Tag: Texas

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Happy Birthday Odela Mae

Today is a great day in my family, it is my mom’s birthday, July 30, 1913, what a great day. She would live through so many things, she would go through hard times, good times and amazing times.

She would grow up and marry a boy she had been in love with since she was five years old. She would be parted from said boy for 10 years while he was in heaven waiting for her.

She didn’t have to be my mom she chose to, on this day I would like to share with you one of the important lessons she taught me.

When the love of her life left this earthy plane for heaven she grieved horribly. She missed him, she missed his laughter, she missed his very presence.

I lived here in Texas, while she lived in Owasso, I would call her once a week and we wrote letters. When I would call her our conversations would naturally turn to dad. We would share remembrances, funny stories and yes some when he was stubborn. Those made us laugh the most, at the end of one of our phone calls she told me something that made me incredibly sad.

She very quietly said “you’re the only one that talks about him with me”. I said what do you mean, she went on to say everyone thought it would make her sad to talk about him, the love of her life.

But she wanted to talk about him, she wanted to laugh at stories, she wanted to tell people about him, the incredible man God gave her to be her very own. He was her prince, her knight, her movie star crush all rolled into one. And he chose her to marry, she never quite got over that fact, she never saw herself as the actual catch. My dad got to spend his life with a woman that was beautiful inside and out, God gave him a woman that would work beside him building a life.

What we can take from this, during this time when people are losing loved ones, is to allow them the freedom to talk about the people that are no longer here. Listen to their stories, laugh at the funny ones with them, that is what they need, they want, they crave. They want to know that the people that mattered the most to them are remembered.

She also told me a few weeks after my dad passed she dreamed about him. She was convinced it was more than a dream, you see the last months of my dads life wasn’t pleasant, he wasn’t really there. It was hard, it was brutal and she didn’t feel like she got to say goodbye in a meaningful way.

That night, my dad came to her, he held her and they laughed together, then he said he had to leave. She told him she didn’t want him to go, he told her he would be waiting when it was her turn.

Then the one thing happened that told her this was her gift from God, dad hugged her, and gave her the extra squeeze at the end.

She told me she had never told anyone about that extra squeeze, no one knew but her, dad and God.

She believed to the end of her days that God allowed him to come and say goodbye to her and tell her he would be waiting for her to join him in heaven.

So as a birthday present to my mom, I pass these things on to you.

Happy Birthday Mom, I love you so much, thank you for the life that you

allowed me to have.

 

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My Thoughts

My heart is heavy, my mind is boggled, my understanding of this world is gone. Last night in Dallas, TX, 5 police officers were brutally murdered, shot down like dogs. Eleven more injured, one civilian injured as she protected her children.
During a peaceful protest shots began to ring out, police officers ran towards the shots, to protect the people protesting them. You know what, let’s take a minute to let that digest, ran towards shots being fired to protect people who hold them in disdain.
I understand they were protesting black men being shot and killed by police officers, however, I would like to remind everyone that the killings they were protesting happened in different states. Not even Texas, so it begs the question, why are you protesting Dallas police?
Do you feel a modicum of responsibility in this slaughter? If you had not been protesting police actions in a different state you would not have put our police officers in jeopardy.
They ran towards gun fire to save you, I cannot say it enough, for all of those that hate the police, that say incendiary words directed toward their demise, well, congratulations. You wiped out 5 of them last night.
To those of you that really want things to change in a peaceful manner, this is not directed at you, however, today, of all days, you need to go on your knees and thank God that they were there to run towards the gun fire to protect you.
I grew up in a household that respected laws and the law enforcers, oh don’t get me wrong, I did my share of skating the law. In my teenage years, drinking underage, drag racing, things of that nature. I didn’t rob anyone, the one and only time I have ever stolen anything was when I was four and ate grapes before my grandmother paid for them. She shamed me so mercilessly that I never stole another thing.
My dad taught me that if I disagree with a rule to practice civil disobedience. I have read Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience countless times due to my dad. Everyone should read it that wants to change things in our society, in our government, local and federal.
I am so saddened but not shocked at what happened last night in Dallas, TX. The world has taught me not to be shocked anymore at the cheapening of life that is happening on a global scale.
In our country, the United States of America, we should be above that. It is time people, time to understand that the white people who are alive today did not practice slavery. It is time people to understand that not all black people are thugs that want to rob you. EVERYONE in this country, has to work together for the betterment of EVERYONE, every citizen. The good of the many outweigh the good of the few.
Disagree with a law, disagree with what is happening, practice civil disobedience, stop waging open war on police officers.
Not all police officers are bad, not all white people are racists and not all black people are thugs. I read that on a meme. It’s true, it’s time to hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

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Tech Support Contact Tips

Well, hello old friend, it’s been a while, so much has happened, so many things have irritated me, so many things that don’t deserve being put down in print.

