Survey Thursdays!

Will I post a survey EVERY Thursday?  Probably not.  Let's be honest - my memory is terrible right now!


I am going to start putting together music for us to listen to with the baby.  What kind of music do you think is best for baby?  What should we expose our lil sprog to for the next 6 months?

Poll Time!

Is it too early to start making my Baby Wish List?  For both me and baby?  Because I keep seeing stuff that I know I will want...in 8 months.  And if I don't have a list, I will totally forget...

So!  Opinions?  Too early to start the window shopping?  (Yes.  I know it's early, something could happen, etc etc...I feel this ridiculous rush to get READY NOW.  Knowing me, I'll have everything set up for baby by the end of the summer.)

Tipping the Velvet

Oh! I remember what I was going to talk about!

One of the books we've been assigned in my Intro to Lit class is Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. It is an absolutely beautifully written novel based in Victorian England. Here, this tells you a bit about it... WooHoo Wiki!

Anyway. One of the things about this novel is that it does have sex scenes. As far as literary sex scenes go, these are very tame. There is no 'throbbing man meat' to be found anywhere. Well...of course not...it's about a young lesbian...anyway. You get the idea. I've read some very racy books - the Kushiel series is one of my favorites, and I have a healthy love for the Sookie Stackhouse books as well as the Merry Gentry series. Don't judge me, sometimes I just like smut! So yes. The scenes in Tipping the Velvet...not bad at all. They aren't nasty, they aren't overly explicit...they are tame, and pretty sweet (well, for the most part.)

Several of the students in the class have expressed their utter disgust in the book. One student went so far as to say, 'I am so disgusted in the sex scenes in this book that I'm not going to finish reading it.' Unfortunately, many of those who have said they were disgusted or repulsed by these scenes have also made it very clear that their disgust really comes from them being lesbian sex scenes.

Oh Noes! We can't take a literary piece and enjoy it, despite portions that make us feel uncomfortable! We can't stretch our imaginations and our comfort zones to find the amazing themes and the beautifully crafted story!

Earlier today, there was a post by a classmate who made the comment that, 'I find it hard to believe that the strongest connection in a lesbian relationship would be the sex...' He essentially said he hated that Waters made all lesbian relationships seem like they are all about sex.

Hey! I read a book once about a husband who abused his wife. That means that all heterosexual relationships are abusive, right? Uh no. Wrong!

So, I called him on it. One of my comments made mention of the fact that it didn't matter that the characters were lesbians - that this story could have very well been about a heterosexual couple who experienced the same issues. Another classmate asked why she wouldn't have just written about a heterosexual couple instead...

All in all - I've been very amused by my classmates responses to this novel. Some of them loved it, some of them were ambivalent, and a few of them absolutely hated it. I keep trying to ask them why, to poke at their brains and make them actually step back and examine what makes them hate the book. I've gotten a few responses, which have been very interesting. Though now that I think about it, I wonder if I shouldn't leave those thought provoking questions to the professor to ask...

At the end of the day, I highly recommend this novel. It is amazingly well written. The characters are robust and believable, and it made me tear up at the end. All in all - it gets 7 out of 10 stars on April's Scale of Novels.

Memory and Image Poem

I am having a lot of difficulties in my Creative Writing: Poetry class. I think that I'm going to be talking to the dean, because this is just ridiculous. I'm not going to go into it right now...but needless to say, I am a frustrated panda.

The poem we had to write this week had to include memory and images. One of the problems I'm having with the teacher is lack of feedback of ANY kind. It's difficult to write and write and write - and not know if any of it is good.

Anyway. Here is my offering for the week.

'Coming Home'

I left Montana at 20, looking for a new great adventure.

Drove off into the mountains with my boyfriend

and my life, all loaded up into a U-Haul.

I left, hoping I could run away from our past,

thinking maybe that if we left Montana, he would love me.

He never did.

Colorado was beautiful, even when my heart ached.

The mountains were stunning and soothed my soul,

but it wasn’t home and they couldn’t fix it all.

I left him at 22, hoping that a break would finally make me happy.

It didn’t.

I found some happiness in Colorado,

but my heart never fully healed.

I limped home at 24,

with a broken heart and an empty bank account.

Montana welcomed me with open arms,

bringing me back to the farm where I had spent my childhood.

I was so afraid my family would be angry,

turn me away for the things I had done and the life I’d lived.

They didn’t.

The moment I turned down that hard-pack dirt road,

I felt my eyes start to well up,

and I had to will myself not to cry.

