Random mid-week updates

I've had a series of interesting "customer service" encounters this week.

1) A couple of weeks ago my cell phone died -- it simply would not turn on. So I took it into the fine folks at Telus, where they tried the same things I had, with the same result. Pronouncing herself "stumped," the girl working at Telus said she had to send it out for repair (and when she gave me the repair request to sign, I was delighted to see that under the description of the problem she had used the phrase "but to no avail," making me a fan of hers for life). They gave me a loaner phone in the meantime (one that, interestingly, hadn't been cleared of the contacts and text messages of the last person to use it before me -- I made sure to wipe it clean myself before I returned it!) and life continued as normal. Monday afternoon I got a call on said loaner phone, that went something like this:

"Hello?"
"TheSinger, how are you today?"
"Uh, fine, thank you. And this is?"
"This is *mumble* from Telus. Your phone is back from repair."
"Oh, great. Thanks very much."
"So, uh, when are you coming in to pick it up?"

And I know it's hard to express tone on the interwebs, but this was said as if I had left it there to linger for six months and it was taking up all their storage space. So I kind of fumbled around and said I thought I could come in that evening but I wasn't sure, and suddenly he was all "Oh, whenever you can is good, just wanted to let you know it was here." Very weird.

2) My problem with making phone calls is documented in other entries, but to sum up briefly -- I hate making phone calls, and find it very stressful to the point where I will work myself up into severe anxiety and put off calls that need to be made for weeks (which, of course, feeds back into the anxiety because then I have guilt about not taking care of something, which makes me want to put it off even further, etc. etc. etc.). However, Tuesday I gave myself a stern talking to and determined I was being silly, and picked up the phone to call the medical clinic I use in order to book my annual check up, which I have put off for as long as possible but now needs to be done. After waiting on hold for ten minutes I got a real live person. I asked if I could book said check up and she said "We don't do bookings over the phone. You have to go to the website and do an online booking request," and hung up. I rolled my eyes, but headed over to the website and dutifully made the online request. Yesterday I got home from work to a message on the machine, "Yes, this is Medical Clinic, please give us a call." So I give myself a stern talking to and screw up my courage, and call. They would like to book my appointment. Over the phone. Me: "Um, I called yesterday and was told you don't do phone bookings." Them: "No, you have to do it online." Me: "But I'm talking to you now, am I not?"

And you know, fine, whatever, I have an appointment for next week and it's all good, and my phone issues are not their fault or problem, but I was just left shaking my head at the end of it.

In other, more exciting, less rambling and weird news, I have a couple of wedding updates. The biggest and best is that I ordered my dress on Saturday. I still have trouble comprehending that statement -- I ordered a wedding dress. For the wedding I am having. Because I am getting married. It's pretty damn cool. The dress is gorgeous and I knew right away that it was The Dress, and I can't wait to wear it. No, you can't see pictures. It's a secret. :-)

Other bookings include the DJ for dinner music and dancing, and PetDoc and Noise have booked their flights to come home for the wedding. Woo hoo! I went and looked at invitations last week and while we haven't ordered them yet (still tweaking the wording) I think I have a style picked out. We still haven't done anything about a photographer, which is the next big thing on my list and something we have to do asap. If anyone out there reading this has a suggestion for either an Ottawa or Kingston based photographer they can recommend, I'm all ears. I'd really like to get that taken care of in the next week.

And the list goes on. 36 weeks to go!