Things that bug me

This is the second in a series of four entries about our weekend trip to CA. Following this entry will be proof positive that I've the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy, and following that is my excitement about finding a store dedicated to CHEESE! Alas, I shall make you wait for such enticing topics.

The topic for today is "How RisibleGirl thought she made reservations in a nice hotel, but in fact found herself and her family in danger of their very lives". Dramatic, yes?

The hotel, which is part of a major chain that shall remain nameless unless they do not make this up to us, looked OK from the outside. It seemed well kept and it was right on the ocean. What's not to love about that? We got to the lobby at the very decent hour of 6 pm or so. There wasn't anyone at the front desk. I could see someone in the back room and when he looked at me he said something to someone else in the back room.

We continued waiting for about 10 minutes. Eventually the guy said that someone would be right up to help us. Another 10 minutes went by. Then a woman in a big hurry came from the back room, walked to the front of the counter and pounded on the bell at the front desk three times and stormed out of the front door. Shortly after that, the desk clerk finally showed up. He was putting his cell phone back in the holster, so I'm assuming that we were waiting while he was on a personal call, or perhaps we interrupted something between the angry woman and the hotel clerk and he was getting dressed. We were waiting for over 20 minutes people. If they didn't have my credit card holding our rooms, I'd of insisted that we walk out. But there was also the draw of the ocean view room with the jacuzzi tub.

He checked us in, and although our car seemed to be the only one in the parking lot, he said that they were out of the rooms that we had asked for. Would we mind having adjoining rooms on the first floor? Well, it was either that, or we would be separated. We chose the adjoining rooms. I'm sure as you read on, you'll understand why The Hubs's mom was glad about that.

We got to our room and looked around. It was an absolute DIVE and there was not even a hint of an ocean view. There was a big grass hill in front of our windows, completely blocking out the ocean. As I went to shut the door, I saw this:


I don't know about you, but it looks as if someone might have recently kicked in the door? I dunno... maybe it's just me.

We dropped our bags and left for dinner. As we headed toward the parking lot, we saw what looked to be a drug deal going on between the front desk clerk and someone who had just pulled up in a jeep.

A lovely dinner was had by all at a seafood restaurant, but I couldn't help but notice that 90% of the items on the menu were "lightly breaded and deep fried". I'm not kidding! I almost asked if I could have my prime rib "lightly breaded and deep fried" because it seemed to be the thing to do there. We did all enjoy what we ordered (none of which was "lightly breaded and deep fried").

When we got back to the hotel, we expected to see more cars, because after all they didn't have very many rooms available. That wasn't the case. I think we were two of three booked rooms in the entire hotel. The Hubs's mom was a bit nervous about staying by herself in this dive, but we were right next door so we decided to tough it out. She said that when she went to bed, she put a chair in front of the sliding glass door. Can't say that I blame her.

When I got in the shower the next morning, I saw this in the shower tile:


This, my friends, would be a drilled hole in the tile surrounding the shower. Since I could see no good reason for a drilled hole in the tile, I got a little paranoid and looked in the hole. It definitely went somewhere, but where? At first I was a bit self-conscious, but then I thought, "they'll probably go blind if they see me naked in the shower.. go for it." So, if you see this picture floating around on the internet?



Oh, and the jacuzzi tub? The place was so awful that there was NO WAY I was going to sit in that tub and turn on the jets. I imagined that if I did, lots of green bubbly stuff would come out of the jets. ::shudder::

We later went to The Hubs's mom's room and she pointed out little spots of paint all over the wall by the bed. When she asked me what I though that was, I told her that it was covering up the blood splatter from a recent drug deal gone wrong. I'm sure she slept soundly that night after hearing that. Sorry Mom, but you know me... I have to make light of EVERY situation.

It's apparent that we survived this hotel stay, but I'm definitely going to talk to the chain management about it. I'm also going to send a note to Expedia, because they gave it four out of five stars. I can't say that there was one good thing about that hotel, so someone must have paid them to give it such a high ranking. If they have that kind of money, I'm sure they can afford to give us a refund.