My parents embraced me, my dad eyed my piercing,

“What the hell did you do to your face?”

It was all good-natured, as I teased him right back about

the hippy hair he’d let grow down his back.

My baby brother was thrilled that he would have me home,

someone else he could beat at board games.

He had been so young when I’d first left,

he’d gone from an obnoxious kid to an all right teenager.

It hurt that I had missed so much of his life.

I thought he wouldn’t remember his big sister,

who had been like a second mother to him for so many years.

He did.

I was gone for 4 years, only visiting home twice

and in four years, nothing changed.

The house was still a home, filled with knick-knacks

and do-dads and various junk acquired over the years.

I wandered a lot the first days of my arrival,

reacquainting myself with the hidey holes of my childhood.

It was early October, the fields were in for the year,

the equipment all put away for the season.

They never asked for the details.

Why I left, what I did, where the pain came from,

and I was happy to leave them in the dark.

All Montana cared about was that I was home,

that I was safe, and that I was happy.

And I was.

10-Minute Spill

Our assignment this week - well, the first one, I don't know if there will be more - was a little...strange. I'm not sure that I cared for it, at all. So here is what our assignment was -

THE TEN-MINUTE SPILL (original lesson by Rita Dove, former US Poet Laureate)

In this exercise, you will be asked to take an adage or proverb ("a penny saved is a penny earned," "a stitch in time saves nine," etc.) that you have changed in some way ("a penny saved is a rat's fortune," "a stitch in time saves Biggie from the bullet," etc.), and combine it with five of the following words in a ten-line poem: blackberry; cloud; mother; nick; whir; needle; cliff; spell; run; thought; will.

The hitch: You have ten-minutes. Go.

Of note: trust the music of the language; trust improvisation; don't worry if it makes sense at first; look at how many of the words can be either nouns or verbs; have fun!

Please email your results to me by close of day Tuesday.

Yeah, it was a little odd. Oh well. Here was my response, using the proverb, 'Familiarity breeds Contempt'

"Family breeds contempt." Nine years old and in a school for the first time. Children are unforgiving, and I hear the titters before I finish the phrase.

The hated 'tsk' from our teacher cuts through the air, casting an eerie spell over the room. A thousand eyes bore into me like needles.

Her voice is dry, like the sour blackberries from the bush in our yard.

"Mae." she ignores the laughter from my classmates, and I will myself to look at her. "The word is familiarity, not family."

I nod and I feel my eyes cloud with tears as she continues, speaking slowly as though I am a child, "Do you understand me, Mae? FA-MIL-IAR-I-TY?"

I nod again and she sighs heavily, "Do we have to call your mother again, Mae?"

I shake my head and close my eyes. "Familiarity." I hear the laughter again, and the whispers, the harsh words of my classmates.

She nods once, satisfied with my answer, "You may sit, Mae. Nick, continue..."

I sit and sigh, looking out the window. I can hear their whispers all around me as they stare, wondering at my intelligence.

They all think I am stupid. I can't tell them I know the words in the book, and that my mistake was intentional. I can't tell them it was my only way I knew to cry for help.

(Note - I realized that I'm an idiot and screwed up some tenses in there. Fixed.)

How to piss off a Mad Woman

Saying I am frustrated is a massive understatement.

One of my biggest pet peeves is being lied to. If you tell me you are going to do something, then you had damn well better do it. And if you tell me you are going to do something? I expect it to be done in a timely manner. If you have no intention of doing something promptly, then tell me. If you tell me you'll do something just to appease me, you are just going to piss me off. I value honesty. If for some reason you really want to piss me off...just promise to do something and then never do it. I might threaten to run you over with a bus if you do it enough.

My poetry teacher is starting to piss me off. When he first posted our syllabus, I sent him an e-mail asking for something a little bit more...thorough. The syllabus he sent us is effectively, 'We're going to do this, and then maybe some of this, and then possibly some of this. You'll stay really busy! Oh, and you have to write a paper and do this and this.' And that was it. No dates when things would be due, no expectations for our papers, no guidelines on when we would be doing what.

I e-mailed him and asked for some clarification. For anyone who knows me, I don't really work well like that. I want firm deadlines. I don't need to be micro-managed, but I want to know what you WANT from me. I'm not a damn mind reader. He promised up and down he'd get something better to us.

That was 3 weeks ago. We still don't have anything.

