What could be a better end to the summer than the BBQ in Sparks with the appearance of Night Ranger on August 31 and the cost is FREE!! I know where I will be on Labor Day weekend!!
So many memories of Night Ranger tunes playing while cruising Virginina Street in Reno. I actually met one of my old beaus' when a Night Ranger song was on the radio...Eric was so cute!!
Ahem.... Moving on...... HHS Class of 1984 is having their 25th reunion May of '09. They have decided to take a cruise to Mexico for four days, three nights. Not too shabby for the price $339.00 per person; we have decided to go. "D" has already started making plans, for what not quite sure; he wants to go back to the "blow hole" that we saw the last time we were in Ensenada. I would personally like to see something different.
The Classmates Hug '84
website has become very active over the last week or so since the blanket email went out announcing where the reunion was going to take place. I received a couple of "friend" requests from people I haven't seen in over twenty years. So I sent out a few of my own and have received responses back. It has been phenomenal!
My friend Theresa has had quite a response to her portraits that we did back in early July (she used a very classy, hot photo for her NOW photo on Classmates), not only with viewing the portraits but also with going to her Classmates profile on a regular basis.
There is one gentleman who has visited her profile multiple times since the photos were posted. I looked at his profile photos and looke at the picture of his "much better half" and she looks pretty close to Theresa. Since her photos were posted on July 11th, he has been to her profile at least six times!! Talk about near obsession!! But after all she is gorgeous, so I guess you can't blame him.
So Theresa is going on the cruise as well, I told another old friend that he should go and crash it.....he is thinking about it. This old friend actually started out contacting me by sending me a friend request on Classmates. I responded with an acceptance to the request and we talked a couple of days later like no time had passed at all!! He has been divorced for six years and has two kids 10 and 7. He couldn't believe that my guys are 20,18, and 14. How time flies~~~
Now that summer is just about over and school is starting, Dak has freshman orientation on Wednesday, I am a happy camper!!! Dak has spent the first part of the summer doing what most kids do and for the latter part of the summer there has been a lot of whining regarding nothing to do. I bought him a digital camera so he can take pictures, download, and learn to use Adobe Photoshop as his something to do aside from learning Russian. Now the whining has stopped and there will be peace in the valley for me for the rest of the summer.
David goes back to college and Dane will be starting college, YEAH!! have been told several times I do not look old enough to have children that old. Look closely my friend and you will see the gray hair and fine lines that indicate some time spent here on Earth.
Hot August Nights seems to be carrying much less fanfare than usual. Not much in the way of advertising nor in vehicles on the road, this time of the year the area is absolutely flooded with old, suped up cars. I have seen maybe a handful if that here. Next big thing to happen will be the rib cook off in Sparks... that's always good. Lots of different sauces and cooking methods. We went last year and had the best time....saw Greg Kihn Band in the evening and came home very full of BBQ. With everyone working weekends (except Dak and I) looks like only two of us will be 'Qing this year.
Dean decided that we needed a new phone plan. I was very happy with what I have. He decided to go with the plan that had the Fab Five or Five Fave or maybe its the Fab Five Fave? I don't know. So I now have a new phone and it has taken me a week to figure out just how to answer the phone, retrieve messages and get on the web. I found out later that a physical therapist that I work with apparently had the same model phone that I now possess and he gave up and got a different phone, so I guess I am not doing too badly, besides I don't think he has children who are eager to inform their parent on all the bells and whistles the phone has to offer.)
I wanted to try the alarm feature on the phone, I decided to set it for 5:30 a.m.; the time I normally get up to go exercise prior to getting ready for work. I am so proud of myself for being able to set the alarm ( I am actually beaming and smiling from ear to ear) what an accomplishment for a college educated woman. Later that evening off to bed Dean and I go, he has an early morning the next day and all that walking and shopping made me tired (I never had any idea that phone shopping could be exhausting) and at 2:45 am a loud unusual noise fills the bedroom along with a flashing light that give the room a soft glow. Dean jumps up out of bed and rushes to the source of the noisy glow. By this time I am now awake and have joined to find that the alarm that I set on the Blackberry has gone off; not only am I incapable of working with the latest technology but I am now in deep trouble with Dean. The bedroom light does not have to be on for me to know what look is on his face (after 20 years of marriage I firmly believe that I know this man very, very, very well). No words are exchanged, all I hear is mumbling under his breath as he climbs back into bed. I shuffle across the floor and climb back into bed also. This incident has now become known as the Blackberry Fiasco; the guys seem to find quite a bit of jocularity in the goof that ol' mom made. Trying to get the GPS feature to work on the phone has also been challenging. All I get is diagonal lines across the screen. So if I need directions to somewhere I am really in deep trouble. Maybe I need to go back to school and learn the ways of the new technology.....do they offer a course in Blackberry?
Attended the show last night at the Nevada Museum of Art (posthumous show) and quite the array of people that came!!!!! Hi mom, Martha, what a fabulous woman. The food was incredible, the stories that floated around were warm and humourous as everyone had a favorite Erik story. I strongly recommend seeing the exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art or looking into the University of California, Santa Cruz website to view his work.
