Henry and Ricardo, Pilots of Customer Service

I finally recieved an email back from the Ranting for Miles letter I sent off to the NWA Rewards Network Dining for Miles program. To my displeasure, the response from "Ricardo" was less than stellar and clearly he did not read my email. Or maybe he did read it and like every other customer service rep, he had to show it to his "supervisor" for direction. Some supervisor they are, they poorly advised him to respond from a series of canned click-box replies:

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Dear [Crazy, Hungry and Broke],

Thank you for writing Rewards Network Dining for Miles!

We appreciate you taking the time to share your comments.

We appreciate your continued patience. Should you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely, Ricardo [if that is even his real name]

Rewards Network Dining for Miles Internet Services

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Dear Ricardo,

Your welcome. Now where's that $50 so I can go grab something to eat? Like the Dining for Miles email said, "I must be starving!"

Cordially,

The Famished Female

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I really don't understand how "Ricardo" has a job and I don't. Maybe the Rewards Network Dining for Miles Program is hiring and I can work right next to him. I am pretty sure I can handle clicking the canned response boxes, heck, I might even be able to draft a real letter!

Another fine example of true airline customer service, is one I found from Delta Airlines on the blog YourUnemployedDaughter. YUD, as she calls herself, had a little email conversation going with "Henry" regarding a mixup with the beloved $15 bag fee. I seriously don't think Henry gets it either.

There is a recession here, people, if you didn't notice. Dining out and $15 per bag fee, EACH WAY, is luxury these days. Us unemployed folk track our expenses like a dog tracks bear! Even automotive companies will "take your car back" if you lose your job, what about the airlines? They choose to do nothing but poke fun at our expense by coming up with "snappy" email marketing techniques or rip us off with the ridiculous bag fee. I bet Henry won't be to thrilled once they take that $15 out of his paycheck for being such a prick about it.

I promptly sent YUD my letter to NWA Rewards for Dining Network so she could see that she is not alone in this world of ignoramous airline customer service. Well, she got a kick out of it, and I am elated I could make someone's day a little brighter. I know I felt 100% better after writing it.

Fast forward to this afternoon, in a completely unrelated web-surfing session, I came across a job opening for a Marketing Communications Specialist. Fancy that! I figured if Henry and Ricardo can handle that kind of job, why can't I? Thank you for giving me the confidence to apply for a job I am underqualified for! Yet, after witnessing what kind of writers NWA and Delta hire, I've decided I am a shoe-in.

Thanks to the NWA Rewards Dining for Miles Network and their poor marketing ideas, I now have a primo sample of my work to share.

What is my deal?

I seem to have a problem with motivation. It's not that I don't have any, but I think it's not exactly in the places it needs to be.

I keep thinking about how I am going to get up early and get out the door to do something, but I get so darn side tracked. It's different things every day. Today's example:

Last night I planned out how my day would work:

Get up early
Make coffee
Eat breakfast
Check email, log food intake, etc. while eating breakfast
Workout for 45 min
Shower
Head down to MichiganWorks office
Stop in and apply for min wage retail job that I found on internet
Come home for lunch-I have a great new recipe idea! :)

Ok, it's 11 am people and I still have my workout clothes on!!! I also want to add in a walk with my dog because I feel SUPER guilty that I don't take him on walks as often since I started this new exercise program. He needs to lose 4-5 lbs per doctors orders.

The sad part is part of me wants to wait until tomorrow to go down to the "city"..... Ok, enough lazy talk... I need to go for that walk and get moving!

Ranting for miles program

I received the following email this morning from NWA WorldPerks Dining for Miles program, where you can accumulate airline miles for dining out:

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From: Rewards Network Dining for Miles
Subject: Where have you been?

You must be starving!

We noticed you haven't dined out recently, so you didn't earn any WorldPerks^® miles with us last month. Wouldn't some WorldPerks miles hit the spot right about now? It's the perfect time to dig back in at some great places like these.

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To: Rewards Network Dining for Miles
Subject: Scraping for groceries

Really?! No, Rewards Network Dining for Miles program, I am not starving. I am broke! I am unemployed and cannot afford luxuries right now like DINING OUT. I have no home, I stay with family and friends, horrible credit, and the last thing I think about is buying myself a lavish meal so I can get "airline miles" for a trip I CANNOT AFFORD TO GO ON.