One of our assignments several weeks ago was to write a poem on the purpose of poetry. I kinda liked mine. He said he'd be posting some of those on the discussion board for us to read and discuss. He still hasn't done that either. I mentioned it in an e-mail to him, but we'll see.

The assignments he gives us are oftentimes confusing. I feel like he is pulling shit out of his ass and just slapping it on the board. We've written one poem to this point. He is completely unorganized.

Oh and best yet? When we e-mail him we have to e-mail his personal hotmail account, because he has difficulties with his school e-mail.

I am massively frustrated. I don't really want to e-mail the Dean, because I'm concerned about shit rolling downhill. I know that means I have to just suck it up and deal with it. I know this is a Poetry class...but it is still a class. It's only a 200 level class...but it is still a college course. How in the world can this guy be a professor? It just feels so damn unprofessional. Or maybe I just need to pull the stick out of my ass, I don't know...

Gah. Just got to suck it up and deal and try to enjoy it, I guess.

I Live! Really!

What have I been up to? Well, I've been staying pretty damn busy.

First, and most exciting - I got a job! It's a pretty awesome job too, and one that I know I'm going to enjoy. I will be working at a local hospital here, in the clinics, transitioning them from paper charting to online charting. My job is going to consist of - go to work, take pile of charts, data enter the shit out of them, scan important stuff, and move on. At least, I think that is how it will go. I'm the first person of 3 they hired to do this in 11 clinics...they haven't worked with the EHR system yet, so no one really knows yet what/how this is going to happen. I'm going to be making $11.38 an hour, plus I'll get benefits! Not bad. Not bad at all. The job is technically only a temporary position, for 6 months, but I'll be doing it until the work is done.

So yeah. Very excited about the job. I had only wanted to work part-time, due to school and the rest of life. But thats ok. The money will be good, and we'll make it work. Colin also has a line on a really good job at St. Pats as a Chaplain. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he can land that...if he does, life will be good! I don't even know what we'll do with ourselves with both of us having jobs. Oh wait. I do. We'll pay off all our bills. :) WOOOHOO FINANCIAL FREEDOM!

Second, and almost as exciting. Earlier this week, I spent a few days in lovely Kalispell with my roommate. You see, she makes art for a living. And her art goes to 11! I went with her while she was working her super sekrit project... http://www.optimysticalstudios.com/product-lines/zombalert/. Ok, maybe not so sekrit. Anyway, the highschool there has some equipment she needed to use, so I came along as an extra set of hands, eyes, and brains. Let me tell you - they came out AWESOME. When they start selling these things commercially, I think they are going to fly off the shelves. They are just a lot of fun. Once the ordering system is up and running, I'll share it. They are going to be fuuuuun!

As a note, if I get bit in the Zombie Apocalypse...Double Tap is my death of choice. Quick and Clean, please!

Third, and not exciting at all. My laptop bit the dust. Like, hardcore death. A friend was fabulous and tried to help me bring it back to life, without any luck. He was unable to find out what was wrong with it. It had a virus, and I thought I got rid of it, and then it wouldn't boot up. We did a quick format of the hard drive using his external hard drive cool thingey bobber...but whenever we tried to load XP on it, it would say there wasn't a HD installed. But the BIOS was recognizing there was a HD there. Basically, something isn't working there, and we can't figure out how to fix it. :( One of my roommates has an old hd I'm going to pop in there, and we'll see if that works. If it does, eventually I'll get a new hd and turn it into a desk top machine for playing WoW. If not, well...then I guess I'll have something to bring to smashing day this year! The other roommate has an old laptop she is letting me borrow for a few weeks. Which is awesome...checking e-mail and such on my phone was getting frustrating! Now I can do homework and IRC until our taxes get back in a few weeks. And then - netbook, baby!

So yeah. I guess that is it for now. I know you all missed me desperately!

Haiku

Our first assignment was to read through Robert Hass' essay Images and then answer some questions. One of them asked us to form images in our minds and then offer up a poem, if we were so inclined.

Everything so still
Lost in the white and quiet peace
Up where the giants walk

Wait, what?

Dear Professor,

I don't mind being assigned readings. I don't even mind if you have them as a .pdf that we have to read. I'm ok with that. No really, I am.

However.

If you are going to assign us a reading that is not in a book we've purchased, at least make sure the file we have is clear and legible. I am not going to sit and read 20 pages of a .pdf that is hard to read because someone scanned it (poorly) in from a book.

This is ridiculous! Oh, and I can't even download the file and read it because it is totally jacked up. When I download it, it downloads in a format that my computer DOES NOT read. So I have to view it on the web.

