A Post for Me... And Maybe for You

A lot can happen in three years. I lot can happen in a moment. Today marks three years to the day, one of my greatest role models went on to greater things. For those that know me really well, you’re probably thinking, ‘but Marikaye, you’re a complete Mommy’s girl’ which is 100% true, but my Daddy, you couldn't help but look up to him and learn valuable lessons along the way.

As a child, a pre-teen, even early teen years, I didn’t understand nor care about any of the lessons my Daddy was teaching me. I ran to Mommy, attempted to get my way, and bounced away happy as could be or stomped to my room throwing a fit. (I admit, I played up the youngest child to all of its benefits in my younger years!) It wasn't until I grew, that I accepted the lessons he was teaching me for what they were. While my Dad taught me so much, here are a few of the big ones I learned, and am still learning...

Grow up, but don’t. My Daddy stood around 6 ft. tall; he had hands that when I placed my adult sized in his, mine still completely disappeared. He was intimidating at times with his full beard, his large stature, but he was a gentle giant. You got close by and looked in his eyes and saw all the compassion in the world. He climbed on the floor with his grandchildren to play, he wrapped his adult daughters into big bear hugs because we were still his little baby girls, he would pinch my Mom’s butt when she walked through the room like a teenager in love. My Daddy may have been 51 years old when he passed, but that number never dictated his life.

You don’t always need a plan. My Dad, (Pops I liked to call him to his disapproval), loved to travel, but not like the rest of us. When I plan a trip, I know where I’m going. I program the GPS. I book the hotel. I plan as much as I can so I can get there as quickly as possible. But that wasn’t what my Daddy did. He took out a map, looked at some places of interest. Mentioned to my Mom about going on a ‘drive’ and away they went. A lot of the time it was just day trips where they’d just drive. They’d travel back roads with no destination in mind. And when he was satisfied with the new adventure, they’d turn around and find an entirely different route to get back home.

Fall in love again and again. My parents were married for 27 years. There were ups and downs along the way no doubt, but those last years, as I headed off to college and my Daddy had stopped working because of health issues, it was just him and my Mom. And in that time, you could see them falling in love again and again. Every day they did whatever they wanted. They went to the store, to visit the grandkids, they stayed home all day not even opening the blinds. No matter what, they did it together. They’d look across the room and make eye contact, and you could just tell they were in love.

Always work hard. This lesson I learned from example. In no way was my family "the Joneses," but we always had everything we needed. My Dad was a blue-collar worker, getting up early working 8+ long hours and coming home exhausted every day. So many days he came straight home from work and fell asleep in his chair, until dinner. As we girls got older and involved in more activities, he’d get home from work, run us to practices, sit waiting until we were done (or even helping with practices), get home late in the evening, shower, and be off to bed without a complaint. My Daddy worked too hard. And he spent so much time making our lives wonderful. He provided us with more than what we truly needed, and was sure to teach us that all you really need is family. For as hard as my Dad worked, I’m certain he missed out on a lot of things. Smaller things that he could have enjoyed. He would never regret the decisions he made to improve his families life, but I wish so much that he would have taken more time for himself.

Don’t forget the past, but move towards the future. I could take you to Gettysburg, PA, right now and give you a complete guided tour with very little time spent on me looking at signs and reading over brochures. My sisters could too. My Daddy had a passion for understanding history. The Civil War was hands down the event he spent the most time studying and researching. We went to Gettysburg every year during the 4^th of July. While many people paid for guided tours, there were others that were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and gathered as my Daddy told my family about Pickett’s charge and what direction each of the divisions entered and how many soldier's were lost from each brigade as the Confederates attacked. More often than not in the later years, our family would retreat to the shade or the car while my Daddy carried out a conversation with a curious tourist. While he enjoyed studying and researching, the lesson for me is how he used what he knew from days gone by and formed ideas and opinions on things going on in current times. While history is much less my thing than it was my Daddy's, I recognize the value in learning and understanding the past as we move ahead.

