I'm a lipstick junkie, Bay Area sports groupie, concert floozy, Disney princess, and legal marketer in Corporate America. I work hard, and play harder. :)
Jungle is one of my beautiful kitties, and she is the most needy out of the three. She follows me everywhere and loves human interaction. If not me, then she follows my sister. I honestly think she likes my sister more than she likes me. :( The weird thing is, you have to let her come to you.. if you try to pick her up, she'll try to scratch your face off. Anyway, I hadn't seen her the last 2 days and figured she was sleeping in my sister's room or outside somewhere because we let our cats go in and out of the house. When it's time for bed, they're all inside the house in their designated "spots". This morning, Blizzard and Darla greeted me (along with Peanut.. our hyperactive dog), but Jungle was no where in sight. I started getting sad and thinking all kinds of horrible things. Did someone find her? Did she get stuck somewhere? And I can't even say the last thing I was thinking. I was so relieved when my cousin texted me back. My pets are always so therapeutic that I can't even imagine life without them anymore. When I'm having a bad day, all I need is one of them to snuggle with and I feel 100% again.
As soon as I get home, I'm putting all of their collars back on. No more going outside!!!
In November 2009, I bought tickets to see Mario (the guy who looks like a baby Chris Rock and sings "Let Me Love You") for me and J, and about two days later his concert was rescheduled. Live Nation informed me that I could either get my money back or hold onto my old tickets because they would be honored at the rescheduled show. We decided to hold onto the tickets because we really wanted to see him... big mistake! I waited some months and when I'd call Live Nation for the status, they would just tell me that the new date hadn't been set and to just stay tuned.
November 2010 rolled around and I realized I still had the unused tickets sitting in my wallet. I called Live Nation once again, and they told me they couldn't find my order on file anymore because they merged with Ticketmaster and the system was different blah blah blah. They said they would get in contact with me once they knew more. Months passed... nothing. Obviously at this point, I realized they weren't going to reschedule the show and I just wanted my money back. I continued to call Ticketmaster and they continued to give me the run-around. I think that most people would just say forget it at this point, but it bugged the hell out of me.
A few weeks ago, I saw the customer service email sitting in my inbox, so I decided to give those mofos another call. The first rep I spoke to was a complete bitch. She said something along the lines of, "Why are you only calling now if this happened two years ago?" OH. MY. GOD... I exploded. HELLO!!!!!!!!??!?! DO YOU WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE EMAILS I SENT? DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH TIME I'VE SPENT CALLING YOU PEOPLE???? She forwarded me to her manager who was being a dick as well. They said that a mass refund was issued to everyone who was supposed to attend that concert, but I knew that I never got my refund. They both told me that there was nothing they could do because the order number I was giving them wasn't coming up in their system. I explained Live Nation and Ticketmaster becoming one, so the system was different blah blah blah.. but I also said I had all of the original emails/receipts, my bank statements, and everything they needed to show them I never got my refund. In the end, this dickhead manager gave me a customer service email, phone number, and snail mail address. He told me that I would have to write a letter or call. I exploded again.... why the hell couldn't he just tell me that from the very beginning?
I sent an email and explained everything. I got a response saying that everyone got their money back and to double check my bank statements. So what did I do? I called Bank of America and got a copy of all of my motherfreakin statements from November 2009 until now. I went through my statements (it didn't take long) and found the original transaction of when I purchased the tickets and what do you know? NO SIGN OF THE REFUND. A part of me was praying that I really did get the refund but I had just overlooked it because I didn't want to deal with anymore BS. My mind was at ease when I saw on paper that my refund was never issued. I replied to the email and said I had just gone through 2 years of statements and found no such refund and would PDF my statements to prove it. The rep said she would be back in touch within a week. I emailed her yesterday to follow-up and this was her response:
Hello Julie,
Just about an hour ago sent out another email to the team to get an update and they have informed me the files have been archived and can’t be opened.
So what I am going to do for you “If it is ok” send you out a Gift Card in the amount of $XXX. Please reply to this email and let me know if that is suitable to you.
Thanks Susie
A GIFT CARD?????? I was a bit insulted but let's face it, I use Ticketmaster a lot so whatevs. I said that was fine and now they are sending me my gift card this week. UGH FINALLY!!!!!! After 22 months of fighting with Live Nation/Ticketmaster, I am finally getting justice!!! Sorry if this was boring to you, but I feel like a champion right now. Now let's hope the stupid gift card doesn't get lost in the mail.
Now I'm starting to wonder how many people never got their money back from this Mario concert!
There's nothing harder than saying goodbye to someone you used to love (or even someone that you still love). I feel stupid when I get sappy because I open up this side to me that isn't bulletproof. I'm making the exception right now because I wanted to share a song that was sent to me today. "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars hit really close to home, and I couldn't help but think about my second love. It's hard to talk about him because almost everyone that knows me thought he was bad news, but he wasn't, not to me, and I will always defend that. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it didn't make sense. Anyway, it's even weird to refer to him as a love because we never made anything official. I used to put my relationship with my first love on blast--I had to remind the world how much I loved him, planned out every year of our future, and made it hell for any girl that looked at him--and look how well that worked out for me! ;) I told myself I would never be that girl again. I would let love be and go with the flow.
I was involved with my first love for 10 years (on and off) that I wasn't expecting to find love again so soon, but I did! Just one month later! If only I had an idea of what the hell I had in store for me. He was exactly what I needed at that time for my broken heart. The day we met, he was dancing in his kitchen to, "So You Can Cry" by Ne-Yo--the song I listened to over and over again after my break up with my first love. I don't know, I thought it was cute/weird. That one meeting turned into lunch, and lunch turned into countless conversations, endless nights, and unforgettable memories--mixed in with tears, drama, and heartbreak... over the span of 2.5 years. It's crazy how the first few moments with someone new goes in slow motion... and as time goes by, the fights seem to be on repeat and the happy times on shuffle. He was my best friend, that turned into my secret fling, that turned into my love, that turned into my greatest enemy. Actually, he stayed my best friend through it all except for when we hated each others' guts. We shared the same love for music, sports, and travel, and I've never met a person that was able to turn my life upside down so many times before. He was the first person to ever say "no" to me, while doing everything in his power to keep me happy. He played all of my "games", and passed every "test" I threw at him with flying colors. He was able to keep up with my arguments and he even cooked for me. I met my match and it scared me sh*tless.
Some months have passed since things ended between us... and all I can say is that I have no regrets (no matter what I said after the initial split). But if I could do anything over again, I probably wouldn't have kept what we shared a secret from it's beginning because it really was something great. Two years ago, I truly believed that you couldn't get hurt if you didn't acknowledge anything and kept your feelings to yourself... haha silly me! After EVERYTHING (I will spare you the details because there are some crazy and complicated details), we were able to close up the open wounds and say goodbye on good terms. Whatever he is doing right now, I honestly hope that he is happy. The one thing I learned from my second love? Never fall in love with your best friend. :) You may or may not know who I am talking about, and you may or may not be judging me right now. One thing you should know about me: IDGAF. One thing I know about you: you do because you read this far!
Happy listening!
And you know what they say... third time's the charm!
I've been thinking about reviving my blog for some time now because as you can see, I started blogging in 2001, at the tender age of 16... isn't that crazy????? 10 whole freakin' years ago! LOADS has happened in the last 10 years. Shoot, LOADS has happened in the last 10 days! I've been using my Tumblr sporadically in the last 2 years, but I don't feel like I can post anything of substance on there. Anyway, my blog is for me and whoever is interested in what I have to say. So please remember what our friend Thumper said: If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all. :)
