Sugar Sugar

Sugar, aw honey honey, you are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you..."The Archies

I love being silly with my kids. Today, in a spur of the moment type thing, I turned on the cd player and put in the soundtrack to the movie, "Now and Then." Emily, Katie and I proceeded to dance around the living room like fools. Those kids have got some rythm let me tell you. Shaking their hips and waving their arms about, they are so damn cute I can't stand it sometimes!

My sister Heather turns 21 today. My "baby" sister is now of legal age. Scary thought, and not because she can drink legally now, but because I feel soooo old! Christ, I can remember going to visit her in the hospital nursery. She was the only red-head there...pretty easy to pick out amongst all of the other infants!

Anyway, we, (me,her, my sister Suzanne and various other friends) are going out tonight to Friday's to get dinner and buy Heather her first legal drink. Should be fun.

I have a baby shower to go to tomorrow and I know it is going to make me want another one. All of those cute little outfits, tiny booties, rattles. I might just break. Ryun will probably kill me if I mention having a baby agian because he only wants the two we have, but I can't help it. I miss having an infant! And, believe it or not, I love to be pregnant. I honestly feel the best about myself then, physically as well as emotionally. Weird I know...a lot of pregnant women are self conscious but I think a pregnant body is beautiful. Call me silly.

That being said, obviously the only reason to have a baby is not to feel good about myself or to have an infant again. I need to feel good about myself first, want to have a "child" and not just a baby,and well, my husband needs to be willing! Kind of helps with the old reproduction process if you know what I mean.

You must be stupid or insane

In classic and oh so typical Adelphia style, cable went out on the evening of a major television broadcast. The entire town of Abington missed the Oscars this evening as the cable was out for over twelve hours. The customers were, well lets just say angry does not even begin to describe. About the only good thing tonight was that the technician out working on the problem kept me laughing so hard it hurt. He is one of those people who is funny without even trying to be. If there is an outage and he is on call, if nothing else I can be guaranteed a good laugh (which is always good when you have an entire town of people calling you and the company you work for every name in the book).

It is a good thing that I do not take it to heart when people tell me, "You must be stupid to work for a company like Adelphia" or "What are you insane? I hope they treat their employees better than they treat their customers." I always think that on my last day working here (whenever that will be)I will tell off the first customer who pisses me of. Say something like, "Your tv is off, why don't you go read a damn book" or "My tv is working fine, I don't give a shit if yours is or not." Or, even better, agree when they say,"Adelphia sucks." That would be fun. Unfortunately right now I need the job and the good money it pays so the fun will just have to wait.

Summer

In other news, I have found the location in which we will be camping this summer. It is in North Conway, NH and its called the Saco River Camping Area. It is in close proximity to a lot of the attractions in the White Mountains area of the state and it looks like a fun place to camp. The girls are already so excited and it is four months away!

This summer we will also be spending time on the cape at a summer cottage my parents and friends of the family rented together. It is in Dennis, and right on the ocean so it should be fun. We used to rent cottages on the cape with this family when we were all younger, so it will bring back many good memories I am sure.

Can you tell I am looking forward to summer? At this point, I would even settle for spring. It figures that in New England it would snow in a good part of Massachusetts on the first day of spring. Now I am just bracing for that winter blast we will probably get in April.

Katie's accident and the junkyard

So, I jinxed myself...or I jinxed Katie anyway. Remember my last entry, the 101 things about me list? Well, number 50 said that Katie had only had one trip to the ER. Correction as of last night. She now has equalled her sisters number with two visits in about the same amount of time. On Friday night, she tripped over her own feet and went mouth first into Emily's toy fire engine. She managed to get quite a gash on her lower lip and, although it did not require stitches, the ER doctor said she will have a small scar. He also put her on an antibiotic to prevent infection. The mouth is very prone to infection but, she is also a thumb sucker so he was concerned about germs/bacteria. I never realized how "unsanitary" thumbsucking can be. When you think about it, everything you touch goes right in to your mouth. Anyway, Katie is one tough cookie I must say. She hardly cries at all when she gets hurt. She has a strong thresh hold for pain. I do too.

So that was the "excitement" for the weekend. Oh yeah, and I finally got the title in the mail for the Topaz. So, tomorrow we will b making a trip to the junkyard. Yay! My mother will be so happy to have it out of her yard.

Letter to Supervisor

Dear Jill,

I have been an employee of Adelphia for six years. During this time I have always done my best to represent the company and service the customers well. I am and always have been dedicated to servicing and helping my customers and fellow Customer Sales and Service Representatives alike. I am an organized, loyal, and I would like to think a well-respected and well-liked employee of this company.

