cindy's world

I got to play Benevolent Big Sister today. I’d stayed over at Mr. W’s last nite, and he left earlier than usual this morning to work. This is finals week for Mr. W’s sophomore daughter so she didn’t have zero period, or she’d have normally left to school with her carpool before I was out of bed. Her older brother is a senior so school’s over for him. Just awaiting graduation, he was unconscious in his room.

I walked by Daughter’s bedroom as I was getting ready to leave and asked if she needed a ride to school. She said no, she was calling friends to come get her. But as I noticed she was calling and text messaging rather frantically, I said I’d stick around just to make sure she got her ride situation figured out before I left. Turned out that the girl whose turn it is to have her mother drive the carpool had text messaged Daughter in the morning saying something to the effect that she was going to her aunt’s house and that hopefully Mr. W can give Daughter and 3rd Carpool Girl a ride to school this morning. Seeing that none of Daughter’s friends are responding, I asked what her last resort game plan is. She said pensively she’d call her ex-boyfriend Brian to come get her. I wasn’t going to have her ex-boyfriend come by and rub in that he played hero for her today, so I asked her if she’s ready to go to school now (7:25a). She said it was too early; school started at 8a. I said, “It’s better for you to be there early and study for your final than to be there late cuz you can’t get a ride.” “That’s true,” she admitted. She got a final call-back from a friend she’d been counting on. The friend said she was already on her way to school with her mom. Daughter made plans to meet this friend at school early to study together before classes opened. Then we were off.

Driving out of the neighborhood, Daughter exclaimed, “[3rd Carpool Girl]’s standing on the corner!” Turned out 3rd Carpool Girl’s mom freaked out on her and had her phone shut off, so she never got the text message from 1st Carpool Girl, whose mom was supposed to drive, that they weren’t coming. So we picked up 3rd Carpool Girl and I dropped them off at school at 7:40a. They were very grateful. “You totally saved us! Thanks so much!” they said.

I did so little, and ended up feeling like a superhero. Neat!

My reward was that somehow, despite leaving totally late from Mr. W’s house, I magically ended up at work 10 minutes earlier than usual.

Dwaine got me hooked on an alcoholic drink that’s light, refreshing, perfect for summer, but I can never remember the recipe even tho it only calls for, like, 2 ingredients. I tried to order it myself somewhere once, and it didn’t come out right. After talking to Dwaine afterwards, it turned out that having lime instead of lemon in this drink made it bitter. But the bartender, for some reason, always puts in a lime wedge unless you specify otherwise. So if you like mojitos but don’t want to deal with the sugar content, or don’t want to wait for the bartender to grind up mint leaves, you’d love this:

“Can I get a Citron and tonic, light on the tonic, with a lemon, not lime? Yes, on the rocks.”

That’s how Dwaine says you have to order it, and that’s how he ordered it for me at dinner on Tuesday evening. We had to ask for extra lemon (they use flimsy little lemon smithereens, but once you ask for extra lemon on the side, they give you the large wedges used in iced tea), but it was delish! And that’s Absolut Citron vodka. That’s what I’m gonna be drinking all this Memorial Day long weekend.

Donning the doofus hat, I dug through the other contents of the jewelry package yesterday and pulled out a return form with clear printed instructions on how, where, what to return. So I filled out the return form, printed a copy of my email to them, and drove the contents to be returned to the post office after work. Unfortunately, they were closed, so now all that stuff is sitting in my car. I’ll try again later today. Their customer service nicely sent this response to me via email past midnight, instead of the email that *I* would’ve written to someone like me, which would’ve read, “READ the package inserts, ya moron!”:

Ms [my last name],

Customer Service

By the way, I think I got over my Alexandrite bug. I was talking to James yesterday (who’d gotten back from Japan this week), and he said, “So your simulated Alexandrite is totally a better quality stone than the genuine one. And genuine Alexandrite costs, like, thousands more. So do you really want a genuine one?” And then it clicked in my head. Why do I want a genuine one? It costs a ton and it sucks!!

Okay, next gemstone: tanzanite!!

