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My Pleasure?

“Customer service is just someone on the phone telling you to do it yourself.” – Erica Rhodes (comedian), Twitter

I love Erica Rhodes. She is brilliant. I highly recommend watching one of her comedy specials, if you need a laugh today. Yesterday, after spending at least ten minutes banging on my keypad, trying desperately to not have to converse with a pointless robot, I finally got to a customer “service” person. At one point the customer service person at the other end of my phone literally said to me in a flat, disinterested voice, “with everything that you have going on with your bill” as if her own company had nothing to do with the graffiti art that is my cell phone statement every month. I honestly just started laughing, slightly maniacally, and she sounded confused but then started laughing along with me.

In all fairness, the other day, after opening up an oil soaked box from Bath & Bodyworks because whoever packed the box seemed to think that 2 inches of bubble wrap, total, was more than enough for 25 fragile glass fragrance bulbs, to be shipped in, all the way across the country (and this being the second time that I had experienced this fun-filled phenomenon in a row), I spoke to a Customer Service representative who was honestly, incredibly awesome. This CSR had probably started her career at Chick-Fil-A. (did you ever notice that everyone, at every company now says the Chick-Fil-A original line in a perky voice – “It’s my pleasure!”?!?) She was trained right. She had me diffused quicker than my stress-relief fragrance bulbs ever could. (on an aside, my family loves to watch me get all wound up and fiery, talking to customer service reps. I usually start out with, “Look I’m not being a “Karen” here . . . ” And then I hear snickers and whispers from my family, “But you kind of are . . . “) Seriously, this woman was so kind, so understanding, so good at listening and she went above and beyond, in order to rectify the situation. I honestly was stunned. I couldn’t believe that I was actually experiencing good, reasonable customer service. It had been so, so long since I had experienced excellent customer service. So, that’s when I asked to speak to her manager. I, of course, got her manager’s voicemail, but I left a long, enthusiastic, glowing review about my experience with this customer service person. My thought was, if I made the effort to let my unhappiness be known, I should also have the time and the decency to let my satisfaction be conveyed, as well.

Here are some of the more witty, relatable replies to Erica’s on-point tweet:

“Can I help you” has always been a funny opening line to me. -@CharlesScheer

Best ones are when you use a service’s website for guidance, but it makes no sense or is counterproductive. You get in touch with them and they send you the same link on the web chat or by email ? – @BotondHamori

Or transferring you back to the person who transferred your call to him/her. -@JPReisender

And then asking if you are satisfied with their help, and asking if there is anything else that they can help you with today …@nattybumpercar

If you’re lucky enough to get an actual Fking human! I almost always get Siri’s dropout cousin . . . . @BenekeBc

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Don’t Care

“We’ve been suckered into thinking we must have an opinion on everything. There’s just so much I don’t care about.” – Annie Hatfield, Twitter, @HatfieldAnne

I read this yesterday and it resonated completely with me. My opinion is that this tweet is so good, that I had to stop, drop and roll to one of my sacred notebooks and jot this keen insight down immediately.

In today’s world, it’s awfully hard to admit that “you just don’t care” about many things, isn’t it? But I wasn’t the only one who related to this tweet. So far, it has gotten almost 2500 likes in less than 24 hours. Perhaps we will all be cancelled, or labelled “stupid” or “callous” or “blasé” or “ignorant.”

When I do care about something, I care deeply and passionately and fervently. When I do care about someone or something, there will be no questioning it. You will know. I’m full of fire. If I put that kind of care and energy into everything, I would have burned myself out long ago.

When I was a teenager, my father told me that if I was going to take a stand on something, I had better make sure that it is something that I believe in and care about with every fiber of my being. And then he said to make sure that I learn everything that I can about whatever hill I am standing on, including all the insights and counter-insights to my beliefs about said subject.

I believe that my father was correct, and so to have a strong opinion on something, takes a lot of work, a great deal of personal insight and self-awareness, plenty of research and a big dollop of empathy. And it takes the ability to be open-minded enough to have your opinion changed, if growth and knowledge occurs over time and experience. In short, strong opinions require strength, passion, wisdom and humility.