I receive a very SMALL portion of unemployment that covers only the basics in life, and not to mention, I only have 8 weeks of it left! And really, what would I do with airline points right now? I have no right to be taking a vacation! Not to mention, with the $15 A BAG FEE, I cannot afford to use your airline at this juncture of my life.

And NO, I can't charge it on my credit card because I DON'T HAVE ONE. I have screwed up my credit because I use to go on lavish vacations, perhaps flying an airline such as NWA. No.. I don't have what I call a "faulty backup plan" everyone else refers to as CREDIT CARDS.

I'll tell you what would "hit the spot". You send me a check for $50, and I will treat myself to a nice dinner out at one of the "participating restaurants in my area" so I can get rack up a few miles.

Dig back into that, Rewards Network Dining for Miles!!

Marlboro sweats and rich old pervy men

I should be working on my book. I should be working on my business plan. I should be looking for jobs. All these pressures...so little time. You would think with all this free time not working, I could have whipped out a book and a FEW business plans. It just doesn't work that way, and those of you that have been unemployed know exactly what I mean.

The only other time in my life I was unemployed was over 10 years ago, and it was for a few short, yet grueling months. I spent most of my days laying around in these red sweats with the word Marlboro printed down the side. Those days were pretty grim. I gave up my apartment and lived with some friends and their stinky dogs. Really, they were gross. They were cocker spaniels and they would always leave these "little presents", in solid AND liquid form, in the foyer for a greeting as you entered the door. Nasty. They always used Pine Sol to clean it up too, which I found quite disturbing. To this day, if I smell Pine Sol, I will either gag or worse: blow chunks.

I didn't think I would ever find a job, so I took this bartending gig 2 nights a week at this cheesy bar that had line dancing lessons on Mondays and Tuesdays. By day, a Marlboro sweat wearing slob, by night - a tight shirt, mini skirt wearing bartender for the urban cowgirls and pervy old business men of the east side. What a catch I was!

Needless to say, that job didn't last very long. I got tired of the old men that would offer to pay for things in exchange for my company. Ew. I was broke, but not desperate. This one old man, who had to have been in his 80s, always would ask me if I had a fur coat and offer to pay for my college. Seriously, I could have been "Amber Nicole"...thank God I have some pride left at this point. Conversations were never dull with this man, but this one in particular grossed me out so bad that I must over-share:

Rich old pervy man: You need your box fixed?

Me: Excuse me, what did you say?

Rich old pervy man: I said, do you need your box fixed?

Me: What are you talking about?

Rich old pervy man: Well, any girl I've gone out with either needs her box fixed or her teeth fixed, and your teeth look fine to me.

Yes, what a FINE place it was. A few years later, the place had changed names and got some notority from a certain Detroit rap star.... (that I have to admit I had a big crush on).

I digress. My life is not that bad. The Marlboro sweats are long gone and now they've been replaced by the awesome sock monkey slippers I picked up for $7. My nights are spent hanging out with my BBE (best boyfriend ever) or my cousin. I'm either cooking dinner, playing a board game, playing with my sweet little pug or watching a movie. Such a difference a decade makes.

So, now that I have reminisced......and realized things could be a LOT worse, I think I will go ahead and work on that business plan.....

Get over it!

It seems so easy to say, and rarely easy to do. But you HAVE to do it. You HAVE to stop whining and crying like a baby as if this was the worst disappointment in life. Think about all the people in your life for a minute. Everything they are going through, have gone through, and are about to go through. Now, don't you feel silly complaining about that one little thing in your life that didn't go your way?

Or maybe it did go your way, but you are too busy with your pity party to realize it.

I have to admit, I don't even want to tell the story. But I think in order for me to move on, I need to put it out there in the universe. I applied for a job that was not exactly what I had in mind on my journey of finding the "new me", but it was fairly good pay and with a great company. (Yes, I am self-justifying this...bear with me) I was excited to FINALLY get an interview somewhere because the jobs out there...well, are few and far between.

I thought the interview went really well and then had to wait until this week to find out if I made the second round. During this whole waiting process, I found myself wondering if I had even made the right choice by going on the interview in the first place. It's not a job in "accounting" per say, but in the Accounting Department. Maybe, just maybe, it is too close for comfort. As I said, I justified it with two things: the money and the company reputation. Don't get me wrong, the money wasn't like anything I have been used to in the past, but it would have been much more than I had budgeted for and apparently this company has great work-life balance reputation - a major plus!

