David's Bridal still stinks

In case you're keeping up with the wedding dress saga...

The Evil David's Bridal came back today to say that they will order Sister Lindsay another new dress (this is her THIRD new dress, in case you're counting), and it will take at least a week to come in. After that, they're not sure if they'll give her free alterations or not. If they're not in the mood, I guess we're out of luck. 

Uggh. Why can't people just take responsibility for their mistakes and do the right thing? How hard would it be for them to say, "We're really sorry that we made this part of your wedding 100 times more stressful than it needed to be. And so, to make it up to you, because we as a company want to do the right thing, we will alter your dress for free. After all, we did fail at the alterations three times before. And we bled on your dress. And ripped a few holes in. And David's Bridal is better than that, and we stand behind our products."

But no. Apparently the Evil David's Bridal doesn't worry about providing quality work, even though they like to charge quality prices.

Happy Ending

Today, I was the Girl with the Pearl Earring. 

Just the one.

Because the other fell out somewhere. I wasn't sure where. It doesn't help that I work in an incredibly huge hospital with six floors, and this morning I decided to run all over the hospital, never taking the same route twice. 

After I finished all that running, I realized I had lost my favorite earring. It was part of the set that my parents gave me a few years ago. I love them. And one was gone.

After retracing my steps and calling our Lost & Found department, I gave up. And then, on a whim, I decided to send an email blast asking folks to watch out for my earring. 

And then came the happy ending. At 9:30 tonight, someone from the radiology night shift called to say that a patient had found an earring on the floor. He didn't think much of it until he checked his email and realized it was mine. We will be reunited in the morning! Hooray!

Pooh on David's Bridal

David's Bridal, you are a bad, bad company.

First, you messed up my sister's wedding dress. You altered it (for $400). And it didn't fit.

So she had it altered again. And it still didn't fit.

So she had it altered a third time. And it still didn't fit.

Oh yeah, and after the third alteration, she found BLOOD on her dress. And rips and snags in the seams. Your seamstress BLED on my sister's dress, did shoddy work, and all you offered to do to make it right was discount her $65. 

Um, yeah, that's not going to work.

Because you ruined her first dress (after three failed alterations), you ordered her a second dress. You made her wait a month for it to arrive. When the new dress came... it was too small. Even though it was the size you claimed would fit her better. And then, you still wouldn't do anything to make it right. That nothing could be done. For a fourth time, you couldn't get it right. 

Even worse, you made my sister cry.

That's when big sister Bethe stepped in. After a spirited "discussion" with your manager, you said you might give her a free alteration. After you clear it through corporate, you have promised to call me in the morning.

But, David's Bridal... if you don't take care of this (and quickly)... then you're going to get to see me in action. Nobody messes with my sister. And you have no idea how persistent I can be. Just ask the VP of Communications for AOL, who called and gave me a personal apology a few years ago for the actions of his company. I'm a nice girl, and I will be nice to you. And I'm rarely assertive or confrontational. But don't mess with me when I mean business. 

And trust me, I mean business on this one. 

But I'm hopeful that you, David's Bridal, will do the right thing. Take care of your customer. Save the day. 

Go ahead. This is your chance.

Reasons

There's a simple explanation for the dire lack of blogging activity over the past week... I am so consumed by work and school at the moment that I don't have a single brain cell left to think of something interesting (or uninteresting, for that matter) to write about. 

Now don't go feeling too sorry for me. Yes, I just pulled a 14-hour day today, and a 12-hour day yesterday, and several 12-hour days last week. In fact, if you add up the hours I will be either working or in school over the next six days, it adds up to around 75. Including Friday night and 14 hours on Saturday. Gulp. 

But in between school district advisory board meetings, organizing galas and putting on marathons, I've managed to fit in a few hot tub nights, a drive-in movie, neighborhood dinner parties, a little Bachelor watching with girlfriends, and a huge blow-out party at my sister's new house. I may feel like I've been run over by a freight train (that's what a full week without a decent night's sleep will do for you), but as I drove home tonight at 9:00 after a long day of work, singing at the top of my lungs to Taylor Swift's Love Story, I was quite happy.

