True Love Always

Fishies! and Swine!

Took Buster to the Aquarium over the weekend. He LOOOOOVED it! See?








Too bad its the last outing of its kind for awhile. Sigh.
I talked to the pediatrician. She said H1N1 is RAMPANT around here. She sees multiple very VERY ill kiddos a day. Hospitalizations. Breathing tubes. In her opinion (and she is a very rational easygoing lady) she thinks we should avoid taking Buster anywhere. ANYWHERE. No Little Gym. No MOPS. No crowds. No museums. No play places. "Stay home" she said. "Just stay home".
Seems like there is no hope for any vaccinations anytime soon. They MAY be getting a few (like 100?) doses of the vax WITH preservatives. I don't want to give him the vax with preservatives. Would you? I am not sure which is worse...flu or preservatives.
I guess its gonna be a long scary winter, and I guess I will be seeing a lot of my backyard and living room.
Stupid H1N1.
Whats the point of having sultry sassy red hair, if I am going to be stuck in my living room in my pajamas for the winter?
Pffffft.

Something A Little Different

Ok my lovelies, I decided to try something different on here....girlie things!
I am kind of a product JUNKIE - I love trying new lotions and potions, and LOVE browsing at Sephora, Ulta, or even just the drug store. For a long time there, my girlie side got squashed as the challenges of new motherhood took over...who has time for soaking in a bath and applying careful makeup when your kid is screaming bloody murder? Not me that's who. But NOW, now it is coming back...my evenings are free for bubble baths and beauty masks and ohhhhh its so fun to be a woman!!

SO, lets give it a shot, eh? And PLEASE PLEASE tell me your favorite products, indulgent ones or useful ones or magical ones...I love hearing it all!

Ok. So.

Some girlie things that I am lovin' lately have come from Lush. Lush is a bath/body store devoted to fresh handmade natural products, many of which are Vegan. I am lucky and have a Lush in the Mall where I live...but you can also order products online at http://www.lushusa.com/shop/. I am not gonna lie, their stuff is rather pricey, but everything I have tried so far has been really really good.

My favorite product right now is this:



The Strawberry Feels Forever Massage Bar. Oh yessssss.

Massage Bars at Lush are hunks of buttery moisturizing yumminess that you either rub over a loved one as a massage treat, or rub all over yourself (hey, you are your own loved one, right?) as a delicious body softener. It looks like a hunk of soap, but as you hold it in your hot little hands, it begins to melt and soften....then you rub those oils into your skin. Can I just tell you? LOVE.

Lush describes the Strawberry Feels Forever smell as "real crushed strawberries and hibiscus flower infusion". To me, it smells very fresh, and warm. Definitely like strawberries, but a little spicy too? Like strawberry wine or something. Its so hard to describe. Its a pretty strong smell, most Lush scents are lingering, but its not overpowering to me...just delicious.

Lately every evening as I sit in bed preparing for peaceful slumber (yea right), I give myself a little Strawberry rubdown. I use it on my arms and legs and elbows and knees and cuticles...it is SO SOFTENING...my skin feels like velvet. Its a little oily at first, but I have dry skin, so it soaks in fast and just leaves me feeling sooooo yummy and soft and smelling soooo yummy and good...its DIVINE I tell you! I keep it in a little tupperware thingie right by my bed. I am addicted. LOVE. LOVE. Did I mention Love?

There are many different massage bar scents to try...so if the Strawberry is not your bag, baby, I bet you can find one that is. They retail for about $8.95, which is not cheap, but you get a nice chunk, and its so pampering....I feel like I am worth it. No, I KNOW that I am worth it!!

Highly recommend!!!

___

offer it up to the cosmos

I love my son. Man I love him so much it actually makes me hurt. I am so lucky. Even when I am exhausted, and he drives me batty, and he wont sleep, and he wont eat, and he has a meltdown, or throws a tantrum, or climbs on the dining room table to retrieve and eat a chapstick (ew)...I know I am blessed beyond belief. I keep thinking back to when I was trying to get pregnant, and how anxious and sad I was CONSTANTLY, or when I lost the pregnancy and how despondent I was CONSTANTLY...and now my life is CONSTANTLY good, full of love and laughter and joy. How did I manage to win this lottery???
What an incredible little person this boy is. Soft red curly hair, sometimes ringlets like a cherub, sometimes crazy waves like a mad scientist. Sparkling blue eyes, perfect white teeth, (like little mini chiclets -yes, I even fawn over his teeth). Chunky pink cheeks. Perfect baby buns. Expressive hands. Fat little feet. Slim little boy hips. Lanky limbs, he will be so tall. The way he looks in a pair of footie pajamas, oh my god its ridiculous. The way he snuggles into my lap, the way he throws his arms around me and pats my back with teenie fingers while he hugs me. Sloppy open mouthed kisses. The way he plays with my hair while he nurses. He is like, seriously, the best thing that has ever happened to me. I just feel the need to let the universe know...that I know....I know I am lucky, I SO know. I know not everyone wins this lottery, and I am very grateful. I know I am blessed. I am thankful.

