Religion - Attending Church

As most of you know, I was raised Catholic.  I went to Catholic school.  My mother wasn't an avid church goer, but she thought it was important that I be raised Catholic.

After my eighth grade graduation from Catholic School, I have maybe stepped into a Catholic church at the most, three times, most likely for either a wedding or a funeral.

My husband was raised Catholic as well.  His father was married previously, and his wife left him.  So, when he married Nick's mother, it wasn't recognized as a marriage in the Catholic church, therefore when Nick came along, they refused to baptize him.  After Nick's grandmother made a nice donation to the church, they changed their mind.

Mr. Bruises is what I refer to as a Chreaster.  It is someone who goes to church on Christmas and Easter.  I, personally feel that if you are going to go on those two holy days, you should go regularly.  I choose to not go at all.

I still believe in God.  I still try to live my life in an honest and giving way.  I still try to do the right thing and still try to find the best in people.  I just never felt the need to go to church.

Recently, BFF Jill invited me to attend Pittsburgh East Community Church with her.   It's in Plum, which is almost an hour drive.  She lured me with driving past the Abby Lee Miller Dance Studio, from the show Dance Moms, which is just down the road from the church.  I was IN!

The first thing I asked her is what should I wear.  She said jeans and a nice top.  Really?  Jeans?  That was frowned upon the last time I was in Catholic church, but hey the times have changed so maybe that's permitted there now too.

When we pulled in, I was astounded at the size of the parking lot.  I felt like I was going to a concert.  Little did I know, I pretty much was.  The parking attendants were all very happy and cheerful.  You could tell that everyone wanted to be there.  Everyone walking in was in a good mood.  The greeters at the door made me feel like I was an old friend.  It was a VERY inviting atmosphere.

Next thing I noticed was people walking around with coffee, soda, danishes, muffins, you know FOOD!  This would never be permitted in a Catholic church.  Then everyone was talking.  Some loudly.  Again a Catholic no no.  I was so out of my element, I didn't know what to do, so I just sat and observed.

They had a live band on stage that played current music and then some Christian songs that you would never guess were church songs.  The lead singer was wearing Chuck Taylors, he had a faux hawk, an earring in his year and boy could he sing and capture your attention.

After about four or five songs, with encouragement and words on a big screen to sing along, we were asked to meet each other.  Perfect strangers met me with a smile and a hand shake.  The pastor and his wife came on stage for the sermon.  This was the beginning of a six part series called True Love.  It was all about making relationships work.

I sat and listened to them.  They never professed to be perfect.  They actually told us of their failures and how they worked to overcome them.  After the sermon, we ended with another popular song and it was time to go.  Time just flew!!

After that I got my reward and got to do a drive by of the dance studio.  On the ride, Jill asked me what I thought.  I was still a little out of my element and really couldn't answer since it was nothing like what I expected.  It was nothing like I had experienced in the past.  It was so different, but in a good way.

After about a week or so, I told her I wanted to go again.  We went this morning.  The same things were apparent.  EVERYONE wanted to be there, even the kids.  If you would see the area that they have for the kids, you would understand why.  Everyone was so happy, welcoming and genuinely friendly.  The sermon was another good one and I found myself applying the suggestions multiple times later today.

Here's another thing that I realized.  This is a church that doesn't judge.  They don't care how you dress, how you wear your hair, if you have piercings or gauges, if you are tattooed, if you are in a relationship with someone of another race or in one with the same sex as you are.  You are welcome and loved no matter what.

I think this is the biggest difference.  Whether the Catholic church wants to admit it or not, they judge.  You never feel worthy to be a Catholic.

I will most definitely be going back.  The energy in that church is just infectious.  It's no wonder people are filling their parking lot.  Church is FUN!  It's entertaining!  It's educational!  Oh and I can sing my heart out, drinking a coffee, wearing jeans with my tattoo sticking out!  I'll take it!!

How Long?

How long do you imply that I am not good enough for you before I start to believe it and realize I am better?
How long do you continue to blatantly exclude me before I no longer want to be included?
How long do you continue to do this to people over and over again before you have no one left?
How long before I realize I don't have any more second chances to give?
How long before I realize I can't overlook things any longer?
How long before I realize that I am worth way more than I am given credit for?
How long before I go my own way?

Not very long.  Not very long at all.

Car Shopping FAIL!