Head, meet desk. Get well acquainted girls. It's gonna be a long semester.

Curses!

Damnit!

I want to download the Castle books (Heat Wave and Naked Head) onto my Nook. But I know I don't really have the time to read anything that isn't on my reading list this semester.

Curse you, school! Curse you!

Other people's children aren't so bad.

Remember the teacher that I didn't care for, and was pretty sure I wouldn't get along with? After the comment yesterday regarding religion and church planting and such, his response was this...

'I assigned the books that I did with the intent to wrench us outside our comfort zones. The point is, like John F. Kennedy said, we all breathe the same air -- we share this world, and we're required to learn to live alongside, and to love, others with whom we might not see eye-to-eye. Literature assists us in this like little else in our experiences. I'm not interested in censoring anyone; on the contrary, I want us all to listen to one another, to be open with one another, etc. For those of you who have been discussing your faith traditions, church planting, etc -- feel free to do so. The introductions board is for that very thing: introductions. And the subject of religion is invariably going to crop up with respect to our discussions of Blood Meridian and Blankets. One cannot speak intelligently about either book without speaking about the Bible. If a student leaves the class because he or she feels awkward or irritated by certain discussions, that's a shame, because we benefit from multiple world views. But it's also the way it goes sometimes.'

I'm really glad he stepped in and said anything. I was starting to feel like I had to speak up and defend myself. It's nice to know the Professor didn't side with this student (because honestly, I was a little worried about getting in trouble for it.) Also, I couldn't agree with him more. I feel bad for the student that is dropping the class...he's going to miss out on a good class, all because he refuses to keep an open mind.

As an aside, another student mentioned how uncomfortable she felt with one of the books. I'm assuming it is Tipping the Velvet. I'm really enjoying it thus far, and I'll be posting a review on it when I'm all done.

Oh, and I'm having a hell of a time settling in and doing my homework. Tomorrow, I'm going to sit at the table (or my new desk, if we get it put together) and actually get some of this hammered out. After I've done that, I'm going to sit and read for at least an hour or two. I'm already ahead of the reading, but I'd like to stay that way!

Pfft. Some people.

In my Introduction to Literature class, one of the things we've done this week is introductions. One of my other classmates mentioned that the Bible is her favorite book, and that her husband is in Missoula to church plant. Well, I of course wrote back to her, talking about my husband. We had a brief exchange and it was nice. Not a huge deal, nothing overwhelming, we weren't being preachy or anything.

Today, one of my other classmates said -

"A little put off by all the Bible and Denomination babble. That's all I'm going to say. Makes me feel a little uncomfortable... so have fun all. Don't worry, I will be dropping tomorrow."

I understand that sometimes religious talk makes people uncomfortable. However, it was a very brief exchange, and there was nothing pushy or rude or preachy in it. Do you really expect to take a literature class without some mentions of the Bible? I mean...seriously now.

And of course, now I feel bad about it. Like I ran this guy off. I realize he was probably just looking for a reason to drop the class...but yeah. I feel like one of THOSE people now.

I can tell it's going to be a long semester

I was very much looking forward to classes this semester. I'm not so sure if I still feel that way.

At least one of my professors, so far, looks like he is going to be a total douche.

He started a thread on our online class forum, asking us to introduce ourselves. I started a new thread, with my name, introducing myself. He sent me an e-mail (which, to be fair, was mostly polite) explaining to me in detail how to properly post on Blackboard. Apparently, it was inappropriate for me to start a new thread. Rather, he expected me to respond to his original thread.

This is all fine and good. But it's messy and seems pointless. Ah well, what can you do, I guess?

Here's to hoping first impressions are wrong.

As for my Creative Writing: Poetry class...well...it is the professors first time using Blackboard and it shows. Nothing is really set up properly in the class yet. And his syllabus is horrible...it's fine and wonderful to give us a list of things we'll be doing during the semester, but he hasn't given us any dates. We have to write a technical study of a contemporary poet, for example. He doesn't say when it is due by, or give us any other guidelines...

I am sure all will be revealed in time. But damnit, I like knowing ahead of time what I am going to be doing. I really have to plan out my semester, to make sure I can get it all done. His syllabus? Not helping, not even a little!

There are days where I get incredibly frustrated with myself. I look back at the past 9 years of my life, and all I feel is frustration and irritation that I haven't accomplished more. I escaped an abusive relationship, grew up a LOT and met my husband. Emotionally, I've grown in leaps and bounds. But that doesn't really count for much in the "real world" does it?

