How May I (Passive Aggressively) Direct Your Call?

So when I am on the operator lines at work (p.s, I love this  photo to the right, but thank God we don't work switchboards anymore) I normally NEVER get any rude callers. I know I give excellent service to any individual with an inquiry (yes, that sounds narcissistic but those are the words right out of my superiors mouth). I walk students and future students, step by step through tedious processes, answer almost ALL questions accurately and in the event where I do not know an answer, I direct their call to the proper place. TODAY for some reason, I received an abnormal amount of rude callers, all of which I handled with my normal niceness, EXCEPT  for this one man.


His daughter was interested in some medical technical program. Me, knowing not much about the program I transferred him to the Health Sciences and Human Services division to receive information. Literally one minute later this man calls again, irate. According to him the man in the HSHS division is incompetent, doesn't know how to do his job, sounds like he doesn't even know where he is working etc. He demanded to be transferred but not to the man in reception. I tried to explain to him that I could only transfer him to HSHS but he could gain more information and more easily on the division website. Then he decided to criticize my speech and the way I pronunciate.

At this point, whatever he was said after that sounded like, "Wha, Wha, Wha wha wha", exactly how adults sound in Peanuts cartoons, and I am thinking "You freaking a-hole and your snarky b.s comments, I am trying to help you and you are being nothing but a rude jerk." He demanded I found him another person to be transferred to, so I directed him to the MLT program offices. Promptly one minute later this man calls back again, even more pissed, in absolute shock that I would even transfer him there. He demanded to be transferred to the President. This is where I decide to stop helping him (which, for the sake of my job and the college, was a bad idea, but I didn't care. I do not need, nor deserve to be talked to like that.) I proceed to speak in my friendly tone and tell him, "Oh certainly, one moment please" then I purposely transfered him to a random number. Of course he calls back again demanding to be transferred to the right office. I apologized for the mistaking stating, " I am sorry sir, the extensions are one digit off, please hold while I transfer you through", then (MUAHAHAHAHA) in my passive aggressive evilness I redirected him to another random office.

He did not call back again and needless to say, his daughter probably will not be attending the college. Do I care? No. People should know better than to be rude to me (or anyone!) over the phone. If you piss me off I WILL magically forget every piece of information I could give you, tell you something that is helpful not even close to true and transfer you to the WRONG department. End of story. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, because we bite back.

Did You Try To Make Me Cry?

Well, an interesting thing happened today. I am going to spare the details but it got me thinking something. Why do people try to hurt others by attacking their self esteem. Essentially today someone told me, and I quote;  

"I have knowledge of your own, rather embarrassing and personal past. Your lack of intelligence, even basic procedure, common sense, and pitifully low self esteem that you can never hide well makes you not just a poor leader but a low class individual."

The problem with this is, it was meant to hurt me, but in reality it made me laugh. This was said by an individual that doesn't know me at all  and for the record, this occurred when I was talking to this individual about their work ethic. One, yes, I have a past, and there are moments in that past that are less than good memories, but it happened, I learned from all my experiences and in the end they have made me a better person. Anyone who asks about my past, I tell them the truth. It is, what it is, there is no reason to hide it. Two, I do not claim to be the smartest person out there. Actually, school isn't really my strongest suit, but if I did, in fact, lack intelligence, common sense and knowledge of basic procedure I wouldn't have my current job, nor would I get paid as much as I do. Lastly, My self esteem is actually through the roof. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE who I am.  This is mostly due to my past. Through every undesirable person and situation I have encountered I have taken the opportunity to learn, laugh, love and move on. I am not perfect, nor do I claim to be, I have bad days, I have days where I just lay and cry but in the end I am happy with who I am, and the work I put forward. This is why this statement, which was meant to be a personal attack, truly gave me a chuckle.

My past isn't perfect. I am not the smartest. I am not the most eloquent. I am not a perfect leader nor a perfect individual but I am proud of who I am and everything I do.

I feel like people who are not okay with themselves get defensive and try to bring others down. Instead in pointing out what you feel is wrong with others why don't individuals turn the scrutiny the other way to fix themselves? Just a thought.

