channing

I can’t spill it on the news just yet, I however have an interesting read for you cell phone users out there. Now, I used to use just about every cell phone provider out there; PrimeCo (my first ever service), AT&T, Sprint and now T-Mobile. I know people have their issues with different providers and these days it seems that people will settle on who pisses them off the least. I can honestly say that I have never had any issues with T-Mobile and am very satisfied with them. Previous to T-Mobile I used to have a contract with Sprint. I left them for 2 reasons, they didn’t have blue tooth ready phones and horrific customer service (if you can even call it that). This past weekend they again proved my reason for leaving. So here is my .02 cents about Sprint

My mother and father upgraded their phones this Christmas because of the new law in Chicago, both of them wanted the speaker phone option. So we go to the Sprint store…all three of us to look at the phones. They both find ones they like and because of the upgrade plan my mothers was free and my father’s phone was a minimal cost, since he wanted a fancy one. I tell the sales rep, “We do not want these phones if they have to pay an activation fee.” To which he replies, “Oh, don’t worry about it.” Good, so we get the phones and then one would expect a happy ending. NOT IN THIS STORY!!
January bill comes … my family (except Kai and I, T-Mobile for us) are on a Sprint family plan and not only do my parents phones have an activation fee attached to them, but so do my 2 other bothers who did nothing to their phones … WHAT THE!!. So my mom calls up Sprint and explains the situation, the lady says, “Ok, here’s what you owe … and I’ll take care of the activation for the phones.” Wow, that was painless right. HECK NO!!
February bill comes … They removed 2 of the 4 activations and charged my mom a late fee because the last bill was not paid in full. Ohhh man. So at this point I’m frustrated, but what can you expect from them, right. So mom calls up on Saturday at 11:40ish. We’re cooking and cleaning for my little brothers birthday. At 1:15 (I kid you not) we’re still on hold. So I call up T-Mobile to see how fast I can get through to their customer service … less then 5 minutes. I say, “Hey so and so, thanks. I was just proving my point that T-Mobile customer service is better then Sprints.” Then we hung up. At 3:15 (mom is still on hold), I decide to call up Sprint from my phone to see if I can get through any quicker. Of course I choose the activate new phone option Someone picks up in a matter of moments, to which I immediately say, “I’d like to speak to a manager please, this is going to involve some yelling and I know it’s out of your hands.” She says ok and I tell her briefly the situation.
I get a manager within a few minutes and tell her the situation. My mother’s bill is wrong, yada yada. And she did fix it. However, I asked her to explain why after 4 hours now, why my mother who’s phone was still in the queue to be answered by a customer service representative has not been answered. “Well we have no control over how long people wait, her call would be answered in the order it came in.” “YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT 4 HOURS WORTH OF PEOPLE WERE IN FRONT OF HER!?!?“ The message at the beinging of course said that the approximate wait time was 20 minutes. So she said something to the extent of people are ahead of her. Me again, 4 hours worth of people, I mean if that was the case then get the voice to say, “The appoximate wait time is way too long for you to hold on if you have anything better to do, try again later.” So we go back and forth a little and now I’m irate because there’s really no excuse. Then she trys to tell me that I haven’t been on hold for 4 hours, and that she can see I’ve been waiting for a few minutes. Yes, that is correct the phone I’m calling on (which you probably thought was a new activation) has been waiting for a few minutes, but my mom’s phone is still on hold. I asked if she wanted to listen to the music that we’ve been listening to for the past 4 hours, with the auto operator coming on telling us that a representative will be with us shortly. She didn’t get the point there. So she ended up saying, “I credited your account for the late charge and the activation fee, what more do you want?!?” WHAT MORE DO I WANT! How about an explaination as to why you’re customer service is horrific, why my mother has to hold this long to fix something that wasn’t her fault. I said, “Look, if you knew me, you’d know that I don’t ask for handouts, but I think you need to do something for my mother’s account. Something to make them feel like waiting for 4 hours wasn’t a waste of time! She said the same thing to me. At this point my mother is telling me it’s not worth it and to just hang up. So I thanked the manger for fixing the problems, but the corporate office as well as the better business bureau will be getting an account of what went down today and we will no long be using their service once the contract it up. Then hung up.
Why am I telling you this…I don’t know, it’s not like you’re gonna get up and switch service providers, but I just want you to know, just in case you thought you were the only one … or if you were thinking about going with Sprint. I’ve said my peace…good day.

