Friday, July 17, 2009

Friday, July 10, 2009

How much is $3.19 worth to you?

I was at the Bloomington Walmart the other day, picking up some last minute gifts for Liz. I found what I was looking for, a "secret diary", voice activated, plays music and it was only $19.97, (remember this price). So I buy it, get my receipt and notice that I was charged $22.97 for this secret diary. I told the cashier and she politely suggested that I spend half my life in the customer service line (you know how that goes). It's finally my turn to be helped and lo and behold I get a 16 year old, and no offense to anyone but I think I smelt pot. Anyway, I tell him of my predicament and he informs me that a price checker needs to be called to verify my information. I think to myself, if you wanted a price checker I could have done that ten minutes ago, after all the customer is always right, right?
Anyway, another year passes by and the "price checker" arrives, or should I say the spawn of satan entered the room. She very rudely asked what the problem was, smirked as to say, oh right, as if this lowly customer knows what he's talking about. She grabbed the secret diary and begrudgingly headed for the toy section to prove that I was wrong.
Verily, verily another year passed and she arrived back at the customer service desk. Without making eye contact she quickly placed the diary down on the counter with a price tag attached and proclaimed, "this is the price.' and then she walked off, still not making eye contact. I leaned over to check what the price was and was shocked to read, $22.97. How could this be! I know what price I saw, buy maybe, must maybe I read it wrong. So I grabbed the diary and headed back to the toy section and sure enough there was a $22.97 price tag underneath the secret diary. But wait, I thought as I pulled on my Sherlock Holmes hat and reached inside my trench coat for the trusty magnifying glass, there is foul play here. Quickly checking around me to make sure no one was watching, I carefully peeled back the plastic that covers the price tags and saw what I had already supposed, a new tag had been placed over the old tag! Ha, I laughed to myself, they were too lazy to even discard the evidence! Sloppy criminals!! Sure enough, behind the new $22.97 price tag, which was dated with todays date, was the old price tag of $19.97.
I could have been happy with this and just let it go but something inside of me cried, No! This is not right! Forget about the money, this isn't even about money anymore, this is about honesty and I had been unjustly dealt with. No, there would be no letting go today.
I headed back to customer service, waited in line again, placed the secret diary proudly down on the counter with both price tags and explained that the prices had been swapped since I first got the toy. He then, in a straight face, told me that the $19.97 price tag was for a different secret diary. Instead of smash his face in with the diary I instead restated his stupidity and asked, "so there's a different secret diary?", in which he shook his head in the affirmative.
So back I went to the toy section to check on this new information and guess what? There was only one secret diary.
I quickly stormed up and down the aisles looking for the nearest employee. I found her and as luck would have it, she was the department manager. After explaining the situation she admitted that it was her fault and I would only be charged for the original price of $19.97. She told me her name and sent me back to customer service, where I waited in line again, purposefully waited for the other employee to help me out, she looked older and wiser. Explained my issue, of course she couldn't take my word for it, so she had to call the manager to confirm my story (as if I could make this up!). The story was confirmed, I was refunded $3.19, when the spawn of satan, excuse me, "price checker" saw this she muttered, "gosh, how cheap do you want it!"
Was it worth it? Absolutely it was.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

4th of July Races

So I am going to take this time brag about my kids and how well they did in the races last Saturday. For those of you who don't know what I am referring to, every July 4th it is a Hurricane tradition to have races at the park. They start with the crawlers and work there way up by age, separating the boys and the girls. Kyler ran with the 5 year old boys and if not for a rough start surely would have contended. Elizabeth ran with the 7 years old girls and she won!! Her face as she waited for the word "Go" was that of great determination and complete focus. She wanted to win so badly and she did it.

Now Eli, this is where I am proud and yet at the same time a little bit ashamed. You see our cute little Eli is 16 months old and still relies on crawling as his main mode of transportation. He can take a few steps but he's not quite there yet. So his main competition was basically kids half his age or younger. Now with that said, I am proud to announce that Eli smoked the other crawlers and came in 1st place!!

Yeah for races!!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy freakin 4th of July!!

Why do I keep going to parades when I know exactly how it's going to go down? Find a seat, check. Wait patiently for the parade, check. Inform my kids to stand back so everyone can see, check. Have a family come late and stand in front of you, check. Watch their greedy older kids get all the candy before your kids, check. Have 10 year old boys standing in front of you trying to sell water and otter pops, check. Feel like I'm watching a glorified advertisement for all the local businesses, check. After five floats and some loud sirens asking myself if this was worth it, check.

The only thing I enjoyed was watching the veterans float with the American flags and standing with my hand over my heart. Too bad the true meaning of the holiday only lasted 15 seconds.

Friday, July 3, 2009

I still love you at 4 a.m.

You all know how it goes; kids get's sick, kid won't go to bed, kid finally falls asleep, kid doesn't stay asleep and wakes you up when you were finally able to fall asleep, kid is now hungry, thirsty, but because the child is ill they will not eat or drink, thus the parent is left feeling helpless and tired.

At 4 a.m. as I held my boy in my arms I had a moment of awakening as I looked down at him and he looked up at me with a look of total confusion like, why do I feel this way, I want to eat, drink and sleep but it just hurts too much. With his head on my shoulder I realized that I was his comfort, he was relying completely on me to make everything ok. I stopped grumbling at my predicament and pride filled my heart for this beautiful child that I had been entrusted with. Sleep soon came for both of us, but not before a bond was formed between father and son. I look forward to more of these moments in the coming years, just maybe more in the afternoon time.