***Blush***

To combat boredom, myself and a co-worker make paper snowflakes to decorate our cubicles. Yesterday I was leaving a message on a customer's voice mail. While explaining how I fold my paper, I realized I had not ended the call. Approximately 40 seconds was for message and the other 90 seconds was explanation on how to make paper snowflakes. I don't blush often but my co-workers noted I was beet-red.

Oh Snap*

I spent most of today calling customers to let them know when they can upgrade their cell phone. From as much as I remember, this is a VERY revealing conversation I had today. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).

Teacherlady: Hi, is [Bob] there?
Wife: No, he's at work. Can I take a message?
TL: [Company preamble] Can you let [Bob] know that the cell phone he purchased from us about two years ago is eligible for an upgrade [later this month]?
W: You must have the wrong [Bob], we don't have a cell phone.
TL: Is this the [Bob Smith**] residence?
W: Yes, what address do you have?
TL [Cherrytree Lane]
W: That's our house. When was the phone purchased?
TL: Two years ago.
W: Hmmm, When was the last call made?
TL: Sorry, I don't have access to that information. Only if [Bob] called directly could he find that out. If there has been some sort of mistake, tell [Bob] to call us directly so we can get this fixed.
W: Umm, [long pause] well thank you for telling me. [long pause]
TL: Well, [awkward pause] thank you for your time and hope you have a good day.

A couple minutes later I was on the phone when a co-worker told me there was a very angry woman on the phone who would talk to no one but me. By the time he tried transferring the call, she had hung up.

I explained to my co-workers and supervisor what had happened. Then I told them what I wanted to say the customer if he called in mad. "Number one: It's not my fault that you two have trust issues. Number two: It is not my fault that you are dumb enough to use your house number as your customer contact number for your secret cell phone."

* I never use the phrase but that was my honest reaction after hanging up the phone.
** The real name is actually uncommon so it was no mistaking that I had the right house.

"All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down"

At my previous school, one of the teacher assistants JUST HAD to tell me her daughter's first impression of me. Her daughter pulled up to drop her off at the front when she saw me for the first time. She turns to her mom and says "Look how skinny she is, that's just disgusting." Umm, thanks for the story? The lady thought it was really funny.

I rarely get compliments on my physical appearance. I'm not saying I should but it would at least be a good counter-balance to garbage that comes out of people's mouthes abut my weight. Comments like "I hate how skinny you are" and "You're so skinny, it disgusts me". I've had other comments like "I must weigh 100 pounds" or "I'd break like a twig" or "Eat more, you need to fatten up." What do you think that does to a person's self-esteem? Those are the sort of things that absolutely ring in my ears. Sometimes I want to scream "I'm OK with the way I look, why can't you be OK with the way I look!"

I've even had people "joke" about me being anorexic. Like me having an eating disorder is the ONLY I could be thin. High metabolism, genetics, food allergies and eating relatively well have NOTHING to do with it. There was one friend that said something along those lines that was so hurtful that I walked away from him and never spoke to him again. Talking to people that way is just cool.


This past spring a girl friend was tell us how great it was that this guy was bashing skinny girls. First off, bashing someone else's appearance is not considered a compliment. Secondly, wouldn't anyone rather have a compliment than feeling better by making others feel worse?

When did it become socially acceptable to bash people for the way that they look? I once a friend told me that if she didn't know me she'd hate me because of the way that I look. That is a ballsy statement. My first reaction was wondering how she would feel if I said the same thing to her. I'd probably get slapped and deservingly so.

Lessons of the Day: Instead of tearing people down, try building them up.
Bonus Lesson: People will try to tear you down no matter how you look.

Happy Birthday Sister!

You are a whiter shade of pale but you will always be yellow baby to me. Happy 27th birthday Maryanne.

Impressive

I impressed a young coworker today with my parallel parking skills. It was a tight spot and it took me a bit to get in. He watching me the whole time and I thought he was going to give me a hard time. Bonus points for it being a left side parallel park.

My boss thanked me today for what a good job I've been doing. I don't really think I am doing anything special -- I work hard and ask lots of questions to make sure I am doing it right. The job isn't hard but a lot of my coworkers put the zzzzzzzzzzzz in lazy.

That was then this is now. I started training for the job I was actually hired for today (two weeks after I started). There is so much to learn but it is pretty easy. The funny thing is they've decided to train the inbound reps (what I was hired for) to do outbound calls (what I've been doing for the past two weeks). Since I've been doing such a good job, they told me I'm going to help train. Me? I'm the newest employee and I'm helping train.