I have always believed that “variety is the spice of life.” I am grateful that there are people who care passionately about subjects that I don’t care about. I am thrilled that there are tribes of people for every phenomenon on this earth, so that people can commune with others and share a common love and vision and passion together. This is what makes the world such an interesting place where we can all pick and choose as to what to dabble in, and what to care about, and what to create strong opinions about. If we all do our parts to resolutely care about at least a couple of things that matter to us, we’ve got enough hands on deck to make sure that all of our bases are covered.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

What Is Resonating Today

“I saw my shadow today. 6 more weeks of dieting.” – Jessie@mommajessiec (Twitter)

“You’ll solve the problem and get a surge of gleeful excitement. This kind of charge could get addictive. And who do you have to thank for it? The problem itself, without which none of this would be possible.” – Holiday Mathis

“Welcome to your 50’s; you’re unable to drive at night now.” – whatitsmenej (Twitter)

These quotes above, are what is resonating with me this morning. Using my recent colonoscopy as a springboard, my husband and I decided to give the popular “intermittent fasting” a try, in order to lose some of the pandemic pounds that were so easily added over the last couple of years. (Why is it never as easy to take these pounds off, as it was to put them on?!?) We went to bed at 8:23 p.m. last night, to end the suffering. I am seriously considering going on Ralphie’s (our Labrador retriever) diet, instead. A couple of cups of Hills Science Diet RX Ridiculously Expensive Emergency Lose Weight In a Big Hurry or Pay For ACL Surgery kibble actually sounds like a bountiful banquet, compared to yesterday’s Jello and broth cuisine. (although, of course, Ralphie was still begging for my Jello . . .)

And how about Holiday Mathis’s quote? It’s true, isn’t it? There is great satisfaction in solving problems, but if there are no problems, there is nothing to solve. We all know the typical, classic good feelings, such as giving and receiving gifts of love and kindness, or finding something, like a book or a movie or an adventure to be funny and fun and enthralling, or the feeling of being totally passionate about someone or something, or the feeling of great pride in achieving a hard-won goal. (and honestly, one of my all-time favorite feelings is satisfying my raging curiosity) But right up there, in the all-time greats of feelings, is the satisfaction of problem-solving, right? There is something really triumphant feeling about checking off another thing on the “to-do” list. So, the next time we look at our exhausting, seemingly never-ending to-do lists of things to do and to fix and to solve and to get to the bottom of, let’s also look at these lists as a list of things that are going to bring us the excellent feeling of great satisfaction, with each item that we finish, and cross off of the list. We all know, “There is no light without darkness.”

Finally, when I was young and stupid, it used to annoy me when older women would complain about driving in the dark. “Things have a weird haze to them at night now, especially the street lights.” “My depth perception is all funny at night.” “I don’t like to drive too far in the dark.” Damn, it wasn’t a made-up thing. Add “I don’t like to drive too much at night anymore,” to my list of things which I told myself that I would never, ever say when I got older, but have already said, more than once. Never say never.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday Fun-Day

(credit: Rex Masters, Twitter)

I think one of the biggest lessons in aging is coming to terms with how little we actually know about anything. The so-called “experts” change their minds about everything all of the time. And we all have a really hard time keeping our “slants” whether they be political, personal, spiritual, etc., out of anything. As one ages, you gain a lot of insight and experience into how little we really know about anything. When you can finally relax into the acceptance of this fact, it makes it far easier to savor the mystery and intrigue of it all.

TOP 25 MYSTERY OF LIFE QUOTES (of 112) | A-Z Quotes

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Fierce Loyalty

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

The Wise Connector on Twitter today asked his followers to answer this “question”:

Name ONE brand you are loyal to.