I just feel like I haven't done much to improve myself. It's frustrating and annoying. I know I don't have anyone to blame but myself...but that doesn't mean I don't sometimes take it out on everyone else.

I'm doing well for myself now. I'm back in school and working hard on that. I don't know. I'm just having a day...the kind of day that reminds me that I really need to get back on medication of one kind or another. Or at least start rocking the St. John's Wort more regularly.

Whew!

I've been busy.

Before moving back to Missoula, I contacted a bunch of the old crew, to try to convince them that The Camarilla was awesome, and that they should come play with me. I actually wasn't expecting much to happen with it. It's been years, and The World has Moved On, as they say. Much to my surprise and delight, there was enough interest that we decided to make a go of it.

Less than three weeks after moving back to Missoula, we have a chapter approved and we are busting our asses at getting stuff done. Don't believe me? Check out our website - Legion of Shadows - which is a pretty good indicator of all the stuff we've done over the past few weeks.

Honestly? I'm shocked and surprised, in a good way. Several old members from the Before Times have returned and have already renewed their memberships. There are others who are considering returning, and who definitely plan on coming to play with us to try it out. It's kind of overwhelming, in a way. And a little terrifying. All of these new people wanting to come play an awesome game...and they stick ME with ST'ing for Cam/Anarch. This could either be really good or really, really bad. Hopefully it'll be good though.

So yeah. I've spent a lot of time the last three weeks working on putting together a newsletter, rebuilding prestige logs, and brainstorming stuff to make the chapter go. On top of that, I've been asked to assist with the Membership Handbook Revisions. It's either an honor or a curse, and I haven't quite decided which yet. Of course, I've only read like 1,000 of the 10gajillion e-mails on there, so maybe my brain just isn't sufficiently mushy yet.

Needless to say...Cam stuff is going really well. At last nights meeting, we had 10 people show up...the 5 in the chapter, and 5 additional people! 2 signed up for their temp memberships last night. One of these days, I'll take a break and not do any cam stuff. But for now, off to work on rebuilding prestige logs more...whoooooo!

More from Wal-Mart

This is getting ridiculous. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope with this entire situation. I didn't blog about it yesterday because, well, I had other stuff going on.

Anyway, I spoke with the disputes department at Green Dot. As expected, they've denied our dispute. Their reason, 'You made a charge on your card 2 hours after the charge in Bulgaria.' I am not sure at ALL how this proves that we made the charge, but that is their stance on it. Apparently, even though I explained to them time and time and time again that the cards never left our wallets didn't mean a thing.

I have been told I can start another dispute, and provide more information. It was suggested to me that I contact the bank in Bulgaria to get information from them. Funny, I assumed that was the job of the disputes department...since, you know, they said they would be doing that.

At this point, I will be contacting the student legal services to see what we can do from here. I am tired of dealing with Green Dot, and this is utterly ridiculous. I have been advised that I should take this to small claims court, which is definitely an option.

I sent this letter to Green Dot customer service last night. I wonder if they'll actually respond to me?

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is April Horinek, and I am writing you regarding a situation
that I have been dealing with regarding my Green Dot Pre-Paid Money
Card through Wal-Mart. This situation has left me bewildered and
frustrated, and has left me encouraging everyone I know to avoid your
service at all costs. I found your e-mail address through various
other websites detailing complaints with your service.

On December 7, 2010, an unauthorized charge was made on my account in
the amount of $272. This was discovered when my husband (Colin
Douglas, secondary card holder) went to purchase groceries and it was
declined. As we needed groceries on our house so my family could eat,
he purchased just the essentials for the amount of $7. When he got
home and told me what had happened, I immediately logged into my
account online to see what the problem was.

This unauthorized charge was made from an ATM in Sophia, Bulgaria. I
immediately contacted your customer service department regarding this
situation. Since then, I have had nothing but trouble from your
customer service department - representatives, supervisors, and people
in the disputes department.

As a note - this happened on December 7th. On December 17th, my
husband and I took off on a cross-country move. Not having nearly
$300 was crippling throughout the move. We have had to borrow money
from family members and put off paying bills and it has really caused
a lot of issues in our lives.