So... I hope it is not too awfully selfish to ask to be blessed one more time?

*fairy dust*

----

Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta

Or...Sometimes it Pays to be a Crankpot.

Next Sunday I get to go to Sephora, AFTER store closing, for a private makeup tutorial and store tour and freebies. Ching! Pampering! Weee!!!

I am MORE than pleased with their response to my complaint. Go Sephora!!!! You have won me back (its not that hard to do - just wave some freebies at me).

Hurrah!
Makeover!
Fun fun!!

Hee Heeee!!!

I sent my letter to David Suliteanu...PRESIDENT of Sephora. I mean, why not?
I got this e-mail today....

Dear Mrs. _________,

Thank you for your recent correspondence to Mr. Suliteanu. I am pleased to hear of your excitement at the opening of the new _______ store but extremely disappointed that your experience was an unpleasant one. On behalf of Mr. Suliteanu and the Sephora team, I sincerely apologize. We value our clients and take all complaints seriously; yours is no exception. As a result I have copied Dina Bloom, executive assistant to the executive vice president of retail operations, to assist in rectifying the situation. Dina, or another member of the retail operations team, may contact you directly to obtain additional information in order to determine the best course of action.

We thank you for your continued loyalty and look forward to better serving you during future visits to Sephora.

Sincerely,

Tricia Ulricksen

Assistant to David Suliteanu

S E P H O R A

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I wonder if anyone else will actually contact me?? HAHAHohohohohheheheeh....I don't know why this cracks me up so much, but it totally does. Imagine this assistant reading my totally sarcastic 3 page mumblefumble. HAHAHAHA. She is probably like HELLO CRACKPOT. *wheeeeeze*

Sephora, you done me wrong

Went to Sephora today. It didn't go so well. Wanna see my letter? I am sending it off to corporate this morning. (Some stuff blanked out for obvious reasons...)
.....

Dearest Sephora,

I am writing to convey my supreme disappointment at my experience today in your new retail store in _________.

I am a very loyal online Sephora devotee, (swoon!) but there is something way more satisfying about shopping for beauty items IN a store... where you can sample and dab and touch and sniff, am I right? I been wishing nightly on stars and eyelashes that a store would open here in ________. Seriously, you can ask my husband - I have been complaining for at least 5 years about my hardship. So, you can only imagine my delight when I got wind of the news...________ is opening a Sephora store? It’s like the Mother Ship calling me home.

My shopping spree started out well - I had a shiny new gift card from my husband, and stars in my eyes. A very helpful consultant named Stephanie guided me through the dazzling displays and sat me down to test some products on me. I can say only good things about Stephanie, she was wonderful...patient and quite informative. I came away with a new skin care regime, and some delicious new make-up. Kudos to her.

I only wish Stephanie didn't hand me off to the sharks ladies at checkout.

Unfortunately I did not get the register nazi's consultant's name , but I have enclosed a copy of my receipt which may have in the information - in case you want to publicly flog her gently redirect her. We will just call her Miss Register for now, okay?

You must understand - I am used to shopping Sephora online, since we were lacking a _______ store. Online, my Beauty Insider number is automatically generated when I log in, so I didn't even think about it at the store. Miss Register never asked me if I was a Beauty Insider, never asked me if I had a Beauty Insider card, never asked me if I wanted to become a Beauty Insider...the words Beauty Insider never sprung from her lips. Are you following? She pretty much never looked at me or talked to me at all. She may have mumbled something as she slipped some free samples into my bag....but I was ok with the lack of communication and eye contact cause hey, free samples, and I was still high from the glory that is the Sephora store. (swoon!)

It was only when I happened to notice the samples lined up along the counter that things went decidedly downhill.

I said to Miss Register "Oooo, are these more free samples?" and she quite snootily responded "oh no, THOSE are only for our Beauty Insiders". And she handed me my bag.

(Um, wouldn't the proper response be something like - *happy tone* "Oh those are for our Beauty Insiders, are you interested in becoming one?" or *chipper grin* "you can get those if you are a Beauty Insider...are you one?" But I digress.)

The fact is, I AM a Beauty Insider, and I am well aware that I earn a point for every dollar I spend. I want my POINTS! And honestly, if I have another free sample coming to me, I want that too! I am not ashamed to admit it.

So I said "Oh, I'm so sorry, I AM a Beauty Insider, I forgot to mention it, can we please fix that?"

Her response? Huff and puff, eye roll... "But you didn't give me your card."

(Did I mentioned that she never ASKED for a card, or my Insider status, or even how I was that day?)

