>does it drive anyone else crazy when people write “etc.” like this: “ect.”? not the same. i just made some chocolate chip-pecan cookies that resulted less than stellar. partly because i forgot about them and partly because i had two fairly unsavory arguments with customer service representatives at verizon wireless while attempting to enjoy them. upon receiving an almost $200 bill, i contacted the company to question why, even though i had dates/names/quoted figures and specific written instructions on a calling plan change i made last month, they are refusing to acknowledge that “eleanor” did, in fact, speak with me and make a calling plan change in anticipation of my trip to mexico. i am still waiting (after third phone call) to speak with a supervisor. my question is this: what, in fact, was “eleanor the phantasm” doing for the fifteen minutes that i was engaged with her on the customer service line. peeling grapes?

i did not invent this web site to vent my frustration with the functionally illiterate in our midst, so i shall not tarry long to complain, but i had to tell someone, and the other friend i called to unload on was trying desperately to celebrate her birthday in a loud restaurant. so i excused her. billing dispute resolution is no way to spend your birthday, anyway.

i started reading a really good book today called bee season. it reminded me of how i was 1st runner-up in my school spelling bee in the sixth grade. and how nerve-wracking it was to stand up there in front of the whole world only to spell “piecemeal” wrong. oh the shame and humiliation. i also bought, much to some of your delight, memoirs of a geisha and i know this much is true. both about a million years later than the rest of the reasonably hip literary set.

having botched the cookie batch, i will finish my mini-glass of organic, hormone-free milk and get back to bee season. i think i can finish it this weekend. to the detriment of lesson plans and mounds of paperwork, i am sure; but in the end, i shall be a happier worker bee.