Bronx up, Battery down

Modern Friends, I am still alive and feeling a bit better since my most recent post. I'm just spectacularly busy right now trying to get ready for my NYC trip.

So, speaking of NYC, I've only been there once in my life and that was six years ago with my parents. This time I'll be on my own for the most part. I'm working at our company's headquarters and will be working some ridiculous hours, and when I say ridiculous, I mean something along the lines of 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.


Fortunately, I have some fabulous co-workers who will be there (many of whom I've never met in person), so I'll have people to hit the town with at 2:01 a.m. But it does mean I'll have some free time to explore the city on my own while everyone else I know there is at their normal 9-5 type jobs.

When I visited six years ago, I hit up most of the touristy things to do. This time, I want to do the non-touristy things which means I need suggestions of any of you who know NYC better than I. Where should the company buy my lunches and where should I blow three months worth of my shopping budget?

Also, any of you northeast bloggers, I'd love to meet up with you for lunch/brunch on Saturday or Sunday if you're around. Let me know!

Looking for my bootstraps

Maybe it's because work has kicked my ass since the calendar turned to 2010. Maybe it's because the sun has forgotten where to find Knoxville (I love all the snow we've been getting, I just want sun on the non-snowy days). Maybe it's because NBC's Olympic coverage has big-time sucked. Maybe it's because the free time I thought I would have during my upcoming trip to visit the company's mothership in NYC seems to have gotten screwed up. Maybe it's because I haven't been able to spend much time around my own house ever since the Lucydog and the Modern Roomate's cat decided to stop getting along and the dog got relocated to the Modern Love Machine's apartment.**

Whatever the reason -- and I suppose it's a combination of all the aforementioned -- I haven't been feeling myself lately. I've lost motivation to work out, to blog and to be social. I'm dressing like a slob. I have a hard time getting to work at a decent time, and it's taking me forever to slog through a few work projects that have been hanging over my head for quite some time.

The good thing is, I recognize I'm off my game, and I have a pretty good idea of how to get back on.

I had hoped to get to the YMCA before work this morning. I didn't, but I resolved to do a few small things that might make me feel better. I put on a nice sweater and knee-high boots. I went through my full makeup routine and even put on lipgloss (usually reserved for formal occasions). I also put together a big mixed greens salad topped with apples, avacados and gorganzola cheese to eat with my leftover slice of Hawaiian pizza. Baby steps. Baby steps which still made me late for work, but baby steps nonetheless.

Tomorrow I WILL go to the YMCA. I don't have to work until tomorrow evening, so I have no excuse. I'll also eat another nice lunch. Take that crappy mood!

I also know I have NYC to look forward to. I'll have to work some really crummy hours while I'm there, but I should still have the daytime to explore restaurants, shops and NYC's lovely outdoor spaces. The change of scenery will probably do me some good.

I've been here before, and I recognize my urge to want to retreat from the world but I'm fighting it. In the mean time, please forgive me for any cranky posts or comments on your own blog or lack of posting. And if you've got any tips for what helps you when you're off your game, I'm all ears.

**I do know for sure that the MLM is not part of the problem here. We had a lovely Valentine's Day dinner he made himself -- Salad, fresh veggies and perfectly seared filet mignon. The cupcakes he got from a local bakery were delicious too. It was the perfect V-Day: not a big deal, but still nice.

He's an artist and a skater

Yeah, so, I completely forgot to blog about the Super Bowl, but pretty much everything that could be said about it has been said, so I won't go on other than to say I'm very pleased with the Saints winning because 1. I won a bet with my Colts-fan mother which will result in a free dinner in the next month and 2. I won the box pool that the Modern Love Machine entered my money into, getting a whopping $35 (hey, free money is free money).

But since we're on the topic of sports, holy cow, the Olympics start Friday! I'm so incredibly stoked. I don't care what anyone says, the winter olympics are far superior to their summer sibling because 1. downhill skiing is my favorite sport which I cannot see on a near-daily basis 2. luge, skeleton and bobsled 3. weird sports Americans can't be bothered to get into like the biathlon or curling and 4. I can only get into hockey when there are nationalities attatched.

And then there's figure skating, which we all love for one major reason, right? Just like we watch hockey for the fights, we watch ice skating for the falls. Because even though they're not funny, THEY ARE. (Except for the time Michelle Kwan fell at Salt Lake, because we all did really want her to win.) **

Scott Hamilton recounts the most memorable figure skating falls from his time as an olympic commentator here. I'm posting the No. 1 despite its ridiculous length because it's worth watching for the following figure skating/sports cliches:

1. A figure skater refers to himself as an artist.
2. Even 18 years ago, Verne Lundquist was old. Scott Hamilton, however, never ages.
3. Scott Hamilton engages in melodramatic commentary about figure skating. While wearing a tux.
4. Kurt Browning wears a flamingly ugly outfit. And then falls.

Enjoy.



**Despite the fact that I am making fun here, I do completely respect the fact that figure skating is hard work, and that I could never do what they're doing. Trust me, I tried. I took skating lessons as a tot for all of about two weeks before I was dunzo. I also realize that it must be devastating to reach the greatest of all competitions and then fall. It's still kinda funny though.

When it comes to money, we're stupider than we think

I'll get to my other good customer service story later. First, a bit of personal finance because it's big-time on my brain as I'm trying to prepare to purchase a house.

I get some great money tips from Vanguard, my 401k company. (If you don't have a retirement fund, get one. Your future self will thank you.)

One recent e-mail particularly caught my eye: Why so many Americans are broke. Go read that article. Now. It's ok, I'll wait for you to come back.