Another Blog About the Love of My Life

TJ called me this morning and it was absolutely fabulous. I wasn't expecting a call for a while because I was informed that their satellite phone was broken. We mostly talked about how excited he is to come home ad for us to each other, hang out and go on adventures like we used to. Also about how excited he is to sleep in a real bed and take a real shower and eat some real, homecooked grub!

After the call this morning (and after I went to bed, woke up and studied) I wanted to do another bloggidy blog about us. So I found this little survey and I thought it would be a fun little doo-dad about us.


 

(This is one of my favorite pictures of us. In July, 2009, we went on a massive family reunion road trip, needless to say we have a TON of memories from this trip. Here we are infront of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington.)





♥ What are your middle names? Jissel and John. Contrary to popular belief, we didn't plan the J's.
♥ How long have you been together? Just shy of 1 year.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? 1 week or so, well, more like 3 days.
♥ Who asked who out? Well, we actually had no choice. My friend Courtney went to go pick up her friend Austin when he visited California (he is also Troy's best friend in the whole world).  So Courtney asked me If I wanted to come with her to the airport and I was not working that day so I tagged along. That's where I met TJ (I actually kinda met him once before at a party, but I don't count that. It's an embarrassing story that maybe one day I will muster up the courage to tell). Subsequently, the next week turned into one perpetual week long, absolutely perfect, double date. =]
♥ Whose siblings do you see the most? Well I live with my sister, so I win this one
♥ Do you have any children? No, but lots of babies are in our imminent future.
♥ What about pets? Ew, I have never really understood the point of pets. But I would enjoy having a cat one day
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Deployment sucks on both ends for sure
♥ Did you go to the same school? Negative.
♥ Are you from the same home town? Nope, He is from Utah and I have lived my whole life in the good 'ole Orange County
♥ Who is the smartest? I think he is smarter than I in many different areas, but I am definitely a better writer.
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Me! EVERYTHING makes me cry. Once we were in the car and I started crying because I was having a less than desirable day. After a few minutes of comforting I started to cry again and all TJ could say was "Are you really crying again?" That's like every other day for me. TJ has seen me cry hundreds of times. I've seen him cry twice. 
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Taco Bell. Don't laugh haha, it's his fav.
♥ Who is the neat-freak? Definitely me, he just drops things anywhere and I pick them up, haha, but it works for us.
♥ Who hogs the bed? Since TJ is quite bigger than I, naturally he takes up more room. He also has this really bad habit of rolling over my face when we sleep. It's weird, don't ask haha.
♥ Who wakes up earlier?Sheesh, close my blinds and let me sleep till noon, thanks!
♥ Where was your first date? Our first date was a week long adventure where we did everything from San Diego up to LA. It was beyond perfect in every possible way.
♥ Who has the bigger family? He has 4 brothers and sisters. I have 1. But our extended families are equally as huge.
♥ How did you spend the holidays? With him being gone I spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family and New Years with his in Utah. TJ and I shared the holiday joy via e-mail and satellite phones.
♥ How long did it take to get serious? 96 hours.... =]
♥ Who eats more? TJ is a bottomless pit, he also works out all the time, so that may have something to do with it.
♥ Who does/did the laundry? MEEE! Call me crazy but I actually enjoy doing laundry and I have been doing his from the moment we met. BUT TJ did do his laundry the night before he deployed. I was so proud.
♥ Who drives when you are together? I hate driving, especially in places I don't know very well. So I would say 75% of the time he drives.

This was fun! It definately isn't everything about us but it sure does sum us up pretty well. I'm counting down the days untill he comes home!

Much Love,
Delainey

DIY for the Frugal Soul

Guess what I did!!!

I definitely made my own laundry detergent. I stumbled accross it on a DIY website, so of course I had to try it out. I am a firm believer is saving money. I would even go as far to call myself frugal (not that being frugal is a bad thing). So once I saw that making my own detergent would cost less than $0.05 per load, where as Tide costs $0.25 per load Surprisingly it was quite easy to find the ingredients and fairly simple to make, although I did make a slight mess in the kitchen.

So here are the ingredients:

The recipe is as follows:

*1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax (Borax is awesome because it is a natural product found  in nature. I personally am not an environmentalist but I am frugal and that big box cost less than $3, but if you are all for saving the planet Borax is the way to go. By the way, you can also use this stuff to clean just about ANYTHING without that chemicial smell, which I hate.)

