It was raining the other day when I picked Ollie up from summer camp, and we had a long walk home. He had a plastic bag so I said, “Should I wear this on my head?”
“Yes!” he said immediately. “It has a hole with a strap so you can put your face in it!” So I put it on. “You look like a knight!” he said.
We walked for about 20 minutes until we were almost home and then it stopped raining. “Should I talk my hat off?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Ollie. “You look goofy.”
Well thanks for telling me! WHAT HAPPENED TO LOOKING LIKE A BADASS KNIGHT?
A couple of months ago, I had a fairly public dust-up with the UPS over the fact that our building security cameras had caught the driver throwing the package over the fence, and then signing our name. Those packages were subsequently stolen.
Here’s the video again, in case you missed it the first time around:
So, so many people shared and retweeted that story, which I appreciate. Naturally, making a big stink is the only way to get any attention; it is an unfortunate fact that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Anyway, I felt I owed you all an update as to what happened next.
The official response from the UPS was distinctly underwhelming. I received a voicemail from a customer service representative who had seen the ruckus online. She left no phone number or other way to contact her, and instead just said she’d call back later.
She did call back, and I think a 3rd time, at which point her tone of voice made it clear that I was trying her patience by not answering her call in the middle of the day while I was at work, and implied that they were doing everything they could because they were just so gosh darned upset about this, and why didn’t I have the decency to do this on THEIR timetable, when it was convenient for them? She did not call a 4th time.
I honestly forgot about the whole thing until last week.
I was walking with the kids not far from our house, when a UPS truck pulled over and the driver yelled out, “Hey!” I looked around, but he could only be talking to me. “I just wanted to say that I’m really sorry about what happened,” he said. “Were you able to get the items replaced?”
I was completely flabbergasted. I had no idea he knew who I was, I didn’t even know for sure if the message had even gotten all the way down to him. I have to admit, it kind of creeped me out a bit to know that he knows who I am, and that I am the one who possibly got him in trouble.
That being said, it is really, really, really hard to give an apology like that. This is clearly something that had stuck with him for the past few months, and he as clearly been waiting for an opportunity to bump into me and apologize. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to just keep driving by, and I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. To be totally honest, if I were the one in his shoes, I don’t know if I would have the guts to do it. You know how hard it is to apologize to someone you know, much less a stranger, and while I complained from the comfort of my computer chair, he apologized in person, to my face.
So, while the official UPS response left a little to be desired, and knowing that I will do anything in my power to avoid shipping with UPS, I’ve got to give props to the individual driver. If nothing else comes from this, I have a feeling he won’t be a repeat offender in the future.
You know, it is getting pretty difficult to live up to Mrs. Evelyn’s birthday plans. As readers of this blog well know, she has always been a “big idea” kind of gal, and as you can imagine her birthday is no exception. Luckily for us, she finds ways to spread it out as much as possible. (“We can do that on my actual birthday, and then for my party we can do X, and then we’ll have my birthday with the family…”)
Oliver certainly did his part, working on present after present for her in his room for weeks. His gifts ranged from meticulously copied chapters from Harry Potter into custom made “books”, to all of his legos, to a caterpillar made out of pipe cleaners and an egg carton, to stuffed animals he rescued from the “give away” pile, all buried under a metric ton of tissue paper.
So far today I have only gotten one, “It’s my birthday, you have to do what I say!” which, to be honest, seems kind of low.
It’s so easy to jump on kids when they’re bad, but ignore them when they’re good. Evelyn is so good so often, and I don’t say it enough. She is:
So responsible. You almost never need to tell her something twice; when you tell her to do something, she does it.
So helpful. She’s always willing to jump up and help you (maybe not in the way you wanted, but help you nonetheless!)
So empathic. She absolutely cannot stand for Alex to cry. It physically pains her.
So independent. She has strong opinions (especially when it comes to clothing). She makes her own lunches. She practices the piano every day. She keeps track of her brothers. She’s basically like a little adult.
In the past year Evelyn has learned 1) she really enjoys baking, especially inventing her own recipes (she can make her own scrambled eggs!), 2) she never wants to be caught ANYWHERE without a book to read, and 3) she does not want a rabbit. I know she is looking forward to 3rd grade and going to the “old” school BY HERSELF.
My favorite things to with Evelyn are read her a story at night and listen to her play piano. I love how excited she gets about theater, both as an actress and just watching other people perform.
I can’t wait to see how she grows in the next year!
(I know this is supposed to be a post about Alex, but OMG that picture of little butterball Ollie!!)
The best news, of course, is that for the past 3 weeks or so, Alex has been doing about an 8 hour stretch at night in his crib. He still cries bitterly for a few minutes when I put him down for bed, and won’t let me hold him after 6 pm or so for fear that I might put him to bed, but hey! Being the villain is worth it for a decent night’s sleep.
He *loves* eating solids, but wants nothing to do with purees. He does really like baby cereal now, so it’s kind of funny how he started with real food and worked backwards to that.
Still not crawling yet, but he gets up on his hands and knees and rocks, before getting frustrated. I mean, it really looks like any second here (although he still gets around just fine by pivoting and or rolling). He can also pull himself up from a sit to a stand if something at just the right level to grab onto.
I can not believe that he has crossed the half-way point to being a one year old!!
Hey, ya’ll. You may have noticed a bit of a drop-off in posting here lately. Truth be told, I am having a bit of trouble staying on top of this. Turns out that babies are kind of a lot of work! Who knew? I find that when I do have time to work on things, my creative brain is just absolutely fried. So, apologies for the scarcity of posts, but also a heads up that this is likely to continue for the near future.
I’m giving myself permission for a mental health break, so I don’t have to feel guilty when I go for days without writing or blogging.
Shane Halbach 