Live your life and let others live theirs too. My Daddy was a bit of a rebel. I’ve loved hearing all of the stories about how he jumped off moving trains, gave himself a tattoo, drank and partied, and even as an adult with a family, refused to keep his hair short just because my Oma and Mom would tell him to get it cut. While he did all of these crazy things, he used them as examples and life lessons to raise his kids. He didn’t sit down and tell us all the reasons not to do drugs, not to jump off bridges, not to drink excessively. However, in NO way did he encourage these actions either. He let us make our own decisions and was sure we were well equipped with the knowledge of the repercussions. I will always laugh when I recall the mortified look on my Mom’s face on the night of my 21^st birthday. I was getting ready to go out with friends, my Mom was a mess concerned for my well-being, and as I hugged them both goodbye, my Daddy said to me with a smirk on his face, “one thing... the next day sucks.” That was it. He would always be there if we needed anything, but he let us girls make our own life decisions.

While this post is definitely for me, for my family, for those that knew my Daddy, I want this post to be for you. I hope you can look at your own relationships with your Daddy and loved ones. It saddens me knowing that my Daddy isn’t here physically seeing his grandchildren grow, that my Daddy won’t be giving me away at my wedding someday. It really breaks my heart knowing a piece of my Mom's heart is missing that can’t be replaced. But I smile and am happy so much more than I am sad. My Daddy taught me lessons. My Daddy helped make me who I am today. And I bet you have someone in your life, be it your Dad or not, that helped shape you. I hope you’re enjoying them. I hope you’re learning from them. I sure did, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything.

Here’s to you Pops!

47 minutes - Barking, Cows, and the Phonebook

47 minutes of life.

11:28-11:33am - Max won't stop barking.

11:33am - After instructing him repeatedly to stop barking, I put his coat on him to go outside.

Max runs out the door barking. I turn to close the door and see this.

not these ones specifically, but 2 very similar cows standing outside my house.

11:34am - I come back, attempt to figure out what I need to do, shaking my head in disbelief, while my 6 pound dog scares the cows into the neighbor's (who also doesn't own cows) yard.

11:45am - After bringing Max back in, and watching the cows eating the neighbors grass, I call the State Police.

... their response... call the SPCA the police can't do anything.... at this point I say "really?!"

11:50am - Make some calls and send some texts to my local friends trying to figure out who has missing cows

12:00pm - I call the SPCA just to see what they say. They laugh, they offer suggestions of people in the area with cows. I tell them it'd be neat to see the cows in the kennels next to the cats that have been spayed and neutered.

12:05-12:10pm - Go through the phone book calling everyone in Bigler that has the last name of the suggested cow owner... no one answers their phone.

12:15pm - My Mom gets home from the post office and I exclaim, "You'll never believe what excitement there was while you were gone." To which she responds after I finish my story..."Ya, I saw them on my walk up. I didn't know who they belong to. I figure it is someone on the other street. They'll find them."

Oh how I love my life sometimes. 

My take-aways from this:

Evidence. The prints in my yard.

1.) When Max barks I should listen. 

2.) No one answers their home phone. Or is home during the day. The phone book is useless in an emergency.

3.) The State Police and SPCA cannot help when there are cows on the loose.

4.) It's easier to lose two cows than you would think.

Here We Go Again... Out with the old, in with the new

Well, it's out with the old and in with the new. 2011 was a pretty good year. Looking back at one year ago today, I was pretty confident with my New Year's resolutions/goals. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with what I accomplished and improved. If I were being graded on my success, I personally would give myself a generous 80 percent.

Out with the Old
1. Run a half-marathon. If you've been following me at all, I clearly didn't run a half-marathon. That is the only resolution I completely failed at. However, that's if you're only looking at that, run a half-marathon. The benefits and increased exercising throughout the year were enough to make me not distraught with the fact I didn't run 13.1 miles consecutively. I ran 6 miles on a few occasions. I worked out for 9 months. All things I wasn't doing in 2010.

2. Try new things. I tried a lot of new things. From food, to new experiences at my old job in 2011, and  new things that lead to my current job. Heck, out of the foods I tried, a few are regulars now in my diet!