I was told when I contacted your customer service department, that
there was nothing that could be done until the charge had posted to my
account. This in and of itself was strange, and was incredibly
frustrated. Several of your supervisors who I spoke to at this time
told me very clearly that my case was cut and dry...that there was no
way I could have been in Bulgaria making a withdrawal and then in
Oklahoma making one the same day! I was assured, numerous times, that
the money would be returned to me in a timely fashion. I was told by
one of your supervisors that I should call the bank in Bulgaria, to
see if they would reverse the charges for me. I explained, as
patiently as I possibly could, that I didn't speak Bulgarian. That I
couldn't even find contact information for this bank.

I also was advised to cancel my card and have a new one sent to me.
As I was moving in a week and a half, I was concerned that it would
not get to me in time. At first, I was basically told, "Tough. Thats
just too bad. But you can pay extra and get it overnighted!" Which I
thought was ridiculous. Eventually, one of your supervisors did send
us new cards at no expedited charge. That was one of the few things
your company did right through this whole mess.

I did in fact file a police report with the Tulsa PD. Unfortunately,
due to moving from Oklahoma to Montana, I never received my paper copy
of the report.

After the charge had posted to my account, I called your company to
file the dispute. At that time, I was told that they would begin the
process. They would do all of the research and all of the leg work,
and all I had to do was send in a dispute letter. As I was in the
midst of moving, it took me several days to get the dispute letter
sent. However, I was assured that it would be 7-10 business days from
the time they opened the dispute - regardless of when I sent in my
letter.

That, again, was a blatant lie. When I sent the letter in, I was told
it would be 7-10 business days from the time they received my letter.
Again though, I was assured that my situation was cut and dry, and
taht there was nothing further required of me. I asked every one of
your supervisors that I spoke with if there was anything additional I
needed to send your company. I told them I did not have the paper
police report, and I was assured that it would be fine, that it was
just not needed for my case.

This morning, I spoke with Mary in your disputes department. She told
me my dispute had been resolved, although not in my favor. Their
reasoning? "Because you made a transaction 2 hours after the $272,
you obviously still had your cards." As I explained to her - as I had
explained to EVERY SINGLE person I spoke with - we still had the cards
in our possession. The cards were never stolen. We had them, up
until we cut them up. No one else had our cards. But someone
obviously was able to get our information and forge our card. Mary
told me that I should contact the bank - IN BULGARIA - and speak with
them about getting further information and documentation proving I did
not make the withdrawal. As I said to her - that was their job to
research. I was told THEY would gather all of that information while
they were reviewing my case.

I was told that if I can get a copy of the police report, they will
consider reopening my dispute, and will start the process all over
again.

I am less than pleased with this entire situation. I have spent hours
on the phone with representatives and supervisors trying to work this
out. I have been reassured time and time again that I would have my
money back in a timely fashion, only to be denied on a completely
ridiculous basis. When my husband and I went to Mexico earlier this
year, I called a week before we left to inform your company that we
would be out of the country, just so that there would be nothing
suspicious on our card. It is impossible for a charge to be made in
Bulgaria at an ATM and then another made in Tulsa within 2 hours of
one another. I could even show you my passport that OBVIOUSLY does
not have any stamps going to Bulgaria.

I will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau regarding
this situation. At this time, I am discussing my options with my
husband and looking for advice through our legal aid office. We did
everything we were asked to do, and yet we are still out nearly $300.
Our money was stolen in what was OBVIOUSLY a fraudulent act, and we
have had nothing but trouble from your company - the company that we
chose to use, on good faith. I feel as though we have been given the
run around for over a month, and it is absurd. I as the customer - as
a paying customer who has been with your company for 2 years - should
not be treated in such a manner.

Thank you for your time,

April Horinek & Colin Douglas

Annoyed and Ranty

In fact, I am so annoyed and ranty that I don't even know where I want to begin.

Grrrr! Arrrrgh! Rar! April-Hulk-Smash! Pink Valkyrie Needs Meat Badly! SMOOOSH!

On the plus side though, tonight is happy-fun-crafty time. I gets to make shiny jewelry. Wewt and yay.

Maybe I'll decide on a ranty topic later. Maybe not. We'll see. Maybe I'm just PMS'y, so the entire world pisses me off.

Ok, to be fair, I am PROBABLY PMS'y.

So don't piss me off, world! RAR!

Wal-Mart is the devil, you say? Surely not!

Or, maybe they are.
For those of you following along at home, I give you this -

So apparently I was in Bulgaria this afternoon. No, really, I was.

I am freaking out. This just might send me over the edge, here.

