As Father’s Day is tomorrow I will, of course, be writing about my dad.
You see my dad chose to be my dad, he and my mom made a decision to become parents in their golden years. Years they could have just taken it easy, enjoyed retirement and gone on their merry way. They chose to take in and formally adopt a girl no one wanted. For that I will be forever grateful.
My dad was my hero, he was funny, smart, giving, tough, kind and said whatever he thought. He was the perfect example of how a true Christian should behave in all situations. He never spoke down to anyone, he listened to everyone’s opinions before voicing his own. He lived by example not words, now he had words but his example was tantamount to who he was.
I like to think I get a lot from him, my ability to laugh at tough situations in life, rely on God for everything. Recognize when God is sending help and opening doors and voice my opinion and listen to others. Express concern, take action when necessary and step back when needed.
My father was an extraordinary man, an example of manliness when the world was trying to stamp down on masculinity. He could fix anything that broke, he could sooth a crying child with a word and let would be suitors know he knew how to use a gun if need be.
This is one of my favorite stories, I rarely got second dates and I couldn’t figure out why. Until one of the boys I went out with finally told me what really happened after they knocked on the door.
Like any true girl of a certain age, I waited the 5 full minutes after the boy knocked on the door to come out of my room.
My dad took full advantage of that 5 minutes, he would silently lead the boys into the den, where his guns were on the wall. He would sit them in front of the guns, he would look at the guns, then look at the boy. He would do this the entire 5 minutes.
I went home and confronted my dad, he laughed for a full 20 minutes. He then said if a boy couldn’t withstand that kind of scrutiny he didn’t deserve me.
I miss that man so much. He was so full of life and laughter and was truly a man of God.
We could all use a Foy Testerman in our lives, I will be grateful the rest of my life that he chose to be my dad when he didn’t have to. That he gave up an easy life to take on a wild child and take on the Herculean task of taming her.
Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there, whether biological or otherwise, you all rock.
Fat and Happy or Fat and Sad?
Sunday after work I had to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work. As I went from aisle to aisle I found myself in front of the ice cream. I stood there for what seemed a long time and made a decision. I was going to be fat and happy, why not, I’m never going to meet Dean Cain so I might as well go for it. I quickly grabbed the caramel cone by Haagen Das. It is my favorite, it is so good, if you are not worried about calories give it a try. I promise you it will make your eyes roll to the back of your head.
I make my way to the produce department and get my healthy food then I check out and leave.
I get home and unload everything, as I put the ice cream in the freezer I stop and stare. I just stare at the caramel cone sitting there, and I thought I can’t eat this. What if I really meet Dean Cain? I won’t be fat and happy, I’ll be fat and sad! There is nothing worse than a fat and sad Angie.
So, eggplant and mushrooms were for dinner, a sad and healthy Angie was in for the night.
Maybe when I am 98 I’ll be able to eat whatever I want because I won’t care. Of course I’ll be living until I’m 120, so maybe not 98. We’ll see.
A co-worker and I were talking about movies a few weeks back, I was telling her how much I liked the movie Friday. As she stared at me I explained that someone I used to work with recommended it and I had recommended my favorite movie American Dreamer and we exchanged movies.
She said she had never heard of American Dreamer, I said you have to watch it. So I loaned her my copy and she said she enjoyed it.
I decided to watch it again, as I had not seen it in years, I still laugh just as hard as the first time I saw it in the theater back in 1984.
JoBeth Williams is just a delight and Tom Conti is brilliant at playing the straight man.
I think I identify so well with JoBeth Williams character because I have been her. The person not appreciated in her real life and the biggest escapism are books.
Books are still my biggest escapism, I can lose myself in certain characters, eras and situations for hours. Days even. If I ever hit my head and think I am a character in a book I can only hope I am rescued by an Alan McMann. And find myself in Paris of course, the Paris of then, not now, you seriously could not pay me enough to lose my memory in Paris right now.
1984, yes, now, no.