But there is one thing that I will put down, I work in tech support for a major telecommunications corporation, I believe I have said that before.

I work in a department that supports not only internet but television and voice as well, here are a few things I would like for you to know, to make it easier on you and me (or someone like me) when you call in for assistance.

 

  1. Don’t yell and scream at me.  I am here to help you.  Have you ever helped anyone who just yells and shouts at you?  I am more willing to help you if you are calm and patient.  It does not matter what happened before you arrived on my line.  I have no control over that and cannot change it.  I can help you however, and yelling doesn’t work.
  2. There are certain things I HAVE to get before I can even start to help you.  I am not asking again because I want to annoy you, it’s because I do not have it, and it is required in order for me to assist you.  Yes, I know it can be frustrating, I agree.  That doesn’t change the fact that I still need it.  You may have provided it to people before me, but that does not mean I see it.  It does not mean “the notes” that you ask us to check are accurate.  Please tell me, so that I know your issue exactly from your mouth and can properly assist.  The reason you are speaking to me is because the people you spoke to before couldn’t help you.  Part of that reason may be because they didn’t understand the problem.

 

III. Part of the information I do require is that you have to be able to authenticate the account and that you are authorized to make changes.  This is not just something made up.  This is in place for numerous reasons, but mainly to protect you, the customer.  Just because you know you are authorized does not mean I do.  I do not know you personally, you are a voice on the other end of the line.  Federal law and company policy REQUIRE authentication.  You don’t want me to break the law do you?

 

  1. Believe it or not, you are not perfect.  I have much more experience with customer problems than you do, so I am coming from more knowledge than you have.  About 75% of issues are customer created.  This means it was not the company who caused the issue, it was you.  Guess what?  We don’t mind.  It’s OK to screw up.  We are here to help.  If you’ve done something you shouldn’t have by mistake and know it, it really does help us if you tell us that.  If we know what you have done, we can then undo what you’ve done.  We really don’t mind that.

 

  1. This technology has been around now for quite some time.  You depend on it now, and it’s a big part of your life.  Take time to learn about what you use.  You did learn how to drive, so learn how to use devices that take up so much of your life.  Believe me, it makes your life so much easier.  Many places have free classes on how to use computers.  TV remotes are nothing new.  We do provide a guide when you get your remote.  Please read through and try and get familiar with how it works.  We know you hate having to call us.  This can be avoided by learning how things work.

 

  1. Going back to computers again.  Computers and the internet is not something new.  I am guessing you aren’t new to it.  You have been using them personally and probably in your job for quite some time.  The name of the browser you use; the address bar is not “technical lingo”.  This is common language you use in relation to devices you have interacted with on a daily basis for many years.  The URL/Web address is something you have been typing over and over.  Again, not lingo.

These are all simple things that in this day and age almost everyone should know. I give a pass to everyone 60 and older. Although, I had a sharp 90-year-old gentleman the other day that was an absolute delight to work with. He was simply amazing; do you want to know what made him amazing? He didn’t scream, he didn’t speak down to me, he said Angie I don’t know if the problem is you guys or me. Can we figure it out? I said absolutely, let me make sure it isn’t us before starting on your end. It ended up being him, but with him following my directions we got him back online in no time and he was able to see the new pictures of his great-grandchildren that had just been posted online. I considered it my best call of the day.

 

VIII.   If you call me, I want to help you, it is not only my job, it’s my nature, I love solving problems. The more complicated the better, there is nothing I love more on my job than getting you connected, being able to watch your favorite shows or talking to your loved ones. It is rewarding to hear the joy in your voice when we work together and get you up and running.

 

My favorite customers are my older ones, maybe because I am fast approaching that part of my life, or maybe some of them remind me of my mom, dad or aunts and uncles. I just want their services to work and the experience be as seamless as possible. They are a joy to work with and I let them know that.