It was interesting to read the responses because many answers were international, so I wasn’t familiar with some of the items listed. Many people listed particular car makers, Apple was listed a few times, there were some Coke votes, and also some Pepsi votes and many people listed their favorite toothpastes (albeit, all different brands). I did a quick inventory of my own go-to brand loyalty items and here are a few items that came to the top of my head right away:

Ford trucks, Ponds cold cream, Jif peanut butter, Advil ibuprofen (I believe that the brand is better than the generic is this case), SmartMouth mouthwash, Sensodyne toothpaste (preferably the British version that has Novamin – you can by this in bulk on Amazon), Illy coffee, Viva cloth-like paper towels, Mid’s tomato sauce, Heinz ketchup, Wet-n-Wild black liquid eyeliner, Discover credit cards, Chase bank

I am sure that there are a handful of other items that I am brand loyal to, but these items, which I listed above, are items in which I am extraordinarily particular about the brand. Bonanza-like sales and discounts could not veer me off course from these distinct brands. (and I’m a girl who likes a bargain) This little exercise got me to thinking about why we become loyal to particular brands. Most items that we like best, have a distinction about them, that is hard to duplicate. Sometimes this distinction is so subtle that it is even hard to define. But this distinction becomes our preference, which translates into our loyalty. Interestingly, our loyalty is not always created because we find the product superior. Sometimes we feel an affinity for the company and its principles. One follower of the Wise Connector mentioned that he will always be loyal to Nordstrom department stores because when he was young, and he only had $17 to spend for a dress shirt for an interview, the clerks at Nordstrom, nevertheless, treated him like he was a king. I, myself, feel fondly about Ford, because the Ford trucks which we have purchased throughout the years, in order to carry our large brood all over the place, have always been reliable, comfortable, solid, safe, roomy and relatively inexpensive to repair. In times when our family funds were low, we could always rely on our Ford Expeditions to get us to where we needed to go. We have a lot of beautiful family memories, driving these trucks to sporting events and to vacations and to colleges and to visits to our family and friends. My husband and I now can afford the luxury vehicles which we currently drive, and we certainly enjoy them, but just like now, we will probably always have a random Ford truck sitting in our driveway, reminding us of our roots, and the reliability of a solid American ingenuity that was a huge factor, in raising our family. Along these lines, Heinz ketchup is special to me because I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. The Heinz pickle factory sign is iconic there. I do believe that Heinz ketchup tastes better than any other ketchup there is, but I am not sure if this is because I was raised with the affinity for the actual product, or because of my fondness of what Heinz means to my hometown. It’s probably a mix of both reasons, but regardless I am totally loyal to Heinz ketchup only.

What products are you loyal to in your life? Why? I wonder if this train of thought can be expanded to all sorts of loyalties. It is interesting to become conscious of our loyalties to the different people, places and things in our lives. Why are we so fiercely loyal to these particulars? Do these people, places and things deserve our loyalty? Are we loyal to ourselves?

Also, there are certain brands which we swear off for the rest our lives, in an opposite sense of loyalty, due to a negative experience with the brand. My husband will never again purchase anything from Best Buy, due to the way that they treated us unfairly, by not honoring a warranty on a computer. This isn’t exactly disloyalty, but more a loyalty to our own self-worth and to our own higher principles.

How special it is to have qualities that make others feel loyal to you. There are so many different people, and places and things in the world. The choices are endless. How truly special it is, to have a loyal following, a loyal lover, a loyal friend, a loyal pet, a loyal God. Loyalty is often earned. How wonderful that you have earned some loyalty in your life! This loyalty to you says that you have something special, that the others just don’t have. This loyalty to you, says that you have some beautiful distinctions that set you apart, and make you amazing and intrinsically different and interesting from the rest. This loyalty to you says that you have made people feel good about being with you. You have made a difference in their lives. This loyalty to you says that those who are loyal to you, want you in their lives for always. You fill something in them, that no one else can. Treasure this loyalty. It’s more rare than we think. It’s precious.

On that note, I have had loyal readers since I started this blog over three years ago. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for your loyalty. It does not got unnoticed. I appreciate you, and I intend to continue to earn your loyalty with my steadfastness, reliability and authenticity and love.

Monday-Funday

Credit: @Emsrsue (Twitter)

This meme is truly not fair to my husband. I think there are times when he would have liked to have been more involved in the gift buying, but my alter-ego, “Karen Controlfreak” would not allow it. Still, this picture reminds me of every man I ever knew growing up. And I mean this fondly. These men worked their asses off for their families, and they always had a smile on their face wondering what their hard work was providing for others. Selfless, in many ways, really.