The GemsTV website touts their customer service, so let’s put them to the test. I sent this a minute ago:

Dear Gems TV,

I received all 3 items (1 alexandrite ring and 2 pairs of topaz earrings) in my order #182714 today, and am impressed with the speed of your order processing and shipping. The earrings are more beautiful than the photos showed, and my mother and grandmother, for whom I purchased the earrings as Mother’s Day presents, will love them.

I am sadly disappointed by the alexandrite ring, however. The ring setting is flawless as far as I can tell, but the center alexandrite stone looks nothing like the photos online or on the Certificate of Authenticity. The stone is so cloudy from inclusions that the color isn’t even consistent all the way through, and the inclusions are so dramatic that they are really cracks going all the way up to the surface of the stone, such that you can actually feel the cracks by running a finger over the top of the stone. I’m afraid that any slight impact on the stone would crumble it. It really appears as if the stone were dropped on the ground and stomped on with someone’s high heeled shoes.

I’ve searched your site for return information but could find none. I remember reading that you have a 30-day return policy, and would like to exercise that for return of the alexandrite ring. Please provide information to me as to how I may do that, and how I may effectuate a refund for the price of the ring.

Thank you for your assistance.

Cindy [last name]

I’d paid extra for overnight delivery of my ring, and since I was gonna pay more, I figured I may as well purchase some additional pieces for my mom and my grandma for Mother’s Day. They both like simple blue jewelry, so I purchased one pair of Neptune Topaz earrings on 14K white gold, and one pair of London Blue Topaz earrings on 14K white gold. I eagerly tracked the delivery of this jewelry for the past two days, and could hardly contain myself when late this morning, the UPS website showed “Status: Delivered.” I went downstairs shortly before lunch to pick up my loot.

The first item I opened was my ring. I was so enormously disappointed, and then I was downright offended. The setting itself is beautiful, but it’s the Alexandrite stone. Instead of a rich deep purple, green, or blue (the color of the stone changes depending on the light source), it was a faded pale green. But it wasn’t just the color. There were so many inclusions that the stone looked cloudy from all the cracks inside. Calling those lines “inclusions,” by the way, is an overly generous characterization. The cracks went so high up to the surface of the stone, that by lightly running my nail along the top, I could feel the cracks. That means the stone, if dropped or hit a certain way, would crumble. It doesn’t even look remotely like Alexandrite. I haven’t tested it outdoors in natural light, but I doubt the color would change cuz the clouds inside wouldn’t allow enough light to penetrate in order to reflect a different hue. What it looked like, was that someone dropped the stone on a hard surface, then jumped up and down on it with spiked heels. I will be returning this piece. My dream of owning natural Alexandrite will have to wait. Again.

Now, the earrings on the other hand… I had never seen London Blue Topaz up close, and had never heard of Neptune Topaz. These rocks are absolutely strunning. I was lost in their beautiful color and depth. They’re also way larger stones than I had anticipated at over 2 carats each stone. At least my mom and grandma aren’t gonna be disappointed with their Mother’s Day presents. I’m also a bit jealous.

You know that jewelry channel I wrote about watching in the last post? It led me to purchase something similar to this:

The ring I actually purchased is not quite this one, but it’s something similar. The band is 18K white gold, and the center stone, Alexandrite, is pear-shaped like this one, except it’s bigger at over half a carat. The side stones are also diamonds, but they’re channel-set (recessed). The band is smooth. Alexandrite is my birthstone (June), and I own a few pretty good quality lab created pieces, but this one is natural from India. I’ve always wanted to have a natural Alexandrite ring, but they’re so hard to find. Even the simulated gemstones are rare. When Mr. W and I were on the cruiseship where we met Jordan, they had a small natural Alexandrite collection, and there was only one or two pieces set in white gold or platinum, which I prefer to yellow gold. I’d almost bought one for a little over $3000, but the ring design didn’t really do the “wow” thing to me. The ship’s jewelry salesgirl told me it was a great investment piece because it’d appraise in the States for at least $5000 and the jewelers would gladly take it off my hands for resale at over $6000, which I believe, but what it’d appraise for is meaningless to me as I wouldn’t be selling it. So the bottom line is that I’d be out $3000+ for a nice natural Alexandrite that didn’t necessarily wow me. I also don’t think it was more than maybe 0.4 carats. I went back and forth and at the end decided to walk away. Mr. W actually snuck back and almost bought it for me, but at the last minute realized he’d misread the price and didn’t get it. It’d been one of my regrets and we always talked about getting back on a cruiseship just so I can make that purchase.
Well, now we don’t have to. The ring I bought was a fraction of that price, and the ring design did wow me. I still went back and forth on it yesterday, and then there was a frightening moment when the ring suddenly disappeared from the store’s inventory. I was bummed and kicked myself for not making the purchase, just like on the ship. And then this morning, Mr. W suggested we check again. And the ring was back! Someone must’ve had it reserved and changed their mind. So I snatched it right away. I get it tomorrow. =) This may be the first time I’m looking forward to going to work, where I’m getting the ring delivered. Happy early birthday, me!