So, after 10 years and 100,000 miles on my 2003 Honda Civic, and the fact that I can't easily get up my new driveway when it's covered in snow, I decided it was time for a new vehicle.  A four wheel drive one.

I am a Honda girl.  I've bought three in my life and it's the only brand I have driven except for my first car, which was a Pontiac Sunbird that was a hand me down from my Grandma.  I decided that I wanted to get a Honda CRV LX.

I did my research online.  I found one in the color that I liked at Honda North in Butler.  Mr. Bruises is on vacation, so he went over on Thursday and worked out a deal with "Jerry".  I was between two colors, since Mr. Bruises was trying to talk me into the Kona Coffee color instead of the Mountain Air Blue one that I liked.

We were to return the next day, which was yesterday, to look at the two colors and sign they papers and drive off with it, since I was already pre-approved.

We arrived at Honda North at 9:30, at 9:30, I sat at the salesman's table after making my color decision.  Jerry wasn't there, he was out sick.  I ended up with "JJ" who is a Jonathan Penner (From Survivor) look alike.  All was going well, I had to be at work to start for noon.

Then everything took a shit dump.  First, I was going to trade in my Civic.  The link to the trade in value from their website said that it would be work $3,177 in Fair condition since I need the front bumper replaced.  We would have been happy with $3,000, even though we could sell it for more if we replaced the bumper.  Well, he came back and started the value at $3,000 an deducted all these amounts for ridiculous things like my brakes are half worn, yet they are one year old and no one removed the tires to look at the brakes.  He said my drivers seat wobbled, which we verified on the way home that it didn't.  All in all, he offered me $1,100 for it.  I looked at him and loudly asked if he was smoking crack.  We said that we would be leaving with the car.

At 10:30, nearly an hour later, I told him that I needed to be on the road by 11:15 to go to work.  He assured me that we would be on time.  At 10:45 I reminded him again.  At 11:00, I said he had 15 minutes and he wanted to give me a tour of the service area.  At this point, we have not even seen the finance guy.

At 11:15, I grabbed my stuff and we left.  at 11:25, he calls me and asked "Where did you go?"   Seriously???!??  I gave him an earful and told him that we would NOT be back.  10 minutes later, the Manager called and wanted to let him know what happened.  I told him that they have serious problems if they can't get a car off the lot within 2 hours when it was pretty much a done deal.  He offered me $250 off for my trouble.  WOW!  I told him that even if the car was FREE, I no longer want it, we would be going somewhere else.  He then tried to blame the delay on me, saying that I misspelled my name on my online credit application I filled out.  I told him that was funny, since I used AutoFill to fill in most of the areas.  I guess I am misspelling my name all over the Internet.

Mr. Bruises drove me to work.  I called Delaney Honda in Indiana and talked to a wonder salesman named Matt.  I gave him the story and told him that if he could match the price I was given, including the $250 they were going to give me for my troubles, and the interest rate, that I would be over on Monday to sign the papers and leave with the vehicle.

Not only were they able to match that price, they will be able to give me 1.9% financing.  Now THAT is customer service.  All done over the phone.

Honda North needs to work on their customer service.  I should have went to Delaney's to begin with since that was where I got my first Honda.

Monday, I will be driving a Mountain Air Blue Honda CRV LX and can't be happier.  Thank you Matt and Delaney Honda for treating us like we should have been treated at Honda North.  When Mr. Bruises purchase his Honda Pilot, we will definitely be coming back!!

You're UGLY - Contributing to Today's Delinquent Youth

I'm exhausted.  I've worked my ass off this week.  I am not feeling 100%, yet I still had to stop on my way home to get Swiffers and garbage bags for the salon as well as cat litter.  So, I braved WalMart.

I knew it would be horrible.  I put on my cheerful face. I was patient, maneuvering my cart around people, blocking aisles while bullshitting with others, people who stop in the middle of a main aisle for no apparent reason, you know, just a typical trip to WalMart times ten because it's December 22.

I was polite.  I was cheerful until I could take no more.  I followed a mother and her two children along the ENTIRE length of WalMart to get to the section that had my three items.  During this long walk, her son bounced a ball.  Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.  Bouncing it off of shelves.  Bouncing it off of the mother, bouncing off of other people.  I stopped counting the bounces at 252, because that is when I snapped.