*1 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing or Baking Soda (the recipie called for washing soda, but all i could find was baking soda. Come to find they are the same things.)

*1 Zote bar (Zote is an old school laundry soap bar but any bar soap bar around the house can be used. Just grate it up, I used the large hole grater, because it was faster, when I probablly should have used the small holed grater, but whatever, we all learn.)

I just threw all the ingredients in an old 32oz baby formula can and gave it a good shaking and PRESTO!! the homemade detergent is done!

Now, I was slightly apprehensive about two things.

One: Word on the street is that all you need per load is one tablespoon, two for a heavily soiled load. Really? One tablespoon? I am so used to pouring tons of detergent in a load I thought I would for sure need more than one tablespoon.

Two: Will this actually work? I was hoping it would work as well as people said, really hoping, because the cost per load is too much of an amazing cost savings to pass up.

So I tried one tablespoon of detergent out on a dirty load of "ugly towels" and YES! IT WORKS! Not to mention, this very same day I spilled some blueberry smoothie on my shirt and of course I let is sit there and dry so I could finish my smoothie. 20 minutes later I realized how blueberry stains SUCK to get out. Then poof! I had the idea to take a pinch of this detergent, wet it, and scrubbed it into the stain. After letting it sit for a minute and poof, the stain was gone. I have only used this detergent for a few things but so far it has not let me down therefor I decided to share my recipe and excitement!

P.S, on a totally unrelated topic. TJ comes home in 1 month!!! WHOOT!

And I will leave on that amazing note.

Much Love,
Delainey

Amanda O. is starting a blog!

AMANDA O. IS NOW A BLOGGER! You've got me and her boredom to thank for introducing her to this bloggidy blog world.

WHOOP! Check it out:

My Adventures in this So Called Life

A Penny for Your Thoughts?

I am not exactly sure why I am essentially speechless right now. Maybe it's because I have so many thoughts running through my head about children, religion, life and lifestyle choices in general. One thought that has come across my mind is why do people choose to a certain lifestyle or beliefs. What makes a person choose a certain religion over another or a certain way of child rearing? For example, during a night out with a few friends and we touched on the subject of stay at home moms. And by touched I mean punched square in the face. (Apparently the ideal of a stay at home mom is quite controversial.) A friend and I feel like mothers should stay at home with their children and partake firsthand in raising them, while another friend felt strongly against this idea. Stating that children AND stay at home moms are another large expense to add on the list of adulthood. Now this turned into quite a large argument which ended in a delicious midnight meal at Harbor House. But anyway, my point is, what makes me and my friend know we are right and what makes the other friend adamantly oppose? Is it our surroundings that make us choose a certain way to live? Or is it simply our life experiences? Whatever it is it has been making me think, and possibly over think, about the life ahead of me and what is going to shape my decisions on how I, or we rather, raise our family, live our lives and stick with a certain set of beliefs.

Just a thought, more like a compilation of thoughts, that have been weighing heavily on my lately. Maybe all these questions are apart of discovery of what God has in store for me and my life. Whatever it is I guess we will have to wait and see.

Itching to Blog

I must say, right now I am in quite a bloggy mood. I really want to go on about what has been going on in the life of Delainey with all that snarky whit (which I do not posses but I sincerely wish I did) accompanied by some heartwarming pictures. The problem is that I know if I start an actual post, about something truly worth reading, I will be up extremely past my bedtime, albeit I never really do go to bed before midnight. But since I am not in the slightest bit a morning person, I foresee not being able to drag myself out of bed and off to Saddleback at the crack of dawn, and by crack of dawn I mean 11am. Ergo my decision to not truly blog tonight but post something awesome tomorrow. Does this sound good?

Much Love,
Delainey

P.S It is pouring outside at the moment and I LOVEEEEE it! My window and shutters are wide open so I can snuggle in my blankies and listen to it. This is the only time I like rain, when I am nice and cozy in my bed. Preferably with somebody to cuddle with, but I guess I will have to wait 6 more weeks for that. Anyway, I shall stop rambeling. Goodnight my friends!