No fat and happy Angie is gong go now and read a book and lose herself in a character.
As always you can leave a comment here or email me at angie@angieworld.com
Game Requests
I play games on my phone, I know, huge shocking surprise. There are three of them that I play with regularity. They all three involve playing with partners. Two of them, Words with Friends and Word Streak, I play with friends on Facebook. They are fun and I know the people.
The third game, Yahtzee, is played with strangers, the game suggests people at the same skill level as you are.
You do have the option of playing the game, which is what I did until I started getting requests.
It is a lot of fun and I do enjoy playing, I admit I’m not the best at keeping up with the game, I will go a few days without responding.
You can also message within the game, which I don’t do, I will respond, however I don’t initiate. In Yahtzee, because I don’t know these people, well, a couple of them initiated contact.
They said hello, I cannot undo my upbringing, I responded with hello. That’s when it turned a corner, apparently just saying hello invites people, men people to hit on you.
I shut that down real quick, I don’t play those games, I especially am not in the mood to play any games of that nature online. I find it disturbing as people these days find it so easy to go online, find someone and cheat on their unsuspecting partners.
Now, I am not saying these men are cheaters, they could be single, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out as I am never dating EVER again.
Unless it’s Dean Cain, then it won’t be dating, we will just go get married, I am convinced he will fall in love with me after just saying hello. That’s not a pipe dream, right?
Ok, so I’m not really delusional, I know I will never meet and marry Dean Cain, he is my safety net. When I say things of that nature people, by people I mean men, think I’m crazy and will leave me alone.
I don’t understand why anyone would flirt, hit on, come on to or whatever you call it, to me in the first place. I am not even passably pretty, that’s what I have learned these past few years, apparently my personality isn’t that great either. I have also learned I am not as funny as I think I am. The only reason a man in his right mind would want to be with me is to use me for what I can do for him.
At this point in my life I am not doing anything for anyone who is not a member of my family. I am including my sons girlfriends in there as well, as family.
So if you are a man who thinks I am an easy mark due to the fact I am not attractive, funny or anything else a man would find attractive, keep it moving buddy. I am not interested, nor will I ever be, I plan to live the rest of my life in peace. Unless Dean Cain really does decide I am the one for him, then I will get married.
So there you have it, alone and joyous for the rest of my life. Calm, peace, quiet, I like the quiet, no yelling or screaming obscenities, it’s nice.
Good luck to all of the ones out there do actually want to embroil themselves with other people.
My Dad
My dad’s birthday was June 3rd, I know, I am horribly late, but I had a hard time deciding which dad story I wanted to tell. The one I kept coming back to was the sock birthday.
Anyone who knew my dad will tell you he was the most humble, kind, caring and strong man ever, with a wicked sense of humor. It’s no wonder he truly was one of God’s favorite children.
One year, after I had moved to Texas, I called him to ask what he wanted for his birthday. As usual he said nothing, not a thing, I have everything I could want or need. That’s what he said.
I said, dad, don’t take away the joy of giving you a gift from me. You see that always worked when my mom would say that to me. Didn’t work, so I kept on, dad, dad, dad, dad, tell me, tell me, tell me. Yes, even at that age I was annoying. Oh wow, I just saw it, Alex gets it from me! I digress.
So he finally acquiesced, since he knew I wouldn’t stop, and said, well I need socks. Socks? You asked, I told you, socks.
Socks.
I said ok. Then off I went to Dillard’s (THE store of the day) and went to work, I got so many dress socks, then every day socks, then in-between socks. I spent over $100 on socks. Not to show off mind you, that I could afford that, but to be funny. He wanted socks, socks he would get.
UPS would deliver them, I would sit back and be able to hear the laughter all the way to Texas.
Back then there was no internet and no UPS site to track the package. So I waited, and waited, it seemed to take forever, in reality it was three days.
I called him on the evening I suspected it had been delivered. When my dad heard my voice, it was worth all of the effort I put into picking out those socks, his booming laughter over the phone was all the thanks I needed for that gift.
