Verizon, Verizon, I hate Verizon

Excuse my rant, but I am very angry.

Three words that would describe Verizon are crooked, backward and not helpful (okay, that’s a phrase). Here’s the story:

I live in a small town with no “options” for services. Land lines are only available through Verizon and as far as I know, the same goes for DSL. So I had just a basic, local-only phone line and semi-slow DSL, but was satisfied enough.

Then I moved. Well, back up a little. I was about to move and called to arrange a service transfer. The woman was helpful and I thought we had everything set up. We needed satellite service, so I decided to bundle the three and get more services for a good deal. Sounds great.

Then I moved. Phone works at my new place. Great. Satellite hooked up and working at my new place. Great. Internet does not work at my new place. Why? After calling tech support, I learned that Verizon had upgraded my connection speed as planned, but hadn’t changed my service address. Frustrating. Why on earth would I want to change the service address for my phone line but not my internet connection? My connection comes through my phone line, kinda necessary to have both at the same address I would think. Whatever. Now I’m told the Saturday shift can’t help me so I need to call X number on Monday. Like I don’t have things to do on Monday.

So like a good girl I say okay and call the stupid number on Monday. After waiting on hold, being cut off, holding again, getting cut off again and then told I need to call a different number, I finally talk to the internet sales and order department. I’m pretty sure I could have talked to this department on Saturday (because when it comes to making a sale, Verizon is always open, but getting tech support is a Monday thru Friday issue) if the no-nothing Turkish man from Saturday understood what I was trying to tell him.

Moving on. The woman in S&O pulled up my info and was also perplexed as to why they hadn’t ordered an address change. She calls her supervisor over and gets things set up, but then discovers that the reason my service address wasn’t changed was because DSL isn’t available at my new address. If you are from Blythe or talked to anyone in Blythe, you’ve probably heard of this. They have a limited number of slots available for DSL and until someone moves, cancels service or Verizon gets their act together and updates their technology, you’re SOL. Apparently my new neighborhood is full and I am SOL.

Verizon is so focused on building their wireless customer base and expanding coverage (which I appreciate as I use that service) that they don’t care about their original market—residential services. I get that. I’m sure they make a lot more money on their millions of cell users, but if you only want to do that then sell your auxiliaries to someone who would actually provide a service. I don’t think my area even has caller ID for crying out loud.

This is where the crooked part comes in. When I called originally to change my service the lady said we were all set. Now call me stupid, but I assumed that meant I would actually get the service I was paying for.

So all this brings me to my current dilemma. What do I do? I don’t need all the bells and whistles that are part my new, unlimited phone line. I’m perfectly happy with local only—in fact I’d survive without one. I do need satellite because I’m married to Troy. I do want internet!! I guess I need to do some research and find out if I can get internet through anyone else and see if my satellite contract is through DirecTV or Verizon. If I can deal only with DirecTV and cut Verizon out of my life completely, I will.

Enough said.

Moving Day

It's here!!!!

I hope I don't loose my mind (or my things).

Reaching the end of my rope

I decided to tidy up my inbox this morning because there were 210 conversations in there. Rather messy, I know. After I "filed" all the emails about buying this house, I was down to 139--that's 71 conversations. And those of you familiar with gmail know that a conversation is more than one email--most of mine are 6-8 messages long! Buying a house is such a headache. Why can't I just give people my money and be done with it??? Actually, I would be happy if I even knew what day the house would be mine, but I can't even get that information and it will supposedly be within a week! I know this is all very normal, but I still hate it.

Success!

I will be the first to admit that I am not a decorator. Although the idea of having my own house and doing my own things is exciting, I am overwhelmed by the idea of making decisions about paint and furniture and all that stuff. Add to that the fact that it all costs money and it's even more stressful.

The only room I have any idea about what I want in it is the baby's room. Yet even there I have no exact idea. I think my ideas are based more on how the room should "feel" than how it will look. I have looked and looked at bedding (to the point of driving my mother-in-law crazy) and hated all of it. I am not a lover of pink. It's fine, but most of the stuff out there is really pink and I know I'd get tired of it very quickly. I do like blue, but even the "girl" things that are blue are still too boyish. Green and yellow are dull. Can you see my dilemma? All I know is that I want wide cream stripes on the wall--simple and elegant.

So after concluding that my daughter will have only whatever we get at the baby shower (no matter how badly it clashes), I had decided to give up. I planned on spending today packing things we won't need for the next six weeks to make the move easier, but after spending the morning on the phone with loan drama (will it ever end?), I was not in the mood to work. Therefore I wasted time on the internet. I decided to check Wal-Mart for baby things, just because I hadn't, and there it was. The perfect room:

It meets nearly all of my criteria: not too pink; cream, brown and cranberry/magenta/red based (depending on which review you read); simple, not overwhelming but still has some color. What more could I ask for? Well, I would like to see it in person and get a few precise measurements, but that is not possible as it's on clearance and I get everything you see (minus the furniture) for, get this, $77. Yeah, 10-piece set for $77. And I love it, too. This is a good day after all.

As Promised

Here is the video of us telling my family we were having a baby. We went to Utah right after Father's Day, so we decided to give my mom and dad little onesies about grandparents because this will be their first grandchild. It took my mom and dad a while to understand what was going on, but as you will see, my sister Sarah picked up on it first. Poor girl has more emotion in her little body than the rest of the family put together, so that explains her reaction.

WARNING: Do NOT watch this video around sleeping babies or anyone else sensitive to loud sounds. Do NOT turn up the volume on your computer, there's nothing to hear at the first of the video and your speakers may never recover. :) It's cell phone video so the quality it really bad, but I still love it. And I love Sarah.

Rummage Giveaway

This is our stuff before we loaded it up and said goodbye:

I don't miss it at all. It took both cars to get it down to the church and Troy made lots of trips from car to building to get it all inside.

Troy had be at the church Saturday morning to help out with the giveaway and he said it was crazy seeing all the people lined up outside and then even crazier when they opened the doors and people rushed it. He jokes that there was a lady on a rascal scooter running people over to get to the Mormon's good junk. Next time he wants to set up a video camera to film the madness.

Anyway, it was a success. I got there after everyone was inside, so I found a spot on the couch in the foyer and watched the people as they left with their treasures. I'm glad that the things I no longer wanted could help people who obviously needed them. And the missionaries every handed out a few pass-along cards, so maybe someone will find something even better than a few t-shirts and muffin tins. :)

Purging

A couple times a year our ward has a rummage giveaway. Not a sale--members and the community just come and get what they want/need. I think I've only actually picked up two dress shirts for Troy that a lady handed to me with a look that said she expected me to take them (BTW-they are in the stack of things to donate this time around). The thing I love about the giveaway is giving my stuff away.

Between making space for baby and not wanting to move stuff I don't use, we are in the middle of a major purge. I love it. Once we get it all into one place I'll have to take a picture. However, I look around and we just have too much stuff! The new house is three bedrooms and has a garage, but it's still small. I'm all about small. I want to live a small and simple life, so having all these things really bothers me. But a lot of it is stuff I either can't bring myself to get rid of yet or things I use just often enough that I don't dare get rid of them. My piano keyboard, for example. I never use it because 1) it doesn't sound or play like the real thing and 2)I play terribly. But I can't just get rid of it, can I? And what about the quesadilla maker that I've used twice but oh those quesadillas were so good! Too many tough decisions.