As some of you know, we were honored to host our neighbor's wedding reception in our back yard. She asked us when they got engaged and we were thrilled to say yes. Little did we know what we were getting into......
The neighbors hired a wedding coordinator. Now, I know this is a profession that serves many people quite happily, but for smaller weddings, I've never really seen the point. Since it wasn't my wedding, and they didn't ask my opinion, I kept my mouth shut.
At first glance, she seemed nice enough. Wedding Coordinator (WC) had a bit of a challenge since the MOTB had her ideas about things and the Bride had some very definite ideas of her own. WC was trying to balance between the two, though it got crazy. Seriously, the Bride wanted to invite people they actually knew. The MOTB invited the hairdresser's nephew's best friend! Estimates on how many guests varied from 75 (Bride) to 400 (MOTB). In actuality, there were probably about 200 people at the reception.
So, about a week before the wedding, we got a rather condescending email from WC. In it, she went over some of the things we'd discussed, like moving the boat trailer and the camping trailer out of the way. But she also mentioned that the dog mess needed to be taken care of, or did she need to send her "staff" to do that? And, did I make plans for the "family animals" during the event? Nah....I figured we'd let Psycho and Scaredy Butt run loose amongst all those people and the food! *rolling eyes*
She told me that they needed my refrigerator empty and everything removed from my counter tops. I told her that I wasn't moving the microwave and she could have 2 shelves and a drawer.
This email also mentioned that the lighting guy wanted to be climbing on my roof and did we have a ladder for that? When I asked if the lighting guy was insured, she got a bit put out! But she did email me and say that he was insured......I doubt it, but I did my due diligence. Thankfully, lighting guy didn't fall off (or thru) the roof, so that wasn't a problem. The email did not mention grills or trash. This is important for later.
The happy couple got married at a nearby Temple (they're LDS/Mormon) on Friday. I was at the Temple when they came out and I attended the meal afterward at WC's house. After dinner, as I was leaving, WC told me that her staff would be at my house at 8:00 the next morning and she would be there between 8 and 9.
Saturday morning, I got up around 7:30. This is not something I do willingly. Ever. And especially not on a summer Saturday. Seriously, something had better be on FIRE for me to be up at that hour.
You can guess the next part, right?
She didn't show up.
Not at 8....or 9....or 10.
At 11, Bruce and FOTB went over to her house to get the tables and chairs from the party the night before and bring them over here. Oh, there's been a change of plans. Lighting guy can't be there until 4, so that's when we're coming. WC didn't call because it happened late at night. Oooookay.....
What lighting guy has to do with when she arrives is beyond me. And there was no phone call, email, or text message to anyone. Yes, she had all that information.
Strike 1.
I went to pick up Tristan at 4:30. WC is NOT at the house yet.
Strike 2.
When I got home around 5:00, WC is in the back yard having a temper tantrum. She's shouting at her "staff" and the various and sundry neighbors and family members who are trying to get the chairs and tables set up. "We are running behind, so I'm going to repeat myself for the fourth time! The chairs go in conversation semi-circles of 8....."
Strike 3.
At that point, I was so furious that I was ready to throw her off my property and do it myself. Just who does she think she is? Yelling at people who are there to help and talking to them about running behind?!
Then Bruce told me that they'd arrived, with a Uhaul full of stuff, and WC, the only person who knows the plan, went across the street to do hair. When they finally went to get her to answer all the "what's the plan?" questions, she went on her tirade.
I ran to the local granola store to buy a gluten free cake for Shannon since it appeared that they'd forgotten. I wasn't particularly irritated by that, except that we'd be told there would be gluten free cupcakes so I hadn't worried about it.
Seriously, it all went down hill from there. The kabobs were all cut up, but not skewered, so the "staff," of teenage boys were doing that. She'd made crepes, but not in the flavors the bride requested. She'd prepped fresh peaches and strawberries for those as well, and she was making fresh whipped cream for those before the party.
"Where are the grills?" Um, what grills? Apparently we were supposed to have borrowed the mondo grills from the Boy Scouts for this shindig. I vaguely remember making the offer back in June, but she waved it off saying she'd rent them, so we didn't have them. So, with less than an hour before the reception, we're frantically borrowing grills from the neighbors.