I will be honest, if you come on screaming and cursing at me or another person in my position we will shut down, you will not get the same quality of service you would have if you had come on the line, calmly explained the issue and allowed us to ask the questions we HAVE to, then get to figuring out what is going on and getting you on your way as soon as possible.

I will let you know, for the ones that make disparaging remarks about my pay or my level of education. I am highly skilled at what I do, I am highly trained, not only at the job I do now, but in multiple areas of the major telecommunications corporation I work for. I have been around a long time, I make good money, and I am highly educated. I am from America, I don’t know why I am asked that, given my Owasso accent. Of course since I am in Texas now, I tell them well, not exactly, I’m in Texas and we think we are our own country.

There you have it, my tips for making your tech support experience better, not great, because you had to call in to begin with. But we really do want to help you.

Oh, one more thing, pricing, I’m in tech support, there is only so much I can do for pricing and credits. I have nothing to do with movie coupons, don’t use them at home, don’t care about them and know absolutely nothing about them. Billing is what you want then.

 

 

 

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Happenings

Sometimes in life people mistake niceness for weakness, I do believe that people are crazy when they do that. It takes real strength to be nice to certain people; I refuse to go to hell because some people cannot control their idiocy.
Make no mistake, I will not allow you, and you all know who you are, to take advantage of me or demean me in any way. I will, and have, reported you to the proper department within the major corporation I work for. Trust me, I left nothing out; you will be taken to task.

Enough of that, today was recording day with Shanon J, I am so proud of the work we are doing; it is nothing short of awesome. I hope you all are listening and enjoying the topics we are covering. If you are new, the website is http://www.convosate.com, you can listen to previous shows and leave feedback.

I am still recovering from my feeding frenzy at the family reunion, everything was so amazingly good. It’s hard to say no to family members giving you food, one simply does not do that. I love food, I admit it, I should have been born with a tapeworm or something. Instead I was born into the body of a farm worker, short and steady, close to the ground to do farm work. It is so frustrating, all I want is to be beautiful and thin, instead I am plain, short and squatty. Not a great combination when one lives in Plano, TX, perhaps if I lived in a farm state then I would fit in. oh well, one works with what they have, so therefore I wear spanx and makeup. Fixes a lot of issues that I have, heels help with the vertical issue that I have. Other than that all is good here deep in the heart of Texas.

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Looks

I stopped at Starbucks today, it was a venti passion tea for me, unsweetened, I hope everyone is proud of me.
Do you ever have that time in your life where you don’t know what you are supposed to be doing and other times you are so sure of where your life is going? I feel as if I am at a precipice, I can’t explain it, and at my age it is incredible, but I feel like I am on the edge of something huge happening. In a good way, not a foreboding way, I just feel like my life is about to take a huge turn.
I wonder what is in store for me, sometimes; well a lot of the time, I wish I knew my future, I so want a crystal ball. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Wait, no, no it wouldn’t, there are some things I would not have wanted to know in advance. On second thought, I think I’d rather my life just unfold without me knowing what lies in front of me.
I wish I could give up, not in life, but food wise, I know you are all tired of hearing about this; however, I want to be able to eat whatever I want. Whenever I want, no worries about it going straight to my waist, hips, thighs, arms and well everywhere. I believe that is what heaven will be like, where I get to eat whatever I want without consequences. I wonder what it is like to be one of those people, do they think about it, do they appreciate it. I wonder what it is like to be naturally beautiful without need of cosmetics, plastic surgery and other things to make ourselves into society’s idea of beauty. I also wish I were one of those people, alas I need the help of cosmetics and would love to have plastic surgery.
There is a story in the news about a man who sued his wife for fraud, as she had plastic surgery to make herself beautiful before he met her. Then after the birth of their child he found out what she used to look like as the child was not beautiful like he expected. He won as she had never revealed what she used to look like. It begs the question, when you have had work done, do you tell when you begin to date someone? Do you tell them you have Botox treatments? That you color your hair, your nails are acrylic and you had your teeth straightened as a child? Aren’t some of these things a given? I know very few women who do not color their hair, paint their nails, wear makeup, make themselves pretty. We are ingrained from childhood that we need to be better versions of ourselves in order to attract a mate. So after having attracted that mate, do we then come clean that not everything about us is “real”?
I live in the Dallas, Texas area, this is the beauty capital of the world, yes even more so than Hollywood, this is it people. Women are expected to look like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, big hair, makeup and nails; if you are not the Texas ideal of beauty you will not attract a man. That is what the popular belief is, and I will tell you, men keep it going. When a man talks about what kind of woman he wants in his life, intelligence is far down the list, hot is the word they use. And I have to tell you I am sick of the word hot used as a description, except when referring to fire. What happened to beautiful? Pretty? Cute?
The pressure to be society’s idea of “hot” is exhausting, it is exhausting to be a woman today, so of course we use what is available to us to continue to look acceptable. I know I do, I have been using Mary Kay skin care since I was in my 20’s and it has done me well. I look good, for my age; there is the rub, for my age. I hate that as well. Who decided what I should look like at my age, at any age? Who was that person? I can tell you this, it was a man, men say they want a natural woman, they don’t. No one does, trust me on this. I know I will get some heat for this one, but I for one will continue to take care of myself, color my hair, do my nails, make sure I look the best I can. For my age.

