yes, i would love to hold

i feel like some days i spend the better part of my in office hours holding my phone to my face...not actually talking...but rather listening to the smooth sounds of the hold button. which to be quiet honest, gets on my nerves. when did we decide as a society that we would accept a 15 minute hold? when did we decide that it was ok to schedule 30 minutes of time to have a 30 second conversation? and better yet, when did we decide that other people were so unimportant that we show no remorse for stealing valuable minutes of their life so that we can fiddle fart around and warm up to the idea of picking up the phone and listening to their concern? clearly, i do not find this amusing.
i recently made 4 different phone calls to talk to one person who then told me they were not really sure who i should talk to. mind you, these 4 calls took nearly 8 hours. with each call i repeated the same pattern: dial, listen to menu, choose a department, wait in line once i was transferred to the department, say hello to someone i don't understand, share my concern, hear a long pause, then be told i was not calling the right place. (repeat times 4...however, the 4th try ends with 'well i don't know who handles that.')
is it my imagination or did i at one part in my life make a phone call, talk to a human who was sincerely helpful, hold for 1 minute in the event that that human needed to transfer me to another human, resolve an issue, hang up? i feel in my heart that this used to happen. and you know what, it was wonderful. i used to think that people cared about other individuals, that people listened to concerns, and that people cared enough about their jobs that they wanted to do it to the best of their ability.
now i know that there are a few phone warriors out there who take their jobs seriously and work hard to make people happy. i know this, i just don't know them personally. so for now i reckon i will continue to hold. continue to stew. and continue to share my concerns over and over and over until someone hears my southern english and responds in kind.

champagne taste and a beer budget

my sweet dad, for the better part of my life, has supported me. i don't just mean emotionally but also financially. he paid for me to be a kid, swim on the swim team, go to about 100 formals before i graduated, drive the suv i wanted, wear the clothes that were cool, live off campus in college, support the staff at spankies, be in a sorority, travel on spring break, have the first smartphone, and the list goes on and on. i never really knew what a big deal all his spending was until suddenly, without warning, i became an adult. and not just any adult, but a single adult working for a church and living on my own earnings. aka...i got poor.
now please do not misunderstand me. this lifestyle that i deem "poor" is strictly as compared to the pretty cushy lifestyle i had before. the lifestyle which i had become accustomed. and the lifestyle that stopped so abruptly (after the 6 month adjustment period my dad granted me).
i was under the impression that when i graduated from grad school i would be a millionare. i would work 9 to 5, buy a house, go out with my friends, travel at will, and spend my funds only at the kate spade store. i thought i would be sittin in high cotton. i mean i had "lived" on the pay of a part-time youth intern and graduate assistant for years. i would be rollin in the dough now! wrong. i failed to caculate the money that trickled down from dear old dad...and well...i suddenly missed it.
now my life is nice. i have beautiful, fun, amazing friends, a great job, cozy house, nice car, and a couple of kate spade items that i love. not bad at all. the gripe is that no one really prepared me for paying my own iphone bill, or spending a small fortune at kroger just for milk and bread, or paying a natural gas bill even in the summer when my firepalce is not on, or paying a water bill for one that rivals a small family (i refuse to cut back my shower time. plus i have long hair). my parents taught me financial responsibility...they just didn't teach me that once i was on my own it would be a lot harder. they're so glass half full.
so for now i guess i will have to live with less than frequent shopping trips. i guess i will have to live with generic vitamins. i guess i will have to read paperback books rather than e-books on my ipad. and i guess for now i will have to fondly remember the days when it was deemed appropriate to charge dinner to my credit card as a mental health emergency. and remember fondly when manicures and pedicures were a staple activity every other friday. and i'll have to remember fondly the days when coupon clipping never crossed my mind. and i'll just have to be glad that i had it good...for a little whilie.