We ran out of crepes pretty quickly, and Shannon heard her say "I made crepes for 300 people. It's not MY fault people took more than one. I'm not making more!"
The kabobs seemed to take forever to cook, though WC hadn't wanted to start them before the party started at 7:00.
Half of the cupcakes weren't frosted. It turned out that she'd planned to make cream cheese frosting and frost all 150 of them at my house, sometime between 4:00 and 8:00. Except. Yeah. She was busy doing the decorating and putting out sauces for the kabobs and on and on and on.
Essentially, she bit off way more than she could chew and she was not prepared for the reception. One neighbor spent the entire evening in the kitchen, helping with whatever she could. It was unbelievable.
Then they wanted to know what we were going to do with all the trash? Excuse me? What are WE doing with the trash? You're taking it with you! WC's husband said "Well, I guess we'll have to find a dumpster somewhere for this trash." Great, add theft of services to the list.
At the end of the night, WC kept promising they'd leave food for us (didn't happen) and they decided that the *only* thing that went wrong was that they'd left the gluten free cupcakes at their house by mistake.
Really? That's the ONLY thing?!
On the upside, we got lots of compliments about the party. The vast majority of the guests had NO idea what was happening behind the scenes.
Other gems we overheard "Well, everything was going fine until Bride talked to people and turned them against me." Nope. Your tantrum in my back yard is what did it for me.
Sheesh! For the amount of money they paid her, we could've hired a caterer and done the decorating ourselves. It would've been a lot less stress all the way around. We still have an extension cord that belongs to the lighting guy, but WC won't return our emails so we can't get it back to him.
And the final problem, Psycho (the old and crochetty dog) got bit on the ear by one of the neighbor dogs while he was hanging out over there. At the vet on Monday, she called him a drama queen, for the way he was acting about how much it hurt! I laughed cuz it's true! So he had 10 days worth of antibiotics to clear that up. It was just the final straw in the whole thing.
Showing posts with label venting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label venting. Show all posts
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Whys and Wherefores
Okay, so some of you are wondering why I've clamped down my privacy a bit.
See, it's really weird and a bit creepy.
A friend of mine in CA was dealing with someone in real life who was creating all sorts of havoc in her world. My friend and this person (I'll call her SC) were both involved in an organization out there, and their children go to school together, etc, etc, etc. I don't even remember how the whole mess started, but SC went rather nuts and started accusing Friend of all sorts of strange (and mostly unfounded) things. SC went out of her way, looking for trouble, going so far as to stalking Friend's personal blog, and generally making cr@p up. It got weirder and weirder, and really made Friend's life difficult for a time, reporting to the school that SC's kids were being bullied by Friend's kids, that Friend's husband was behaving inappropriately (Friend's DH's job could've been affected by this), and so forth.
For the most part, the real world knows that SC is nuts. The more she talks, the more people know she's lost her marbles.
During the whole mess way back when, I posted a comment on one of Friend's blog entries, just generally trying to be supportive of Friend and telling SC (who was, at the time, still stalking the blog like a nut) to get a life. I barely remember what the blog entry and my comment were about and I certainly don't remember specifics.
Fast-forward several YEARS.....SC found that comment. She linked from Friend's blog over to my old blog, the one I essentially abandoned nearly 3 years ago, and commented there. In her comment to me, SC wants me to tell her just what I was referring to, what Friend was saying about her, etc, etc, etc. She left me her full name and address and kept referring to my friend as "this person, Name/Email handle." She asked me to give her the same honesty and benefit of the doubt I'd given Friend.
Um, what?!
Who the hell do you think you are lady?! And why in the world do you think I would help you continue a smear campaign against my friend? Seriously?!
I wanted to respond and tell her to get a life and never contact me again.
However, I know from what Friend has told me, that responding to her would just fuel the fire. So, I've filed that comment/email and I'm being a "black-hole." Hopefully, as far as SC knows, I never got that email.
But, see, the last entry in my old blog contains a link to this one. And that's when I started to get a bit weirded out. I know what SC has put my friend through and I have no plans to engage with her at all. I don't want to deal with random comments from her or further emails, etc, etc, etc.
So, I made this an invite-only blog. And, ironically, many of you probably never knew or had forgotten I even had a blog so now I've got more traffic here than I ever would've had otherwise.
