Birthday Going-Ons and a Tale of Two Companies

This past weekend Noah turned 3 and I turned 32. He's old enough now that he knows we have the same birthday and he got a big kick out of telling me happy birthday so I would tell him the same thing. Lots of laughs. I'm enjoying it because I'm sure when he's 16 he won't find it so funny. At this point I get to decide what we have to eat and where to go and such because 1) he's only 3 and 2) the person who had to endure the birth of an almost 10 lb baby on her birthday gets to choose happy things now.

We were going to head to the beach on Saturday but it's FL in summer so the chance of thunderstorms was high and we ended up swimming and playing Marco Polo and such.

The low point of the day was the mail. We got a bill from a certain cable/internet company (rhymes with Schmomcast) for about $130 more than it should be. So we spent like 2 hrs on the phone with them.

Conversation with Company #1:

Them:  "It looks like these charges were authorized."

Us: "No, they weren't."

Them: "Well, that's debatable."

Us: "Actually, it's not. We just told you neither of us authorized the charges."

Them: "It looks like you only have the economy internet. Are you sure you don't want to upgrade? It's only $5 extra per month. Well, there is also the small surcharge of your soul but you can break that up into easy monthly payments."

Us: "It's a tempting offer but based on how unbelievably terrible your customer service is, we're going to pass."

Them: "Just to be clear, you did just authorize the upgrade, right?"


So that was a pretty frustrating part of the day. Matt thought we should go to Chik-Fil-A so Noah could play. Although fast-food wouldn't be my first choice, I begrudgingly agreed. You know, for the kids and stuff.

Conversation with Company #2:

Me: "Do you do anything special for birthdays? It's mine and my son's birthday today." (Here I'm thinking, free small drink or something).

Them: "I don't think so but let me check with the manager."

Manager: "Can I see your ID to check your birthday?"

(I showed her that today was indeed my birthday)

Manager: "Ok, you guys can order whatever you want."

Really? Really?? Wow. So I ordered for me and Noah and then she said "No, no, all of you can order whatever you want. It's on us."

That's right. They paid for our meals for 6 people. And when we were done, they told us to let them know when we were ready for dessert and that would be on the house too.

Now that is customer service.


The next day we had the family birthday celebration at my parents' house. It was very lovely and Noah was practically swimming in cars and tractors and new Pixar-themed underwear so he was quite the happy camper.

As part of my gift from my in-laws, I got this sign that my mother-in-law picked out for me:

Does she know me or what? We've been good friends since I married Matt 13 years ago and our families have been friends for much longer. We can both agree in friendship that I am not really much into cleaning and I wish I could care more but I just don't.

Jack later read the sign and told me that it's not true; the kids aren't happy because we punish too much. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. That's...wait, that's 66%. Ok, that's failing.

I may be terrible at parenting but I have recently discovered a way to style my hair so it's not too awful.

You can't win them all.