WANTED: A Best Friend (Inquire within)

I am so jealous of people who have that one person in their life who they can’t live without, who they must talk with, in some way, daily, and who you know will always have your back and know you better than you know yourself. I’m not talking about a significant other (I love mine), I’m talking about a best friend. I miss having a best friend.

For me, finding new friends has been a lot like dating in that, I don’t seem to have much luck and it’s been a tiring, sad process. I have had more anxiety over my lack of friends than I ever had over the absence of a boyfriend.

I’ve intentionally and unintentionally isolated myself in many ways. I live alone, outside of the city, I work in an office full of men, and I don’t like to go out drinking all the time 1: because I hate being hung-over now and 2: because I don’t like spending very much money on bars/restaurants. So, I’m not exactly putting myself in positions to meet a lot of new people but I’m not really sure what else I could be doing.

I thought, and still hold out a lot of hope, that grad school would be a great place to meet some like-minded girls who would want to be friends and hang out outside of class but, so far, I’ve made a few in-school friends and none outside. I’ve thought about asking a couple girls if maybe they’d be interested in getting dinner or something but I haven’t for a couple reasons:

1: Almost all of the girls I’ve connected with are married with kids. I worry we’re in different places in life, have some different priorities (I don’t have a family to worry about) and they won’t have time to start a new friendship with someone who is single without child. I say this because it’s happened to me a lot; marrieds with child, don’t want to make friends with unmarrieds without child. It’s one thing to be friends with someone pre-husband, pre-kids, but to meet someone with these things already, it’s almost like a club I can’t be a member of without a husband and kid. That’s been my experience, anyway. This is getting trickier because I’ll be 30 next year and it seems like most girls are married, and if they don’t have kids, they will

soon. And if they don’t have a husband, they’re only interested in finding one and less interested in making new friends.

2: I actually don’t really know how to ask someone I don’t know well to hang out. I know that sounds weird but how the heck do you do this without sounding like a total creeper?

I hope as grad school progresses, the tides will turn and the friends will come. Fingers crossed. You know how some people say, “I’m not here to make friends?” Well, I am here to make friends (and learn, of course).

So, I went on meet-up.com to try and find a couple groups I might be interested in joining with girls my age and, so far, the only group I requested an invite to, (I think) rejected me. How sad is that? They didn’t even meet me first! It’s a 30’s group and I’m 29, so maybe that’s why but, I’m sorry, I have no interest in joining a “20s group” because I have this feeling it’s going to be inundated with either, those still living like they're in college, binge drinkers, drama, and the girls desperate for some male attention (not that that doesn’t exist in every age group). I want to hang out with girls who are a little more grounded and calmer.

I’m in a weird spot. I’ve been in a weird spot since college, from a social perspective. I don’t need a ton of friends. I have some friends (one good friend, in particular) so it’s not like I’m completely isolated but I guess I just need to feel more connected – a lot more. In addition to what I already have, I’d really love one or two great friends that are interested in a deep, meaningful connection, who are down to earth, close-by, mature, and not like, ya know, going to stab be in the back and/or randomly stop talking to me for no apparent reason.

I’m a nice person. I’m ridiculously loyal, a good listener, funny, upbeat (usually), pretty sane (for the most part) and genuine. I never thought it would be this difficult to make friends and it can be incredibly lonely sometimes. There’s been this huge void in my life for years and I’d really like for it to not be there anymore.

How do people make friends in their LATE 20’s outside of a bar/club scene? I’m all ears.

User Review: Bed Bath and Beyond

I've had numerous good experiences with this company over the years. I cannot even begin to surmise how much money I’ve spent on wedding gifts at this store – it’s been a lot. The most recent purchase being a month or so ago when I went to a store in New England to purchase a bridal shower gift.

The sales rep was so helpful and polite and even shipped and gift-wrapped my order for free – something she did not have to do. It was promptly shipped out and arrived within a few days of me placing the order.