Here are some other tweets that captured my fancy, this morning:

One day I woke up and realized I am the dragon, not the princess. -@_desert_bones

Your confidence needs to be built from within. If it is built on compliments, it will shatter with criticism.- @WakeupPeopIe

Learn the difference between your intuition guiding you and your trauma misleading you. -@Positive_Call

Me: Ok, I’m wearing a nice outfit, I did my hair and makeup. I guess I look pretty ok! Camera: Bitch, you thought. -@momsense_ensues

Well before I agree to 2022 I need to see the terms and conditions -@frenziedlanes

Have a great week, my beloved readers!! See you tomorrow!!

****Friends, as I was wrapping up today’s post, this appeared in my backyard. Santa came early!!! There’s magic everywhere, all throughout the year. Notice it. It’s there.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Not You, Kid

“They’re just not you, Kid.” – @TheNostalgicCo, Twitter

The other day, I wrote a long, heartfelt email to an author about the difference her book (which is now out-of-print) made to me recently. The author is now in her late seventies, but still has an active website. To say that I was surprised by her response, would be an understatement.

“Who are you? Are you a real person? Are you some kind of telemarketer? Anyway, thanks. Maybe I’ll activate my book back up on Amazon.”

That’s all she wrote.

I understand that today’s society puts up a lot of roadblocks, in order for us to be able to trust each other. I also understand that this author is aging and may be going through mental challenges caused by her aging process. In short, I understand that her response has everything to do with her, and nothing to do with me. And my disappointment in her response, is all on me. My expectations are not credos for her to meet.

Along these same lines, my friend’s daughter was recently going through some real angst with some mean girls, in her freshman dorm in college. It was shocking the level of immaturity and cruelty that college-aged women still stoop to, especially in this day and age of careful, cancel culture. Actually, maybe it isn’t shocking. We mothers all agreed that we all know 50-year-old women who still behave like petty Betty, mean girls. And these vipers tend to raise mini-me mean girls, and the cycle continues on and on.

“They’re just not you, Kid.”

They all can’t be you. Only you can be you. Only you can raise yourself to the highest potential of your own best self. How others choose to respond to your growing and to your expanding and to your leveling up, is their business, their problem, their stuff. It has nothing to do with you. You be you. You surround yourself with those people who get you, respect you, honor you, and love you. You surround yourself with people who are for you, not against you. Send the rest on their merry way.

“They’re just not you, Kid.”

You are special stuff.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Small Stuff

When I let someone in traffic and they don’t wave, I picture myself using their guest soaps. – @a_simpl_man (Twitter)

This morning, this tweet literally made me laugh out loud, in recognition of myself – in more ways than one. I always find myself getting into a little tiz when someone doesn’t acknowledge my various small acts of kindness and consideration. But then I start admonishing myself that “I should do good, just for the sake of doing good, not for the appreciation and the pat on the back.” And then I spend more time thinking about how I really spend way too much thinking about situations like these, anyway. “For goodness sake, just let the guy come on to the road, and move on. Life is too short to waste time on overthinking about teeny perceived slights, by strangers. Grow up already!” Sometimes I honestly even waste my time spending it on the question, “Did the person I let on to the road, actually wave a thank you to me, and I somehow missed it because we were at a bad angle to each other?” Seriously. I can be that neurotic.

On the other hand, when someone lets me into traffic, I become almost frantic about making sure that they see my “wave of thankfulness.” I want to make sure that they see my gratefulness, so I become this crazy caricature of myself, waving like a maniacal buffoon. Sometimes I even stick my hands outside the window or through the sunroof, to make sure that the driver sees my symbol of gratitude and acknowledgement that I see them as one of the kind and thoughtful and patient people, that in my mind, makes this world a better place. Then, I imagine that the driver who lets me into traffic is thinking, “Calm down lady. It’s not like I bought you a new car. Take a chill pill.” And then once again, I get mad at myself for spending way too much time overthinking inconsequential happenings in my daily life, such as these.