Train 'em up early

The Bachelor has become a bit of a tradition at my house. Some of my favorite memories with girlfriends throughout the years involve dinner parties while watching this show. I started watching with my college friends back in 2002, and now have graduated to my "big girl" married friends.  My good friend Tiff and I are both hopelessly hooked, and tonight we introduced her new baby Sevyn (about 6 weeks old) to her first girl bonding night with The Bachelor! Sevyn was just as upset as we were that Bachelor Jason has turned into a bit of a sleeze, but we all enjoyed yelling at the TV at the silly girls and all their drama. And we still love Jillian, even if she DID get the boot last week. 

And if you want some juicy Bachelor gossip, check this out.

What the heck?!

Jason, the Bachelor, is an idiot! He voted off Jillian, the beautiful girl with lot's of personality who was mature and fun and cool... and yet she wasn't "sparky" enough for him.

Ugggh! The minute he sent her home, my phone started ringing off the hook. My mother is NOT happy about this one... guys, you all got blamed for most of the world's problems last night because of this goober. I'll admit, we all got a bit worked up by his stupidity. I apologize for that...

But come on Jason... what a terrible decision!

Mix Tape

My friend David isn't the only one who makes mixed tapes. Here's my Super-Girlie February 2009 Favorites Playlist... as chosen by me. The only criteria for this... songs that make me happy. Each one makes me happy for a different reason. There's a lot of Taylor Swift because I just bought her newest CD yesterday and I'm a tad bit obsessed. And I really wanted to include Vanilla Ice, because that song makes me the happiest of all, but it didn't fit with the rest, so I had to give it the axe. It may be number one on my Super-Awesome-Cool March 2009 Favorites Playlist.

Drumroll please...

1. Change - Taylor Swift

2. Getting Into You - Relient K

3. I'm Letting Go - Francesca Battistelli

4. Love Story - Taylor Swift

5. Here - Rascal Flatts

6. Lay Your Head Down - Karen Ann

7. The One I Love - David Gray

8. Fearless - Taylor Swift

9. Watch Over Me - Aaron Shust

10. The Way You Look Tonight - Rod Stewart

11. You're Not Sorry - Taylor Swift

12. When I Go Down - Relient K

13. White Horse - Taylor Swift

14. Give a Little Love - The Judds

15. Breathe - Taylor Swift

16. Be OK - Ingrid Michaelson

17. Tim McGraw - Taylor Swift

18. My Baby Loves Me - Martina McBride

I think I'm in love...

Today, Feb. 14, is one of my favorite days of the year, simply because of these seven little words:

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training.

All better--bye bye flu

PS--After 27 sick blogs over the past ten days, I'm happy to report that I'm doing much better! I managed to go to work today, and made it all the way until 3:00 before going home and passing out on my couch. I think my couch will have a permanent imprint of my hiney on it after this week.

It's so good to be back with the living... and away from Facebook. I have officially cyber-stalked every person I have ever known and am utterly bored by the whole thing. If my childhood best friend's little brother's new wife posted photos this week, I've seen them. Now that I'm feeling better, it's so good to be back around REAL people, doing REAL work, and breathing REAL fresh air. Thanks again to everyone who prayed for me and emailed me over the past week... you guys rock. I'm happy to officially report that I'm NO LONGER CONTAGIOUS. Hooray!

All that work for nothing...

Sometimes, there just aren't enough words to describe the irony. This lady had the world record for longest nails, which she hadn't cut in 30 years... and in a twist of fate, she was thrown from a car in an accident, and survived near death. But her nails didn't.

I can't tell you how utterly grossed out I am by this photo. I keep thinking of all of my daily, mundane tasks, and how I would manage to do them if I had lassos for fingernails. Not to mention how difficult it must be for her to find mittens that fit. 

Valentines Fun

Well, it's day nine and I'm still home in bed. I've officially run out of things to do, and yet I don't have the energy to worry about it. Luckily, I talked to my doctor on the phone this morning, and he assures me that my slow recovery is typical of this year's flu and nothing to worry about. He told me the same thing that every person I have spoken to for past week has told me... get lot's of rest, drink lot's of liquids, and it will eventually run its course. 

