trade off is a cheap and fast pedicure. I like to be in and out within 30 – 40 minutes and refuse to pay more than $30 for a pedicure – that is my threshold. I imagine you know where this story is going.
Last week I had a day off so thought I would grab a quick pedicure as my feet were suffering from being stuffed in Uggs and other boots all winter, and were in need of some TLC. So I went in quickly to a place I had been once before. I walked in and it was completely empty. Perfect. One of the women comes out of the back room and sets me up and then disappears again. Again, no one else was there and I could hear her talking with a coworker. Some more time passes and I realize that I’ve caught them in the middle of their lunch hour. So I wait a few more minutes and then finally, after I’d been sitting there for ten minutes playing Brickbreaker on my phone, I call out a “Hello? I’m in a bit of a rush please.” One of the girls comes out, and goes to the sink with her mug of whatever the hell she was drinking and tops it up with water, and tells me “two more minutes please”. WTF?! Again, I get that it’s not a five star salon – it’s in a shitty strip mall next to a carpet and hard wood flooring store – but COME ON. I was sitting there in literally an empty salon for over 10 minutes while they were laughing, chatting away, and eating their damn lunch. Annoy me. So she finally comes out, and does my feet, chatting away on her cordless TELEPHONE the entire time.
Finally, my toe nails dry and I’m ready to go. I get up to pay, and the girl at the register tells me $36.75. I almost lost my damn mind. In my excitement to be the only one in the salon, I failed to look at the prices and was beyond irritated that I had to pay almost $40 (you’re damn right I didn’t tip her ass) for a pedicure at a shitty salon. $40.00 to wait while an employee (who is paid to work there!) finished her lunch and stunk up the entire salon with her food, talked on her phone to someone that she was either really mad at, or really happy with (I couldn’t figure out if the inflections of her voice were positive or negative), charged me GST, I paid in cash and she didn’t give me a receipt. Oh, it is on.
So for those of you who don’t know, GST is a federal tax on goods and services. Businesses that charge GST need to have a GST number printed clearly on their receipt. Something that I guess is even more important when you are paying in cash and there really isn’t a paper trail of that money. I have gone to 100 different salons and paid in cash and was never given a receipt. I didn’t care those 100 other times because I wasn’t ripped off at the cost, and the woman doing my nails didn’t make me wait for her to finish her lunch. This was going to be the hill I died on.
So I tell the woman, can I please have a receipt. And she’s like, “oh if you want a receipt, you need to pay by debit card.” WTF? No you don’t, give me my damn receipt. So I repeat again, “I’d like a receipt. You charged me GST, you put my money in your Fisher Price cash register, give me a receipt.” By now her coworker had joined her and she tells me that the receipt tape is out and that’s why they can’t give me a receipt. So then I’m like, “Okay, can you write one out for me? With your GST number on it” she looks to the one other customer in the salon, and she’s like “I’m very busy, I don’t have time now,” So this is the point of the story where I actually lost my mind. I look at this woman right in the eye like a maniac, and tell her “I will be back at 5:00 p.m. today. Have my receipt ready for me.” And walked out of the salon.
I got into my car, took a deep breath and was like, WTF was that about? Seriously, I think I was so annoyed at the entire experience and instead of complaining about that, I decided to complain about the one thing that I knew was absolutely the rule and quite frankly the law. But seriously, I’m crazy. Needless to say, I didn’t go back to pick up my receipt – I figured it was probably best to just drop it. However, if I ever do go back (truth be told, she did a really good job on my feet) and she pisses me off again, I will definitely be paying with my debit card. That will show her.
Last week I had a day off so thought I would grab a quick pedicure as my feet were suffering from being stuffed in Uggs and other boots all winter, and were in need of some TLC. So I went in quickly to a place I had been once before. I walked in and it was completely empty. Perfect. One of the women comes out of the back room and sets me up and then disappears again. Again, no one else was there and I could hear her talking with a coworker. Some more time passes and I realize that I’ve caught them in the middle of their lunch hour. So I wait a few more minutes and then finally, after I’d been sitting there for ten minutes playing Brickbreaker on my phone, I call out a “Hello? I’m in a bit of a rush please.” One of the girls comes out, and goes to the sink with her mug of whatever the hell she was drinking and tops it up with water, and tells me “two more minutes please”. WTF?! Again, I get that it’s not a five star salon – it’s in a shitty strip mall next to a carpet and hard wood flooring store – but COME ON. I was sitting there in literally an empty salon for over 10 minutes while they were laughing, chatting away, and eating their damn lunch. Annoy me. So she finally comes out, and does my feet, chatting away on her cordless TELEPHONE the entire time.