Mr. W wanted to take me and his kids out to dinner last nite, so we drove to Black Angus steakhouse. Right before we reached the front door, Mr. W realized he’d left something in his car, so he ran back to the parking lot as the kids and I entered. In the empty lobby, the 2 kids stood to the side of the hostess podium as I told the hostess, “Four, please.” She checked the seating chart, reaching for some menus behind her.
A young male, the guy who takes people to their seats, said to Mr. W’s son and daughter, “Just the two of you tonight?”
Daughter looked confused, and she said, “No, four,” at the same time the seating hostess told him, “Party of four.”
The young man said, “Oh, okay,” as if finally understanding, and then grabbed two more menus. And then he said to the kids, “So you’re expecting two more to show up still?”
Mr. W’s kids just stared at him. The hostess said, “No, these three here [pointing to them and me] and the gentleman coming in the door right now [pointing at an entering Mr. W].”

WTF? I declared that they shouldn’t charge for my dinner since I was clearly invisible. Which brings me to my next question. To quote Chandler from “Friends,” “Hmm. Should I use my powers of invisibility for good, or for evil?”

Some time ago, a thread of conversation in the comment section got on the topic of how some guys refuse to answer hypothetical questions posed by his significant other for fear of entering into a trap-slash-fight, which topic I’m sure had nothing to do with the post itself. 🙂 Such is the nature of my blog for certain things to take on their own life, and I enjoy that aspect immensely.

On that topic, Mr. W used to refuse hypothetical questions. It was almost a matter of policy for him. One could just feel that hypothetical questions had come back to bite him in the ass in the past. Now, however, he answers and plays along with me, because he knows there’s no consequence if I’m going to ask something absurd, except for last night when I asked him playfully, as he was falling asleep, to tell me a story, and he said he had no stories and he’s not creative, and I said, “Tell me a story about the time you cheated on me,” and he obviously had never cheated but he did make something up involving Pamela Anderson and I decided a few minutes into this story that this probably wasn’t the greatest bedtime idea. But again, there was no “real” consequence aside from the story somehow ending with me screwing entire football teams.

ANYWAYS…geez, how do I get off on these tangents? I was remembering an early hypothetical posed by Mr. W’s kids about 3 months into our dating, as later recanted to me by Mr. W. Apparently the 3 of them were having dinner and the kids’ hypothetical was, “If there was a big earthquake or something, and the ground split, and we were stuck on one section and Cindy was stuck on another, who would you come rescue?” His response was, of course, “I refuse to answer this hypothetical question because it’s stupid and impossible and would never happen.” When he told me this question, I thought, “Uh-oh. They’re feeling insecure about their station in Dad’s life with me around and they need/want reassurance that Dad will still be there for them.” The kids prompted Mr. W some more and when he still refused to play along, his kids said, “Well, CINDY would have you come rescue US because she’d tell you to help us while she took care of herself.” How right they were! And just after a few months of knowing me! It was a relief to know they were just testing HIM (and how well he knew me) and not acting out based on some perceived competition with me. I must’ve been doing SOMETHING right.

