Whatever happened to "great" customer service?

I've had better days. Today was definitely not one of them. Work was the hardest part. I have recently taken up the position of ordering for the office, however communication is very minimal when it comes to maintaining adequate amounts of supplies. This week I had a request to place an order for a piece of an appliance that was needed by the laboratory technician. Turns out, the order was incorrect. Naturally, I thought that it would be alright to return the item without any problems or any hassle. Unfortunately, that wasn't happening. The individual who sold the item decided that unless I had a good reason as to why I wanted to return the merchandise, he wasn't going to accept my return. It upsets me that some companies don't have the common decency to provide amazing customer service to their consumers which they claim they pride themselves in. The boss even spoke with the individual and he still wouldn't accept the return. What company does that? It makes sense to say that an item is nonrefundable if it is custom made, but this item was not. So why not take it back? Provide us a refund and let it all pass. So what if one business no longer believes or trusts in your product anymore? You have plenty of other businesses to rely on.

Bar Hopping

When you live in a small town where the population is approximately 5,000 there tends to be limited after hour activities made available to the community. Once in awhile, they will have movies at the square downtown, First Friday art walks, or festivals of some type but those types of events occur every so often. The only other options the people have are bowling, movies at Harkins, or bar hopping.

This weekend a few friends and I decided that it would be great to kick back, relax, and go out dancing. We are in our finals week so we didn't feel the pressure of having to complete assignments or take quizzes online by a certain deadline. We figured that going out dancing would be a great way for us to relieve any stress. The dancing was great. The music ranged from salsa, to classic 80s, to your typical R&B. HOWEVER, there are certain things that you have to be aware of when you're out and about in a small college town:

1.  Long lines, especially when drink specials are available

2.  Making sure your belongings are secure

3.  Creepy people at the bar

From my experience, these are the top three things that you should be aware of. In order to overcome these barriers you need to :

1. Get to bars earlier than 10:00pm

2. Wear clothing with lots of pockets or have a man with nice deep pockets to go out with you so he can carry your stuff till the end of the night

3. I'm not sure how to deal with this factor...wear ugly clothes perhaps? Smell awful to keep them away?
    One thing's for sure at least have good friends go out with you so they can:

    A. Act as your lesbian lover or
    B. Pose as your boyfriend at the bars.

The bar was filled with men that assume it's okay to come up behind you and start grinding on you because you're dancing with your girl friends. No! That's so disrespectful. Be a gentleman and ask a girl to dance. That would be the decent thing to do. Oh and word of advice, if a girl says "no" the first time, she's definitely going to say "hell no" the second time.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

To all of the beautiful mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!

I am grateful for my mom!

She tells me everyday

That she loves me so much

In her own special way.

No matter where or when

Whether near or way yonder

She shows how much she cares

With much oomph and ardor.

Through good and bad times

She always remains calm

She reminds us we're a unit

She's the backbone for us all.

I truly hope she knows

That I love her so much

I appreciate all she does

From her words to her touch.

Thank you mom! I love you!

The Art of Cliff Diving

This week kicks off final exams week for college students in Arizona. It's amazing how quickly the semester, better yet the year has gone by. Time flies by real fast when you're enjoying life and keeping busy.

Normally, when a student is aware of upcoming final exams, they freak out and worry that they will not have enough time to study ALL of the material. I on the other hand decided to go to the creek and enjoy the beautiful weather. For the first time in my life, I let loose and decided to be spontaneous and jump off a cliff into the water. Being a rookie, I had no idea what the rules were or the proper position that a person should be in when entering the water. So my legs were tucked into my body a bit for fear that I may hit rocks at the bottom of the creek. When I hit the water, it felt as though someone struck a paddle to my bottom. This morning I wake up and found that it was a little tender and uncomfortable sitting on a chair. Come to find that there are three humongous bruises on my bottom.

Moral of the story: Know what to expect when you go cliff diving for the first time and keep your legs straight!

Dating....

Being single and living in a small town poses a challenge when trying to meet people outside of the work, school, or friend circle. Most of the people that live here are individuals with families or college students. Unfortunately, in this town, there aren't any adult activity centers where singles can mingle or other venues that offer similar services. The only way that you can actually meet people is through mutual friends or resort to meeting people at the local bar, which definitely is not my style. I recently joined an online dating service and have not had much luck in finding people to hang out with in our little town.

At this point in time, I'm kind of stumped, and am not sure what can be done to change this. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Kiddie Clinic

This weekend our university Dental Hygiene Program sponsored Kiddie Clinic for the community. This community event was essentially for children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years. We provided several different services including: dental exams, cleanings, and application of sealants all at a discounted price. The great thing about this event was that people without insurance were given the opportunity to get long awaited cleanings without having to pay an arm and a leg for the services rendered. It was definitely a great way to get our name out to the community and provide these services for children in need.

