Face-Mask Moments and Why AT&T Is Out To Get Us

We've had a good day. It is significantly colder today than it was yesterday, but the sun is out...so it's better. Right?

Yesterday was cold and gray. Joshua and I went to Kroger in the rain. As I was driving there, Joshua looked over at me and said, "I should've worn yellow." I said, "YELLOW? Why?" He said, "Or orange. Like Nammaw would."

Years ago, I told Joshua that I remember telling my Mom I had chosen a certain outfit to wear that day...because it was raining. I remember my Mom saying, "oh, I never do that." I was, like, "do what?" She said, "I never let the weather change what I'm going to wear. In fact, gloomy, yucky days make me want to wear my brightest, most cheerful outfits."

Side note: is "outfit" even a word? I mean, for a grown-up?

Truth be told, my Mom didn't have any "gloomy" outfits. She was ALWAYS all put-together, head-to-toe. Hair, make-up, nails, jewelry, belt, clothing, shoes.

How did I miss that train?

(she said as she put on her Blardigan for the 13th consecutive day)

Anyway, Joshua has a mind like an elephant...never forgets anything. I couldn't believe he remembered that story. I can't even remember when I told it to him.

It was a quick trip to Kroger, tho, because I lost my list. The first thing I always do when I walk in the store is to grab one of those buggy-wipie things and wipe down the handle on the buggy. FIRST.THING. Joshua refuses to even touch it if I don't wipe it down first. Bless it. He's a germ-freak just like his dad. I think that when I threw the wipie away, I threw the list away along with it.

Which explains why I had to go BACK to Kroger again today.

We planned on ordering pizza for dinner...and watching the Oregon-Ohio State game. Holly and Aaron don't have cable at their house, so I texted her to ask if they planned on coming over to watch the game...and if they were, we were gonna order pizza for them, too.

Her response: "WHAT GAME?"

It's like I don't even know my own child.

ANYWAY, I was feeling all kinds of proud and accomplished today...that I'd gotten all of my Christmas stuff FINALLY put away. But then I sat down, and my eyes glanced over at the entry way. There, over the door that goes into our living room, was a sign that says: "We Say Merry Christmas."

Pride goeth before tears.

Just kidding.

After our grocery trip, we picked up Chick-Fil-A and brought it home...AS PROMISED. Joshua loves him some Chick.

At lunch, he started talking about our sermon from Sunday. He said, "pretty good sermon Bro. Mark preached...I liked the part with the football helmet."

Bro. Mark talked about "face-mask moments." Times when someone was really trying to get your attention. He had a football helmet up by his podium, and he related how a coach talks to his players when he wants to make sure he has their undivided attention...with his fingers tight on the face-mask, so that the player cannot move his head. The player is forced to look straight at the coach. He asked if there were times in our lives that WE'D had face-mask moments with others...or with God.

Joshua was talking about how he had a "face-mask moment" with a particular teacher back when he was in school. I said, "well, you've had some face-mask moments" with Dad, too."

He said, "I'm trying to block those times out of my mind."

Bless it.

Jim said, "I guess I've scarred the little guy in some way."

And all this was said as Jim was sitting on the couch putting on his shoes, after leaving work early...to rush home...to change clothes...so that he could take Joshua to the gym to "work out."

He hasn't scarred Joshua...he's a great dad. Joshua just remembers EVERYTHING.

And, to the point of the title of this post...Jim got me a new phone last month. Before he got it, he called to make sure that it would not affect our bill in any way. We have 4 phones on this one bill, and we really need not to increase the cost. He was assured that it would NOT...but low and behold...we had a significant increase in our next bill.

Jim called the AT&T people, and was passed from person to person. One thing you need to know about my husband...a couple of things, actually. He is the most honest person you will ever meet; AND, if he's in the right...he's like a dog with a bone and he will make you honor your word. Or he'll die trying.

He's been in customer service with his company for years. He deals with large industries, but even with that, he more than likely has to talk to an actual person. He does not give people the run-around. If there's a problem, he does his best to fix it. In fact, when others can't handle certain situations, or they don't want to, they call on him. He gets ALL the difficult ones. He is polite, even when customers are irate, irrational and unreasonable...which sometimes happens after a storm or tornado, when restoring electrical service takes a long time.

He's not perfect...I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that he wants to be treated the way he treats his customers.

In the end, they did NOT honor their word, but met him some place in the middle. They asked him if he was satisfied with the compromise, and he said, "no, I'm not," and he ended up telling them...calmly... that he would be looking into another provider when our contract was up.

But now we are getting all kinds of telemarketer calls. And porno text messages. We have been on the DO NOT CALL list for years, and always make sure to renew that when it's needed.

Jim is convinced that he has ticked off the wrong people at AT&T, and that they have now passed our numbers out to everyone in the world...just to get back at him.

Yes...I'm sure that's it.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18