Logan's new Wal*Mart had its grand opening this morning. We were able to check it out in pristine condition last night, and it looks great. Hopefully Erik's schedule will get a little more relaxed, now. But it may take a few weeks to get there.
If you're in town, go check it out, though. It's quite a bit different than the Wal*Mart you're used to.
This week has absolutely flown by for me. Maybe it's because after a week off work, I had a TON to do and respond to as a result of the rest of the world continuing on as usual. Maybe it was because I felt we had a lot going on at home since Erik has been home every night this week. Without at least one night where he didn't get home until 10, it must have messed up my week chronometer. Maybe it was because the weather is absolutely gorgeous and life just seems to move by more quickly when the weather isn't gloomy and depressing.
Whatever the reason, the weekend is here and I'm ready for it, but unfortunately, the forecast says that even though I'll have the time to enjoy wonderful spring weather, mother nature has a cruel sense of humor and will probably dump rain on us the entire time.
Last week seemed to fly by, too. But I can't think of what kept me so busy. With a week off, I had hoped to come back to the blog with a great post of all the things I'd accomplished, enjoyed, and participated in. Somehow, things never work out how we hope.
I did leave the Valley for a couple days to spend some time with my mom down in Utah County. Lillian came with me of course, and we had a fun time just hanging out and keeping it very low key. We spent Monday afternoon wandering around Ikea, and all I can say is, I'm lucky there isn't one closer or I'd be there all the time. As we eyed everything, my yellow shopping bag was getting pretty full, and I was sure I was going to end up spending a ton more than I wanted to. Truth be told, I only spent $25 and walked away with lots of fun stuff to show for it. Of course, I took Erik back with me on Saturday so we could get a new entertainment center, so I guess if you add that in, I spent way more than I planned on. :-) Because of the snow storm Monday, we stayed another night and came home on Tuesday.
The rest of the week was pretty unproductive. By the time Sunday night rolled around, I realized I hadn't accomplished half of what I had originally planned on; where had the time gone? I felt like I spent the first few days like I was on vacation, and I didn't want to do anything. By the time I hit my ambitous groove on Thursday, it was really too late.
But it was fun to spend an entire week just being "mom," without having to worry about email and projects even when I'm at home. When Lily asked me to read or play, I could do it right then and not have to tell her "in a minute" or "let me finish this first." And I felt I was enternally more patient with her in the evenings than I am when I get home from work. I'm not sure how spending all day with her made me more patient with her at the end of the day, but that's how it seemed.
This week, Erik started working up in Logan as the new Wal-mart is now getting ready to hire. It's been so nice to have him home every night, and he doesn't have that 45-minute drive to get here. We also found out he'll have weekends off for the next 6 weeks, so we're thrilled. Next weekend, we'll be heading up to Jackson for the snowmobile hill climbs and a mini vacation.
We also found out he's been assigned to overnights. That I was not so thrilled about. With my addition of another day in the office starting in April, we had planned on Erik taking Lily as many as two days a week to help keep daycare costs down. Now, depending on how they do the schedule, he may only be with her one day, have to go without sleep to get back on a normal schedule but still be with her two days, or not be with her at all. I like that they've been able to spend some one-on-one time together for the last two years, so the chance of that disappearing and the idea of sleeping alone for the next year had me pretty bummed. But it will mean that he'll be home every evening, so that's something we haven't had for a while and it will be nice.
I called Marriott's reservation line this morning to get some rooms for a few people. Normally I like to make reservations online, but this particular set had a group code and I wasn't provided with the online version. So I had to call.
This is how the converstion started:
Him: ThankyouforcallingMarriottblahblahblahIhavenoideawhat
hesaidhowcanIhelpyou?
(I'm not kidding. He didn't breathe for the entire greeting and I seriously didn't catch what he said in the middle.)
Me: I need to make some reservations.
Him: Great! Do you have a confirmation number?
Me: No...I need to make a reservation.
Him: Of course! You need to make a reservation. Why would you have a confirmation number already?
The rest of the conversation was pretty much the same. I had to spell the person's name three times and he never did get it right, so since I was making reservations for three people, I chose an easier name and told him I'd need two more reservations that were exactly the same (to save myself from having to spell the first name again). After finishing the first one, he asked if there was anything else he could help me with. I had to remind him about the other two. After doing the second room, he said, "OK...and now the fourth room." Mixed in during the down time while he messed with his computer, I heard the occasional snort, like he'd fallen asleep or something. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or just hang up...
I don't know what this guy ate for breakfast, but I think he better cut back! Now I remember why I prefer to make the reservations online, but at least I had a fairly amusing start to my day. :)
Like I mentioned before, I've been arranging a lot of travel this week, and people come up with some pretty odd questions that, using a little commonsense, they could figure out on their own. But with this one, I honestly wasn't sure how to react:
"We'd like to know all United flights leaving on March 25 from Bismarck."
I actually just sat there for a minute wondering if I'd read it wrong. I mean, I knew they didn't really want ALL flights, just the ones that got them to the end destination, but I wasn't sure why they were asking me for such a large set of information.
I think they're trying to make it easy for me by finding the flights themselves and then just telling me what they want, which normally is great if that's how it actually plays out. But instead, I'm having to hold their hand as they figure out what they want. If they had just given me general times they wanted to fly and said they wanted United when I first asked, I could have found an option for them and been done.
My response was to give them the United website, which is where I would have found the information anyway. I don't know why they felt I needed to act as middle man when the information is freely available to anyone with an internet connection. Maybe they'll start to realize there's this great thing called the Internet (it's on computers now) that has a entire wealth of information. I already sent them a link to the shuttle schedule because they needed that before deciding what times they would be looking at. Now, even with the shuttle schedule, they need every available flight for that day? My brain must work entirely differently.
There are some days I hate my job. Well, not my job exactly, but some of the people I have to deal with as a result.
I'm back to playing travel agent for a little while (which seems to be an increasingly more common occurrence), and there's this one person I just cannot stand! The last time I did a trip for him, I had to answer the same questions several times, and this time is no different. I don't know how many different ways I can tell him the same information. I'm about ready to say, "Do it yourself and leave me ALONE if you're so concerned about it!" But that would hardly be professional, so I just keep saying the same thing over and over. Although my answers are becoming a little less nice each time, I think.
And the worst part is that even once this awful day is over, I'll have to do it all over again tomorrow and probably again in a few weeks. It almost makes me happy I have a furlough next week...I'm willing to take an unnecessary cut in pay for one blessed week without having to think about him and his annoying questions at all.
A while back, I posted a picture of Erik at work. Well, today I have another one to show how hard Erik works and how seriously he takes his managerial responsibilities:
Yes...he's wearing a thong. Something I never really wanted to see, but I wanted to make sure no one else missed out!
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