Some people lead such small lives.
See, it's really weird and a bit creepy.
A friend of mine in CA was dealing with someone in real life who was creating all sorts of havoc in her world. My friend and this person (I'll call her SC) were both involved in an organization out there, and their children go to school together, etc, etc, etc. I don't even remember how the whole mess started, but SC went rather nuts and started accusing Friend of all sorts of strange (and mostly unfounded) things. SC went out of her way, looking for trouble, going so far as to stalking Friend's personal blog, and generally making cr@p up. It got weirder and weirder, and really made Friend's life difficult for a time, reporting to the school that SC's kids were being bullied by Friend's kids, that Friend's husband was behaving inappropriately (Friend's DH's job could've been affected by this), and so forth.
For the most part, the real world knows that SC is nuts. The more she talks, the more people know she's lost her marbles.
During the whole mess way back when, I posted a comment on one of Friend's blog entries, just generally trying to be supportive of Friend and telling SC (who was, at the time, still stalking the blog like a nut) to get a life. I barely remember what the blog entry and my comment were about and I certainly don't remember specifics.
Fast-forward several YEARS.....SC found that comment. She linked from Friend's blog over to my old blog, the one I essentially abandoned nearly 3 years ago, and commented there. In her comment to me, SC wants me to tell her just what I was referring to, what Friend was saying about her, etc, etc, etc. She left me her full name and address and kept referring to my friend as "this person, Name/Email handle." She asked me to give her the same honesty and benefit of the doubt I'd given Friend.
Um, what?!
Who the hell do you think you are lady?! And why in the world do you think I would help you continue a smear campaign against my friend? Seriously?!
I wanted to respond and tell her to get a life and never contact me again.
However, I know from what Friend has told me, that responding to her would just fuel the fire. So, I've filed that comment/email and I'm being a "black-hole." Hopefully, as far as SC knows, I never got that email.
But, see, the last entry in my old blog contains a link to this one. And that's when I started to get a bit weirded out. I know what SC has put my friend through and I have no plans to engage with her at all. I don't want to deal with random comments from her or further emails, etc, etc, etc.
So, I made this an invite-only blog. And, ironically, many of you probably never knew or had forgotten I even had a blog so now I've got more traffic here than I ever would've had otherwise.
Some people lead such small lives.
Friday, April 8, 2011
A tough day
Yesterday was rough.
I pulled into the garage Wednesday night, late, and apparently I forgot to close the door. My purse was stolen off the front seat of my van, along with the GPS out of the Pilot. My camera was in my purse, along with about $600 in cash, plus credit cards, ID, gas cards, the works.
Bruce was furious. I know he wasn't angry at me, per se, but it still really hurt the way he was talking to me.
I skipped my volunteer shift at the church in the morning, but I still had to be at the other church to volunteer at the uber-awesome consignment sale (volunteers get a ticket to the presale). I was there from 11:45-3:00, then went home to grab Tristan and we went to work by 3:45. I left work at 6:00 to get to the presale (found some really great stuff). On my way out, I missed the curb and sprained my ankle.
This evening, however, a neighbor called. She'd found my purse while out walking her dog. Much of the cash is missing, of course, and so is my camera and the GPS, but my driver's license, and all of my credit cards were still in there. There was also about $200 in cash in my Dave Ramsey envelope wallet thingey. I don't think the creep realized there would be money in there.
The neighbor was so kind....the first thing she wanted to know was if I was all right since my purse and all it's contents were scattered in the snow-covered field. Bruce and Tristan went back out to see if the could find anything else. They did find my journal and other miscellaneous stuff, but no camera. Bruce commented "you sure carried all sorts of stuff in there, didn't you?" Um, yeah, honey.
My purse is ruined, as is my wallet. Two days in the snow and rain'll do that. Most of the paper stuff is ruined too, coupons and the like, and probably my journal as well, but I might be able to salvage the writings and that's what matters. So, I'm still a bit discouraged, but feeling somewhat better tonight.
And the neighbor is getting some cookies! :-)
I pulled into the garage Wednesday night, late, and apparently I forgot to close the door. My purse was stolen off the front seat of my van, along with the GPS out of the Pilot. My camera was in my purse, along with about $600 in cash, plus credit cards, ID, gas cards, the works.