Finally, my toe nails dry and I’m ready to go. I get up to pay, and the girl at the register tells me $36.75. I almost lost my damn mind. In my excitement to be the only one in the salon, I failed to look at the prices and was beyond irritated that I had to pay almost $40 (you’re damn right I didn’t tip her ass) for a pedicure at a shitty salon. $40.00 to wait while an employee (who is paid to work there!) finished her lunch and stunk up the entire salon with her food, talked on her phone to someone that she was either really mad at, or really happy with (I couldn’t figure out if the inflections of her voice were positive or negative), charged me GST, I paid in cash and she didn’t give me a receipt. Oh, it is on.
So for those of you who don’t know, GST is a federal tax on goods and services. Businesses that charge GST need to have a GST number printed clearly on their receipt. Something that I guess is even more important when you are paying in cash and there really isn’t a paper trail of that money. I have gone to 100 different salons and paid in cash and was never given a receipt. I didn’t care those 100 other times because I wasn’t ripped off at the cost, and the woman doing my nails didn’t make me wait for her to finish her lunch. This was going to be the hill I died on.
So I tell the woman, can I please have a receipt. And she’s like, “oh if you want a receipt, you need to pay by debit card.” WTF? No you don’t, give me my damn receipt. So I repeat again, “I’d like a receipt. You charged me GST, you put my money in your Fisher Price cash register, give me a receipt.” By now her coworker had joined her and she tells me that the receipt tape is out and that’s why they can’t give me a receipt. So then I’m like, “Okay, can you write one out for me? With your GST number on it” she looks to the one other customer in the salon, and she’s like “I’m very busy, I don’t have time now,” So this is the point of the story where I actually lost my mind. I look at this woman right in the eye like a maniac, and tell her “I will be back at 5:00 p.m. today. Have my receipt ready for me.” And walked out of the salon.
I got into my car, took a deep breath and was like, WTF was that about? Seriously, I think I was so annoyed at the entire experience and instead of complaining about that, I decided to complain about the one thing that I knew was absolutely the rule and quite frankly the law. But seriously, I’m crazy. Needless to say, I didn’t go back to pick up my receipt – I figured it was probably best to just drop it. However, if I ever do go back (truth be told, she did a really good job on my feet) and she pisses me off again, I will definitely be paying with my debit card. That will show her.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
30 by 30....ish
Wow! I have 10 days to complete my things to do before I'm thirty list. Looks like I'm going to be very busy until the 28th. Of the sixteen items on my list I've completed approximately eight of them. I guess 50% completion isn't totally awful, but I started the list over a year and a half ago. And my definition of complete may be a bit loose. For example, I did make croissants, but they didn't turn out, so should I really have crossed it off my list? Probably not. According to this list, I still need to make donuts, fried chicken, get published, grill a pizza, go hiking (extremely unlikely since with the wind chill temperatures are reaching the -40s), make ice cream sandwiches, make kotopitakia and soutzoukakia. If I did by some miracle complete this, I would likely also gain ten pounds before my 30th birthday as well which is definitely not on the list. Also any tips on how to get published in 10 days?
I'll keep you posted on how far I get. The countdown is on!
I'll keep you posted on how far I get. The countdown is on!
Friday, December 23, 2011
End of the Semester!
The semester is finally over! I had taken two classes which is a situation where when you’re going through, is awful and horrible, but when it’s done is sweet relief, which can apply to many situations I guess. That’s what she said. Okay, enough. One of them was a statistics class, which quite frankly, I can’t believe I paid $1500.00 for a class to give me ulcers, but whatever. It’s done, and I got an A- in it somehow.