~Dru

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAI
It’s my little brother’s birthday today annnnd he can finally buy rated M games, yay Good dinner tonight … +

Something exciting has happened…I’ll expound at a later time.

~Dru

1. I <3 my family.
2. I can’t stand bad drivers
3. Uncle Fred is the bestest … and so is Nicole for brining my some green chili!

So the story goes like this. Last year when I went to Phoenix for Christmas, I had some of this green chili at one of the family parties. Now this was unlike any other chili I’ve tasted. Mom makes a mean chili so does auntie Jackie, but this one was unique and had a very different taste. Yum. I was craving the chili all year long, and asked Nicole many-a-time to make some for me (it’s a family recipie, so I can’t get it yet ) He made this 5 or 6 gallon pot that Christmas, so when this one came around I was looking to take some home. To my disappointment, no chili, it turns out that it didn’t cool right this year, so the whole pot spoiled I was sad. Nice uncle Fred said he’d make some for me next time I came out, unfortunately I couldn’t make it to Debbie and Steve’s wedding … buuuuut, he gave 6 chinese takeout containers full of chili for me YAY, I’m lookin’ forward to the flavors jumping around inside my mouth.

So I was thinking:
Do I share, I mean I have so little … and no one could possibly enjoy this more then me. I’ve been waiting over a year for this.

On the other hand:
People might enjoy this as much as me and then we can all take a trip out to Flagstaff and visit uncle Fred at his restaurant and have more green chili among other delicious things.

Also:
Do I try and streeeeaaaaaach it out as long as possible, savoring every bite?

or:
Indulge myself and be a glutton because it’s just sooo gooood ?

Too many options

~Dru

Happy Valentines Day!! I know, I know it’s 2 days late. There is a reason why I’m posting so late though … I was having a little trouble with the pictures that I took with my camera phone, since my digi was out of batteries and Nicole’s is sitting in Arizona
So of course when you start dating someone people usually ask, “What did you do for Valentines Day? You couples get asked that…right? If not, I’ll ask you next year. This was Nicole’s and my first some what normal Valentines days together. Our first year, she was still going to school in Tucson, I sent her a dozen fire and ice roses (white with red tips) which happen to be her favorite. Year 2 we went tubing with my family (which is where I’ll be tomorrow ). Last year we were in the car driving here to Chicago, we arrived on vDay from the last leg of our road trip (Dallas to Chicago), so I was too tired to really do anything. So we come to this year vDay ‘06. I wanted to something a little more romantic, so after school on Tuesday, I went to go play ball (as I do every Tuesday ) hehe, that’s not all I did, but Nicole works late, so I figured I had some time to squeeze in a game or too. I had been planning the evening for a couple of days. I left ball early, only to find out that she was getting off early … SHOOT, no time to shower, I had to get dinner ready. It’s ok, if she really loved me then my B.O. won’t bother her too much What was on the menu you ask? One of her favorites, Chicken Marsala. I had to carefully choose a recipe … looked and looked, finally settled on one of her favorite chefs … the one that she’d eat dinner with, if she could only choose 3 people to eat with … none other then Chef Emeril Lagasse! The recipe looked easy enough for a rookie like me to make so I did. I have some “BAM” left over if you need some As I was starting the Marsala, Nicole came home to find a dozen roses on her bed She took a shower as dinner was cooking. I started the appetizer (little pastry like shells, filled with mushrooms, onions and scallions). After some time, a little sweat and Emeril’s BAM, dinner was ready. We had a small candle lit dinner for two at her apartment. So I give you the pics

“The Flowers”

“Dinner is Served”

“Chicken Marsala over Fettuccini”

I suprised even myself with the taste…it made me want more and if I wasn’t stuffed, I definitely would have gotten more. But the evening wasn’t over yet, Nicole did the dishes and I got her the card and other gift out. I wanted to give her something cute and relatively inexpensive (since I got in trouble for Christmas ) I decided to give her a book that I had bought for her during our first year of dating, I just never found the right time to present it to her …

That’s right “I Like You” It’s actually pretty funny, I read it to her before I left.

