On foot, and underfoot

Found here.  Tokyo people - street crossing by Simone Marchetti.

I used to drive everywhere.  My next-door neighbor and I, who were close friends in highschool and did all the same afterschool activities, used to drive into school separately, only to park right next to eachother.

But now I've been a pedestrian (only) in several different international cities as an inhabitant, not a tourist, and I can safely say I would avoid driving for the rest of my life, if possible.  Since we still live in the burbs, and many of my hobbies involve moving used furniture or large homemade letterpresses around, this doesn't look like a goal attainable anytime soon, but I can dream.

What does affect me, every day right now, is the general vehicular attitude towards pedestrians in general, and also the stupid thing other pedestrians do when they're not paying attention.  For example, I am super careful never to cause a car to slow down when they have the right of way - if I go early at a crosswalk, it is because I can clearly see no one is coming, or I understand the light pattern enough that I am sure I will be able to cross safely.  This morning, I was able to cross the street before my signal, because I was paying attention and had the right timing. 

The three numbskulls behind me, however, succeeded in blocking the cars in the left turn lane (who had an advanced green) because they were too late to follow me and decided to anyway.

Le sigh.  In DC every morning, cars try to run stagnant yellows/early reds at major pedestrian crossing intersections.  Sometimes these vehicles are even city buses.  And every time, the herd of pedestrians at the crosswalk comes out at their signal, and leaves the idiot driver stranded in the intersection.  Horns blare and tempers fray, and it makes everyone's morning just a little worse.

And don't even get me started on cyclists.

Bad Apple

A little while ago, good friend of mine and I went to the Georgetown Apple store during our lunch break.  My friend was super excited to finally get her baby back - a 17.5" Mac Book Pro, with all her files on.  There had been a problem with some faulty chips, but they were going to replace them, plus the m/otherboard, for free.  Great!

So we catch the bus to Georgetown, and are both excited to be out of the office at lunch.  We stroll into the store, and one of the greeters sends us back to the "genius bar" - I find Apple so damn pretentious sometimes - and we are greeted by a surly college-aged kid, who has possibly realized that working at the Apple store over the holidays was an unwise decision.

My friend explains her computer is ready, he checks her name on the list, and explains that they have a different first name associated with the repair.  My friend clarifies that the computer was purchased by her mother, and that that would be her mother's name.  Kid replies: well do you have any ID with that name on you?  Now, logically, since she has just said this is her mother's name, A) if she did, would it be right to hand her the computer? And B) nobody carries their parents IDs around - but most of us can forge a signature on demand.


After he decides he can accept her word (and own ID) that yes, it is her computer, he trundles off to the back to get it.  He brings it out to us at the counter, pushes it towards her asking her to turn it on and check to make sure its ok, and then pulls out the invoice, which says Balance Due $982.16 at the bottom.  He then says, "there appears to be a thing here."  When we look at him blankly, he clarifies: "there appears to be a thing associated with the repair." My friend exceedingly politely points to instructions on the invoice that indicate she is not to be changed for the repair.  Kid is very flustered, tells us he has to speak to a manager, and snatches up the computer and walks away.  My friend has not even have the chance yet to verify the computer works, and this kid brings it with him like she's going to steal it?  And then he keeps leaving it in random places around the store, so we feel obligated to watch him to make sure noone else decides they'd like to steal it.

After 10 minutes of this nonsense, he brings back the computer, plus the old invoice with a receipt stapled to the back.  Again gives her the computer, and the invoice, and asks her to sign at the bottom.  This makes me very nervous, as the invoice still says $982.16 at the bottom, so I flip it over to check out what it says on the random receipt.  And the receipt on the back has a large voided item for the repair, but the balance due is still $10.

So we ask him about it.  Our conversation:

Us: What is this receipt?  Why is there still a balance due?
Him: Don't worry about it.
Us: Umm, no really what is this $10 about?
Him, now angry:  I said, don't worry about it.  It's for me.

At this point, my friend has still not managed to turn on the computer, but she has signed the invoice, so he snatches it away and puts it into a filing cabinet into the wall.  We stare at eachother, a bit stunned, and watch this guy just saunter away.  At which point we flag down the nearest staffmember and ask if they have a form we can fill out to give customer satisfaction feedback.

That produced immediate effect, but only on the two staffmembers who had been near us but not helping us...to their credit, they jumped on the fact that we were clearly unhappy and did their best to offer anything they could think of to deter us from sending the manager negative feedback.