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The Only Honest Man in Texas

Ok, so, I saw something on twitter that I have to discuss. Some woman tweeted that she had been set up with a man by a friend. Well, this man called her after the date was set up and left her a voicemail. It essentially said that a mutual friend of theirs told him the picture he had been shown of her was old and was told that she had gained a lot of weight. He was canceling the date and wanted her to know up front the reason why. The reason why is that he was sold a bill of goods that was not what they should have been. He was told she looked one way when in fact she was quite the opposite. She then tweeted he was an asshole.

My contention is that he was not, that he was honest, and the friend that tried to set them up together was not honest. This friend should have told him, listen I don’t have an up to date photo of her, but here is one a couple of  years old, add fifty pounds. At that point he could have then said I’m sure she is nice, however that is not my type and I am not interested. Instead he had to hear it from someone else and had to be the bad guy call this woman and was honest. Wow, a trait all women say they want, but when it comes right down to it, do we really? I know I do, I can only dream of a day the Irishman is totally honest with me. Tell me if he thinks I am too fat, thin, blonde, brunette, whatever it is that he doesn’t like.

This man was honest! What a concept, he said he didn’t want her to think she had been stood up when he didn’t show. I admire this man, I would love to know who the only honest man in Texas is. We, as women, can only dream of a truly honest man, that says, I don’t like you because you are fat. There I said it, men should be honest, tell a woman that, I don’t like the way you look, you are not my type. As women, we should be equally as honest. I’m sorry I don’t want to date a man who should be wearing a bigger bra size than I am. I don’t like bald men, I don’t like hairy men, I don’t like short men, I don’t like tall men. Think of how wonderful this world would be if we were all honest with each other.

So hat’s off to the only honest man in Texas, you keep telling all those women what you don’t like about them! Eventually you will meet one that has everything you want. As for the woman who had gained all that weight, I hope she learns from this, and realize she is single, if she wants to date, and date men who want women a certain way, then she has to be that way. Otherwise meet a man who likes someone who is overweight. It is that simple.

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Changes

There are some days that writing is a tough prospect, not because I have nothing to say, quite the opposite, I have too much to say. So much that cannot be said in a public forum, it would be bad form to do so. So silently I sit, my fingers unable to tell the tale.
So on to things I can talk about, United Way fund raising is going great, we are well towards our goal. If anyone is interested in purchasing a jersey please let me know, I will get you the information. Also, if you are interested in donating raffle items I would also greatly appreciate it and it is a tax write off!
I am thinking of changing jobs, not companies mind you, but jobs, I find that I am really needing a change. I would love to go back to clerical work, not a clerk, because they make no money. However I would love to be an assistant to an executive. I know I would be good at it, I am very good at organizing and delegating, two important traits. I am also very good at not being intimidated by titles, therefore no one would get through without being on the schedule. Another plus, I have all the right clothes for it, I have this amazing BCBG black pencil skirt that would be perfect office attire, paired with a simple white blouse and my red Carlos Santana pumps, well, perfection. I think I will put that on my resume.
Ok folks, tons to do today, I will chat with you all later, oh best news EVER, Detroit won their division, so the Rangers play here Saturday, which means, TESSA time! Woo Hoo! Oh, how could I forget this is also OU/Texas weekend, GO SOONERS!