My other class was an awkward mess. My instructor wanted us to have a Skype meeting with him, which is actually my worst nightmare (in all my undergrad years I attended the office hours of my professors maybe 2 times), so having one on one time with an instructor via Skype was not very appealing to me. Adding to the awkwardness was the fact that my instructor is Greek and living in Greece and when I first called him on Skype, I instinctively started speaking Greek, and he assumed that I was totally fluent. Something I failed to correct.
Don’t get me wrong, I can speak and understand Greek, but if you’re explaining learning theories to me and how they relate to distance education, I need you to be speaking English. Alas, it was too late, so I had to pretend I understood everything he was saying in this academic language that I would have a hard time understanding even in English. Needless to say, I sent a follow up email (in English) seeking some clarification.
Then we had group work – I’ve discussed this before, but only hit reply all in an email, if you are in fact sharing information that is important to all you are replying to. Saying “thanks” or “sounds good” doesn’t warrant an email even to one person (I feel that should be implied. No one wants their inbox flooded with niceties.), let alone a group of five people.
But, who cares about all of that because it is OVER! So happy to be done. Until January 9 when everything starts again, but until then, I plan to sleep my brains out and have a marathon Fringe session (I never got into it, but I do love me some Joshua Jackson. Pacey and Joey 4EVA - a shout out to all the Dawson's Creek fans out there)and perhaps dust off that old sewing machine.
Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the holidays!
My other class was an awkward mess. My instructor wanted us to have a Skype meeting with him, which is actually my worst nightmare (in all my undergrad years I attended the office hours of my professors maybe 2 times), so having one on one time with an instructor via Skype was not very appealing to me. Adding to the awkwardness was the fact that my instructor is Greek and living in Greece and when I first called him on Skype, I instinctively started speaking Greek, and he assumed that I was totally fluent. Something I failed to correct.
Don’t get me wrong, I can speak and understand Greek, but if you’re explaining learning theories to me and how they relate to distance education, I need you to be speaking English. Alas, it was too late, so I had to pretend I understood everything he was saying in this academic language that I would have a hard time understanding even in English. Needless to say, I sent a follow up email (in English) seeking some clarification.
Then we had group work – I’ve discussed this before, but only hit reply all in an email, if you are in fact sharing information that is important to all you are replying to. Saying “thanks” or “sounds good” doesn’t warrant an email even to one person (I feel that should be implied. No one wants their inbox flooded with niceties.), let alone a group of five people.
But, who cares about all of that because it is OVER! So happy to be done. Until January 9 when everything starts again, but until then, I plan to sleep my brains out and have a marathon Fringe session (I never got into it, but I do love me some Joshua Jackson. Pacey and Joey 4EVA - a shout out to all the Dawson's Creek fans out there)and perhaps dust off that old sewing machine.
Merry Christmas everyone! Enjoy the holidays!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Happy December!
Sheesh! Finally, November is over. What a long month that was. I was so busy at work, combined with never ending school work - papers, assignments and group work that was eating up so much of my time. It is over. But, unfortunately, November definitely went out with a bang for me.
Since the summer, I have been a semi regular (3-4 times a week) juicer. Not steroids or something crazy like that, but vegetables! Anything green to be exact. I have developed quite a craving for it and actually really like it (it did take some time to warm up to). Anyway. I had a long day again yesterday, and was feeling really run down so I decided to get my veggies ready and toss them in the juicer for a shot of energy - it was 9:30 and I was going to work on some more school work.
For those of you not familiar with juicers, they kind of look like a food processor (sort of). They have a chute you push your fruit/vegetables/whatever through with a cylindrical press and then pass through a blade circling at 100 km per hour and some crazy centrifugal force stuff happening all at once. It is also very loud and terrifying to small children. Once the veggies pass through, all juicy goodness pours out of the spout and all the pulpy/skin stuff gets tossed aside. My press is MIA because I threw it in the dishwasher and it warped, no longer fitting through the chute. Crafty girl that I am, I have been using the cucumber portion of my juice mix to act as a press and pushing through all my other vegetables, and letting go once I got too close to the blades of death. Needless to say, last night, I didn't realize just how close I was to blades, and once the cucumber got pushed through, my middle finger was next.
