The View From Across The Street

From where I sat the house was the same. The bricks were the same as the ones my sister and I used to paint with water on hot days when there was nothing else to do. The tree that littered acorns all over the ground to torture bare feet looked no different. The shrubs that turned into magical jungles for my toys had not changed either. Something was different though from the view across the street.

I was barely a teenager and in an act of defiance and imagined wisdom, I had run away from the injustices of the home. An injustice that was so extreme that 20 years later, no matter how much I search my mind, I can't remember what it was.

Across the street I sat and tried to build the courage to admit I was wrong and enter back into the family. The house and I were different now, changed. I reflected back to a book I had read about Huck Finn. He had faked his own death and attended his own funeral. He had been welcomed back into the family. I hadn't done anything quite that bad. In fact I am pretty sure that the mother of the friend that I had stayed the night with had called my family to tell them of my appearance while she served me spaghetti.

 image through Google images

Yet as I slow walked to the front door, I was terrified. The garage was open as it always was. The door that led into the house from there was always unlocked. Our family was used to the neighbors dropping by for a visit. It's how it worked in our neighborhood. Dear friends and family always used the garage door, but I wasn't part of that now. I had chosen to walk away from that classification. The front door with its deadbolt loomed in front of me. Because of my choice I would have to knock and wait to see if the door was opened.

A heavy wood door with no glass except a tiny peep hole. If I knocked would my mom or dad be peering through that peep hole, judging me to see if I deserved to be let in? Would they scoff at the audacity of my return and turn away?

I knocked.

Waited.

The door was opened.

To this day I don't remember what I said or what they said. I don't remember if I was hugged or if I ran to my room. I'm sure there was a lecture, but I don't remember a word of it. What I remember is the door was opened and I was let back into the house. All thoughts of the house looking strange from across the street disappeared as I walked across the familiar carpet. My hand rubbed the familiar wood of the bookcase that I always touched as I walked by and my room felt the same as I flopped onto the bed.

Although I made the choice to walk away from the house, the door was opened on my return back into my family. The view from across the street was strange that day, but the feeling when I walked back through the door was home. Years later I still use the front door when visiting my parents. I knock and I wait. There is no fear now because I know the door will always be opened for me. I use the front door because there is no better feeling than being welcomed home.

Dear Customer Service,

Dear Customer Service,

First let me tell you that I have worked in your field for 13 years so I know how tiring and aggravating it can be to follow the 1st law of good customer service; "The Customer Is Always Right." Yes, we grumble to ourselves that the customer is technically not always right, but when it comes to customer service you should do everything that you can to let the customer know they are important.

For 2 months I have spent time battling 3 of your Customer Service "warriors" and let me tell ya. FAIL!

True Story #1 - Breaker dies. We purchase a new breaker and after looking at some jacked up wiring, husband decides to just call the home warranty people instead of possibly performing a Frankenstein experiment on himself. Home Warranty people send out a contractor (name withheld because if he has a strange accident I don't want it blamed on me as a suspect because I obviously have motive) Contractor is responsible for parts and labor. He comes to the location after a detailed description of what the problem is and doesn't have the part needed. This guy was either not a Boy Scout or thought we were fools who didn't know a dead breaker from a crow in the yard to show up without the part. He begins to rummage through bags on the counter and finds the Holy Grail that he seeks along with its bag and receipt where we were going to return it rather than use it as a $42 paperweight. He merrily does his repairs and rides into the sunset. I find out and call the office for a reimbursement on the part because its their responsibility to supply the part. Rather than say "my bad" (because it was) I was told that I shouldn't have left it lying there where it could be used accidentally. Um...used accidentally? *I* shouldn't have left it lying there? So if I had left $42 in cold hard cash on the counter, your service man lacks the integrity to NOT pick it up and use it because he needed it? *crickets chirp on other end of line* For almost 2 months I battle back and forth with the Home Warranty company (who did say I was right but lacked the backbone to scare the contractor enough to do the right thing) and with the actual company who has caller ID and would refuse to pick up the phone unless I called from the pizza place down the street. I finally got my check but not after I decided to call every other company this works with and tell them what they had done. After a snotty "I-wish-you-hadn't-involved-X-Y-Z companies and my mother" phone call, I got my check.