This tweet also gave me a giggle about guest soaps. I grew up with guest soaps in every single bathroom of our house. And we knew NEVER to use those guest soaps, nor the fancy towels arranged pertly, by the ornate soaps. That would have been a deathwish. Those guest soaps sat there in their designated dishes, until they were infused with dust, stuck to the dish like they were super-glued onto the dish, and their once vibrant colors, faded to dingy dullness. These guest soap molds would start coming undone by time and by air, to the point that a soap which was once an intricate, detailed, lovely, expensive mermaid, was now nothing more than an oddly shaped lump that would more easily pass for maybe a hint of a manatee (and soon, even that became a stretch of the imagination).

I personally have Christmas guest soaps that I have owned for more than two decades. I put these soaps out in our powder room, every single year in an intricate Spode Christmas china soap dish. These soaps are clear glycerin with words like “Joy” and “Merry” infused inside of them. Last year I noticed that the clear glycerin has turned more into a muddled, dirty, grayish brown. These guest soaps have become so unsavory, that of course, now, no one would ever even dream of actually using the soaps, for sanitary purposes. (what an oxymoron) Still, I’m attached to these gaudy Christmas guest soaps. I contemplated it, but I just couldn’t throw them away last year. I will unpack the guest soaps again this year, and I will put them in the Spode dish, and all will feel right in my world this holiday season.

The other odd thing about fancy guest soaps is that they almost look edible, like fancy chocolates. When I was a kid, these soaps were scarily tempting to put into my mouth, to try and eat them. (It’s kind of like when you were a kid and no one could convince you that the Hershey cocoa powder would not, at all, taste like delicious hot cocoa packets. I think I had to learn that lesson more than once as a kid. I was a slower learner, in these ways of life.)

So, I just realized that I have spent about 40 more minutes of my life contemplating minutiae. And that’s okay. Just like waving or not waving to polite strangers, or using guest soaps or not using guest soaps, does not totally matter in the bigger scheme of things, it sometimes feels good to spend some time on “the small stuff.” Still, at the same time, it’s good to remember Richard Carlson’s famous, important, poignant line, “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff.”

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday – Funday

“Be the change you want to find in the cupholder.” – Ozzy (Twitter)

I read recently that it’s fun to leave a dollar on a grocery shelf or in a library book, every once in a while. Whoever finds it will feel lucky, and you can reflect on your anonymous good deed and get a smile out of it, any time you think of it. I recently left a dollar on the jello shelf in my local grocery store. I’m not sure that was the best, thought-out placement for the dollar bill. I don’t know how many people make and eat jello anymore. Maybe the dusty dollar bill is still sitting there, waiting for someone to find it. I hope that whoever finds it, sees it as a sign which they have been waiting for, a sign that means something like, “Things are looking up. Everything is going to be okay. Now go make yourself a nice jello salad.”

“I’m sensitive, not soft. I’ll slap you while I’m crying.” – Madison Ice (Twitter)

I really like this tweet. I think that many sensitive, empathic people are much stronger than anyone ever gives them credit for being. Imagine feeling every sensation and emotion that occurs in life, ten times harder than the average Joe. Imagine noticing every slight nuance and change of energy in every room and every circumstance, like being a human hair trigger. It’s a lot. Sensitive people are actually probably stronger than most people. Remember a silken, spider web is one of the strongest elements on earth. It make look fragile, but it is as strong or stronger than steel. (The tensile strength of steel ranges from 0.2 GPa to 2 GPa, while the tensile strength of some spider silks is about 1 GPa. – reconnectwithnature.org) The next time you are tempted to tell someone whom you perceive to be a sensitive person to “toughen up”, check yourself. “For a highly sensitive person, a drizzle feels like a monsoon.”(anonymous) Sensitive people have survived many, many monsoons in their lives. Have you?

2 Jello Quotes & Sayings with Wallpapers & Posters - Quotes.Pub

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Reading and Writing and Rest

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

(credit: Rex Masters Twitter)

This made me giggle and completely resonated with me on my Twitter feed today:

“I’m at the age where the only artists I know on music award shows are the lifetime achievement award winners” – Dr. William, Twitter

And this one is the truth:

“When you are overthinking, WRITE. When you are under-thinking, READ.” – Positive Call, Twitter

I would add: “And when you are exhausted from all kinds of thinking, REST.”

This is my current state of being. I need rest. May this be a restful time for all of us. A little rest never hurt anybody.