Was your mind just blown? People want to save $5 on something that costs $15 but not on something that costs $125? People are willing to agree to a higher cost if they pay with credit cards than with cash? People will spend more of a windfall if it's perceived as a 'bonus' rather than 'rebate'?

The reason my mind was blown is because I think I'm pretty dang smart when it comes to money, but I know I've fallen into all of these traps before. Hell, as the article points out, even Ivy league smarties failed these tests.

Modern Friends, we young adults are horrible with money. We spend way too much on clothes and entertainment while hardly thinking about savings, frugality and the future. I'm just as guilty as the next person, but seriously, we need to be smarter. Being smart with money will make your life easier. Notice I didn't say being richer will make your life easier. It's all about managing what you have.

Here are tips from the article on how we can be more financially savvy:

1. Set up automatic contributions to a savings account. It's hard to save because it requires willpower. That's why Vyse suggests making the saving automatic. So even if you do nothing, money is set aside for the emergencies, such as unexpected car bills.
2. Build in delays to buying. You may want a new high-definition TV, but make it a rule not to order any nonessential item for at least a day or two.
3. Use windfalls wisely. When unexpected money lands in your lap, don’t let it blow back out of your life just as randomly. Pay off debt with a windfall rather than buying something new, Vyse suggests. If you have no debt, contribute any windfalls to savings.
4. Pay by cash or check. If your credit card bills have you over a barrel, Vyse advises carrying cash and your checkbook.

Good customer service isn't always an oxymoron

I like to spread the word about good customer service. I swear, good customer service is becoming a paradox in this day and age, and the companies that still bother with it should be rewarded and their names should be shouted from the rooftops. Or something like that. I don't necessarily like to write about bad customer service, because I know some companies suffer from having a bad apple or two working for the and that's not necessarily their fault. But sometimes their practices are bad enough they need to be shared.

I have two stories of good customer service that resulted from bad customer service. Here is the first. I will share the other in another post.

My dad likes to buy "surprises" for Christmas gifts. In other words, things that not included on the Christmas list that my mother asks for in October of each year. So, instead of buying me the gadget I really, really needed for work or a sleeping bag like I'd really like, he and my mother's big surprise Christmas gift this year was a new iPhone 3GS. To replace the $20 iPhone** that still worked mostly well. Which is cool, because I wasn't going to spend the money on a phone I already had just to get a nicer version.

Any of you who've gotten an iPhone as a gift know that you don't actually get an iPhone as a gift, you get an Apple gift card in the amount of an iPhone that's not really supposed to be refundable. And those of you who got a previous incarnation of the iPhone know that you're not going to be eligible for an upgrade to the newer iPhone anytime soon. Did Apple ask my father whether I already had an iPhone and then warn him it might cost more than $200 for me to get a new one? No. Bad practice Apple, and shame on you.

When I had the $20 iPhone activated in June, the AT&T rep told me he wouldn't sign me to a 2-year contract that would require me to wait on an upgrade because I was bringing in a used phone rather than buying a new one. The notion behind the contract and restricting when you can upgrade your phone is that iPhones are way more expensive than $200 or whatever they charge you. They're more like $700, but AT&T recoups the difference through fees over the life of your contract. That's how you get free non iPhones too. It's like buying a car with a loan. Fair enough, because who wants to pay $700 for a phone? Also makes sense why I didn't need a contract, because my phone was used; I wasn't taking any money away from AT&T because I wasn't purchasing it from them.

So when I took my iPhone gift card to Apple, they said I wasn't eligible for an upgrade and to go visit the AT&T store to see what the problem was. I visited the AT&T store, and they said I wasn't eligible because I had way too much time left on my contract. The one I wasn't supposed to have.

Did I have proof of being told I didn't have a contract? No, of course not.*** Could I find the business card of the rep who told me these things? I did at one time, but it must have gotten lost in my move. Shame on me for those things. And shame on the AT&T rep for lying to me.

But the AT&T rep I was working with now (someone different) promised he'd ask the people who make decisions at AT&T for an exception to the rule after I explained to him everything that had happened. Two days later, he called me to tell me exception granted, come on in and I'd get my new iPhone 3GS. Sweet.

But first I had to exchange the not-supposed-to-be-refundable iPhone gift card at the Apple store. Which took talking to three employees there, looking up several incarnations of the receipt from the transaction and a phone call to my mother, whose credit card was responsible for the transaction. Trust me, the Apple people weren't nearly as chipper and friendly about refunding an iPhone gift card as they were to sell me my MacBook a year ago.

Back to AT&T where they were happy to sell me a $200 iPhone 3GS with 2-year contract. Sell ME the phone, I said. Which means my mother had to reimburse me for my own Christmas gift. Reimburse me, that is, after I made two visits to Apple and three to AT&T over the course of a week.

The moral of this story is it was the cell phone company that did the right thing in the long run. I mean, I know the transaction meant AT&T benefit by another $200 phone sale and 2-year contract, so they weren't purely helping me for my own benefit, but seriously, who would have expected a CELL PHONE COMPANY to do the right thing by granting me the exception when one of their reps lied to me about the contract situation?

**If you read that $20 iPhone post, you will see full disclosure that I don't like Apple to begin with. That did not color my experience here. Apple could have done the right thing by warning my father about his purchase to begin with.

***Maybe I should have whipped out the $20 iPhone and shown them the $20 iPhone post at The MG for evidence.

Capilene love

Today I post at The Greenists, where I talk about my new love for all things Capilene by Patagonia.

And speaking of The Greenists, the original mastermind of the site, Allie Larkin, is an amazing writer and dedicated dog lover has a new website up as she prepares for the release of her novel Stay. Check it out!