***Correction, the rating was 2.5 out of 4. I chose this hotel because it was the highest rated in the city we stayed*** I've now decided that my brother needs to move.

We had quite a weekend and I can't wait to blog about our experiences. I have lots of work to do and need to get cracking on it, so I'll blog something more substantial this evening when I have time to gather my thoughts.

In the meantime, I leave you with this mental image that I can't get out of my head.

When I was on the plane yesterday I looked over to my right and saw a woman drinking out of a wide mouthed juice bottle. I'd estimate the mouth to be about 2.5 inches across, maybe 3 inches? Anyway, it was WIDE.

Most people drink out of a bottle like this (no matter the size of the bottle opening)


The lady (?), who looked to be in her 50's who was sitting across the aisle from me had the entire opening of the bottle inside of her mouth. I couldn't look away because 1: I wondered how she would regulate the flow to keep herself from choking and 2: I couldn't believe my eyes, so I kept checking back to see if I was imagining things.

Imagine a mouth around an exhaust pipe. Yeah, it was like that.

So, there's your visual for the day.

You're welcome.

Because I seem to be working with a snake. Snakes belong in zoo's right?

My beloved partner in crime left our department for a better job for himself (THE NERVE!) and was replaced with someone who at first seemed like a really fun guy. I thought we'd really have a good time working together because he has a lot of energy at work like me. It was all fun an games until he started messing in my turf. We've had one meeting about roles, just to make sure we were on the same page. It seemed that we were. My role, all around web Goddess (design, maintenance, technical support); his role, edit content, help with communications plans, help to traffic communications. I'm online chick, he's words guy. Easy enough, right?

Two weeks ago he took one of my designs and "completely overhauled it" with our client and sent an email to me, the client and their uncles with his "new" design. He didn't include my design in the email to use as a comparison.

A: His idea of a complete overhaul and mine are two different things
B: He had no business meeting alone with the client about my design. He should have had the client meet with me, and he could have come if he wanted to. His role has NOTHING to do with this.

After I calmed down, I hit 'reply all' and sent a brief email asking him if he'd point out what was different between the two designs, because all I could see was changes in a couple of the links (which I only had up as examples.)

He again replied to everyone and wrote (in capital letters) YOU'RE KIDDING, RIGHT? (yeah, he really did) then further went on to write that his design met corporate standards, making it sound like mine didn't. That made me feel that I looked like an incompetent fool.

I chose not to hit 'reply all' at this point because now it was sounding like a pissing match. I don't do that. I replied, explaining to him that we used to work with different teams, so his idea of "standard" and mine were two different things. Neither was wrong. I further explained that he had no business doing what he did, how it made me look, and reminded him of our roles. He backed down at that point and said that he knew it was wrong but he was talking to the client about something else and it just kind of "evolved".

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, until he did it again last week. Different client. I was CRAZY busy with that project I wrote about last week, and I got an email from him saying that "they" had five sites that I needed to build for them by 3/31, then proceeded to tell me what goes on the sites. He then said, "should we (he and the client) go directly to web services, to get this done?"

I replied that no, again, this is MY job and I'll work with the client. I added that what he's come up with is a little more complicated than he's making it out to be and 3/31 is a tight deadline but I'd try. In reality, I'll make SURE it gets done even if I get no sleep but he doesn't need to know that. There is no way I'll miss a deadline, even if it's one that he created. Again he sent me more email pushing my buttons.

I set up a meeting with him for this Thursday so we could set things straight. I refuse to let this guy get under my skin. He's clearly overstepping his boundaries and he's being a jackass about it. He's not going to see the "risible" side of this girl on Thursday.

I was starting to wonder if it was just me taking things personally. Was I being a primadonna? Was I feeling threatened? I certainly hoped not, but I was willing to look at that possibility until....

Yesterday I met with the web team about some new standards. The snake's name came up and two people on the team said to watch out for him because he has a habit of making promises to the clients that can't be kept by the web team and then getting the clients mad at the web folks. Not once, not twice, but constantly. This is his M.O. They spilled the beans before I even had a chance to say what he'd done to me. So, I left that meeting feeling a lot more empowered to be assertive about this on Thursday.

