Friday:) Fun At The Dentist, Free Fries, Frustration At The Bank, Finding Solace In The Sanctuary, Appreciation, and Celebrations.

“Did you ever have one of those days where there was just nothing on your calendar and nothing to do! No? Me neither!”

~ Toni Armenta Andrukaitis

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An early morning alarm and 9:30 dentist appointment. I was getting my bite adjusted, meaning checking all the highs and lows and adjusting my over bite, under bite and in between bite. Hopefully, this will help with clenching and headaches. 🤞🏼

Dr. Do and the young technician, Alex, took very good care of me over at Red Oak Family Dentistry. I was there almost two hours.

Thank you Dr. Do and Alex.

The dentist’s office is just a hop skip and a jump from McDonald’s. This morning, I got an email reminder that Friday was free medium fries day with a $1 or more on-line purchase. You know me. I love free stuff, plus I was hungry and I’d never been to this new McDonald’s on 380.

I enjoyed my free fries and my $1 iced tea and called my sister and chatted a while before heading off to the bank and church.

Well, Friday frustrations at the bank…I received an email from Bank of America saying that my accounts that are in a Living Trust needed to be updated. I didn’t know if this was a hoax, phishing, spam, or what. So, I went in to check and take care of it in person.

The young lady assisting me checked my email and said it looked legitimate, but she would check the number given to call. I waited quite a while, but she came back and said it was correct. I asked if I could take care of it here, in person. She said, NO, they don’t have my information in the bank. I’d have to call that number. When I went home and called the number, the gal looked up my info and said that I had to take care of that at the bank in person. (See my frustration?) I was told that someone in the bank needed to change my Trust into a business account. I’ve had this Trust account for 7 years. (Ya gotta be kidding me!) Yikes!

I just took a deep breath and said thank you. I was pretty mellow and relaxed after spending a couple meditative hours at Adoration and sketching in the Sanctuary. (More on that tomorrow.)

After I got home, the lawnmower guys were mowing my lawn. They also mow three other neighbors. I try to catch them before they leave to give them a soda, snack or something cold. Today was pretty darn hot, so it called for ice cream sandwiches.

When I finally put my feet up with my iPad in hand, I checked my emails and Facebook. I saw in my Facebook memories that today was the anniversary of my divorce, 7 years ago. Plus, it’s Friday. A couple of awesome reasons to celebrate.

7 years ago? Time flies when you are free.

Cheers, my friends! Salud! It’s also National Latina Day. It doesn’t get better than this! CELEBREMOS!!!!!

Now, that’s a busy Friday! And the day is still young.

Wednesday:) What’s With These Dumb Digital Store Coupons?

“The digital innovation that set out to connect people, has slowly started to tear those people apart both from within and without.”

― Abhijit Naskar

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OK, time for my frustrated rant of the day. Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble with these so called great grocery store digital coupons? If you download the individual store app and you click on the digital coupon for each item, and you sync up the items in some vast dark corner of your phone, and after they scan your personal secret account bar code or type in your phone number, by some miracle, your total savings will miraculously appear at the end of your receipt when you check out… or maybe NOT. Most likely NOT.

I pride my self on savvy shopping, but when my instrument of technology has conspired with the grocery store to deceive and confuse me, that’s where I draw the line. I did all the right things, and clicked how many items I had and put them in my virtual cart, and I even scanned the bar code on each item.

I purchased a bunch of cereal, juice, snacks, and things to donate to Holy Family School, and I even showed the cashier the sale add and receipt and said, “This rang up at $2.29 and it’s supposed to be $1.29 if you buy five items. I bought five items.” He said, “Yes, I know. Your savings will be listed at the bottom of your receipt.” There were several people behind me in line, so I said OK.

I got home and guess what? Yep, there was NO SAVINGS at the end of my receipt. I purchased 33 items, and the only thing that rang up correctly were the 5 pizzas that I picked up for my neighbor, Mr. Mike, that were on regular sale, not digital coupon sale. WHY CAN’T THEY JUST HAVE A DAMN REGULAR SALE FOR EVERYONE? I have older friends who don’t do store apps on their phones, so they don’t get to take advantage of digital coupons. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter because I don’t either. Do they do that on purpose, hoping you won’t notice?

I’m sick and tired of having to check every item and every sale and every coupon EVERY TIME I go to the grocery store. Can’t they just have a regular sale like the olden days? So guess what? Tomorrow, I’m going back to Kroger and return EVERY SINGLE ITEM, except for Mr. Mike’s pizzas that are already in his freezer, if not eaten already, and get my money back.

Yesterday, I went to Aldi’s. I usually don’t go there because it’s not that close to home. But, I had to run to the bank and it was right next door. I filled up my shopping cart with snacks, juice, cereal, etc., and guess what? Every item was priced comparable to the so called great sale prices at the other store, and there were NO secret super-duper digital coupons for tech savvy only patrons. I may have to change my shopping habits and locations.

OK! I’m done ranting. I need a glass of wine. Oh, I feel better now. OK, here’s another beautiful sunset from my evening walk tonight. Thank goodness for the amazingly awesome things in life.

Friday Fulminations, Frustrations and Lemonade

“I believe when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade…and try to find someone whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.”
-Ron White
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You know what is really frustrating? Well, I’ll tell you! My sister has a new Toyota Prius that she bought this summer that has given her nothing but troubles and headaches. Today was the fourth time she had to call the roadside service to come out and jump the battery. This morning, we had planned to go shopping, have lunch and take Mom to a movie. But, NOOOOO!!!!! Her car wouldn’t start. She spent hours waiting the service man. This was the fourth time in as many months that the car wouldn’t start. Granted its cold here in Chicago, but this has happened on beautiful days.

A couple of weeks ago, she even left the car at the dealership over the weekend, they installed a trickle charger, and said this would take care of the problem. But, NOOOOO!!!!! What’s the sense of having a shiny new car, the car of your dreams, if it turns out to be more like a daily nightmare?

I especially feel bad because when I was here visiting this summer, I told her, “You’ve been talking about a new car for years. Grab your check book and let’s go buy a new car today.” And we did.
She was happy as a lark…that is, until a few weeks later when the car wouldn’t start. Every day was spent saying two Our Father’s and Two Hail Mary’s on the way to the garage.

After today’s long wait and much frustration, she picked me up and we went to the bank. She sat in the car, while I went inside. We went to Office Max. She went in and I sat in the car. We went through the drive-in window at Burger King and ate lunch inside the car. We went to the grocery store. I went in and she sat in the car. WE WERE AFRAID TO TURN OFF THE ENGINE! All the prayers in the world couldn’t help this problem.

I went with her to the Toyota dealership at 5pm, where they offered her a loaner car and they gave her the old dog and pony show about, “Gee, this has never happened before.” Now, she asked if she could just do a trade and get rid of the car from H-E- double hockey sticks…(I don’t cuss here.), and end the nightmare. Well, of course she could, but it would cost her an additional $5,000 out-of-pocket to get a less expensive, non-hybrid car.

Needless to say, the manager is “going to talk to his boss,” and see what he can do, and will call tomorrow. In the meantime, when life gives you lemons, you want to smash it in someone’s face!
Can you say LEMON?????? To be continued….