True Story #2 - My heat was working but not efficiently. I call the company to come make the tweaks needed so that I don't receive another "poop my pants" $500 electric bill. Your jackwagon employee that shows up is not capable of making a repair and talk on the cell phone at the same time. He wounds another area of the heater and now must order a part. Heat is still limping and 1.5 month later we receive word that the all important part has arrived. I called over and over and finally came to conclusion that some swell guy over in China sweated his life away making my part by chopsticks and rowed the stupid thing over himself by boat. Employee comes over like my savior in a gleaming white truck (insert trumpet sounds) and promptly cracks the board. This board is what makes the whole thing work. Now I have NO heat. I call the next day after discovering this myself because he didn't think it necessary to tell me before he left that I had no heat and I was told that I was the top priority. 6 hours later I call back and they can't ask him about an ETA because he is at lunch and has been swamped. HURMPH...I thought I was first priority, not your greasy cow sandwich. Next day I call again, they are waiting for the store they use to get the part in and that could be another 24-48 hours. REALLY? Is this the only store in our area that sells this part? REALLY?!?! Could you at least call our buddy in China with his chopsticks? We now have electric and kerosene heaters positioned around the house (lots of fun when you have a nosy must touch everything baby who has probably burned off all of her fingerprints by now) and my savior is surely sitting in his toasty house in a Hawiian shirt having another greasy cow sandwich. Until then...at least I know I am first priority.

True Story #3 - Get a wonderful note from our health insurance company saying that all the medical bills from the past year for my 1 year old have been denied because she doesn't exist in their system. (Throw up and faint in floor) I'm not going to even detail the conversations that were done concerning that one because my mother reads here and she wouldn't be proud of me. What had happened was Bitsy was born under coverage of husband's employer with company A. 1 week after birth, employer switches to company B. We were told that although switching companies, we would never notice a shift other than new shiny cards. Apparently company A did not give company B any documentation about our 3rd daughter so all the fun visits and vaccinations with a baby were not covered. I was then told that if I faxed in the birth certificate that it would be corrected. Done.....THEY LIED. I then receive a letter that says they deny her completely because they never received a fax. (throw up and faint again) I battle back and forth with some guy from India and after a month get no where. I call HR for my husband's company. Crying, swearing and pleading I tell them about what has happened. She checks the system. Bitsy is in there, she always has been. Disregard all notices. WHA....I'm supposed to feel better but I'm mad. I've stressed like no other time (well there was that one time that the high school baseball star asked me to dance and I had major body odor and I just knew he could smell it thus ruining my cool points in high school) for over a month, tried to learn India-English jabber and this was a clerical error?

So, customer service...I'm not happy with what you have evolved into. Your motto now is that the customer is an idiot, if something goes wrong it's the customer's fault, a sandwich is a higher priority than a customer and the flippant excuses when you are wrong are very old.

Signed,
Still freezing in my house while I am first priority.

Dear Brain From Heart

Dear Brain,

I'm pretty sure that you are the one responsible for all the bad choices and mistakes that have been happening lately. You've been 50 miles away and I need you to buckle yourself down and come back. You've grabbed onto a concept, a decision or a feeling and just had to add in your own two cents. You've overcomplicated, rehashed and basically made a mess of things because you can't seem to multitask basic functions with thinking.

Maybe you feel like you have too much on you right now; too much expected, but it's pretty easy to sort out.

• You do what you do best and let me do what I do. 
• Quit trying to read in between the lines on matters of the heart.
• Don't assume that you can over-rule me and decide what is best for me. 
• When I clue you in to a "gut feeling" go back to listening to me. 
• Don't apply your logic to it. Go with the feeling.

Remember that one time that you got that great opportunity and you kept telling me that logically it wasn't possible? You were wrong then.
Remember that time that you held the test in your hand and tried to tell me all the reasons you couldn't be pregnant? You were wrong then.
Remember that time that you royally screwed things up and tried to tell me that there was no way he could love you anymore? You were wrong then.
Remember the time that friend jerked you around time and time again? How you reasoned it out and your mind and kept giving more chances because it might have been you in the wrong? You were wrong then.
Remember that time that person went out of their way to do something kind and you said you didn't deserve it? You were wrong then.
Remember that time that you were so afraid to leap into the unknown because it didn't make sense that any good could come of it? You were wrong then.

Don't get me wrong, my friend. You've had your times that you have shined. You have been the one right and I was wrong. But let's get this straight. When it makes no sense, when it seems unreasonable or when it just doesn't figure right; stop, listen and let me do my job.

Yours,
The Heart