Bruce was furious. I know he wasn't angry at me, per se, but it still really hurt the way he was talking to me.
I skipped my volunteer shift at the church in the morning, but I still had to be at the other church to volunteer at the uber-awesome consignment sale (volunteers get a ticket to the presale). I was there from 11:45-3:00, then went home to grab Tristan and we went to work by 3:45. I left work at 6:00 to get to the presale (found some really great stuff). On my way out, I missed the curb and sprained my ankle.
This evening, however, a neighbor called. She'd found my purse while out walking her dog. Much of the cash is missing, of course, and so is my camera and the GPS, but my driver's license, and all of my credit cards were still in there. There was also about $200 in cash in my Dave Ramsey envelope wallet thingey. I don't think the creep realized there would be money in there.
The neighbor was so kind....the first thing she wanted to know was if I was all right since my purse and all it's contents were scattered in the snow-covered field. Bruce and Tristan went back out to see if the could find anything else. They did find my journal and other miscellaneous stuff, but no camera. Bruce commented "you sure carried all sorts of stuff in there, didn't you?" Um, yeah, honey.
My purse is ruined, as is my wallet. Two days in the snow and rain'll do that. Most of the paper stuff is ruined too, coupons and the like, and probably my journal as well, but I might be able to salvage the writings and that's what matters. So, I'm still a bit discouraged, but feeling somewhat better tonight.
And the neighbor is getting some cookies! :-)
Monday, April 6, 2009
Stupid, petty, ridiculous vent!
We bought this house 3 years ago from a family that had lived here for probably 10-15 years, raising their kids, etc.
Today, in the mail, I receive yet another letter for the previous owners. It's not one of those advertisements that say "or current resident." It's a hand-addressed card.
Their daughter got married last summer. We received at least *8* cards for that child, because, apparently, the sender didn't check the return address.
We've gotten letters from attorneys for these folks. More than one atty, with more than one business that the former owners apparently owned. IRS stuff addressed to them. Now, wouldn't you think that the IRS would KNOW they'd moved after they filed their taxes with their new address?
One letter arrived last week, addressed to one of the daughters, with no return address. It was clearly from one of her teeny-bopper friends, based on the handwriting, etc. That one I took to a neighbor who sees the family on ocassion.
For about 6-12 months, I would dutifully write "please forward to 123 Alphabet Street" and put it back in the mail. But, really, *3* years?! I'm just done. They couldn't be bothered to fill out the little card at the PO like the rest of the adult world.....I'm not bothering to play nice anymore. I write "not at this address" on the front and put it right back in the mailbox. But for some dumb reason this just irritates the carp out of me!
Probably because they did a bunch of other "no common sense" things, and from the mail I'm getting, did some shady things with their businesses too. My home shows their lack of forethought all over the place, so maybe that's why it bugs me so much? Dunno, but it's driving me CRAZY!!!!
//rant over
Today, in the mail, I receive yet another letter for the previous owners. It's not one of those advertisements that say "or current resident." It's a hand-addressed card.
Their daughter got married last summer. We received at least *8* cards for that child, because, apparently, the sender didn't check the return address.
We've gotten letters from attorneys for these folks. More than one atty, with more than one business that the former owners apparently owned. IRS stuff addressed to them. Now, wouldn't you think that the IRS would KNOW they'd moved after they filed their taxes with their new address?
One letter arrived last week, addressed to one of the daughters, with no return address. It was clearly from one of her teeny-bopper friends, based on the handwriting, etc. That one I took to a neighbor who sees the family on ocassion.
For about 6-12 months, I would dutifully write "please forward to 123 Alphabet Street" and put it back in the mail. But, really, *3* years?! I'm just done. They couldn't be bothered to fill out the little card at the PO like the rest of the adult world.....I'm not bothering to play nice anymore. I write "not at this address" on the front and put it right back in the mailbox. But for some dumb reason this just irritates the carp out of me!
Probably because they did a bunch of other "no common sense" things, and from the mail I'm getting, did some shady things with their businesses too. My home shows their lack of forethought all over the place, so maybe that's why it bugs me so much? Dunno, but it's driving me CRAZY!!!!
//rant over
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