Colin went to get groceries. It was denied, said we were over on our card. Which is not true, since I checked it like 4 hours ago and we had nearly $300 on there.

Sometime between then and now, someone in FUCKING BULGARIA did an atm withdrawal for almost $300. Somehow they had my card and my ATM and were able to do that.

Of course, I called WalMart (it is a pre-paid debit card so we don't get ourselves into monetary trouble.) THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO FOR ME. I screamed, a lot. It is the only time I've ever screamed and yelled like that on a call with someone. Apparently, at Borica Bulgaria RFB ATM, someone was able to take our money. It is pending at the moment, which means that the bank may or may not collect on it. If the bank collects on it? Then I have to write a dispute letter and we have to hope that the bank will give us the money back. If they don't, then it won't expire until the 17th. Which means I won't get the money until the 18th. A day after we are supposed to move.

I am completely freaking out right now. We SHOULD be ok without it...but that $300 was a buffer in case anything happened. That money was to make SURE that we would get to Montana safely.

Oh, even fucking better, I had to report the card as compromised. You know, so the dickwads can't take more money. Guess how long it takes to get a new card? 7-10 business days. Guess where I am SUPPOSED to be by that point? Fucking MONTANA! They can expadite it of course, but I had to pay an extra $20 to get my card in 3-5 business days!!!

I am so fucking furious I can't even see straight. I don't know what we're going to do if the money doesn't come through. I'm just thanking god that we didn't deposit the cash we have. Without the 300, we'll be OK...but...

Freaking out. Seriously. Don't know what to do. screams I don't need this!!!!!

For the past MONTH and some change, I have been battling with them. They have given me nothing but the run-around, and we still do not have our money back. I have sent them their dispute letter, I have waited patiently even though they give me conflicting information and I can hardly understand most of them. I have been incredibly patient.

Until today.

Today was a day where I nearly went through the phone and smacked someone.

Today is 10 business days from when they received my dispute letter and theoretically, they should have had a resolution for me. First call I make, I ask to speak with a manager and I am on hold for nearly 10 minutes - at which time the system automatically transfers me to the customer satisfaction survey. How do I know that is what happened? It's happened to me FIVE times through all of this.

Next I call back, and demand a manager right off the bat. Once again, on hold for too long, and I get the customer satisfaction survey. I actually DO the survey this time, and give them all crappy marks.

Third times a charm, right? I call and demand a manager off the bat, again. The guy must have realized I was incandescent with rage, as he promptly got me to a manager. This one was bright enough to check in with me every few minutes to make sure I didn't get shuffled off again.

Before I go any further, I must state that I am not mad at the supervisor I spoke to. He did everything in his power (as far as I can tell) to help me resolve my issue.

I spent another 15 minutes or so on hold, but he was very polite, and kept checking in with me. I tried very hard not to be pissy with him, he was being competent. So he gets back on the line, and tells me he has bad news for me.

He tells me they have denied our dispute. And the reason given is because 2 hours after the unauthorized charge was made, there was a $7.00 charge at a grocery store in Tulsa. So, because my husband bought groceries so we could eat, we would be penalized nearly $300? Oh hell no!

I started yelling. A lot. And crying. There were tears and a lot of incoherency. To his credit, he apologized profusely and commiserated. I explained to him in exact detail what had happened the day that the money was taken. Apparently, that was not quite what they had in the system...even though that was what I had described EVERY time I had talked to people there. And that was the exact information in my dispute letter. He offered to speak to the dispute department to see what else could be done. I told him that'd be a VERY good idea.

He told me he had sent my information along to to the dispute department with a high priority. He told me that they would review my information and they would call me back. I told him, as calmly as I possibly could, that I had been promised that before. I'd been told someone from disputes would call me, and no one had contacted me. I also impressed upon him that I wasn't angry at him, but that the situation was utterly ridiculous. That it is completely unacceptable to treat a customer the way I have been treated.

Not even 10 minutes later, I got a call from the dispute department. She assured me that the review was NOT completed yet. When I informed her that it was 10 business days, and I wanted a resolution, she told me that they had sent me an extension letter...so it would still take some time. I pretty much got the same run around from her, being told that they were still reviewing it and that it should be resolved by the end of the week. But she did promise to make sure someone called me back sometime this week.

We have to face the very real possibility that we will not be getting our money back from this little fun time. We discussed trying to go to Legal Aid if they won't give us the money back. But as Colin's dad told him, it is an international situation. So I'm guessing that is why it is taking Wal-Mart so long to do this. In fact, I am fairly certain they will not be able to get us our money back, and we're just going to be shit out of luck over it.

