Why I hate the UPS...(and other non-sense)

Let me put a disclaimer on this post right from the beginning that I have had multiple wins with the UPS. But everything good must come to an end at some point. I suppose I should start at the beginning with this story:

Christmas vacation: Mother and daughter invest in too many purchases for daughter to fit in suitcase. Them, being great problem solvers, decided to trust in the wonderful agency our Government has put in place, the UPS. After carefully wrapping up the items, they were shipped off to greet so said daughter in DC. Now, just because this story makes me soooo angry, one would think that the service would respect packages going to Washington-freaking-DC out of all places. But no, they do not.

Daughter leaves for two week work trip and is gleeful at the thought of coming home to that wonderful package. (I am purposefully leaving out what was in the package.) Arrives home two weeks after the package has arrived and goes to pick it up. The package is delivered to the daughter in three pieces. Slightly befuddled because the daughter knows that her mother only sent two packages, she carries the boxes back to her apartment.

It is at this point in the story that I would like to point out: ASHLEY WAS VERY PISSED OFF. So due to extreme feelings, please excuse any ramblings or language or rabbit trails.

We don't need to talk about what happened next, let me just give it to you blunt-style:
1. Blu-ray player is missing from package. The stupid, idiotic thieves left the HDMI cord though. I mean, really? What sort of stupidass thieves are we dealing with?
2. EXPENSIVE (definitely the most expensive item in the whole box) LENS for my SLR camera was still nicely wrapped in the box. Once again, let me exclaim, WHAT STUPIDASS THIEVES. If you're going to properly steal from someone's box...at least take the things that are worth more money.
3. It was not until later that evening that I realized I had a 450 thread-count brand new sheet set in that box that was gone. Okay, now our stupidass thieves are just taking home goods. I mean, a sheet set?! It probably doesn't even match their stupid bedroom like it matched mine.
4. Harry Potter Christmas ornament was...(I know you're holding your breath for this one)....still nicely wrapped. If that thief had taken that ornament...ohhhhh man. It would have been on between me and the UPS for reals.
5. When you think about things I have listed off already, note that many of these things are larger sized and would be used when packing a box to cradle a more fragile item. Lastly but not least, the final item in the box for the fire pot. Now, many of you are saying fire pot say what? You need to realize that this was one of my favorite pieces in the Kansas house, my father brought it back from Kansas to Florida with him for me, and it was slowly making its way to DC to me. These large ceramic items are also not cheap to a broke ex-college student. Some take gel and some take liquid fuel...to say the least, it was the most important item in the whole freaking box. Due to the STUPIDASS THIEVES' actions, the fire pot and its lid were cracked in half. At this point, when I unwrapped the broken fire pot from the bubble wrap, I was literally foaming at the mouth due to my angry state. Since this fateful day, I have invested in krazy glue and melded the item back together. It has been lit already and works properly if you ignore all of the missing chunks of paint around the middle of the pot.

Let's just put it this way, after a unpleasant screaming visit to the RUDE-ASS employees in one of the Washington DC's UPS offices, Ashley will NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER, use their services again. Hello Fedex.

And let's point out that if my company ever audits UPS....bring it on.

On a positive side note, I found Skittles latest development called, "Riddles," in Target a couple of days ago. The colors do not match the flavors. For a girl who color codes her candy before eating, this is a strange experience. 

Boxed water is the thing to do in Michigan.

Proof that it is getting cold somewhere this winter as DC is only believing in 60/70 degree weather.

 Dessert on the last day that we were in Michigan...seriously the largest piece of carrot cake I've ever seen.

 How the box looked when it arrived. Someone, a criminal that works for UPS, literally cut the top right off the box.

 The fire pot base broken in half

 The lid and two spare pieces.

What the bag of Skittles looks like so you can go buy some at your local Target.

Work Travel

When I started working fulltime, many people asked what I was looking forward to the most. My answer usually came in the form of one word: travel. Now that I am rounding out my first two weeks of travel, I must admit, my answer may look a little different next time. Many of you are thinking to yourself, what is so bad about it? And it's not that it's bad per say, just different.