Our theme was the Disney movie "The Incredibles" so our whole clinic was decked out in posters of pictures from the movie, which definitely created a fun and welcoming atmosphere for the children. I was fortunate enough to have been nominated as the gal to provide entertainment for the children. So I dressed up as the tooth fairy for the children. I would like to think that I was a hit at the event. It was great to see that I was able to help the little kids feel at ease about going into the clinic to get work done on their teeth just by talking to them and giving them ideas about what to expect when they are in the chair. Hopefully, I put a big smile on their faces and they enjoyed their experience.

Life of a College Student....Again

It's hard adjusting from a life in the real world to a life as a college student. It seems as though there is never enough time in a day to accomplish more than just school work and studying for exams. Often times, the past leisurely pleasures are missed, such as going to the movies, going on shopping sprees after the paycheck is direct deposited into your account, or just hanging around the house and doing absolutely nothing. It does, however, leave you with a great feeling of accomplishment and it makes for an even greater sensation knowing that you are one step closer to fulfilling your dreams and goals in life.

I guess it's wrong for me to complain about not having a life at the current moment. After all, I'll have more time in the near future to do as I please for as long as I would like. I just have to keep my head up, put all my faith in God, and keep telling myself that all of my hard work will pay off one day.

So today, I am reminded that I am fortunate to have been given the opportunity to fulfill my dreams. Big toothy smiles for my blessings.

The Sun Is Shining

I finally got a chance to chat with my roommate about our situation and it seems as though we've pretty much got things settled....I think. He's a much bigger person than I am and can be mistaken as very intimidating individual. It's a good thing he doesn't intimidate me whatsoever. I am not about to let some big, ex-military dude try and push me down. But in either case, I think things will look up from now on. We've come to and understanding with one another, and I am hoping that things will change for the better. He claims that he will be moving out either by the end of the month or the middle of next month, we'll see about that one :-p

Anyways, after a mild snow storm yesterday, things are looking beautiful outside with the sun shining nice and bright. Today will be a great day :-)

Frustrations

It may seem odd that the first blog I write is about frustrations, but I really needed to clear my head before I explode!

I live in a house with three male roommates owned by my family. We live in a really nice, family-oriented neighborhood, but our backyard is not fenced off because my family finds it unnecessary to seek funds and put up a fence for the backyard if the plan is to keep the house for only another two years. Three of us have dogs and of the three dogs, two are potty trained. The dog that is not potty trained has a kennel that she can easily be placed in while no one is present in the house. However, my roommate finds it unnecessary to keep her in the kennel while he is gone, which results in the dog having "accidents" in the house. With all of the members of the household being college students, it is a constant battle trying to find the time to retreat back to the house and allow the dogs to relieve themselves. I have constantly confronted my roommate about my concerns of his dog having "accidents" in the house. He, however, finds it necessary to become defensive towards me about me expressing my concerns to him even though he is hardly ever home to take care of his dog and he has NEVER once had to clean up after his dog because he's never home!


Yesterday, he literally came home at 4:30pm and stayed for about an hour and a half to let his dog out and watch television on the couch. Then he left his dog roaming around the house and didn't come back until about 11pm later that night. I think I let his dog outside at least 5 times before I put her back in the kennel and before he came home that night. And to top everything off he left the house again with his dog roaming around freely. He sent me a message requesting that I not keep the dog in her kennel anymore because he claims that "I" keep her in there too much. I replied and said that I disliked the smell of rotten canine feces in the house ESPECIALLY when it was left sitting on the carpet too long. That's the worst because that's when the smell soaks into the carpet and it lingers in the house for days, weeks, sometimes even months. How can anyone tolerate living in a house that smells awful? I'm embarrassed to have people come over because it constantly smells like a dog kennel. He explained that he let his dog out three times that day and claims that she pooped twice, but honestly, how can you tell with a dog when you're never home to take care of her? I said that I would leave her kennel open, but if she pooped in the house again, I didn't want her to roam freely without him being home. He claims that I was "threatening" him, when clearly I wasn't. I was simply trying to compromise. He HATED the fact that I even made a suggestion. So I told him that it was probably better to find a place that would be better for her. He hated that idea too. He said that I was doing a bad job of handling the situation and that it wasn't the right way for roommates to communicate with one another.  I have talked to him about this problem several times in the past and have been very patient with him. To this day, nothing has been done to help out with this situation. He said that it wasn't a situation that should be "my way or the highway"

Excuse me, but this is my family's house and you pay rent. I literally was doing him a HUGE favor by letting him and his dog into our house. When he first came in he said that he would be looking for a place with a Master bedroom and a yard while he was living here, which obviously hasn't been happening. He even said that he would only live here until December 2010. It's April 2011.... what happened? I'm fed up and irritated to the max. Am I in the wrong?

Unfortunately, today, we will not be having a perfect smile