Searching for Intelligent Life

You know how, at each company, there is one person - or if your lucky, more than one - who can actually solve problems. I am in what seems like an endless search for that person at AT&T.


See, we have had the same e-mail addresses for 10 years now. I don't want to change it, because all my friends know that it's the best way to get ahold of me, and it's on all my business cards and most of all BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO!!!! For the last two years, we have actually paid an extra $10 a month to keep those addresses even though we didn't use AT&T for our internet service. So, now that we are back in AT&T land our accounts were supposed to merge when we got our AT&T high-speed internet service set up and we would be back to having our e-mail and internet service on the same bill. Well, the key words there are "supposed to". Even though we had an AT&T agent on the phone when we set up the account, I am still getting a bill for $10 for a dial-up account, and a new bigger better bill for a high-speed account with an e-mail address I don't use. I've tried to resolve this problem a couple of times, but have run out of patience before I got the issue resolved. So, today, I am biting the bullet and I am going to wade through as many customer service representatives as it takes to get this problem solved to my satisfaction. Here we go: Christina in Billing (5 minutes) -> Christy in High Speed Internet (7 minutes) -> Diego, a DSL / Dial-up Specialist (on hold for 26 minutes) -> Denise in 2nd Tier Support ( 34 minutes!)


While I'm on hold here with AT&T, let me tell you about our spectacular ending to September. First we had Family Fun night at the girls school. It was a big success for the school, with plenty of attendees. They had bounce houses and things set up, and we feasted on Cici's pizza, sodas and homemade desserts. My PTO given assignment was to take photographs - an assignment that was right up my alley. Unfortunately, the picture-taking was cut short by a playground injury. Maggie has been determined to make it across the monkey bars, and she was practicing under the watchful eye of her daddy while I went to take some photos. She was doing great until one of her hands slipped off, and rather than let go with the other hand and drop, she held on. Well, eventually gravity got the better of her, but since she was gripping the bar so tightly, some of the skin was pulled off the palm of her hand. It wasn't a major injury, except to Maggie, but we decided it was enough that we needed to go home and administer first aid. I'm not sure whether Maggie cried louder because of her boo-boo, or the fact that we were leaving, but either way, she wasn't very happy.

We made up for the leaving early by arriving early at the next night's event, Screen on the Green at Jerry's company. They have a large green area with sport fields surrounded by a jogging track across the street from Jerry's building. For this event they set up a large movie screen up at one end of that area, and all the families could either bring a picnic or purchase hot dogs and hamburgers there, and set up their blankets and lawn chairs and watch a movie - Charlotte's Web was the selection for the evening. At the other end of the big field they had set up bouncy houses, obstacle courses, and a big inflatable slide. They also had a caricature artist, carnival games, popcorn, sno-cones, and cotton candy. The girls were thrilled. Of course, the biggest fun was provided by mother-nature: There was a big hill that sloped down to the seating area, and the girls had the best time just rolling down the hill. It reminded me of the scene in "The Princess Bride" where Buttercup pushes Wesley down the hill and they are both going "Ow! Oh! Ump! OOH!" Yet they would get up and run back up the hill to do it again. Here in Oklahoma there is a definite change in seasons, and we could tell it was fall - by the time the movie was over, the girls and I were all wrapped up in a blanket - it was rather cool! The weather is supposed to make the fall colors really pop this year - I can hardly wait!


WooHoo!! After a little more than an hour, we are done! Denise is the intelligent life at AT&T! Way to go Denise! Now I'm going to head out - my tile guy called in sick today, so I can leave the house to run errands. I don't really need to do anything, but I'm going to make something up.

You know, as we have moved so many times, I have reached the conclusion that the hardest part is not the actual moving, although that is the hard labor part. THIS is the hardest part - now that everything is unpacked, this time where you are settled in and don't have too much stuff to keep you busy, but you haven't yet made a good friend that you can just call and chat with, this is the hardest time, at least for me. I'm sure I'm driving my sister crazy with all my phone calls, but I'm sure glad I have her to talk to!