Last weekend I had the privilege of a boudoir photo session (one of her shots is there on the left) with a friend of 27 years. She was a fantastic model, didn't argue with me or tell me to, "hurry up and take the picture"; those kind of people assume that the process of portraiture is just as simple as point and shoot. Anyhow, my friend felt pretty good about herself after the shoot and proceeded to show her photos(at least the ones that were loaded at that time) that were on my photobucket site to her friends at work. I now have three or four potential people to set up sessions with. I sat and worked out the numbers for what I would charge people for a session, 10 photos on a CD (additional photos $5 each) and each photo would have a watermark to prevent printing out the shot on paper. We came up with $55- $60 per session and prints would be an additional fee of $20.00 per 8x10 size. That does not sound like a whole lot of dough for what you are getting. I spent $99.00 at Covershots sixteen years ago that included the session w/make-up and hair,three poses, 1- 8x10, 2- 5x7's and 8-wallets. So my session would be about half the price, they provide their own hair and make-up, some of their own garments (hats and accessories can be done by me along with jackets).
I told my friend she needs to replace her photo on Classmates with one of the ones that I did(creatively cropped). Raise the bar just a little. I rejoined Classmates about three weeks ago and used one of my own boudoir shots (yes, creatively cropped of course) and used it as my Now photo (yes, I loaded a Then photo of me in cap and gown)( I viewed the photos available in Classmates of people I went to school with from '80-'84 and found that most had used a point and shoot photo of themselves) very rarely do I step in front of the camera, I am much more comfortable being behind the lens(I took those shots a couple of years ago as a gift to Dean for Christmas and actually used several as his Desktop); so after just three weeks of reposting myself I have had 34 hits and 17 of those have left me their names and as of Friday someone left me a note (in order to see who has visited me with a signature and left me a note I have to become a Gold Member; no this has nothing to do with the Mike Myers movie).
Dean seems to have this idea that individuals are logging on to my profile for not just viewing my photo but to also enjoy a little of "You and Your Hand Tonight" as described in the song by Pink (yep, she so rocks too). I think maybe it's a twinge of envy since his Classmates site has only garnered 12 hits in two weeks and only five of those have left a signature, after asking him this I received the proverbial hand gesture with much laughter accompanying it.
The week ended with quite a bang at work (no Fourth of July pun intended); after UPS lost a package that we had sent to the home office in Elko on 06/25/08. My co worker had called Elko on June 30th, to check the return status of the package and was told it had not been received on their end. She then called UPS and spoke with Cheryl who confirmed that the package had been received at their hub in Ontario CA; but after that no one knew the whereabouts of said package. Cheryl of UPS said she would call back the next day with any info she could find ....no surprise she did not.
Thursday morning, July 3rd, a week later and still no call, I decided enough was enough and called UPS to find out where the item was; I called and got representative Joe Everett. First, let me tell you that I am not an individual to be blown off, if I want a specific question answered I will not give up until I receive the answer I am looking for; so you can well imagine that debating a topic or having an argument with me is not the way to win brownie points; with that having been said.........back to UPS.
Joe was initially nice at the start of the call and kept insisting that he would take my number and have the trace department call me back, upon which I kept insisting that the trace department had taken my number when my co worker had called previously and was told she would be called back the next day.
Joe responded, "I don't know why she would have said that because we ask that you allow 7-10 days for us to do research, your package looks as though it is in Ontario but we need to research to see if it is on a truck somewhere waiting to be moved, so, all I can do is take your number and give it to the Trace Department and they will call you back."
"When would they would call back?".
"Well, they are busy, it will be within 24 hours."
If the trace department is busy that does not instill any sort of confidence for the customer; how many packages do they lose on a daily basis?
"That answer is unacceptable, I wanted to be transferred to the Trace Department."
"That is impossible, I can send them the info and they will call you back."
(Please note that by this time my voice has become louder and less friendly, I was told by my co worker that I sounded intimidating and that she wants me on her side for anything regardless of what the issue is).
"What is the name of your supervisor, Joe?"
"Mike Aiken."
My mind quickly flashed-any relation to Clay Aiken? I flashed back to reality just as quickly.
"Can I speak with Mr. Akin?"
The response I received next seems to be standard for all call centers that employ people of low IQ and think that the rest of us are just as incompetent as they are and cannot think outside of the box.
"He's on vacation."
"Can I speak to the individual filling in for Mr. Akin while he was on vacay?"
"No one is filling in for him."
"Can I speak with the supervisor on the floor."
The next portion of this conversation cracks me up every time because again it’s a standard answer from all call centers around the globe;
"All supervisors are in a meeting."
Now comes the fun part.......
" So all supervisors are in a meeting and those of you taking calls on the floor are being left to your own devices?"
A short pause on the other end...I could literally hear the squeaky gears turning inside his head (it was apparent that the gray matter is not used very often) while he attempted to either find a response in the manual that sits on his desk or while he tried to make something up.......