I’ve returned many things to this store that I used once or twice and decided I just didn’t want anymore and they gladly accepted it back. They also let me use a 20% off coupon PER ITEM even though it says you can only use one coupon per order. That’s significant savings.

Their variety and quality is pretty darn good and I always go in there leaving with stuff I probably don’t need but can’t seem to live without – like a scarf hanger for example.

They get a thumbs up!

Rent the Runway Update!!!

Upon my previous post about my negative experience using this company, I received an email from someone at RTR expressing their regrets and concerns over my experience, also offering a nice voucher which should cover a few free rentals.

See, this is how companies should mitigate negative customer service experiences. While I wasn't happy and had written RTR off forever based on my one experience with them, the fact that someone privately emailed me and offered me something to help off-set their short-comings, makes a difference. I really appreciate it.

In case you're wondering...

Some of you may be perplexed or even annoyed at my customer service reviews. I get it. Who wants to read a ton of literature on crappy reviews but I can say, for myself, I really wish I had read reviews before dealing with certain companies and I now make it a point to do my research before buying things.

Furthermore, I recently learned that a lot of companies don't care AT ALL about making unhappy customers happy unless their complaints have reached social media - then they're ready to listen. I guess that's sorta my attempt at that but with companies like Sears Home Repair, I will never use them again if I can help it and I will just continue to spread the word because they seriously cost me hours upon hours of my life - not to mention money and sanity - and they totally messed up and never cared to mitigate their failure. The public has a right to know about that. 

So, guys, if you have had a bad customer service experience and have tried resolving the issue with said company but to no avail, post that shit on your blogs, facebook, twitter - whatever. You never know what may come of it. You may get someones attention and someone just may be willing to try and fix things if you're amenable to that.

User Review: Whole Foods

Admittedly, I haven’t had a ton of experience with Whole Foods because they tend to be a little more than I’d like to spend on groceries but the few experiences I have had, have been excellent.

Every time I go in there, people are very friendly and willing to help and are also knowledgeable about their products.

My boyfriend and I are bad people and love veal* so for our two year anniversary, we decided to get some veal to cook up and devour, as we have in the past with our veal from Whole Foods. From my experience, their quality of meat and seafood has always been outstanding.

This time, when I cut open my piece, it was all fat. Like 90% of it was fat. Since veal is expensive (my piece was $21.00), I decided to actually wrap it up and bring it back to the store to get our money back, expecting to get weird looks and maybe even a hard time.

Nope. They took it back, no questions asked, refunded the money, and apologized for the bad piece of meat.

This is an example of good customer service. Mistakes happen and I 100% understand that and, typically, don’t get upset over one mistake; I make mistakes daily. It's how it’s resolved that matters. A mistake can easily be forgiven when it's appropriately dealt with and made right. Something companies like Sears clearly doesn’t understand.

Whole Foods gets a thumbs up!

* I know. The animal activist (me) should NOT be eating veal. I know.

Happy Mudder's Day!

I decided to sign onto Facebook today since I hadn’t in a while. 

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. 

All it did was make me feel lousy for not having a mom I could give a shout-out to and tell her how "wonderful" she is and "if I could be half the mom she is, that I’d be the happiest person ever." I’ll never have a mother I feel this way about. Couldn't help but feel a little sorry for myself.

As the years go by and I remain, essentially, motherless, it makes me sadder and makes me long for what could have been. But that's neither here nor there. 

Be good to the mommies who have been so good to you. You’re lucky.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! You have the hardest job in the world.

Boob Update

Just wanted to let you all know that I had an ultrasound done on my boob lump this past Sunday andddd... it's definitely a cyst.

All's good! I did a little dance in the parking lot outside the MRI office. I knew it was probably nothing but good to know for sure.

It might need to be aspirated at some point but that's going to have to wait because I'm busy paying off my surgery bills from December - yuck. 

Ladies: Get your sweater puppies checked!!! Or, at the very least, check them yourself. 

Have a great weekend, guys :o)