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.