But the piece de resistance: Chris becomes aware of the hubub, and comes over to have an additional conversation with my friend.  You would think this would be to make an effort to apologize.  You would be wrong.

Chris:  The $10 on the receipt is because I am only allowed to void 99% of a line item cost.  So I had the $10 leftover.
My friend:  Thank you - but you didn't have to be quite so rude about it before.
Chris: I wasn't being rude.
My friend: You definitely were.
Chris (the rest of this conversation is approximate, but he truly uttered these exact words):  Well whatever, I don't care.  We're worth like billions of dollars.

At which point he walked away, and my friend penned a brilliant letter of complaint to his manager that wasn't nearly as harsh as the one I would have written.

I have no words/typing of random letters to explain the indignant noises both of us were making on the bus back to our office, but we must have a sounded like a pair of drunk hippos.

But if you ever go to the Apple store in Georgetown, try to steer clear of Chris, because he will do his best to ruin your day.  Or at least your lunch break.

Giveaway!

I'm excited to announce that Lizzie and Isaiah of Love Your Way are hosting a giveaway over on their blog for my stationery store, Ribbons&Bluebirds.  Check it out here.  You can visit the blog for the shop, with more stationery-focused entries, over here.

We are offering everyone 10% off in the Etsy shop until the end of 2011, so head on over to the shop to check it out!

Thanksgiving in the Cleve

This post will not begin with excuses for why I haven't been posting.  Mostly because my excuses are lame.

So:  Cleveland.  Scenic delightful city, where my sister lives.  And in the city?  The delightful West Side Market.  A smattering.

I love this expression.  It's probably why I married him.

I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving!  Hopefully I'll have more to share later this week :)  And also maybe some of those recipes I promised...

Onwards and Upwards, or at least Sideways.

Reagan Airport, on our way home from my dear friend's wedding last month.

I've been neglecting the blog again.  And its not for lack of things to say: I often find myself composing a post in my head on my way to work, or on my way home from work, and they just never make it into a computer.  But I have been busy doing other things.

I am still getting over the shock of the wedding.  It feels weird to say it in that way, but sometimes that's what it feels like to me.  You don't enter into something this huge, this permanent, this connected to your daily happiness, without some sense of awe and nervousness, I think, unless you're either seriously confident (in which case, go you!) or not taking it seriously enough.  But I am starting to settle into a routine, getting used to calling him my husband, getting used to the idea that I have taken the next step towards the future we have together.

I've also been really busy doing what I do best: making life complicated for myself.  I can never just take things at face value, accept them as they are.  Something has to be tweaked, "oh I could design something I like more than that" and then I'm left with 50 extra hours of work and a completely bewildered husband.  I cam home yesterday from my 13 hours of work, and immediately sat down at the computer to work on the christmas gift for my parents.  And he looks at me and goes, "Are you crazy?!?  Can't you relax a little?"  And the answer, mostly, is no.  Because what I like to do, what I really like to do, is make things, and design things, and design things better and remake them.  And that keeps me happy, and keeps me grounded after a 13 hr work day, part of what is going to be 19 straight days in the office working overtime every one of them.  Even the part where I took a break last Saturday and had some margs with the book club.

But this post isn't so much about all that because you all know me a little by now (hi 2 friends who read my blog! :) )  This post is about the good stuff that's coming, because of course its coming.  I've been sitting around not writing for 2 months, but that doesn't mean I haven't actually been doing anything.

• Letterpress Christmas cards are in the works.  I am encountering technical difficulties that I will beat into submission in my usual fashion.  When I stop working so much overtime I might even have time to accomplish this
• I might share some more photos from my wedding.  Because, you know, it was kindof a big deal to me.  And the shoes were only a small portion of that.
• Tutorials!  I'll probably blather on about some wedding related paper goods, but I am also going to share with you my poorly-sewn-but-still-cool clutch bags, which I made for the bridesmaids but that you could easily make as Christmas gifts.
• Food.  As per usual, the holiday season is going to be full of food for me, and this time, I'm not on bridal bootcamp diet.  I will be sharing recipes for mulled wine, some family tradition Christmas cooked, and I'll keep you posted on how the turkey-brining goes at Thanksgiving.

I'm sure there's more stuff too, and probably some whining, but I can't predict what that will be about.  So!  Hope everyone is doing well, and hopefully I'll see ya next week sometime.  Because right now, I need to go detail the crap out of a multi-million dollar renovation project.