I turned into the cat food aisle and she came in behind me.  Even after giving her "The Look" twice, she was clueless.  I told her that it was annoying.  She replied "The ball?", I said yes, to which she replied, "Tough, deal with it".  Then I really snapped.

I told her that it was annoying everyone and that this is not a playground, it was a store.  She looked at me and said "YOU are not everyone".  I told her, lady, did you not notice the looks that just about everyone that passed you gave you, because I did.  It is annoying many people.

She didn't say "Kids will be kids" not "Honey, don't bounce the ball" no, she said "Your UGLY".  I think I would have had more respect for her had she said "You're a bitch!"  At which point I said, well you are a crappy mother, allowing your kid to act like an asshole in public.  I told her that people like her are what's wrong with this world.  You need to teach your kids to have respect for others while in public.

At this point, the boy had already put the ball into the cart.  I looked at him and smiled and thanked him for doing so.  See, was this so hard?  The child obviously knows things and just needs some guidance.

I am sick to death of people, who have kids, and just turn a blind eye to them, it's like they ignore them. This is just the beginning, they are young and not respecting others, next it will be them doing heroin, all while the mother turns a blind eye to it.

Parents are responsible for giving their children a moral compass.  They need to teach them the difference between right and wrong.  They need to teach them to have respect for others.  I guess it is kind of hard to teach your children that, when you, yourself, don't possess those things.

My mother ruled me with an iron fist.  I was not allowed to act like that in public and if I did, she beat my ass.  Guess what?  I've never been arrested.  I've never shot and killed anyone.  I've never taken drugs, hell I've never even assaulted anyone, unless you count that one time I slapped Gin Harmon across the face while working at Jamesway, but she asked for it.

Start parenting.  Stop the promotion of delinquency in America.  Your children want your guidance and attention.  You birthed them, you owe it to them to give them at least that.

How to Lose Me As a Customer

Poor Customer Service is how you lose me as a customer.  This one has been a long time coming.  So, let me start from the beginning.

Two years ago, at Premier Orlando, I purchased three UV lights from Dashing Diva.  I loved the look of the lights, they were affordable and they had the way cool, slide out bottoms for use on toes.  We took them to the salon, set them up and went to work.

On day two, while Regina was working and the light was not in use, all of a sudden, we heard a POP and a big puff of smoke came out of the light.  The light was fried.  I called home office and was told that I needed to mail the light to them, they would inspect it and determine if they would send me a new one.  TWO DAYS OLD.

So, I paid to ship it to New York.  Two weeks later I get a new one.  No refund for my postage.

Three months later, Kylie's lamp quit working.  I called home office and was told pretty much since it was over 30 days I was basically shit out of luck.  I was told that I could ship it to New York (again at my expense) and they would have their "Maintenance Man" look at it and see if he could fix it.  I said hell with that.  I took it apart myself and fixed the problem, the wire going to the start button was broken.

For the past two years, I have bought replacement bulbs for the three lights every four months.  The last time I purchased bulbs was in March and the shipping was $10.95.

Imagine my surprise on July 23, when I went to order 12 bulbs and the shipping was now $24.98.  I thought, damn, did they raise their prices for shipping, so I checked their website and this is the Shipping Scale.

So, I sent them the follow email:

I just placed an order for 12 UV bulbs and a few other random items.  The total came to $119.40.  I was given the ridiculous UPS Ground shipping price of $24.98.  I just looked on your site and it shows that shipping for that total should  be $17.95, which is still ridiculous.  Can you please tell me why I am being charged $7.03 more than your shipping scale says?

I never got a response from them.  I still needed bulbs, so I ordered 16 Phillips bulbs from another manufacturer for our other light and these three. and they were shipped for FREE.  When I got the bulbs, they didn't work in the Dashing Diva lights.  They flickered like a strobe light.  These Phillips bulbs are the best on the market.  It was apparent that I had to use bulbs directly from Dashing Diva.

So, on August 8, I called.  I was told that they would look into it and get back with me.  There was NO offer to take my order over the phone and charge me the correct shipping amount.

After a week of no response, I just sucked it up and purchased three lights from another manufacturer that my Phillips bulbs will work in.  Today is two weeks since I was told someone would get back to me.

I decided to check their site out today to see if they fixed the problem.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this today.  They not only haven't fixed the problem, as you can see it has escalated.