I wish they would come up with something more creative... like... eat massive amounts of cookies and ice cream and you'll get well faster. Just in case, I went ahead and tried that too.

In order to provide myself with a little bit of entertainment, here's some Valentines YouTube fun.

 

I love Losers

No, this isn't a description of all my high school boyfriends... okay, maybe a few.

How come nobody told me about the greatness that is The Biggest Loser?! Since I have exhausted my Tivo and my entire movie collection (and all of the new releases at my neighborhood Blockbuster), I am now branching out and trying out LIVE television. I know. Crazy concept. I haven't seen LIVE television in at least two years.

This show is fantastic. Not only is it great drama, but the characters are so likeable, and they give nutrition and fitness tips before every commercial! This is helpful to me, the girl who thought she was dieting by eating massive amounts of pasta in high school. It's a good thing God blessed me with a good metabolism.

But anyway, that sweet show made me cry. Then again, it might be the meds.

And I must warn you, the deluge of blogs may continue for yet another day. Even though I feel significantly better, I still have a fever that just won't say no. Until that breaks, I'm still contagious, which means no work, no hanging out with friends, and LOT'S of free time. So here come the posts.

Book Bans

I was raised with a love of good books. My mother read the classics to me at a young age. Until I was 21, I knew in my bones that I would someday be an English teacher. I believe there is so much we can learn about ourselves from the characters that talk to us through the page. My extremely conservative Christian mother helped walk me through tawdry romance in du Maurier's Rebecca, racist rantings in To Kill a Mockingbird, a rape scene in The Scarlet Letter, and descriptioins of genocide in Weisel's Night.  

The classics, when age appropriate, can teach so much to a child.

Which is why I find it ironic when parents get all in a tizzy about banning books from libraries and summer reading lists, and then send them off to the movies to watch goodness-knows-what, larger than life on the big screen. Great literature and the latest rated R phenomenon don't typically have much in common.

Which is why I'm against banning books. I simply think it's a bad idea. Most of the time it's called for out of ignorance. People have tried banning Mark Twain for years because he had the NERVE to write with the dreaded "N" word, yet his books celebrated people of color and showed the absurdity of treating someone badly based on the color of his skin. Instead of banning great literature, I think parents should read it with their children and have a healthy dialogue about the book. Use this as a teaching opportunity to show your kids why you believe a certain way, or discuss why the author included the questionable material. Maybe it contributed to the reader's understanding of the story. Maybe it was gratuitous. Talk about it. Help your kids learn.

But hiding your head in the sand does nothing to educate your children. As long as a book is age appropriate and is considered to be classic literature (not the latest vampire book... although those are fun too), I think books should remain in the library. 

The only exception would be Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, because that book has always driven me crazy. I've read it three times and I still have no idea what it means. It's just too dang hard. Go ahead and ban it.

But the others should stay.

This is what happens when you sell your soul...

A-Fraud finally speaks out... see it here.

Blah blah blah.

"I was young."

"I felt so much pressure."

Blah blah blah.

"I was naive."

"I'm not sure what substance I was guilty of using."

Blah blah blah.

"Everything was so loosey-goosey back in those days."

"Everybody was doing it."

"The popular kids told me to."

Okay, so the last one was my contribution to this ridiculous nonsense.

Did you notice the red friendship bracelet given to him by Madonna? I'm so surprised that such a deeply religious man of high moral character -- a family man -- would ever betray his fans by taking ILLEGAL steroids. I mean, look at how well he treated his beloved wife.

A-Fraud, this is so unexpected of you... I thought you were such a good guy. I'm afraid this is what happens when you sell your soul to the devil, for $252 million.

Oops. I just threw up a little in my mouth. 

To Twilight, or Not To Twilight?