Even though I do not have many friends in DC, they all must have gathered together and said, "this is the weekend that we are all going to contact Ashley to make plans." I received many text messages on Friday and Saturday asking what I was doing. Normally, I would feel a sense of belonging as I had friends contacting me to do something rather than vice versa. But after receiving those texts, I felt a surge of panic. Yes panic, I wrote. I mean, if I wrote back and said that I wasn't able to hang out, then those people would feel like I didn't want to hang out. Or if I wrote back and said that I was traveling for work, then perhaps they would feel like I am never home and always busy. I knew what I needed to do at this point, smack myself in the forehead...which I did not do but telling yourself to do it gets the same point across.

Another great part of traveling? The food. Now keep in mind that I'm traveling as a Government Contractor so we get what's called per diem. Due to Michigan's lovely economy, the per diem isn't very high here ($51 a day). But $51 a day still allows us to eat like champs, and boy, have we ate like champs. The first week here, we ordered drinks, apps, entrees, desserts, etc. You name it, and we probably had it. But rounding out the first weekend into the second week of travel, food was starting to get old. The breaking point you ask? We are all sitting in a pizza house having just ordered an app and entree each watching the playoff football games on TV when we realize how full we are before even receiving our actual meals. Saying how miserable we all were must have made us feel slightly better though, for as the game went into overtime, it was obvious that we needed ice cream. Therefore we all ordered ice cream shakes. Literally rolling out to our car and unbuttoning the top button on our pants as soon as we sat down in our rental car, we all looked at each other and said, "whoa...what are we doing?" Its just safe to say that I will not be eating anything for the two weeks that I am home before I leave to go out for another three weeks.

With that last sentence, I hope you caught the words "three weeks". Yes, they are abandoning us to the biting, cold far away place that calls itself Michigan. To be honest though, after the tame winter we've had in DC with highs of 50/60s, its nice to be in a State that still believes in snow and ice. We have received about 3 total inches of snow since arriving and everyone tells us how lucky we are. To that we respond, "No worries, we'll be back for three weeks in February." Weather aside, this town named Lansing has been pretty nice. It reminds me a lot of a mix between Hutchinson and Wichita. Definitely has the downhome feeling to it.

For those of you who seemed more concerned about my love life than myself, I shall let you know that I will be in Michigan for Valentine's Day. Therefore, if you were planning on being my boyfriend for the day, please direct all flowers and chocolates this way. I understand that several of you are probably disappointed currently as you just couldn't seem to figure out the best way to ask me out, but no worries, I'll be back in town for March.

And yes, speaking of March, we are planning on flying back to DC on the 2nd (my birthday). So if you live close to DC and read this....please join me in celebrating this milestone of a birthday. Okay, okay, perhaps its not quite a milestone, but its a birthday nonetheless!

I miss you all. yada yada. I want to visit Kansas but have no time. yada yada. Work is great. yada yada.

Hello fellow blog readers and bloggers. I suppose I should apologize for my long absence from here but consider it my holiday break. And now one would suppose that I came back with all sorts of material to talk about yet....nothing. To check you all up, I went to Florida for a couple of weeks to celebrate Christmas and New Years. While being in the sunny weather was amazing, there was a little bit lacking on the traditional scope. I suppose I am used to hosting a holiday party with my friends at my house, spending the holidays with extended family, and opening presents on Christmas Eve. This year was spent a little differently by celebrating Christmas at Universal Studios in Orlando.

In a week I am leaving for Michigan to begin a series of small trips for the next performance audit that I'm on. Cold, snowy weather....oh yay, I can't even wait. Last week they supposedly got over 17 inches. Just hurt me now. My toes already are hurting just thinking about walking in heels in that cold of weather. With a high of 30 degrees and a low of 16 degrees....uhhhhhh.

Next week also sparks a retake on one of the portions of the CPA exam Hopefully this time will be a success. I'm in desperate need of a success after several failures.

Sadly enough after that pathetic catch up on my life...I have nothing else to say. Perhaps another day I'll write about my vacation or how good Charlie Chiangs take out is but as for today, its just another Friday.