Sadly, I didn't have my Beauty Insider Card with me. From that moment on, my friend, disaster.

I got much more huffing and puffing, some hair tossing, some eye rolls. She tried to plug in my e-mail address several times, but the computer was acting wonky and kept rebooting. Twice she had to call for back-up to be signed back in. She had to ask me to restate my email several times. She was practically oozing with disgust, I felt like an old fat leper. My Sephora high was quickly dissipating. She punched keys and hit buttons for a good long time, but for whatever reason she could not figure out how to credit me my points and give me my sample after the sale was already complete. She smacked her lips in that precious way that teenagers do when they loathe you, and called over a manager. Enter Manager Blondie McHatesmyguts. Miss Register pouted..."she wants a sample but she didn't give me her card".

(I felt so stupid. I shouldn't feel stupid while shopping, should I? Just a tip - making me feel stupid does not make me want to spend mad cash.)

I wish I could say that Blondie McHatesmyguts was warm and delightful and tried to soothe me...THE CUSTOMER and supposedly valued Beauty Insider... but alas, no. She was also clearly annoyed and frazzled and could not bring herself to make eye contact with me. She snapped in the direction of my forehead "which sample do you want?". I think she intended to just try to shut me the heck up appease me with 0.29 ounces of Nars Primer, so I had to remind her that I had just dropped over 200 bucks at her fine store and I wanted my Beauty Insider POINTS.

(Wouldn't you? I mean 200 dollars is not chump change. Well, at least not to me. Maybe to Blondie I was small potatoes?)

Anyhoo...

I really do not understand what I did to make Miss Register and Blondie McHatesmyguts so angry. Is it THAT difficult to redo a transaction, if it makes the customer happy? Did they have something better to do, besides, um, THEIR JOB? Is it so odd that I would want the points I earned, or another free goodie to try? I felt like they went out of their way to make me feel like I was such an incovenient pain. Which, I swear, I am not! I am truly quite charming and fun, we should be friends! Sephora, we could braid each others hair and tell each other our deepest secrets. Call me!

I do not deserve such nasty treatment.

Finally, after much punching of buttons and heavy sighs and frantic whispered negotiations, Blondie McHatesmyguts said to me "the only way we can do this is to process the whole thing as a return then start over and pretend it’s a new transaction."

(I really think she was hoping I would just say "oh forget it then I don't want to trouble you". HA!)

Me: "Then yes, let’s do that, redo my transaction".

Her: eyelid twitch, sneer.

Blondie McHatesmyguts did not address me (or my forehead) again - just told Miss Register to redo my transaction. They had to recheck my gift card to make sure I could re-use it, they had to fiddle with the computer again, they had to get my e-mail address again, they fiddled with a different computer, they had to huff and puff some more, they had to rescan items. (Oh the horror!) It seemed endless. It was probably only about 20 minutes, but it was 20 minutes of my life I will never get back.

Finally it was over. Blondie flounced off without a glance my way - Miss Register handed me my bag. As I turned to leave, I said "just a suggestion, you should ask each customer if they are a Beauty Insider, it would save a lot of trouble". Miss Register gave me a tight smile, but her eyes were pure evil as she said "yes, totally my fault".

Now look. I come to Sephora to feel lovely and pampered and refreshed and HOPEFUL. Isn't that the point? It’s a glimmering store full of hope. The HOPE that some foundation will make my skin dewier. Or some gloss will make my lips plumper. That some magical potion or powder on your shelves will transform me from 'tired somewhat saggy 38 year-old stay-at-home Mom with pureed spinach in her hair' into 'glamorous voluptuous 18 year old supermodel vixen with flaxen locks'. Right? It's hope that opens the wallets folks. And as of now, hope is not alive in the Sephora store in the _________. I left feeling annoyed, confused, sad and deflated. And regretful. I kind of wanted my money back.

This is not the beginning of the beautiful retail store relationship I was hoping for.

I would have thought that a new store would be eager to please, wanting to make a good impression to ensure repeat business. Am I just naive? Is Sephora so successful now that customer service no longer matters? Am I just a small potato that no longer matters? Does my hard earned cash no longer matter? Is the Beauty Insider status a big fat joke? Please, Sephora - say it aint so.

I am not going to lie to you (I would never) - I will most likely still shop there. Because, well, it’s you, and I love you. But please, love me back? Ensure that ALL of your consultants and managers and check-out ladies are appreciative of my business... are kind to me, are patient, are thoughtful, are helpful. Remind me to give them my Beauty Insider card, don't chastise me if I forget. Have them eager for me to get all the samples I am entitled to, to TRY new products that I will then return to PURCHASE. (Funny how that works). Have them talk to my eyes, make me feel valued. I don't think I am asking too much. Am I?

Sephora, can we start over?

Sincerely,
Kate
Very Important Sephora Beauty Insider