So, after realizing that the juice was now ruined since half my finger nail was floating somewhere in it, and cursing the fact that I splurged on the organic cucumbers because they are wider and fit the chute better, I yelped in pain. Rushing to the sink to run my finger under cold water, convinced that I had done irreparable damage and would never be able to type again. Thankfully, my husband was home who is trained in First Aid - both standard and wilderness (for all the time we spend camping and hiking. Which is never) so he wrapped it up properly, applied pressure and we went to the hospital just to be sure that it wasn't more serious.
Unfortunately, the first twenty something year old doctor that saw me did nothing to ease my fears of irreparable damage as literally the first thing he said when I removed the bandage was "oh shit" and then fainted. Okay, he didn't faint. But he did say oh shit. After seeing the look of horror on my face wondering where he got his Mickey Mouse degree from, he backtracked by saying that yes, he's a resident, but in obstetrics and gynecology and "doesn't see stuff like my finger in his line of work." To which all I could think was THANK GOD. I hope you don't see juicing accidents in obstetrics. That would be horrifying.
ANYWAY. He called his boss, a crotchety old man who kind of became my husband's hero when he took one look at it and said "You're fine. There's nothing we can do for you. Someone will come and clean it up and wrap it for you. You don't need a tetanus shot. It's not like you were shoveling manure." And literally turned around and left. LOVE! That is what I'm talking about. Let's cut the chit chat and get straight to the diagnosis people.
I was going to share a picture here, but it is really gross - my niece ran away from me when I removed the bandage and kept staring at her fingers as if it was contagious. So, hopefully my finger grows back (the nurse that wrapped it said it would), and I'll be manicure ready for the new year. Beyond that, I'm asking Santa for a new juicer for Christmas and saying good riddance to November!
Happy December everyone!
Since the summer, I have been a semi regular (3-4 times a week) juicer. Not steroids or something crazy like that, but vegetables! Anything green to be exact. I have developed quite a craving for it and actually really like it (it did take some time to warm up to). Anyway. I had a long day again yesterday, and was feeling really run down so I decided to get my veggies ready and toss them in the juicer for a shot of energy - it was 9:30 and I was going to work on some more school work.
For those of you not familiar with juicers, they kind of look like a food processor (sort of). They have a chute you push your fruit/vegetables/whatever through with a cylindrical press and then pass through a blade circling at 100 km per hour and some crazy centrifugal force stuff happening all at once. It is also very loud and terrifying to small children. Once the veggies pass through, all juicy goodness pours out of the spout and all the pulpy/skin stuff gets tossed aside. My press is MIA because I threw it in the dishwasher and it warped, no longer fitting through the chute. Crafty girl that I am, I have been using the cucumber portion of my juice mix to act as a press and pushing through all my other vegetables, and letting go once I got too close to the blades of death. Needless to say, last night, I didn't realize just how close I was to blades, and once the cucumber got pushed through, my middle finger was next.
So, after realizing that the juice was now ruined since half my finger nail was floating somewhere in it, and cursing the fact that I splurged on the organic cucumbers because they are wider and fit the chute better, I yelped in pain. Rushing to the sink to run my finger under cold water, convinced that I had done irreparable damage and would never be able to type again. Thankfully, my husband was home who is trained in First Aid - both standard and wilderness (for all the time we spend camping and hiking. Which is never) so he wrapped it up properly, applied pressure and we went to the hospital just to be sure that it wasn't more serious.
Unfortunately, the first twenty something year old doctor that saw me did nothing to ease my fears of irreparable damage as literally the first thing he said when I removed the bandage was "oh shit" and then fainted. Okay, he didn't faint. But he did say oh shit. After seeing the look of horror on my face wondering where he got his Mickey Mouse degree from, he backtracked by saying that yes, he's a resident, but in obstetrics and gynecology and "doesn't see stuff like my finger in his line of work." To which all I could think was THANK GOD. I hope you don't see juicing accidents in obstetrics. That would be horrifying.
ANYWAY. He called his boss, a crotchety old man who kind of became my husband's hero when he took one look at it and said "You're fine. There's nothing we can do for you. Someone will come and clean it up and wrap it for you. You don't need a tetanus shot. It's not like you were shoveling manure." And literally turned around and left. LOVE! That is what I'm talking about. Let's cut the chit chat and get straight to the diagnosis people.
