The Loyalty Program

How did we get suckered into the marketing? Who was the genius that came up with the affinity program?

I have become that person who won't buy it unless I'm getting some miniscule kick-back. Cashiers hate me. I whip out that debit card, but then insist they process it as credit - thereby forcing them to produce an extra slip of paper, await my signature - credit gives me kick-back points I can use for Barnes & Nobles gift cards.

I am at the point in my life where I now fly at least 4 times a year. Not impressed, you say? It's a big deal for me. And I'll pay $30 extra to get those onepass miles over a slightly more affordable route. By 2012, I should have my first free round-trip!

The hugest delimna is hotel loyalty. I have points with Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood. When I travel for the job, I don't have the control over where to stay, and I have nightmares over even a 5,000 point bank expiring due to non-use.

The one loser in my little consumerism game is Delta Airlines. I am one of those people who have always used their middle name, and several years worth of skymiles was accumulated with that name. New TSA guidelines show tickets must be issued with the name matching the identification, and my id has my first name, my middle name, and my last name. Do you think that the good people in Delta marketing were willing to change the name on my one pass mile from my middle/last name to first/middle/last name? HELL NO. So, bye-bye, Delta, hello, Continental!

This says it all:

Men are such peacocks

My new favorite show - "Conveyor Belt of Love".
Roosters, peacocks, bower birds, all males are the same. Love it, Love it, Love it!

Liberation

This year's Christmas is like none other for me. Three things factor into the change:
1. This is my first Christmas without Dad.
2. This is my first Christmas without my daughter.
3. This is the first Christmas I haven't bought any gifts. Not a single one.

I had major unexpected expenses this month - $797 to be exact - paying an insurance deductible and buying my daughter a last minute ticket to fly here for her grandfather's funeral. That money had been my Christmas budget plus some utility bills. No cash is left over for gifts. And after a year of listening to Dave Ramsey, there is no way I'm putting anything on the credit card. I would rather be perceived as a Scrooge before I charged a gift that someone will open, smile at, then never use.

Because the daughter is spending Christmas elsewhere, I have felt no compulsion to buy her anything. It would be too costly and difficult for her to receive the gift then ship it back to her home from her current locale.

Dad's death has put a damper on things, too. No decorations have been pulled out, no tree set up and no fruitcake baked. Without him here, those other things just don't seem to be as important anymore.

With that said, I have felt an unexpected liberation from consumerism this year and it is a nice feeling. I haven't felt the stress or pressure of trying to remember who I've forgotten, I haven't fought the cars and people at the malls, and I'm classifying this as a guilty pleasure.

The Home Depot

Find a big concrete warehouse, fill it up with sawdust and plumbing, stir in some orange dye, and you have The Home Depot. Normally one would not consider the inner workings and relations of the company staff, but our family has had the priviledge of enjoying the benefits of the wonderful staff of the Home Depot for 20 years.

Dad was fortunate to be hired as a sales associate back in 1989. The trucking industry had been restructured (thanks to the earlier Carter administration) and for years Dad had a difficult time maintaining employement. It was hard to justify paying a 50+ year old man over $40K a year when you could get a recent college grad to do the same work for $20K. A childhood friend of Dad's, Sister Jude Walsh, R.S.M., had a nephew who was the store manager of the new HD location in town, and she put in a good enough reference to get Dad on the payroll.

I can remember how happy Mom and Dad were when he landed the job. Even though their fiberglass business drew enough cash to live off of, the HD job enabled them to once again have health insurance! They also took advantage of the other perks - particulary the employee stock option purchase, buying the max every paycheck. The stock soared in the 1990's and with it, they were able to cash in enough to build their dream house on the marsh.

In 2002 Dad was diagnosed with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis. Best guess is that the disease was contracted after working with that fiberglass so many years. A terminal disease, best hope was 4 years worth of life on average after diagnosis. However, an experimental drug, Acctimune, was (and is) still in the trial phases, and Dad was a candidate for the trial. Good news was the HD's EAP program was also willing to pay the $5K per month this drug costs, since insurance wouldn't pay for a non FDA approved medication. So for 7 years, HD provided my father with an extended lease on life.

It has now been 6 days since Dad passed away. So many stories are now coming out from the HD about how much he loved every co-worker and how much they loved him. The past 3 years have been particularly difficult for him as he went to work each day, but having that job and having those co-workers gave him a reason to keep living and getting out of bed every morning. Any other retailer would have fired Dad years ago. He was a liability and cut into the bottom-line net profit. But the Home Depot not only kept Dad, every few months they went out of their way to find ways to accomodate him in better ways to keep him comfortable and extend his time there.

God bless the Home Depot.

Change of Seasons

I enjoy the gradual change of every season. In a dozen weeks, I will be hoping for snow (which is extremely rare) and 20 degrees so I can cozy up with a cup of cocoa. After a few weeks of that, I will be longing for the sunshine and flowers of spring, and the ability to drop the top of the convertible. I will soon tire of that and anticipate the hot temps of the summer, and the comfort of tank tops and flip flops. Then it won't take long before the heat and humidity take its toll and I look forward to Autumn.

My only regret is that I don't live in New England. I have always thought of fall as starting in late September, early October, yet after 47 years in southeast Georgia I should have figured out our leaves don't change colors until Thanksgiving - or after. Oh well. Thanks to Tropical Depression Ida and a low front, we have had a few crisp days.

I wore my oversized yellow fleece for the entire day yesterday, inside and out. Snuggly goodness!

Living out a dream

Sometimes our dreams are grandiose, sometimes they are a little simpler.

As a child, I always dreamed of experiencing the red carpet. Like many little girls, I wanted to be a movie star in the worst way. The lights, the camera, the handsome leading men, and the glamour of costume and jewelry was my fantasy career. Well, guess what, it didn't happen.

I have had a very good life and don't regret it, but I never discarded the hope that one day I could at least visit Hollywood and see where the action takes place. And if there was one, and only one place I could visit, it would be Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Little did I know that my daughter would up and move to Los Angeles. I sometimes try to live vicariously through her and imagine what it would be like to live in the land of celebrities and paparazzi. Fortunately for me, her move has afforded me the ability to "dip my toe" and sample that life!

I made my first visit to see her two weekends ago. Four nights in LA wasn't enough time to do everything I wanted, but future trips are already booked. Of course, the top of the itinerary was seeing her, hugging her, and spending time with her. Second on the list - Grauman's.

It was what I always expected and then some - grandiose old Hollywood opulence. Because they only have one screen, you had to watch what they showed - too bad for me it was "Astroboy". Hey, its all about the ambiance there; who really cares about the movie? Everything was perfect - tall ceilings, oriental murals, even the exit sign was written in that Cantonese penmanship.
The theatre was almost vacant, only about 10 of us in there to watch the movie. Didn't matter to me. The previews came on, then the magnificent curtains closed (just like in the good old days) then reopened for the feature movie.

I was in heaven.