Head's Up!

Julie's having a giveaway - go check it out!

I finally made it home (from home...it's very confusing).  I'll blog more tomorrow.

'night, peeps...

A Light in THE DARKNESS

Okay, people.  November is still kicking my butt.  All over the place.  NaNoWriMo has been a NaNoNoGo, my knitting projects have been, well, difficult and really?  All I want to do is find my sweats, blankey, the corner of my couch and a bag of Dove chocolates.  And Bull Durham.  Over and over.

My kitchen is a mess, the dining room table is covered in piles of school materials, I'M COLD, I'm behind on laundry, there are toys everywhere I look, I'M COLD, I can't turn a freaking heel on a sock I'm trying to knit and I'M COLD.

People are mean and cut me off in traffic.  One lady totally broke in front of me in the line at the store with 900 items to my 1 and was completely lacking remorse.  The economy is tanking, etcetera...etcetera...etcetera.

But.

Yesterday afternoon, I was finishing up some school-related stuff at the aforementioned dining room table, when the doorbell rang.  I saw that it was the UPS man, putting a package by the front door.  I finished what I was doing, as I knew the package didn't require a signature, before I went to the door to get the box.  When I opened the door, the UPS man was still there.

Not waiting for a signature.

He was picking up the pots of dead mums that had fallen over during the night and placing them back on the stand.  As I opened the door, he was just reaching for the doormat, which he then proceeded to shake out over the flower beds, to clean off the dirt and blossoms.

I was rendered near speechless (which is not a common thing).  I stammered out something like, "Y-Y-Y-You are the nicest UPS man.  EVER."

He grinned and looked down, a little embarrassed at having been caught doing his random act of kindness.  He kind of half smiled and said that he knew people liked to keep their front porches neat, and he just liked to help out.  Then, he jumped back onto his shining steed into his brown truck and drove away just as the birds began to sing and the clouds parted and long, glorious rays of light touched the ground on which it had so recently been parked.

And that, my friends, is exactly how it happened.

That's when I understood.

The Darkness can be defeated.

It  just takes a few moments - go out tomorrow with your mission as this:  Find one person today and do something completely out of the blue that is nice and helpful and kind and giving.  Smile.  Ask for nothing in return.  Maybe even try not to get caught doing it.  And if you are, make like its no big deal.

Shove a little light into the dark and see what happens.

Peace.

040508 - Ovation in Orange

I couldn't get to my scanner tonight, so I took this photo, instead.  I decided to draw my Ovation acoustic guitar, resting comfortably in her little guitar stand.  My favorite orange (Uhh...MANGO) leather chairs are right behind it.  This actually started out as a blind contour drawing (check the right hand side of the fret board), but I was just so far off, and I wanted to do her justice, so I switched to looking. 

I really like the way this sketchbook folds out - long drawings like this can happen so much more easily!

And to follow up on a previous post - the new tower of Crayola markers arrived Thursday afternoon.  The boys wasted no time testing each and every one.

The were all deemed "Crayola-worthy."

Thanks Crayola - you have great products and magnificent customer service!  

Crayola Rocks!

Okay. All too often, I complain about lousy customer service and shoddy craftsmanship, etc. But today...I'm going to give a big KUDOS to Crayola. Now...I'm a big Crayola fan. I love their products - my kids love their products and usually I can buy them without any fear that they are going to be less than fantastic.



Yesterday, the boys and I went to the store for a few items and I saw a cool tower of 50 of the Pip-Squeak markers for a reasonable price.




The tower opens up and stacks like a pyramid, so you can just grab a color and go. Well...we had to have it. All of our other markers are scattered from here to Timbuktu. I told the guys we'd get it as long as the tower stayed on our work table downstairs, instead of traveling all over the house. Great. Got it. Good to go.



Just a few minutes ago, they decided to color and D. brought one of the dark green markers to me and told me it didn't work. Sure enough it was all dried out, as were 15 others. WHAT?? 15 others? That ain't right. So, I called their 800 number.


An incredibly short 2 minutes later, I spoke to a very nice lady who apologized up and down and back and forth and assured me that they had tried to recall all those markers, due to a sealing problem, but obviously some had slipped through the cracks and could she please send me a newly designed tower right away?


I LOVED it. Are you kidding me? A company that takes responsibility for its problems? Holy cow - what an idea! She didn't try to tell me that someone must have broken the seal (they hadn't) or that it was a result of a shipment problem by some unnamed contractor or any other nonsense. Just - "Hey - we made a mistake and we are going to fix it. We are so sorry for your hassle, is there anything else I can do for you today."


And that, people, is how you win brand loyalty.