So thanks for the great Valentine’s Day hun. Oh…and what did I get, well you may not believe me … buuuut she got me a credit card, VERY practical (as Nicole is a practical giver). Nice nice, “Charge IT!” I should let everyone know that Nicole is the greatest…and now you all think I’m Super Cheeze … but that’s ok, cuz Nicole looooooves me …. Jesus does too!

~Dru

Call me butter cuz I’m on a roll! This is my third post this week.

Ever see that movie Contact with Jodie Foster? It’s the one where she decrypts a message from space … the Vega sector I believe. Then humanity builds this machine according to the plans that were in the message. Well….what I’m about to say has nothing to do with the movie Contact, but with my contacts, hehe I thought that was kinda funny to put that little blurb in.
Anyway, I went to the optomotrist yesterday. I told him that my vision was a little blurry, but that I thought it was from my contacts. I wanted to get a pair of glasses anyway so that’s why I went in too. So he’s looking at my eyes and says, “I can’t see the cornia, that’s not good.” I’m thinking Oh crap. I tell him, well I think my contacts are a little scratched up and such, I haven’t taken them out in a while. Then he tells me that not taking them out is bad for my eyes, and tells me why…So here it is

He said that your cornia needs oxygen, and that they’ll get it by any means necessary. Usually what happends is that the moisture in your eyes (tears) carry oxygen so usually they’ll get it that way. In the case where people wear contacts, when you blink the blinking actions causes the moisture to move under the lense bringing in new oxygen to the cornia. If you sleep with your contacts on then you’re not blinking because your eyes are closed. What will happen is that little vessels will start to grow inside your eyeball to bring oxygen to the cornia. In an extreme case there will be so many vessels that your cornia will be blocked causeing partial or complete vision loss. And he shared a case with me where this 18 year old kid had this problem. So then he says once the vessels are there there is no way to get rid of them, if one stops wearing contacts, or even takes them out every night allowing the cornia to get oxygen, the vessels will leave behind scar tissue, still causing vision loss…In some cases it’s an irreversable problem.

So now I’m a little freaked out when he tells me he’s not getting a clear picture of my cornia. He’s how the conversation then went:
Dr. C: How long has it been since you’ve taken out your lenses?
Me: Probably since I’ve gotten them.
Dr. C: Which has been how long?
Me: July, but before I got the ones in July, I’ve left my old ones in for over a year, taking them out once in a while to clean them.
Dr. C:

You’re joking right?
Me: No, I haven’t really had any problems other then my lenses getting scratched up and such.

Ok, so to make an even longer story short … I had what he said was the beginning stages of the vessels and that I’m pretty lucky that I didn’t have more damage done, because the 18 year old kid that did…also had his contacts in for a year. The beginning stage is reversable … all I need to do is take out my contacts every night. Apparenty I have moist eyes, because not many people can do what I do. I have gas perm. lenses and honestly I never took ‘em out because I was lazy and for my older ones, it was prolly about a year and a half they say in my eyes. But what Dr. C said scared me enough, my vision is important to me, so after he layed it all out, I gonna be good about taking care of my eyes. My vision did improve though, so that’s kinda funny (instead of -5 in both, I’m -4.75 in one and -4.25 in the other) He also said the reason he couldn’t see my cornia with my contacts in was because my lenses have soo much protein on them from not cleaning them that is blurry, which is why I’m having problems seeing out. Hehe, so there’s my lesson learned. Thank GOD no cornia transplant, and that I have good eyes. I’m blessed with moist eyes ladies and germs, you want my genes don’t you?

Oh and on a side note…for all of you people who clean your contact lenses in your mouth…it’s better if you were to take that lense and pee on it…your urine is cleaner then yer mouth….eeewwww

~Dru