The reason for this letter is the new seating plan that is currently being arranged. I have been informed (through various people) that we will again have to share desks. I am writing to let you know that I want and more importantly deserve my own desk.

Over the past six years, I have acquired a vast knowledge of all areas of the cable industry, from proper customer service standards, to technical troubleshooting, and everything in between. Because of this, as well as my easy going nature and eagerness to help, I have been given, as well as have assumed certain responsibilities normally reserved for leads or supervisors. Some of these include; inventory, dispatch, must do�s and the taking of supervisor calls. I have discussed this in previous communications with various supervisors and have even mentioned the possibility of a lead position, since I am doing the job of a lead anyway. Although I was not offered this type of position, nor did I feel I was properly thanked for my help, I have continued to take on these �extra� duties and, have done so willingly. Truth be told, I like helping people and feel a sense of pride when I am given the opportunity to do so. That being said however, I have not been compensated in anyway for this, whether it be monetarily or a simple, �Thank you for all of your hard work, we really appreciate you.� I do not do what I do for money or recognition. I do it because I want to, however, part of me does feel that I should be in some way recognized for my efforts. After giving this some serious consideration, I came to the conclusion that if I was not to be recognized in any way for me help, the decision to do so would need to be based on my willingness alone. In other words, since I knew in advance of my offering help that nothing would come it (other than the satisfaction of helping and perhaps a thank you from the person on the receiving end), I would have to decide whether or not I wanted to continue. As you and those I have offered my assistance to know, I decided in favor of continuing.

The least I deserve for my efforts is my own workspace. I know that I am a part time employee but, that makes me no less important that a full timer, nor is it any excuse for me not to have my own desk. In my six years of service to this company and more recently my six months of assuming the role of a lead, I have earned the right to my own desk. That aside, if it is at all important to maintain peace and harmony within the department, sharing desks is not the way to achieve that. I am quite sure I am not the only Customer Sales and Service Representative that feels that way. It is a well known fact that people work more efficiently and with more enthusiasm if they have a place to call there own. For that reason alone, the plan to have some employees share desks should be reconsidered and reworked.

In closing, I would like to tell you that I know that your job can not be easy. Recognizing the sixty or so different personalities, wants and needs of this department is difficult. Making everyone happy and maintaining a positive environment is no easy task. Because of this, I feel any input you get from Customer Sales and Service Representatives helps in achieving that goal. That is why I wrote this letter, so that you may better understand how I feel.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Sharon M. Ellis

Customer Sales and Service Representative

What do you think? Not to sound completely conceited or egotistical, but can I write a good letter or what?!?! I have always been better able to express my self on paper. I will definitely follow this up with a face to face discussion, but I always feel it is a good idea to with Adelphia anyway to write first, confront later. It kind of gives them a lead in as to where I am going or what I want, but, it also offers proof that the my thoughts were actually voiced. Verbal conversations can be conveniently forgotten if you know what I mean. Oh well, I hope for once, I am actually taken seriously there. Have no doubt, I will be sure to let you all know either way!

Your not the person I thought you were

So, tomorrow I register Emily for Kindergarten. Can you believe that? And yes people, I am getting all wishy washy over it. She is MY baby afterall. She is very excited about registering...that is one step closer to her riding the school bus. She has been looking forward to that for quite some time. Oh, and not to brag but she had her preschool evaluation and guess what? She got the highest score possible in all areas! She is just like her father...brilliant. Not that I think I am not smart, I am. It is just that I have absolutely zero short term memory and that hinders me in some respects. And, I am not going to apologize for bragging about her...I am just a proud mama.

Since I am on a "proud mama" thing, let me tell you about Katie. She singing and talking up a storm and I am loving it. Today she was singing the Monkeys on the Bed song and she was so darn cute. She pointed her finger, put on a mad face and said sternly, "NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!" Then I was spinning her around in my arms and she was laughing and saying, "Do it again." God, I just love her laugh. Its infectious, it really is.

Oh and one more thing about my Emily. This morning she woke up at 5:30am...way too early. Anyway, I told her she could come lie with me in bed if she wanted to which, she did. She asked if she could bring her Leap Pad in and play with it and I said no and, that if she wanted to play with it she could do so in her room until it was time to get up (the Leap Pad is loud and I had every intention of sleeping). You know what she said( keeping in mind that she is four)? She said and I quote, "Your not the person I thought were. I want a new mama." Your not the person I thought you were. Can you believe that?!?! She just cracks me up.