American Air Times

Yesterday I booked a flight to New York to visit with family and friends. I'm thinking,
"I'm going to get through this process online 123." I know how to do it; it won't take me 3 hours like it takes my sister; I've become a pro at this." Except this time I'm trying to use my rapid rewards with American. I decide on the date and times and go to put in my Aadvantage number and find out that I'm too late. Those dates with the times I want are filled on the rapid rewards program. So I say to myself, "yipee...I've got enough miles saved up...I'll fly Business Class." Not so fast, lady." American wants to charge me 100,000 miles worth of reward mileage to go Business. (It should only be 50,000 earned credits.) That puts me 48,000 miles in the hole. My choices after 30 minutes of this: I can go back to the beginning, see how I can maneuver all these miles that I have even if I have to leave my house at 4:30 a.m. to get a seat on the day that I want, or...I can CALL AA and let them figure it out for me. Well after the agent got me the exact times that I wanted on the days that I wanted using up more miles than I cared to but not 48,000 extra miles, my choice came down to: I can let her book it for me for $20.00 plus $5.00 in taxes, or I can hang up, go back to the computer and see if I can be as creative as the agent and put in all my info for no cost at all. I took the road less traveled these days and let the agent do it. LIFE'S TOO SHORT.

Bye bye, m'am

I'm sitting at work now ready to meet the world head on and make whatever sales are possible on a post July 4th Sunday. A very young woman comes in with two adorable little boys, Mateo and Marcus. They are acting just like my 2 adult sons used to act when they were together in a store. I naturally relate some of the horror stories that I can remember of my sons when they were 2 and 4. And, of course, it was like it was yesterday when they used to hide behind the clothing rounders in the department stores and cause havoc there. So by now I'm "back in the day" and am enjoying a comraderie with this lovely woman. And then it's time for her and the boys to leave. In a very loud and charming voice she says: "good bye m'am" and I am shattered. I've come back to earth. I'm probably 35 or 40 years older than she is!

The British 'r coming, the British 'r coming!

I'm trying to catch up on my bills and my email and FaceBook and Twitter (yes, I do all those things now) and the cannon right outside my window is deafening! I've now jumped out of my skin about 6 times and ran to take cover the 1st two times. I should have realized it's just past 9:00 p.m., the sun is down and the bloody fireworks to celebrate our country's freedom have gotten out of control. Every time I think they're over and I start concentrating again, another blast of fireworks begin. Wish I could close the windows, but it's about 80 degrees in the house. I shall make this short and enjoy the sounds of liberty and others' right to pursue happiness!