I followed the crowd.....

and put my name on a list to borrow a set of books from a co-worker.  She's been talking about these books for a while now.....about wanting to read them, etc. etc.

She finally bought them and read the whole set.....which consists of three books.....in a weekend. Another woman at work asked to borrow them and finished them off in the same amount of time. Then a third woman did the same. I was next on the list.

Part of it may have been due to the fact that my daughter and granddaughter have been staying with me for the last month. My daughter's blood pressure went dangerously high and the doctor didn't want her to be the only adult in the house.  She's much better now......after approximately 500 trips to the bathroom made possible by a strong water pill. If I picked up the book to read and my granddaughter asked me to play a game with her, I felt like a dirty old woman reading this particular novel instead of playing with her......so I'd bookmark it and play a game.  Part of it may have been the fact that this book is not my regular choice of reading material.  It's a steamy love story.  I don't do love stories.

But I took the books home and began my journey, feeling much like I was peeking into someone's bedroom.  I love to read and have read too many books to count in my lifetime so far......but I just could not get into this book.  It was a little over 500 pages and at page 300 I called a friend that I knew had read the trilogy and asked her if it was worth it.  She and I always had the same reading tastes.  She told me it was.  She said the first book was slow but to stick with it. She doesn't usually read love stories either but said this one turned out to be very good.

So I'm returning the books today after only reading 350 pages total.  It makes me feel bad that I'm holding up someone else who is chomping at the bit to read them.  I have ordered my own copies through Amazon and then I can read them at my leisure.  After that I can join in on the conversations going on between every female employee at work.......or not.  Oh if these men only knew how steamy these books are!  Seems like the majority of the female population knows.  If I end up enjoying them or not remains to be seen......or should I say read.  As I said .... so far, I'm not impressed.......only curious.  To be frank, most of what I've read so far has only made me mad. (You want me to do WHAT?......I think NOT. How about I smack YOU with a leather belt about 10 times and let's see if you like it.)

The name?  You say you want the name of these sexy tomes?  50 Shades of Grey Trilogy. Not for the pure minded but definitely for the curious.  They should come in a plain brown wrapper. LOL

Like herding cats.....

About 6 weeks or so ago I received a post card from my electric company. They stated that my email address on file with them was not a working address as they were getting their emails returned to them stating I had blocked them.  I called the number on the card and, after several transfers, assured the person to whom I was speaking that was not the case. At the time she sent me a test message and it came through about 30 seconds later.  She told me she would straighten things out and not to worry.

About two days ago I received an email from my electric company which, in a nutshell, basically stated: Thank you for using the Internet to pay your bill and per your request that account has been cancelled. I could no longer get my statements or pay my bill online and further, I would begin receiving my bills by regular mail. They also stated I could sign up to pay online again at any time.  Well, I knew that I had not cancelled my ability to pay online; I had just paid my bill a couple days before receipt of this particular email. So I called them via the toll free number.  After a couple of transfers I had to call long distance to speak to someone after it was evident that the "robots" could not help me.

After getting someone on the line who was important enough to have her own phone number minus any extensions, the conversation went something like this.

Me:  Hello, I'm calling because I received an email advising that I had closed my account to pay online and I haven't done that. Matter of fact, I just paid my bill a couple days ago.

Her:  Ok, I can help you with that. Could I please have your account number, name, address and last four numbers of your social security.

Me:  (giving her the info she wants)  I do not want to cancel my ability to pay my bill online....so can you please make sure that is fixed and will I have to go through setting that all up again with new passwords and all that?

Her:  No, no....not at all. It will be exactly the same as before.  Ok, now I see what the problem is. We do not have a working email address for you. We need that to advise when your bill is due and the amount owed....and any other communications that are necessary. Your email address on file is coming back as not a valid address.

Me:  If that's the case, then how is it that I received the email advising me that my account had been closed per my own request.  I just paid my bill online a couple days ago and I received confirmation of that payment via my email address.  If you don't have a good email address, then how is it that I'm receiving email from you? Is my payment still there.....I scheduled it for June 8th. I can't understand you sending me an email to tell me my email address is not a good one.

Her:  *crickets*

Me:  Hello?  Are you still with me?

Her:  Uh.....Oh yes....yes.....I was just trying to think about that.

Me:  Furthermore, back then I called and spoke to "Rachel" and she did a test message with me at that time and I received it with no problem.  She said she would get to the bottom of this.....which apparently she did not.

Her:  I will send you a test message now.

Me:  (after hearing the "you've got mail" from my mailbox and checking it)  I've received it just now.  Can't you please get this fixed?  I have had no other company that has had this problem....only yours.

Her:  I'm am so sorry and I can promise you that I will get this straightened out.  Please continue to pay your bills in the same manner. I have re-enrolled you to pay by e-bill and you can view your statements online as before. I can see your payment is scheduled to be posted on June 8th.

Me:  Thank you.  I am anticipating that you will find the reason for these problems and get everything running smoothly once again. I've been paying my bill online for years and have never had a problem until March or April.  Have a wonderful weekend, bye.