However, none of this matters anymore, because I did not get selected for round 2 of the interview process. After I found out, I had myself a 10 minute pity party. Ok, it was more like 30 minutes, but you get my point. I am not sure why I even flinched about it, I think it's just the realization that this process is much more difficult and demanding then I anticipated.

So what, I didn't get the job. Life goes on. The way I see it I have two choices:

1. Continue to cry/whine/complain to everyone about how I did not get the job offer. Start a self destructive pattern of bitching about how crappy my situation is and think that nothing in life is going my way...blah, blah, blah.

2. Get over it!

If you know me at all, you know that I am going to choose #2. There is no reason to do otherwise. This just means that there is another plan for me and this just makes me more excited and motivated to find out exactly what that is.

The exciting life of the unemployed

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about being unemployed, nor I am not bragging about it. I simply want to share a few things, because I think it's good to see another person's point of view. Especially when you start to feel as if the world revolves in order to make your life miserable.

Most days I sleep in...sometimes until 9am. I get up and have breakfast, make coffee, check my email and then jump in the shower. I take my time to get ready, because I can, and then I start my daily "work routine". I put away the dishes, throw in some laundry, straighten up the living room and kitchen, and by the time that is all said and done it's lunchtime!

Then I go surfing....on the internet....for jobs. This, my friends, is not the highlight of my day as one would expect. However, it has become my LEAST favorite thing to do. Not because there aren't many jobs out there, or that they don't pay enough...but I feel like I am doing it just to pass time and because the unemployment agency expects me to do it.

It is not as if I don't WANT a job, I do. I just want one that will make me feel whole again.

There are times when I feel as if I could have done something different and circumstances might have been more bearable in my past few jobs. Maybe I did something to deserve it. Maybe I just wasn't good enough. Maybe I am just being a spoiled brat. Or maybe.....

IT JUST WASN'T MY CALLING

It does not take long to figure it out once you talk your way through it, or even better, talk about it with someone who KNOWS your strengths and can see things clearly because they are looking in at your situation and not within it. I am not talking about having a "pity party", or an "oh poor me, feel sorry for me because this world has wronged me" conversation. I am talking about real, true and raw feelings. Tell it like it is. Tell someone what your true irrational fears and phony inadequacies are and DO NOT expect them to tell you that your wrong. You speak truth, and others will give it right back to you in the raw form from which you dealt it out.

The humility that comes out of the conversation will enlighten you....if you let it.

After letting myself drift off into my imaginary philosophical world where I am the Queen of the Soap Box, I wake up to find myself back on the pages of employment search engines. Ah, back to reality. I print out a few jobs that look semi-interesting so I can re-write my resume for the job. I open up my resume and stare at it. I close it back up. I go to Blogger and open up a New Post and stare at the screen. Nothing. Nothing. I can think of nothing remotely interesting to write about. I close up Blogger. I think I should work on one of my books. No, I am not feeling it today. Maybe I should work on a painting. No, I am not in the right mood. I open up Blogger again. I stare at the big open space where words should be spilling out onto the screen. Again, nothing. I close up Blogger again. I check my email once more, laugh at a few jokes and call it a day.

What is different about today, you ask? I've let myself be enlightened.

Excuses, Excuses...

I certainly don't have any good ones for not posting...for a month! Well, besides the fact that when I arrived home from Omaha, I had a severe cold and couldn't peel myself off the couch for two weeks. I know that is totally lame, but literally, I couldn't think of anything to write except for over-the-counter-remedy reviews, and I don't know anyone who would be interested in that topic. Ok, maybe one, but I don't think he reads this blog. Ha.

I had some fun times with my Oma-homies: CWS beer tents, I actually went to an LSU game, fun on the Missouri River, and of course my favorite: Commune Cooking. If you don't know what commune cooking is, you don't know what you are missing. Every Sunday we would get together at each other's houses for dinner. The idea started out with us bringing what was available in our fridge, pantry, etc., but then escalated a bit when we all started getting a little 'competitive' with our cooking. I suppose I am partially to blame, because I started bringing "fancy" things. Hey, I love to cook, what can I say? Anyway, you never leave with an empty stomach because we all know how to cook really well and have such diverse backgrounds in cooking.

I really miss those dinners and my friends too, they are the best people you will ever meet. :) I can't wait to go back and visit, hopefully again this year.