3. Be better at everything. Patience is by far the one thing I tried most to be better at. I still have a way to go, but I'm much better today than I was a year ago.

4. Find luck. As I started the year saying, "...no comments really necessary right?!" I found some luck, and I'm still searching!

In with the New
So I'm approaching my resolutions a little differently this year. Yes, I want to take last years and adapt, improve, and refocus them. Instead of a half-marathon for example, I want to instead run 5-5ks and a few 10ks this year. I had no interest in running 13.1 miles consecutively, but 3-6 miles, I can handle that!

But my overall resolutions are more... personal? motivational? This year's resolutions started from reading this quote by Steve Jobs :

 For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…

I live a good life now, I can't complain at all. But often I find myself hurrying from one task to the next, multitasking instead of giving one person my full deserving attention. I don't want to do that as much anymore. So my resolution is a bit more complex than just focusing on this one quote by Jobs, instead I have a quote book I've kept since I was young. I want to go back to that and continue to update and expand it. Take those quotes I've been noting since middle school and actually try and apply them to my life. So be it a weekly look at a specific quote, taping them back to my mirror to read every morning like I did in those middle school days, I'm going to take the words and make them a reality. Or at least... that's what I'm going to try and do.

Being the Center of Attention Makes Customers Happy

Let's be honest. It's nice to be the center of attention and someone else's top priority. For the past 2ish days I have been just that (or at least I felt like it) by the Microsoft tech support team (specifically Asha T & Haseeb). It all started out as a simple question I posted in their help. (I couldn't get the service pack to download and thus couldn't install Microsoft word on my old desktop computer.) Within hours I received a standard email directing me to some things to try. That didn't work, so I returned to the site and was connected to the live chat with Asha T. My simple little glitch turned into a 4 hour project where Asha worked on my computer, after little resolve, she set a plan of action and on the following day I was connected with Haseeb. Who like-wise diligently worked on resolving the corrupt file I had in my Windows. After 2 days, multiple emails, calling me at home, chatting with me in their chat windows, I can now happily say my case is closed. 

(this is me now)

This was exceptional customer service. And I want to point out why.

Instant and Timely - The whole thing started with an email I received, as mentioned a standard email, but it came within 12 hours of my initial request. When I jumped back into Microsoft and informed them that didn't work, I was able to instantly connect with 'chat.' After hours of working on the problem, and not having great success, it was determined I would be called by another rep between 2-4p EST the following day. My phone rang moments after the clock hit 2p. This same instant and timely response continued through the entire process, not leaving me waiting and wondering and frustrated.

Thorough - I was sent emails recapping conversations/steps taken. I was asked for permission on what needed uninstalled, I was informed what needed done next. The entire time they were running scans, updating settings, I wasn't concerned. While I didn't really know what they were doing from a technical standpoint, I had an idea and thus trusted it was the best step. In essence, they set a plan, they followed the plan and adapted the plan to be successful all the while keeping me informed.

Convenient, Effective, and Efficient - Granted not all customer service programs have this option, but my computer and I never left my house. Because of current technology I was able to share my screen, grant the support control of my computer, and assist when needed. (I actually read a magazine, ate lunch, made some phone calls, all while they worked on my computer.) This was convenient as luck would have it my laptop had to be sent out to be repaired so my desktop is my only computer right now. I couldn't afford (since I work from home) to have my desktop sent out. Effective for the same reason. And efficient because, while it was 2+ days to resolve the entire issue, that's a lot less time than taking my computer to be serviced. Oh, and I must mention, this was a free service provided because I'm a customer!

So what can other customer service, tech support departments learn from my* Microsoft experience? Your customer is only worried about themselves (harsh reality for some), and happy customers write happy reviews, provide happy testimonials, write happy email feedback to managers. Unhappy customers... they do all of the same things just with an 'un' in front of the happy. So make your customers happy, like Microsoft made me. Everyone wants to be the center of attention, and when you're customer is at the center of all of your attention, you're on the right track to keeping, and potentially gaining more happy customers!

*I don't live in such a self centered world to think my positive experience is the same as all Microsoft support customers. The particular technician or customer service rep at a particular business can make or break any experience.