Thursday, December 13, 2007

What's So Wrong With Practical Gifts?


The holidays can be a stressful time for people. Even though we know it's coming, things just seem to get a little frantic around this time of year. And most of it is stress we put on ourselves. Seriously think about it. While it's understandable that you want to find the perfect gifts for the people you are closest too, these are the same people that wouldn't want you driving yourself crazy because of them! But we do it anyways...
And now to the point of my post. What is the perfect gift? Does it have to be something that they wouldn't buy for themselves? Maybe one of the reasons they wouldn't buy it for themselves is because they wouldn't get much use out of it. Wouldn't a better gift be something that they will get use of? Sure. You can dress it up a little. Maybe get a nicer version of something they will get use of? Don't you want them to use the gift you got them? So it may be a bit on the practical side but it shows that you know them enough to know what they need. How can there be something wrong with that?
Apparently my brother-in-law thinks that there is. He thinks that I must not be comfortable with gift giving because I get people non-flashy, practical gifts. I for one think that my mother will be very please with the all-weather, heavy duty floor mats that I got her for her brand new car. On one hand I could have gotten her a sweater she'll wear once every couple of weeks for two seasons of the year or on the other hand I could get her floor mats that will protect her new car and she'll use pretty much every day for the next five or six years.
I say practical gifts win!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

WooHoo! I'm finished!


As of five past midnight last night I finished this semester's graduate class. My 4,000 - 5,000 word paper was due at midnight and by golly I got it in within minutes of it's due time. Does it matter that ti was a couple of minutes past it's due time? I would like to think not, but I guess I'll find out later... This feat was even more remarkable by the fact that at 8:15 that night I only a mere1850 words written and the finished paper had ~4100. Was it my best work? Not even close, but it also wasn't my worst. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I'm a bad student.
On the bright side I know I did enough to get a decent grade, pass the class and now be done with 6 of my 10 classes. WooHoo!
With school work out of the way I can now put all of my attention on the upcoming holiday season. First thing on the list is to finish decorating the Christmas tree. The tree is up and it has lights on it. It even has my brand new tree toppper on it, but no ornaments. Once that is done it's time for a little photo shoot with wonder mutt to see if I can top last year's Christmas card (shouldn't be hard!). And then there is the shopping...
This year I actually got an early start. I was doing so well but then I lost momentum. If all goes well I'm hoping to be done by this Sunday. It's unlikely, but I'm going to give it my all. Either that or get drunk... decisions, decisions....

Monday, December 10, 2007

What tops your Christmas tree?

Or

And before you start, yes it is a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree.
Growing up we usually had very sad Christmas trees. They were pathetic really, but that is a topic for another post. I remember having a star that had colored lights on it and I think it might have been trimmed in garland (not sure the color garland), but we didn't have it for many Christmas', so maybe our dog ate it (our dog destroying stuff wasn't uncommon). Then I remember one year where we had this straw doll thing. Maybe it was supposed to be an angel, but it was big. And my parents have a small living room, so our tree was typically short and thin, so this straw doll thing was way to big for it. The rest of the years the top of our tree was empty. Granny may occasionally put something up there, but we didn't have that moment that you see on TV where the tree just isn't done until that touching moment where someone lifts up a child to put the tree topper on.
I've been out of my parent's house for a number of years now and I get tree, but the top of the tree has been empty. I've looked for an angel, a star, or a whatever but usually I find the ones in the stores to be awful. And because I grew up with a short thin tree, I tend to get trees that are short and thin. If you go early, you can get a great petite tree and while big trees are great, I'm very happy with my small one, but again I face the challenge of finding an appropriate sized tree topper. On top of the size issue, there is the question of angel vs star? Or something else entirely?
So what tops your tree? Angel? Star? Bow? Something else entirely or nothing? If you do have something up there, does it light up? And when do you put it on? Is it the last thing on the tree to imitate that touching TV moment?

Sunday, December 09, 2007

The drama of getting Red Sox tickets...


Every year I try to get Red Sox tickets and every year I get stuck in the virtual waiting room. For hours on end I wait looking at the screen. Watching the countdown as it refreshes every 30 seconds. Then the moment will occur where I break through the virtual waiting room and am about to to purchase tickets but find out that it's just a tease. Two seats together don't exist anywhere in the ballpark for the game I randomly selected to attend. I'm talking about no where -- even the expensive seats! So you go back and try a different game and wait again in the virtual waiting room and the vicious cycle continues...

Same story every year, several times a year in fact because the Red Sox release tickets in batches. Yesterday the Sox PAX and select single game tickets went on sale for the pre-holiday rush. My husband wasted most of the day looking at the virtual waiting room with no luck. After four hours I told him to give up because I knew it would turn out like most years. Two hours after that he decided to give up. Another year without visiting Fenway... But wait! The Red Sox decided to spread a little more holiday cheer this afternoon and made available some additional single game tickets and I pounced on it. I got picked from the virtual waiting room in less than an hour. There was hope of getting two tickets together, but no. The pathetic online ordering system that the Red Sox use failed me again. The little verification code box wasn't displaying the strange number/letter combo for me to type in and without it you are now where, so back to the virtual waiting room...

Wait! New idea. Let's use the phone. Couple of dozen tries and I get through. The automated voice takes all of your information prior to letting you find tickets, but I'm yet again hopeful. Credit card number. Check! Month of expiration. Check! Two digit year of expiration... Crap. Apparently the Red Sox phone ticket ordering system doesn't believe that you can have a credit card that expires in 2011 and there is no way to go back and change the credit card number you had already entered, so I'm back to square one. I love the Red Sox. Nothing is better than watching a game in Fenway Park on a nice sunny day with an overpriced beer, but this is really starting to piss me off!

I'm back to the phone while keeping an eye on two laptops that are each in a virtual waiting room. After 1/2 dozen tries I'm back through on the phone system. Successfully make it through the credit card information and mailing address parts now it's on to the game selection. After trying four different categories of seats, I was victorious! Come September 10th, 2008 I will be attending in person probably my only Red Sox game of the 2008 season.

From a customer experience perspective, the Red Sox ticket ordering system has major, major flaws. It desperately needs to be replaced, but then again, regardless of how bad it is, folks like me (and a couple of others that may stumble across this post), will put up with it in order to have the chance of getting tickets...


Ok, now back to my paper....




I may be lazy, but I'm back....


So I took some time off from blogging. Some time is a bit of an understatement since it has been about five months. I don't believe I have many readers (and if I did, they will have deserted me by now) so probably not many noticed. Anyway I'm back. There are probably a couple of questions like why were you gone and why are you suddenly back?


Why did I stop blogging? My life is pretty boring and sometimes I find it hard to find things to post about but the truth of the matter is that I'm just plain lazy. It's sad, but it's true. So that leads to the second question....


Why am I suddenly back? My loyal readers (anyone out there?) may recall that I'm going to grad school and they may ask recall that in addition to being lazy, I'm also a procrastinator. If you put two and two together then you'll quickly realize that I have to write a paper and blogging is a very convenient way to postpone it...


My prediction for today is that while I'm writing my very long paper that is due on Tuesday, (can you believe it? I'm actually working on this prior to the day before it's actually due?) that every few hours you will get some random post that I'll use as way to work through my writer block.


Wish me luck...

the lazy, but hopefully lovable, Aunt P