He said when he opened that package he laughed for a solid thirty minutes. Then chuckled the rest of the day, he said it served him right for telling me socks in the first place.
He then went on to tell me they would last the rest of his days, they did. When I went home for his funeral, mom showed me his sock drawer and there was one pair with the wrapping still on them. She took them to the funeral home and he was buried in them.
I miss my dad every day, I am so thankful he was my dad, that he gave me an undying sense of humor.
Thanks to him I am able to laugh at things that happen in my life that would fell lesser beings.
To this day I can still hear that laugh, that amazing laugh, that let you know life isn’t that bad.
When Calling Tech Support
As most of you know I work for a major telecommunications corporation doing tech support. Advanced tech support I might add. What does this mean you ask. Good question. It means I am not the first level of support, it means if you get to my level you have been through the first level several times. It means I don’t read from a script, it means I can run advanced line tests and even see into your equipment. It means I can read those tests as well. I am going to give you a few tips for what to do and what not to do when you reach my level of support. Just to lessen your frustration and for you not to cause me to have frustration towards you.
First of all I have to ask for a good callback number, that is required by my company, period, I seriously don’t need snarky remarks like “it’s the number I’m calling from” or my favorite, “the one on my account”. I don’t have caller ID as your call comes through a switch and the numbers on your account are not always correct. You forget humans input the information and a typo is quite possible. I have no limitations on calling you back the way the lower levels do, so, please, for the sake of expediency, give me the number.
Secondly don’t go on a tangent, I don’t honestly care what everyone else has done. I am highly trained and have been doing my job for a long time, so the whining and the simpering and the fits are not going to work with me. when I ask a question I need an answer, playing coy is not going to get the job done. When I ask you what color a certain light is on your router the answer is not oh there’s one blinking and three solid. I asked for a specific one! Why are you not listening? I know the writing is small, if you need to get glasses or get closer to it I’ll wait.
Do not, ever, scream obscenities at me, there is a clause in the terms and services you agreed to when you obtained the service that says if you abuse an employee of the company providing your service then said service can be disconnected. EVERY call that comes to our office is recorded, so every word you say to me is provable. If you do something of this nature I will turn you into a specific group we have in the company that handles your type of situation.
I want to handle your issue as efficiently as possible, every question I ask is geared toward that. They are not random, they are not from a script, they are honed from years of experience and training.
If your television won’t turn on, it is not the problem of your television service provider. If your computer won’t turn on, it is not the fault of your internet service provider. You would not call your electric company if your refrigerator stopped working, don’t call us when your equipment doesn’t work. It’s a waste of time and energy.
Another thing, if you don’t have electricity, your internet is not going to work, having wifi does not mean it doesn’t need a router to generate the signal.
I seriously had a customer call in and tell me she had been in a hurricane and the whole area didn’t have power. She wanted to know why her wifi signal wasn’t working. At first I thought it was a joke and looked around for the hidden cameras. Nope, she was serious.
I would ask that you educate yourself on how things work, something as simple as having power to your equipment.
The best customer I ever had was an eighty year old woman, she was having some email issues and I was walking her through a few things. She was just zipping along, following directions and getting things done.
I commented on how she was better at what she was doing than some forty year-olds I spoke to. She told me she realized her grandchildren were acquiring more knowledge than she had.
So she signed up for a computer class at the senior center, she didn’t want those whippersnappers (her word) to know more than she did.
I want to be her when I grow up.
So, next time you have to call in for technical support, be nice, answer all questions, above all use your eyes and look for what we are asking you to look for. Everything we ask is important. We want to help you, it’s our job to help you, we are human beings at the end of the day.
Highly trained, highly intelligent and good at our jobs, human beings.
As usual if there are any questions or comments please feel free to post them. If they are derogatory in any way, shape or form, they will not be posted. After all, this is Angie World and I am the empress.
Angie World 