I'm alive. I've just been really busy with life. Friday and Saturday were spent assisting Joey with his school work. Sunday, we attended Mass at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church. We both haven't been to Mass in years. I wanted to go, but not alone, so he took me the church he felt most comfortable at. I've had other friends offer to go to church, but it's usually a Protestant church. I needed to go to the church of my childhood, which was the Catholic church. So, I attended it with my Catholic friend. Joey knew all the prayers and sayings without looking them up. It made me feel like a bad Catholic. I just sat and prayed the prayers I still remember. For me attending a Catholic school from 1st to 3rd grades, it amazed me I didn't know the Nicene Creed, and not even from my CDC classes, either. He could say it from heart. At one point, they did the sign of the cross. Being it's been 19 years since I've been to a Mass, and all the services I've attended since have been Protestant, I wasn't aware it happened. Joey had to do the sign for me. Boy did I turn red at the embarrassment of that. However, I needed to go, and I'm glad he went with me to guide me through the motions.
It did me well going. I spent more time at the service reflecting on my childhood. I looked over to the choir section and remembered having to sit in the choir section during Mass when my mother was the organist at our church in Augusta. At St. Joseph's in Augusta, the choir and organ were in the back. That made my mother happy on the days she took us. She didn't take us all the time for fear we'd act up. If we were in the back of the church, no one could see us act up. I remember more about the back of that church more than anything. Except the Cry Room. St. Frances Cabrini had a cry room, and it looked a lot nicer than the one we had in Augusta. The bathroom at St. Joseph's was in the Cry Room, and that bathroom was a dump. I remember that much. But after Matthew and Beth were born, we would sit in the Cry Room if they went to Mass, too. I smiled at these memories. I also thought back to 4th grade CCD at my old church, the pot luck dinners, the Christmas Mass and programs, and other stuff. We weren't the most active people in Church growing up, but I remember doing a lot. I do miss those days and one day, hope when I have a family, we'll attend Church and do the same.
Yesterday, my father and I had an adventure with the cable company. When I paid the bill 3 weeks ago, they told me I could get a free upgrade for our service. I had to talk to my father about it and we agreed to go for it. Friday, I went over and got a cable card for our HDTV. Our TV didn't have a card reader, after all, so I took it back yesterday. When I wanted the HD box in exchange, they told me I needed a $100.00 deposit or a credit check. Well guess what, that's not free. I didn't get the box and went home. I told my father about it, and neither one of us was happy. So, he called to voice his complaint of getting two different stories from the cable company. Well, they brought out Evil Steve. And Evil Steve isn't happy until he gets proper customer service. He wanted clarification on the policy and why I was told I could have a free upgrade in the first place. He ended up speaking to the regional office down in Jacksonville. The woman there gave him the run around and he lost his temper with her. She refused to address his original complaint when neither my last 4 of my Social nor my mother's last 4 were on the account. Seems when I transferred the account into my name after my mother's death, they used the last 4 of my driver's license for my Social Security number. I had no clue that happened.
We ended up going to the local office again to voice our complaint. The manager that helped us was calm, and while she couldn't do anything for us at that moment, she agreed we had a valid complaint. It was her that told us that it was my driver's license number for my Social in the computer. She ended up getting that cleared up and got the account transferred from my name being the primary on it to my father's name. She also told us that Friday, I should have never gotten the card in the first place without verifying my Social. Now, the woman Friday did check my ID, but she didn't verbally ask me to verified the Social. And while the account was transferred into my father's name, the manager saw in the computer there was a memo in our account that we were to get a free upgrade. After all that was said and done, she did get us the HD box. My father plans on calling corporate to complain about the attitudes of the women he spoke to in Jacksonville, but to also praise the manager that helped us. She remembered it was all about customer service after all.
[♪ Listening to: "You're Not Alone" - Chicago]
Posted by Shawn at April 8, 2008 10:38 AM in General.
