Now that it's Friday and I'm at work and the boss is out of town and I have some free time and and and and...

I really hate that I have to be here today. We asked the bossman to let us work Christmas Eve and be off today, but he said no. He was worried we'd be buried on Monday after four days of being off.

Right.

Anyway, so I'm here...so I thought I'd post. Hey, how about first, let's do the Friday Five!

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?

Hmm...that would be surviving it! Well, that and the fact that even though I've quit exercising for the most part, I've not gained any of the weight I lost back.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?

That my father has not yet gotten his liver transplant, also that I have not lost anymore weight :(

3. What do you hope the new year brings?

My Dad a freakin' liver already. Something much happier and peaceful than this one was....

4. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be?

No. I don't do that. I feel like when you do that, you kinda set yourself up for a dissappointment should you not make your "goals".

5. What are your plans for New Year's Eve?

At this point I'm unsure. There is talk of staying home with friends, there is talk of going out. There is always the possiblity that I stay home alone with the dog and cat to ring the new year in asleep. Who knows?!

Ok, got that out of the way.

So, let me ellaborate on the Christmas Eve post about my U-Haul experience. I think the easiest and most effective way to tell what happened is to paste in here my complaint letter to them:

I called the U-Haul center about the first week of December to schedule a rental of a 19.95 van to move. The gentleman who reserved the truck for me asked for a credit card number in order to reserve the truck and said my card would not be charged. He asked if I needed anything else, I asked for an appliance dolly and said that was all. We both hung up and went on our way. This Saturday morning, I arrived at the store at approximatley 9 a.m. and told the cashier that I wanted to switch the credit card I had reserved the truck on and he said no problem. I handed him my VISA Check Card from my bank, Suntrust. He then told me that because it was a Checkcard, they were going to need a $100 deposit as well as one of the following ids: a military badge, work badge or Green Card. I have none of those. I asked why and was told that "one bad apple spoils the bunch" and that there was nothing that could be done because that was their policy. I asked then if I could use cash instead and was told yes, so I left my party there to go to the bank to withdraw $100 in cash. While I was gone, my sister went in and spoke with them and the story immediatley changed. Suddenly, policy had changed to accomadate her. I got back from the bank and was told that plans had changed and we drove the truck to my apartment. We got back to my apartment at approx. 9:45 and had the truck loaded and ready to go to the next stop at approx. 11:30. At that time, we went to start the truck--and it would not. We called the 1-800 U-Haul number to report the situation and was told by Keith that a repair person would be in touch with us within 30 minutes. I (admittidely and hopefully understandably) was angry and frustrated because within two hours this was problem number 2 with U-Haul and was a little angry, expressing my displeasure with Keith. I was never mean to Keith nor about Keith, although Keith DID feel the need to be combative back to me, which as a person who works in the Customer Service industry, is HORRIBLE customer service. At any rate, we went and sat and waited for the repair man to call. One hour and 15 minutes later (30 minute wait time, remember???), the repair man calls and tells us that he will be to us within the hour. Two hours later, we call U-Haul AGAIN to find out where our repair person is at and we were told that "no one told you it would be one hour"---when in fact Rocky, the repair man, did indeed tell us it would be about an hour. Finally, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon the truck was fixed and we could leave. We talked to the owner of the location and were comped the cost of the truck. Because of the delay in the truck, we weren't able to unload the truck at the new place until after dark and also not be able to return the truck until after the location had already closed. The bill had to be settled up the next day. When we called to settle up the bill, they charged me an extra $20 to refuel. When asked why, we were told the truck had 3/4 of a tank of gas and had to be returned with that. The gentleman who had convienetly changed policy earlier had told her that it had 1/4 of a tank of gas and had to be returned with that as well. My bill totaled $82.27. I don't feel like I used $82.00 worth of U-Haul's time nor equipment. We had problems from the get-go, were told lies by the dealer and treated like crap by the customer service number. We were made to seem as though it was somehow our fault that the starter was bad and it was our fault that the repair man was late. I can safely say this has been the worst moving experience of my life and at this point, U-Haul will be the last company I use or recommend to anyone else. I have seven friends moving in the next three months to locations as close as within the city and as far as cross country. I feel like after this experience, I will recommend Budget. I don't know what I feel needs to happen to rectify this situation, but I'm open to suggestions. A move that should have taken 3 hours tops took more like 12.