Several folks have asked me what I thought of the Twilight series. I’ll admit that I was hooked about 20 pages into the first book and couldn’t put them down until the last one ended. It was rather unexpected, since I absolutely hate fantasy fiction. I only bought it because it was on sale at Wal-Mart and I made a total impulse buy. But 2,500 pages and four books later, here’s my thoughts:

----SPOILER ALERT… I’M GOING TO GIVE AWAY PART OF BOOK 4, SO SKIP IT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. AND IF YOU DISREGARD THIS MESSAGE AND READ THE SPOILER, DON’T HATE ME FOR IT AND LET IT RUIN OUR FRIENDSHIP, BECAUSE REALLY… I TOLD YOU SO. YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.----

1. I love these books. They were wholesome. No cussing, no gratuitous sex, strong family values. The story dealt with vampires and werewolves, but it was not a celebration of evil or the underworld. The author is Mormon, and I could see a strong conservative, family-values influence in her writing. This is not a Christian series, but there are also no anti-Christian messages. If these books were movies, they would be rated PG (until number 4, which I’ll get to in a minute).

2 . This is a safe, wholesome read for anybody old enough to talk about sex. In fact, it’s never even mentioned until book 3 (if I’m keeping that straight), and even then, the third book reads like one of my parents’ high school abstinence lectures. If anything, the overarching message of the series is “If you have sex, you will immediately become pregnant (no exceptions!), and your baby will violently rip its way out of your uterus and take you to the brink of death.” Yep, definitely got MY attention.

Fear kept me from doing a lot of dangerous things as a kid. So why not have a book that reinforces this? Of course, my fear always stemmed from a knowledge that my dad could make my life a living hell if I ever came home drunk or pregnant. I was the girl in high school who truly believed that one TASTE of beer could leave me drunk, because that's what daddy always told me. That, and he always assured me that if I did anything wrong, he WOULD find out, and my little high school brain couldn't even fathom the horrific punishments he would concoct for me after that. Lucky for him and for me, that was all the motivation I needed. Thanks dad, I owe you one.

But I digress...

3. It troubles me that this book is being marketed to very young girls. I know a few fourth and fifth graders who have read this series, and I think the subject matter, while handled very discreetly, is too mature for that young age. While the author never goes into details of the “mechanics,” the subject is inescapable. Once the main characters get married, it’s really all they think about. It’s not a big deal, unless you happen to be reading it and you’re 9. I wish she would have found a way to stay consistent with the first three books and just leave it out completely.

4. The fourth book is just plain boring. It’s 750 pages of total “jump the shark” nothingness. However, after having invested in 1,800 pages of the three previous books, I figured I would plug away in hopes that the ending would be worth it.

It wasn’t, really.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the first three books. While written on a junior high reading level, I found the story to be something that people of any age could appreciate.  The love story is a bit one-dimensional—as an eighth grade girl I would have seen the brooding and mysterious Edward as my dream guy. But now as an adult, Edward struck me as rather boring. I’ve heard people criticize Bellah and Edward’s obsessive love relationship as an unhealthy example to girls, but I argue that younger girls who have never experienced love and all its complications won’t be hurt by fantasizing about finding their knight in shining armor who will literally worship the ground she walks on, always think she’s right, never argue with her, and never challenge her. After all, that’s the ending to just about every chick flick movie I’ve ever watched. Good fiction doesn’t have to be reality. That’s what makes it fun.

Besides, I like anything that motivates people to read. Books have always been one of my first loves, and if people can get excited about a wholesome, well-written story, then I’m a fan. If you’re looking for a book that will teach you life lessons and show a true representation of love in the “real” world, then this isn’t for you. But if you want to escape for a few hours into the lives of some interesting folks who are nothing like you, and everything like you, then run to your bookstore and buy it now! Or call me, and I’ll lend you my copy.

Productive Weekend

Who says you can't get a lot done when you're home sick, unable to get off the couch?

Since Thursday I have...

Watched:

Miss Pedigrew

Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys

Mad Money

The Secret Life of Bees (this was FANTASTIC!)