"No ma'am I am a supervisor."
A grin crept up and was making its way north (at this point I am considering a career change to go to work for UPS, it seems all customer service reps are actually supervisors and no one is responsible to answer to anyone and speaking to customers like my friend Joe is seems to be acceptable behavior according to UPS standards).
"You cannot tell me that you are the supervisor, you are answering incoming calls, your supervisor is on vacation and there is no one handling things on the floor while all the other supervisors are in a meeting? No, no,no. I know better than this, I used to work in a call center Joe and believe me I know there is another supervisor on the floor, but that's fine. I will call back, get a different representative who will also claim to be a supervisor and then maybe I can start climbing the ladder of hierarchy now and get this issue resolved TODAY."
"My office cannot function without what is in that package. UPS has lost the package and all you know is that it is somewhere in Ontario, CA and that the Trace department may or may not be looking for the package?, and you will give them my information and they will call me back but you really don’t know when. My company has been using UPS for twenty years now, would you prefer that I call the CEO of our company and suggest that we starting using another company to send our packages through, because quite frankly Joe the customer is always right and at this moment you are not issuing exemplary (this might have been too big of a word for Joe) customer service."
"Well ma'am you do what you need to do but all that I can do is forward your info on to the Trace Department and they will call you back."
"Fine, take my information give it to the Trace Department, but I expect a call back from them TODAY; I also want the name of Mr. Akins’s supervisor."
"I'm sorry ma'am I can't give you that information, but I will send your name and phone number with the tracking id to the Trace Department."
"Fine, I will just call back get another rep and ask the same question and get the answer. I will start climbing the ladder of hierarchy since it appears to me that as far as UPS is concerned customer service does not matter, all supervisors are always either on vacation or in a meeting and that your customer service skills leave a lot to be desired Joe. So you have the trace department call me back today!!"
" You do what you need to do ma'am and I will do what I need to do."
Thirty minutes later I had a phone call from the trace department. The rep was apologetic for not only Cheryl's lack of follow through, but, also for the package not being located. It was explained to me that there was a package in the Lost and Found that was missing a label; he described the box and was this my box.
I inquired as to the contents of the box and was told that they could not open it.
My options (now suddenly I had some) were to either have said label less package forwarded to my destination and they(Elko) could ascertain as to the ownership of the package or I could start the trace procedure (wait, wasn't this supposed to be done when my co worker called previously and was supposed to receive a status call back?). I opted for the first choice, send the package to Elko.
I called my IT gal (yes, a woman in charge of a whole IT department, YEAH!!!) and gave her the update. She agreed that the label less package was more than likely ours and she would call back and update me on the situation either way after the package was received.
UPS will no longer be referred to as UPS but as OOOOOOPPPPPPSSSS.
It is finally Friday!!!!!!!! Hooooooooooooray!!!!!!!!!!!! If only the smoke would blow out of the valley then fun would be eminent for the weekend. I was looking forward to tennis and swimming this weekend but it looks like that will come to a screeching halt.
Since it is recommended that strenuous exercise not be done out of doors at this time due to the smoke filled valley. Yes, I understand that even the Reno skyline is not visible from the outskirts of Mogul; "C" hill in Carson is but a mirage in the distance.; Lake Tahoe's incredible view has disappeared. Co-workers in Elko are wondering what the blue-gray haze is from.
David was hoping to shoot this weekend, but with the smoke all he would get is red hazy lighting in all of his photos, better that he waits until it clears. His friend/model is participating in some sort of bikini contest here in Carson....wonder how the competition will be......she wants photos taken while she does this. This is the same girl who did not want her nudes to be posted on the net for fear she would be recognized and it would put her soon to be military career in jeopardy.
Dane is looking forward to college classes in the spring. He has been browsing the college class schedule and finding that the classes are available online too; which would free up some of his schedule for continuing to work.
Dak looking forward to high school this fall and making plans to attend WNC for chemistry classes in the spring. Mini-man has quite the plan mapped out for himself.
Dean was recently registered on Classmates. com and found himself looking at many of his friends and girlfriends (yikes) from Half Moon Bay HS (one guy who he used to play football with has changed dramatically); I set up his account and loaded pictures of our boys and of me (made sure it was a very provacative portrait; in good taste of course) and gave a few details of his life. I will dig out an old picture of him to load for the "then" photo. His now photo is a couple of years old but I cannot find anything where he is smiling- all photos look like his pictures from football-game day face.
We have officially gone from the rumblings of earthquakes to nearly 800 fires burning in California that is sending smoke into northern Nevada and making it impossible for anyone to do anything outside, old people and those with lung problems are being advised not to go outside. Anyone doing strenuous exercise is cautioned to not do it outside. I had a crazy idea since this seems to be the deal of the moment....lets shut the state of Nevada down until the haze clears. Californians can return to their place of origin and brave the fires there. Perhaps at that time there will be the cataclysmic earthquake that will break California off so it can become an island of its own.Back to you in the studio.....