Ahem.

So, I wrote that email Monday morning and haven't heard anything. I doubt I will. I don't really want any money back, more like an apology from them about their suckass employess. I doubt I will hear anything from them...that's ok. I'll never use them again.

The rest of the move was made shitty by my sister and her husband. We made the decision to do this back on probably August. They weren't ready to start on this transistion until at least the middle of November. Needless to say, come Friday night before move day, shit was still not ready. Two weeks in a row my brother-in-law let me down. The week prior I had asked him to have a closet cleaned out in this room by the next weekend. He didn't have it done, therefore delaying the start of work the next weekend. That weekend I asked him to take the time to hang the door that week while he was at home. Friday night at 10:30 and it still wasn't done. I shouldn't be suprised about it at all--that's the type of folks they are. Procrastinators...no matter what. That's ok, it's not forever. I'll deal with it the way I know how--which is to bitch to anyone who will listen :)..lol

So as planned, we didn't celebrate Christmas really this year. We got together on Christmas Eve as we usually do, we just didn't exchange gifts. We decided not to do that until after Daddy get's his transplant. I'm all for it. What better reason for us to celebrate?.....Not only that, but not a single one of us has the holiday spirit. I couldn't wait for it to all be over. I've had enough of it. Then again, I didn't have the xmas spirit last year. Could this be a trend? As I get older, the less I have? I hope not...I've always loved Christmas, especially the lights and tree......I threw my two trees away this year..I figured, why bother--and if I ever get back in the spirit, I can buy another.

This years is quickly drawing to a close. I'm really glad-- Really. 2003 seemed to start out with so much promise. I was doing so well with the weight loss as was my sister. We were finally getting somewhere with what was wrong with my dad, although we had no idea what serious diagnosis (transplant) was to come. The new year seemed full of hope and dreams and all that other bullshit. It's turned out to be one of the most trying years of my 29. It's running a very close second to the year(s) of February 93-February 94' where both my parents mothers died and my mother changed forever. My paternal grandmother had been ill for some time, suffering a serious of cluster strokes which damanged her brain in much of the same way Alzheimers does. She went backwards in to a vegetative state until she died on January 1st, 1994. My maternal grandmother however was not that clean. My maternal grandfather died on December 26th of 1992, after a battle with cancer. My maternal grandmother took it so bad in fact that she started to take just about any and all pills she could--she lost track of time really, taking one pain pill and then not even an hour later taking another. She did this for several weeks until one day she we snapped. She was in the hospital for a while, trying to detox. She wouldn't have any part of it...long story short, she was addicted to pain pills and had been for quite some time. The only difference was that my grandfather was no longer around to doll them out in the right increments, so she went apeshit taking them. Needless to say, my mother tried to get her off them--she was having no part. She got out of the hospital, even after the doctor tried to convince my mother to have her committed. She went home for about a week and continued on her madness. I even talked to her once while she was drugged out. She went off on me for something petty if I remember correctly...I was nonplussed. At any rate, my mom went to get her to take her to the doctors office on February 4th. She didn't answer to door. Mom went in to find her in the bathroom--dead. She over dosed. The death certificate said suicide. My mother called them and MADE them change it to accidental overdose. It's all a play on words as far as I'm concerned....We all know she meant to take the pills. I don't believe she meant to take them in a lethal dose....but I do believe she had given up the will to live. She died of a broken heart.....

An I have rambled on way too long. My point was that this year has been hard. An next year will probably be hard too, but hopefully not all year long. Here's to positive thinking! :::::cheers!::::