Customer Service, Old Friends and Old Dirt Roads

Continuing the thirty days of thanks for Thanksgiving here we have:


Twelve: Customer Service

Awesome customer service can't be bought, it must be innate in the brand. Fancy Nordstrom has it, glamorous Bloomingdales does too, even fabulous Costco. But there is nothing nicer than enjoying guaranteed customer service at home.

Tea should be served in 7 minutes.

 Hungry? Wail and someone scurries to serve you food.

Tired of climbing the stairs to go to bed and need an elevator? Plead with your eyes and the butler gently carries you up the stairs.

"Help! My arthritis is hurting my old haunches."

Fatty loves getting a ride from the elevator (me)

If the water isn't fresh you must smack your butler or tip your water bowl and she will quickly change it to the freshest h2o around. Does your mane need taming? Scratch wildly around your butlers favorite chair and she will rush to brush you.

sniff sniff

 Nails need clipping? Claw the stairs or curtains and a manicure will follow. Not feeling enough love or affection? Forget going to a therapist, they will only blame it on your hairy mom who abandoned you in the woods with your other furry siblings. Simply paw at your butler letting her know you need to be pet. If she ignores you then follow up with a little clawing but not too much. 

 Around here, I am the butler. Perhaps I should be the maid but butler defines my sense of duty better. My little Masters demand high customer service. For the last 14 years of my life they have gone from being cute little kittens to demanding old kittens. I am now the official feeder, elevator, water girl, emergency vet, beautician and ego booster for these two mammals.

Usually they are satisfied with the level of customer service. Right now I am getting a 6 out of 10 and that is a generous score.

Thirteen: Old Friends

I enjoy being in a crowd, I love babies, I like old people, and I think that most people are good. Of course there are a few people who are just plain miserable but what would life be like with all nice people? Boring. And I wish some miserable people would have the neighbors dogs daily lay a smelly poop in their yard and Santa bring them coal. Nevertheless, I am grateful for my select few good friends. Generous ladies who lie to me when I show up looking homely and insist I look gorgeous. Bless their hearts. One great thing thing about moving back to Maryland is having the chance to catch up in person with some of these wonderful people. 

Yesterday I got the chance to hang out with a really sweet pal of mine who I've known since college. We were students together, waitresses together and the years passed, we each got married and we are still buddies.

We got to talking about friendships and how Facebook affects real vs. perceived friends. Five years ago I decided to delete Facebook and to have more meaningful relationships. Sure, my "friends" list is no longer around 1,000. Heck, it might barely reach 10. But one thing for sure is that I still have joy when a friend tells me good news rather than finding out on an update online. I still feel sadness when they personally tell me a struggle they are facing rather than wondering why they are silent on updating their FB status. In a way, I'm grateful I got rid of Facebook  to nurture and grow my personal relationships the old fashioned way. Facebook, I found, robbed that joy. It leads to a lot of comparison through the pictures and status updates without giving you a real chance to talk to your "friends" and really see how they are. 

The comparison with FB is terrible. It looks like this:

• They have great stuff and my stuff is junk.
• Look at how great those jerks are doing. They don't deserve it. 
• What a perfect family, why did I get stuck with the looney bin?
• (Seething) Wow...did they just go on another perfect vacation?! 
• They have it all together: themed Easter, Summer, Fall, Winter. - and then you stress out for making one perfect picture to impress people who don't care at all. 

In the end, I am grateful for the few people I can occasionally talk to and even more grateful when I get to see them. Some friends have moved on in life and that is good too. People change and it's part of life for them to become totally different than what they were when we were best buddies. I truly believe that God gives us friends and angels to accompany us when we need it the most but also gives us the chance for those people to go away and to have solitude and reflection when we need it.

Fourteen: Old Dirt Roads

Back when I was a busy college student I barely had time for a break between attending classes, waitressing 5 days a week and writing long introspective English papers. One of my favorite breaks from my then hectic life was walking down a country dirt road to this cute farm and buying fresh veggies, eggs, flowers and fruit. I went yesterday to see if it was still there and it was!

The farm, not the pizza

No fancy get up required.