I can't really begin to describe how upset I am right now. I have been given the run around for over a month, and we STILL don't have our money back. God only knows when - if ever - we'll see that money again. Their customer service representatives are rude, they are IMPOSSIBLE to understand, and they obviously cannot take accurate notes. The supervisors are marginally better, but they promise things they can't deliver on.

When this is over, we will be closing down our Wal-Mart account, and we will not be using it again. If you have a Wal-Mart money card, I encourage you to do the same thing. This entire thing has been utterly ridiculous, and I feel like I've been treated horribly. In fact, at this point, I plan on avoiding Wal-Mart when at all possible. I realize there will be times when it is the only convenient option, but I will avoid it when I can. There will also be letters written to corporate and complaints written to the BBB.

So that is that. I should be getting my student loans in sometime in the next week or two, but we could REALLY use that money to live on until then. All in all, I am totally unimpressed, and pretty much furious.

The Cam Returns!

We had our first chapter meeting last night to hash out the details of the new Missoula chapter. All in all, it went amazingly well, and I'm feeling really excited about bringing the Cam back to Missoula.

Ryan will be our Chapter Coordinator, and he seems very excited about the position. I'll be doing the monthly newsletter, Colin will be acting as ACC Charities/Socials/Fundraisers, Mick will be getting the website up and running and then Adrienne will be maintaining it, Adrienne is going to run Lost, I'm going to run Cam/Anarch, and Colin will run Mage if there is enough interest in it. You may laugh now at me running a game.

Right now, we have our requisite 5 paid members. However, meeting with the Campus RP'er group this past weekend left me feeling very positive. Many of them are very excited about trying new games (especially Changeling) and I think we can easily get them to sign up with the Cam. Plus, we'll be able to work with the Campus Role Player club and get campus space for our games! This is a huge plus, and takes a big weight off my shoulders. Finding a gaming space is rarely easy, and oftentimes is not free. This is free, and we pretty much have our pick of space on campus, as long as it isn't in use. WooHoo!

At this point, I need to get on all of the domain lists in the region. For our newsletter, I want to show that even if you don't have ANY members who will contribute, you can still put out a lengthy and informative piece for the members of your domain/chapter/region/etc. I'll be lurking on as many lists as I possibly can and smooshing that information into our newsletters. Want to know what games are being run in Kansas City? Look at the Newsletter! Or on the calender on the website!

For those of you who might not know, I am a Geek. I role play. I play DnD, I LARP, I play MMOPRG's. Fully certified Geekitude. The Camarilla is a Global Role playing Organization. We do Live Action Role Play for White Wolf's World of Darkness line. Through it, I have met the vast majority of my friends, my husband, and I have found a social group and family that has been amazingly supportive of me over the years. We have our faults and we have our failings, but we're still a family. Live Action Role Play is a like like improvisational theater. You create a character with a background and a story and you interact with other characters. It's a lot of fun, and offers an amazing creative outlet - costuming, writing backgrounds, creating this amazing rich story with other players. It's just a lot of fun, and will likely always be one of my creative and social outlets.

I started gaming in Missoula, and this place feels like home for me. I was really worried that we wouldn't be able to get a chapter up and running when we got here, and I am happy to report that less than two weeks after arriving, we've already ironed out many of the kinks and we are ready to go!

Now I just have to finish a VSS and come up with a story that will keep my players excited. EEP!

And the Plot Thickens!

So, we got the car down the mountain today. It was a little bit dicey getting it down, but on Mick's suggestion, I took her down in 'L' gear and kept pumping the brakes. We made it down successfully and got the chains off - sure enough, one had broken.

Get the car into Tire Rama, and they tell me they are going to keep it for a few days. They have the part, but they want to try a few more things before they replace it. Namely, they want to check beneath the fuse box, because when this happens, sometimes there is something messed up under the fuse box that causes it.

So I get a call several hours, and the news is not good.

To fix the problem, they are going to have to completely replace the fuse box, as well as the bracket and clean everything up. Apparently, someone has taken the fuse box out before. And broke the bracket in the process. And then spilled...something...all over. With parts and labor, he estimated it would cost $950 to fix the lights.

Totally not fucking worth it.

Once this pos is paid off, we're going to be trading it in for a new vehicle. I am NOT willing to pay that much. I'll just have to live with having only one headlight.

But at least we have brakes! Yay for no more Death Mobile!