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist (it was horrible, I turned it off after 15 minutes)

Three episodes of The Office

Three episodes of Ugly Betty

Four episodes of Grey's Anatomy

Five episodes of Kath & Kim

One episode of Law & Order: SVU

The Grammy's

Meet the Press

100 hours of misc. TV, including a sewing show and a construction show on PBS (at one point I was too sick to change the channel)

And...

I finished the last Twilight book

Did my taxes

Read several magazines and Setting the Agenda (for school... boring!)

And... I spent about 500 hours on Facebook.

After this week, I will appreciate my hectic, non-stop crazy weeks just a little more.

Maybe I'll live

Well, my sweet blogging friends, it looks like I just may beat this flu after all. I'm on day five, and while my fever is still hovering around 100, today is the first day that I have been able to get off my couch and act like a human being for short spurts of time. I can only last about 10 minutes at a time off my couch, but it's such a relief to be able to DO something, even if it's just loading my dishwasher with the stacks of dirty dishes that have accumulated for the past week.

I'm on the mend. A few more days and I'll be back to normal. Thanks for all your concern and prayers.

All the single ladies

Word on the street says that Chipotle is one of the best places to meet a hunky, single guy. 

I can just see it now... I sit alone at a table in the noisy restaurant. Just as I take a monstrous bite of my oversized burrito, a handsome man catches my eye. I coyly flash a smile at him, and chicken juice runs down my chin and bits of rice and guacamole fall in my lap. 

So romantic.

A-Fraud

This is yet another reason why I hate A-Rod...

You know you're sick when...

... You wear the same clothes for three days in a row, and you don't even care.

I'm trying to muster the energy to get off my couch and change into something a little more fresh. But at the moment, this may seem like an unreachable goal.

I'm kind of a big deal

Before you ask me, "Bethe, why are you posting a blog at 2 a.m. in the middle of the week?" I will give you an answer... because the chills, the fever, and the aches from my flu are making it impossible to sleep! And I'm sick of reading, sick of watching TV, and I'm not able to actually SIT UP, so the only thing left to do is kill time on my laptop. Being sick is so annoying.

But back to the post... I was mentioned in a travel blog! Check it out... click here if you ever wanted to know about the exciting world of travel insurance. Does this make me famous? he he.

Sick

I'm conducting a personal experiment... we'll see if that Tamaflu medicine really does help shorten the flu. Because that's what I woke up with this morning. I don't have any time to be sick, I don't have enough extra vacation days to be sick... and yet I find myself here in bed, with a 101 fever, doped up on flu medicine and Advil, about to tackle the end of the fourth Twilight book. I might as well make lemons out of lemonade, right?

Perplexed

I am officially hooked on The Bachelor once again. I tried my darndest to stay away... to resist... to just say no. But alas, I wasn't strong enough. And now I am officially addicted.

But one thing has been bothering me about this show for years...

These folks go on all these fabulous dates. The dates usually involve drinking a lot of champagne. Red wine. White wine. Cheese. Strawberries dipped in chocolate. And then they wash it down with more red wine.

So when my hunky bachelor goes in for the big kiss, and all I can think about is how funky their breath must be at that moment! Because if I eat chocolate-covered strawberries and cheese, I get that funny after-taste. I never see these gals chew gum. So unless they're secretly popping mints that I can't see, I just have to know what their secret is!

Ahh... the magic of television.

Wisdom from The Office

"An office is not a place where people die. An office is a place where dreams come true." -Michael Scott

"I am so proud of the potential you see in me." -Michael Scott, to his boss

"This is why we do training. We learn from our mistakes. And now Dwight knows not to cut the face off a real person." -Michael Scott, to his boss

"I've got to make sure YouTube comes down to tape this." -Michael Scott

"If you've ever put sunblock on a window, you might be Michael Scott. If you ever called the fire department because your head was stuck in a chair, you might be Michael Scott." -Angela

"Sometimes, to get perspective, I like to think about a space man on a star, far, far away." -Michael Scott

The Big Game

I'm off to a Super Bowl party, armed with a freshly baked dessert. Not that I care in the slightest about the game... but I do love the camaraderie. I'm always up for an excuse to hang out with friends and eat massive amounts of junk food.