Yesterday evening, Mr. W and I dropped off his son at the gym (we’d both worked out at lunch already and weren’t feeling fighting the after-work crowd for a second session) and went to a nearby mall to kill time until we had to pick son up again. On the drive to the mall, Mr. W got a phone call from his parents and we stayed in the car after parking so he could finish the call. As he gabbed away, I watched a guy joined at the hip with a girl walk to their car in the parking aisle we were facing. I first noticed him because he was carrying a Victoria’s Secret bag in his left hand, and slung across his left hip and opposite right shoulder diagonally was a rather effeminate looking brown cloth bookbag. His right arm was around the girl. He opened her car door, she got in, he handed her the Victoria’s Secret bag, then removed the cloth bag from his shoulder and handed that to her as well. I realized it was HER bag. As he circled around the back of the older-model teal car to the driver’s side, I wondered if his testicles were also in that fabric bag. He got in, and they proceeded to back their car out the “wrong” direction of the angled parking aisle. Mr. W was now hanging up his call, and thus could comment, “Oh, THAT’s nice,” as their teal car banged right into the back of a pick-up truck parked behind the whipped guy’s car across his aisle. We both got out of Mr. W’s car. The teal car pulled forward away from the pick-up, still going the wrong way, slowly. And kept going. I yelled out the license plate number to Mr. W. At the end of the aisle, the losers slowed and paused, watching us. YES, there are WITNESSES, you weasels. Mr. W waved his arm at them, motioning them to come back. They didn’t move. And then when they did, they turned away from us and took off.

What a puss! Mr. W wrote a note describing the vehicle and I gave him a juicy description of the driver, explained what had occurred, left the time of the incident, and stuck the note on the truck. Walking into the mall, I wondered if the teal car would circle around and come back to see if we’d left a note, and take it off the pick-up. Then I realized if they’re gonna do a hit-and-run with 2 witnesses, they’re gonna be too chickenshit to come back for fear that we’d still be there, and maybe the truck owner would be by then, too, and if we didn’t get his license plate # the first time, now we just might.

So to the 5’7ish Latino/Filipino 180lb male with his 5’5ish 160lb Latino girlfriend driving a late 80s model teal Ford Probe (?) parked at the Westfield Mall and committed a hit-and-run at 8:30p last nite, BAD KARMA VIBES to you!!!

Here’s a most bizarre thing. I was reconciling my latest DiscoverCard statement with my receipts last nite, and saw that a particular Chevron gas station had charged me $40.60 for a fill-up on February 27, but the receipt in my hand, for the same date, same gas station, showed $20 even. I’d been resistent to filling up all the way partially to boycott the recent rise in gas prices, and partially because gas always seems to fall the day after I fill my tank up all the way.

So anyway, I’m comparing the dates, the gas station numbers, they’re all correct. And I’m feeling really indignant because gas prices are insulting enough without them overcharging me! Can you imagine, if they steal $20 from everybody, how much money they would obtain fraudulently?

During a break in our trial today, I called DiscoverCard and disputed the charge. The person I spoke to was very nice and helpful, and I could hear her typing as I explained the situation, and I told her I’d like to fax them a copy of my receipt. She said the receipt would help a lot and that she’ll credit me the difference immediately. Then she asked if I’d contacted the merchant (Chevron) about the issue. Just as she said that, my eyes zeroed in on a line at the top of the receipt that said “Visa.” VISA? I was confused, but I do realize (now) that the receipt I was holding is not for the corresponding DiscoverCard charge on my statement. All sorts of things ran through my mind. Should I keep going with this? Maybe they wouldn’t catch it and they’d credit me anyway? I can’t do that!
“Uh, can I do that? Contact the merchant?” I asked, stalling.
She said, “Sure! Actually, it might be faster doing it through them because they can usually credit you immediately, but we can do it also, it’s up to you. It’ll take us up to 30 days.”
“Oh, okay! Lemme try them then, since it’d probably be less trouble. I mean, I can just show them the receipt, they can’t dispute THAT.”
“Exactly. But it’s no trouble, I can do it here, too. Are they close by?” she asked.
“Yeah, they’re just up the street.” At least THAT part’s truthful. My face was burning. “I’m just gonna go to them and it should be faster that way.”
“Okay, if you have trouble with them, or if you want us to do something about this, just go ahead and call us back.” She was being so nice. I wonder if she found it odd I was so adamant and now I just want to cancel the dispute and get off the phone.
“Thank you so much for your help!” I said lamely and we said our goodbyes.

I looked through my wallet. I have no Visa card anymore. This is totally someone else’s receipt. Somehow, I filled up my car, pushed the button to have a receipt printed out, and someone else’s purchase printed out. Maybe it’s from the person who filled up there just before me, and someone behind me had MY receipt.

Gack.