Summertime, the livin's easy

Before I begin, let me preface by saying this. I do love winter! I love the snow, the fun winter activities, sometimes even the cold. But to be honest, I'm a total summer kinda girl. I love being in my bathing suit all day, swimming so much I get water logged every day, boating, wake boarding, building sand castles. Basically anything summer related.    

  Today, I'm especially missing summer. During the summers, I have so many fun things to do every day, all day. I miss the fun! The freedom! I miss my tan. Man, I've gotten white. Well, I feel pessimistic so I'm finishing up this post. But not to fear, it's snowing today so I'll get caught up with winter in the meantime.

Telephone Etiquette & Customer Service Training

A couple of weeks ago, the employees at my work were invited to attend a meeting on Telephone Etiquette and Customer Service Training. Thinking it might be a nice break from glazing my eyes over in front of my computer screen, I decided to attend. My (favorite) coworker, Emily, and I went together and took very informational notes throughout the meeting....(doodles.)

The majority of our job is answering the phone-hence the meeting. I answer the phones countless times while on the clock and think I have quite polished my etiquette. Emily, however, disagreed and decided to tell me. While ending one of the various phone calls of the day, I was being thanked by a teacher and without giving it a thought, I gave the response I say multiple times every day.

Teacher: "Well thank you so much for your help!"

Me: "No problem! Bye!"

Teacher: "Bye!"

Now here's where Emily politely reminded me of the meeting we had attended not long before.

Emily in a very kind voice: "Laura, remember what we were told in the meeting? We're not supposed to say things like "sure" and "no problem." It's "you're welcome."

Me: "Oh, riight. My bad."

So, I tried my hardest to remember this and work on my customer service skills. But it made the following phone calls more difficult. While ending phone calls for the next week or so, my responses varied between stutters and words not included in the english language. They ranged anywhere from "No-you're welcome!" to "No prob-you're...welcome?" The best response, though, would have been the one that I gave to a poor teacher today.

Teacher: "Thank you so much!"

Me (Now keep in mind my brain gets a little scrambled when I'm thinking of two different phrases.): "Your problem!"
And click. I hung up.

Party Time

I have the nicest and most generous friends and family! They made my birthday this year one of the best! My roommates made me feel so loved with all the things they did for me. It all started Friday night with a night trip to Denny's with some friends. For those of you who don't know, Denny's will give you a free meal on your birthday! A big one, too-I couldn't finish it. 

The next excitement occurred Sunday night promptly at midnight. The clock turned to the four little numbers I see nightly and regret every time. 12:00 A.M. (I really should either start going to bed earlier or taking naps.) However on this particular day, they were the most exciting numbers I saw! 

Where was I...? Right, midnight. My roommates immediately exploded with excitement! There was screaming and jumping all over the place. Man, do I love these girls. They made it such an exciting day! Since I'm still staying in my roommates' room because of the leak in my room, what I thought was bed time turned into a very loud, very late night. The three of us stayed up talking, laughing, wrestling, anything that wouldn't be included in going to bed. 

The next day, I woke up to find my apartment all decorated up! Apparently the night before was some what of a distraction so our roommates could decorate. Later on that day, I went to work for an hour because my coworker asked me to come in on my birthday. All my  coworkers wished me a very happy birthday and my favorite one (don't tell the rest of them) Emily brought me a huge cupcake and a Jones soda! I am so spoiled. For FHE that night we had my favorite dinner and following that my roommates threw me a birthday party that included lots of brownies, cake, ice cream, everything you'd want to make it a happy happy birthday. 

The fun gifts I received include: three peanuts, a jolly rancher, a life saver mint, a free pass to Yellow Stone, candy, a key chain, a lovely home made T-shirt, thoughtful cards, and a nicely decorated apartment. My favorite part of the night had to have been the best birthday song ever that I was able to witness live! My very talented friends interrupted the party with a wonderful version of happy birthday complete with plenty of singers, guitars, the whole sha-bang!