I was going to share a picture here, but it is really gross - my niece ran away from me when I removed the bandage and kept staring at her fingers as if it was contagious. So, hopefully my finger grows back (the nurse that wrapped it said it would), and I'll be manicure ready for the new year. Beyond that, I'm asking Santa for a new juicer for Christmas and saying good riddance to November!
Happy December everyone!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday Five: Things I Did This Week
1. Finally finished my paper for class. Just in time to have another one due for my second class. If anyone knows anything about quantitative research including but not limited to: SPSS, significance values, what a histogram is, and why I should care about what the mean, median and mode are of data when I'm doing a course based graduate degree instead of a thesis, please feel free to contact me.
2. Baked. And it was glorious. I made chocolate chip cookies and muffins and although I wanted to eat every last one of them, instead I only kept a few out and put the rest in the freezer for a rainy day. It's supposed to snow this weekend, so I think I'll be pulling them out asap.
3. Bought tickets to the Russian ballet. So excited - they are in town next week performing Romeo and Juliet, and although I'm not a huge ballet fan - I love all things Russian (and by all things I mostly mean their ice cold gymnasts, pretty churches, fur hats, and dolls) and I can pretty much recite word for word the Leonardo Dicaprio/Claire Danes version of Romeo and Juliet (don't judge me - I was in grade 10 when it came out), so based on those two points that actually have nothing at all to do with ballet, I think this is a good fit for me.
4. Speaking of Claire Danes, I finally started watching Homeland on demand. OMG. It is so good, and if you aren't watching it, start. The characters are interesting and flawed (which always appeals to me), the writing is good, and the story sucks you in. The only problem is, I do find it hard to believe that Claire Danes is a CIA agent, when she'll really always be Angela Chase to me.
5. I went to convocation. My husband finished his graduate degree in Educational Leadership (Woot! Woot!) and so we went to see him cross the stage. Wow, are those ceremonies every long! Also, what's with all the middle names? I'm certain that they could shave off at least 20 minutes of the ceremony if stuck to first and last names only. The good news, is that he is finished after all of his hard work, the GREAT news, is that I live with someone who knows how to write a paper in APA format. Congratulations husband!
2. Baked. And it was glorious. I made chocolate chip cookies and muffins and although I wanted to eat every last one of them, instead I only kept a few out and put the rest in the freezer for a rainy day. It's supposed to snow this weekend, so I think I'll be pulling them out asap.
3. Bought tickets to the Russian ballet. So excited - they are in town next week performing Romeo and Juliet, and although I'm not a huge ballet fan - I love all things Russian (and by all things I mostly mean their ice cold gymnasts, pretty churches, fur hats, and dolls) and I can pretty much recite word for word the Leonardo Dicaprio/Claire Danes version of Romeo and Juliet (don't judge me - I was in grade 10 when it came out), so based on those two points that actually have nothing at all to do with ballet, I think this is a good fit for me.
4. Speaking of Claire Danes, I finally started watching Homeland on demand. OMG. It is so good, and if you aren't watching it, start. The characters are interesting and flawed (which always appeals to me), the writing is good, and the story sucks you in. The only problem is, I do find it hard to believe that Claire Danes is a CIA agent, when she'll really always be Angela Chase to me.
5. I went to convocation. My husband finished his graduate degree in Educational Leadership (Woot! Woot!) and so we went to see him cross the stage. Wow, are those ceremonies every long! Also, what's with all the middle names? I'm certain that they could shave off at least 20 minutes of the ceremony if stuck to first and last names only. The good news, is that he is finished after all of his hard work, the GREAT news, is that I live with someone who knows how to write a paper in APA format. Congratulations husband!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
And the Nominees Are...
How happy am I? I was nominated for a 2011 Canadian Weblog award for Best Written and Humour categories. How exciting is that? I'm quite certain that I won't win, or even make the shortlist, but what they say is true...it's an honor just to be nominated. Really, it is! Be sure to check out all the other great blogs that are nominated that have a far greater chance at success than I do!
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