So, Dashing Diva has lost my business due to a looooonnnnnng history of poor customer service.  BUYER BEWARE.  Check your shipping costs before you agree to purchase online from them.  Again, they have known about this for ONE MONTH!

Having an Opinion

I am a very opinionated person.  Sorry.  Why is it, though, when you have an opinion, people love to try to tell you and show you that your opinion is wrong and you should honor THEIR opinion?  I don't do that to others.  I respect their opinion and you better damn well believe I am going to defend my opinion.  Last time I checked having an opinion was still a right.

I Love Myself, So What?

Tonight, we went out with friends to celebrate 20 years of marriage.  Like always, we had a blast and took lots of photos and shared them on Facebook.  Well this picture struck a nerve with a dickhead, who I am NOT friends with on Facebook, but one of the people tagged in the photo was.  He commented on the photo as such:

your so in love with yourself its fucking sickning!!!!!!! get a fucking life

What a sad life a person has to have to make a comment on a photo of people celebrating a milestone with friends.  I feel very sorry for that person because obviously they are missing out in life.

First, YES, I love myself.  Doesn't everyone?  If not, they should.  Loving yourself is the first step and the only true way you will experience true love for someone else or have that reciprocated.  As for getting a life.  Ummmm, I obviously have one.  One that someone seems to be jealous of.

So, to the douchebag, who made that comment, I would like to say, YES, I am in love with myself.  It's sad that you obviously don't love yourself.  

Jeffrey's Big Adventure

Jeffrey had a big day yesterday.  If you don't know who Jeffrey is or his story, you can read all about it here.

Wednesday, I was preparing for my surgery and being off, so I took care of all of the animals.  I cleaned Lettie and Lilah's cage and I filled Jeffrey's tank up and cleaned his filter.  Well his filter was giving me troubles turning back on so I ended up having to fill his tank almost full.  Usually I fill it to about four inches from the top and I have never had a lid on his tank.  I never needed to.

Later that night, I noticed that he had his big, floating log over towards the right side, he was up on it and the bastard was trying to climb out.  Mr. Bruises pushed him back in and moved his log to the other side.

Yesterday, Mr. Bruises had to take me to the hospital for 6:30 am.  Once I got settled, I sent him home to get some sleep until I was ready to be picked up.  He got up and was eating his breakfast and he said something was amiss.  The turtle usually sits there and watches him eat his breakfast.  He looked in the tank and he was gone!  He was on the kitchen floor, right where he fell from his tank.  He was on his back and flailing all around.  Mr. Bruises noticed that both the cat and Travis were both over in that area nosing around.

We have no idea how long he was out and upside down, but he is back in his tank and being just as surly as ever.  I bet he won't try that again!

My Favorite Tree

Back in April, I took a photo of my favorite tree and blogged about it in early May, comparing the photo to one I took of the same tree January 9, 2011.  I vowed to take a photo of that tree every season.

While riding Tootie today, I realized it was July, which is one of the months I was to take a photo of the tree, so we rode out and took some pictures.

It's amazing how much greener things looked in April.  We have had a heat wave and little rain.  I guess that's why everything looks brown.

See you in October, favorite tree!!

Photo taken April 30, 2012

Photo taken January 9, 2011

Toxicity Level: LOW

For years now, I have put up with a person.   An immature person.  A one upper.  You know the kind, no matter what you say to anyone, they have to butt in and either try to correct you or one up you.  It's so annoying.  I am not the only one this person does it to.  They have probably been doing it their entire life to just about everyone in their life.

I thought this person was a friend, but it became apparent years ago, that this person was not.  They liked to tell untruths, liked to cause drama, liked to throw in vague little digs here and there.  I tolerated this person, because, for the most part, for a long amount of time I had a large amount of respect for them.

I have been wanting to rid myself of this person for awhile now and almost did in March.  The toxicity level that this person was putting out at that time was tremendous.  She was vile to more than just me.  At the time a friend asked me why I was even friends with them and my answer was a simple "I don't know".  I've done a lot of thinking about that question over the past few months and I really could not come up with a good reason for remaining in contact with them.

I know how this person works though.  If I broke it off, she wins.  I will never let a toxic person win.  Sorry, I am stubborn like that.

I am happy to say, the toxicity level in my life has dropped to an all time low and I am ecstatic.  The ball was in my court and I just hammered the final nail in the coffin and couldn't be more at peace.  Life is way too short to have toxic people in your life.