Sometimes the right hand should know what the left hand is doing

As I mentioned, I recently had to vacate the Puddle. My new apartment, by the way, is much less puddle-like, but I digress. In the process of moving, I naturally had to change my internet service over to the new address. I took care of this the day after I decided to go ahead with the move, and 5 days before the move. Everything went great, except for the fact that they didn't have any appointments available until Thursday, 3 days after I moved. Now, I'm not entirely sure what this appointment is, because I never met with anyone, and I'm not sure what they were doing during the week while I was waiting for them to switch my internet. It doesn't make much sense to me, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it.
So on Thursday, I got home, and tried to get the internet working. No luck. I checked the confirmation letter, and it said that it may not be activated until 8pm. So I waited and waited and that night, I tried again. Nothing. Since I couldn't do anything about it then, I decided to deal with it the next day and went to bed.
The next day, I tried calling on my way to work. My reward was to be on hold for 15 minutes, with a message every twenty seconds saying, "Your call is important to us. Thank you for waiting." I finally had to hang up because I got to work. Then I tried to get an agent on chat--there were no agents available to help me. Wait a minute, what about the blurb on the internet that said 24/7 assistance?
I finally got a hold of them on my way home from work. I don't like to have conversations on the bus, but I had no option. After talking to three reps, I learned that according to them, my order didn't go through. "But wait a minute. Your automated system told me my order status" (which was, your order is open and should have been resolved yesterday, it just wasn't) "and I got the equipment in the mail, with a confirmation letter." No, they insisted (and yes, the rep had an accent, which I only mention to illustrate that whoever was handling this was not local and had never seen anything about me, so of course she is not going to be able to help me much. She can only do so much), your order didn't go through and we have to create a new account.
Now, I was getting just a bit mad. They botched the initial setup of my internet a year and a half ago, on a weekend when I had a paper to write that required use of the internet (I had to compare internet sites). And, now I had another paper due that required looking at policies online, and they had botched my internet. Again. I was not thrilled. And they were assuring me that they were the best company for my needs?!
Feeling out of options, I set up a new account, with the promise that my internet service would be up on Monday. As the rep confirmed the order, she said, "Alright, we have your account, and it will be activated on Wednesday." Taking care of the customer, right to the end. Go team.
Ten minutes after I hung up, I got a phone call. It was Ernesto, an internet technician (who was definitely local). He apologized that my internet hadn't been activated the day before, as promised. There was a problem with some equipment, but they were repairing it, and my internet would be activated by the end of the day. And it was. Because there was never anything wrong with my order. Someone just failed to let their other hand know what the heck was going on.
My reward? I get to call back and cancel the new account they set up for me. I'm so lucky!

Scientific Proof

I was doing a bit of web archiving QA at work the other day, and stumbled across this article, which just supports my theory that naps would increase world peace. Between that and my campaign for stabby desserts, I plan on winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Farewell to the Puddle

Due to the fact that the seasons are muddled, and January thinks it is May and is raining instead of snowing, I am forced to change residences. Because, yes, yet again, the Puddle is puddling. Oh, not severely, just wet carpet, hardly noticeable, but it is causing the Apartment Manager a great deal of stress, which causes me stress. And although it seems silly to move for 3 1/2 months (which is the extent of my foreseeable future), and to have paid movers (courtesy of the Apartment complex) move me one building over, the only argument for not moving is that changing my address will be a hassle. And, really folks, let's face it. Not much of an argument.

Still, it is with some regret that I bid farewell to the Puddle and all its moist glory. It was like my tropical home away from my tropical home. (Note to self: Don't move to the tropics). But I guess that's what I get for finally putting up bookshelves...

It's 2012...

Which means, I have a new calendar! This is a very exciting thing for me. I take calendars very seriously. When I was in high school, way back in the day, I would choose very unexpected themes, such as airplanes and sports cars. (I am a bit saddened that I don't know what happened to the sports car one. It featured a Lotus Elise--yes, there is a car that shares my name, which, how cool is that?--and it would have been a fabulous memento). It was a trend that didn't last, because I have no memories of calendars during college. But the last few years, I have gone with a travel theme. I have had Ireland, Germany, Spain, Scotland, China (I actually went to China during the year of the Chinese calendar. Wish I could say the same for the rest of them...), and this year, I am featuring Australia. I have actually been to Australia. I stayed the night in Sydney due to a layover, which is another story, and happened to be there the day before Australia Day. Which is interesting only because the year before, my roommates and I had decided it would be fun to celebrate every holiday on the calendar, and the first one (and only one) we celebrated was Australia Day. At the time, I never dreamed that I would be in Australia, let alone the day before Australia Day. So, it was kind of fun. And I would definitely like to go back to Australia, because even though I did get to walk to the Opera House, count the number of stairs up to the Opera House, and walk around the Harbor Bridge, and walk by a restaurant called Don Quixote, most everything was closed by the time we got there. So clearly, there is more to see. Which may or may not happen this year, but all the same, Australia will grace my closet door (don't ask) for the rest of the year, and I will enjoy the continent vicariously at the very least. Either way, how bad can your year be with Australia in the mix?