If he continues to do this, I will go to my manager and see about severing our relationship. He doesn't report up through the same division as I do. He's just dedicated to our division. I've built up a really good reputation with my clients and I refuse to have a snake in the grass ruin it. I'm fighting mad and he's going to see a side of me that not too many people have the 'opportunity' to see.

What a lucky snake....

:snark: OH yeah, I might also add in this meeting that 40 something men really shouldn't write "kewl!" in work email. It makes them look really stupid. :/snark:

I ride the train to work on the days that I am not telecommuting, and I've posted various stories about some of the annoying things I've had to endure. Yes, endure. I realize how dramatic this sounds, but really....

Today's post is brought to you by my new train friend, the troll. He's not the troll that I've posted about in the past (the one who actually looks like a troll); no, this guy acts like a troll. He doesn't understand proper 'standing in line' etiquette, therefore I've deemed him to be a troll.

I typically get to the train station about 20 minutes ahead of schedule because the parking is dismal at best. Sometimes, in addition to the parking issues, another really long train might cross the other side of the tracks, keeping you from being able to cross the tracks to in time to board the train. I choose to not take the chance and I stand in line for about 15 minutes.

Today I ended up in line right behind the train troll. I try to avoid that at all costs, but it couldn't be helped today. As I stood there, he turned around and faced me. Eeeech. I suppose if he was handsome I wouldn't mind so much, but he's not. There I was, second, in a line of two and he's facing me. I refused to look at him, and turned my body to face a different direction, yet he continued standing this way. Thankfully, more people started filing in line and he ended up making conversation with someone else in line, so I was off the hook.

Is it just me, or is that CREEPY? Doesn't everyone know proper 'standing in line' etiquette? The number one rule is FACE FORWARD, folks. Apparently someone didn't get the memo.

If that wasn't bad enough, I noticed that he also kept doing this weird plié type of move. Several times. In case you don't know what a plié is, here's a visual.



Now if I saw it in a ballet, I wouldn't think it weird; but he wasn't wearing tights and he wasn't at the opera house, so I can only conclude that his shorts were in a bunch and he thought this would be the polite way to un-bunch. The thing is, it wasn't working, so he kept doing it.

Perhaps I'll take a chance on missing the train for a few days.....

I was TIRED last night after work. I'd dealt with a few too many YaHoos, and just wanted to go home and put on my comfie clothes. First I had to stop at the store to pick up 'a couple' of things. The Hubs needed shampoo (he won't use my froo froo stuff), and I needed milk for my coffee and I needed lettuce. See? That's just a couple of things... but I *needed* them.

I should have just kept driving when I had to drive up and down about four rows before finding a parking place. My store isn't normally like that. But, they've sucked me in with their stupid savings card and promises of frequent flier miles.

I found a parking place and started walking up toward the store and what did I see? GRAND PRE-OPENING TASTE OF SAFEWAY! signs everywhere, and no shopping carts in sight. This could only mean one thing. Everyone in my little hicktown was skipping dinner and grazing their way through Safeway.

I entered the store and started mumbling under my breath, probably looking like a crazy lady. There were extra employees there just to make sure everyone was greeted every five minutes. I saw huge lines at the checkout counters, and I'd be darned if I was going to be in one of those lines for only four items. So I started loading up my cart.

I was accosted at every turn with someone offering me a taste of this or taste of that. Finally, I just quit making eye contact with everyone and pretended I was deaf.

As I entered the shampoo aisle, I heard music that didn't sound like Muzak. It then occurred to me that they had a live band there at my Safeway. As I got closer, I saw that it was some sort of Karaoke set up, and a guy playing a saxophone. It was then that I decided I had enough groceries and I needed to get the heck out of Dodge.

As if all of that wasn't enought to send me over the edge, as I stood in line I was accosted by the Easter Bunny trying to get me to take goodies out of his basket. Apparently, the young girl picked up on my mood and started apologizing for how busy it was in the store. I told her it was OK and tried to smile. Then she said, "We sure appreciate your business". I thanked her.

Then she said, "without customers like you, we wouldn't be able to do things like this!", in her chipper voice.

Grumble~

I've had nightmares worse than this.