Get rid of music in schools...by all means!

Some of the events of this week have me thinking...yes, let's get rid of music in school, what do we need it for anyway?

Illinois - 1985

wouldn't it be great to do something for our farmers right here in America?  Concert set up in 6 weeks

Hurricane Sandy - 2012

a hurried benefit with some of the top paid music artists in the country helping to raise money to help those hardest hit

Sarajevo - 1992

 friends in a bread line destroyed by mortar fire, a cellist dedicates 22 days of his life to playing his cello in the rubble strewn streets to remember each friend in turn

Toronto - 2003

SARS...400,000 tickets sold for and 11 hour show to help alleviate suffering from the deadly respiratory disease

London/Philadelphia - 1985

Famine in Ethiopia stirs artists across the world into action

I don't know about you, but it looks to me like music is a fairly pointless endeavor. 

It doesn't affect anyone. New music is just noise, old music is boring and out of touch.

When someone dies, we can talk through our feelings and be fine

When we are happy, a goofy smile will help us recall all we need to about the moment

Dad walking a daughter quietly down the aisle will be enough for them both to remember the day

The preachers sermon will be sufficient to instill feelings of the spirit

Mom kissing baby and sitting in stillness will be adequate to calm the child

Let us not teach the one thing that touches everyone, regardless of where you live, what color you are, your sexual orientation, how you were raised, what god you worship or what language you speak. Let us not teach the one form of communication that passes all barriers and that has surpassed the test of time. 

By all means, get rid of music in school.

Damaged musician, Part deux

I couple of posts ago I wrote about how my chiropractor had found another damaged disc in my neck. I survived (and thoroughly enjoyed) the Vivaldi institute with minimal pain - yay drugs! After coming home from the institute I took the MRI film to a neurologist. I spent a week waiting for the phone call that would say "we cant find anything of significance, thank you and good luck."

That call never came. The call that DID come said, "Hi, we would like to make an appointment for you to visit with the Dr." Long story short, the disc is impinging on the nerve bundles that run to my arms and on my spinal cord. The Doctor said I could go the drugs and therapy route, long term, if I wanted, but eventually it would come down to surgery and sooner would be better than later.

I was looking at the MRI. I could see it. Little bulges of white into the long black and white striated spinal column. Millimeters of disc causing hours, days, weeks, months of constant pain; nights where the only thing asleep were my hands and arms, and making a few ounces of lifting feel like pounds -  millimeters....it wasn't right.

During the 6 weeks since that appointment I have been coming to the realization that being pain free as a musician, for the rest of my career, is most likely a long shot. I am resigning myself to the fact that the viola may become an instrument only to be played for short quartet gigs and light concerts; that I may never have the physical stamina to learn and play the Mendelssohn violin concerto (I never learned it in my younger days), and that to continue to play is going to take a concerted effort on my part to find teachers, methods and music that will allow me to tollerate whatever playing I decide I want to do.

I've already made some strides toward that end - it's called; Baroque music.

Smaller orchestra, less (physical) intensity, less shifting, chinless playing, instrument size variation, bow length difference, new sounds, composers to discover, style difference, rhetoric - doesn't it sound like an awesome adventure?

Here is one picture of the changes I'm making.

She is currently a work in progress.
She has a history of performing (but I'm not sure what it is.)
She has some damage.
She is the sum of her parts.
Some of her new parts are hers through the     generosity and skill of others.
She will need continued maintenance.
She will be whole again.
     Isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!




Some of you are probably looking at her thinking....psh...she's old and in pieces, how good can she be?? I'll tell you exactly how good she can be -

She can and WILL be as good as she was meant to be! She is in the hands of a master luthier who has studied his craft and knows her, inside and out. She was created to be something special, with a purpose - now that purpose is to become the perfect instrument to facilitate the desires of a musician......

.....a work in progress
.....with a performance history (she will never forget)
.....who has damage
.....who is the sum of her parts
.....who will have new parts that are made possible through the generosity of someone else
.....who will need maintenance
......who will be whole...again.

How good can I be? That will depend on me finding my purpose again...I think she and I might do well finding our "purpose" together - stay tuned........

National Partnership of Women and Families luncheon...impressions

National Partnership for Women and Families Luncheon

Here are my thoughts on attending this luncheon on Thursday, June 21st. It was an awesome opportunity and I got to listen to some very high powered women, not the least of which, was Hillary Clinton. The program was an incredibly educated, well spoken group of women and I loved every minute! My impressions come from the 45 minutes previous to the doors opening to the actual "event", I may write more about this later...we'll see.



High Powered, Low Powered
Questioning their power and 
ONE 
of the 
MOST
Powerful

StandingingroupsStandingingroups

groupsinStandingingroupsStanding

   

alone

with daughters, friends, colleagues, and tour groups

Smells of all sorts assault the nasal palate, telling tales of their owner without the owners knowledge

Handbags - dresses - shoes - pedicures - jewelry

Tanned, toned, dowdy, coiffed and q-tipped

drink in hand

WAIT!! 

A suit! 

He feels out of place. The only men who look comfortable are the waitstaff and bartenders.

Here for a cause....or...just cause.

The room fills, the volume rises. 

Almost imperceptibly then suddenly, it is too loud

I am a fish out of water. I can't even fake it, but there are others like me - standing right next to me...brown hair, brown suit, against a brown wall. My jacket is too loud I should have stuck with all black.

Restroom escape, hoping for quiet...not to be found

Bass voices resonate and cut through the treble din

I am pressed against the wall next to the brown suited woman, they walk past...the eccentric to the uptight, it is not difficult to tell who is who.

Finally, the doors open.

And thousands move as one.

I am a damaged musician

I have the opportunity this week of participating in the Vivaldi Institute - Baroque music on modern instruments. The institute is a week of baroque, baroque, baroque - from dance, to technique to music by composers that I didn't even realize existed. Its going to be 4-6 hours a day of performance/rehearsal time with lecture interspersed throughout.

I was SO thrilled when I first received notice of being accepted to the institute, as they accepted me only on my resume, no audition (how bonus is this??) The music list was sent out about a month in advance so, being my diligent self, I printed off everything - all of the parts - and started messing with it. True to form, it was deceptively difficult. Practice...I had to practice more than I had been.

I am a high school music teacher, I do not spend all of my time in a practice room or in rehearsal as a player. Sometimes, this is to my detriment. I'm not as proficient on my instrument as I could be if I were playing in the professional sense, all of the time. This concerns me, and with the increase in practice time what concerned me further, was my body.

Ok ok ok...beyond the normal 40+ year-old

 woman wrinkle, chubby, floppy, out-of-sorts, body concerns. 

Because, I, am a damaged musician.

In 1996 I underwent surgery to remove a torn disc from my neck at C 5/6. Prior to this surgery my career as a musician nearly ended. I couldn't play without being in extreme pain. In fact, I didn't realize that I was in pain most of the time, I was like the frog who is put in a pot of water and the heat turned up a little at a time until it boiled to death; I didn't know how much pain I was in.

Removal of the disc fixed a myriad of problems, however, as I discovered this week, it created a world of new ones. It has been 15 years since the surgery, and because of the surgery I am (nearly) back in the same boat. A second bout with tennis elbow, and other shoulder pain and numbness, led my chiropractor to insist upon an MRI. Because of the fusion, the vertebrae above and below the original surgical site, have had to work harder - causing the same problem to occur.

This is NOT my neck, but shows what is happening
 with discs pushing on the spinal cord

Having this news come days before leaving for the institute was devastating. I'm grateful to have a good 
chiropractor who has been a long-time friend as well as a great doc. As my brain went numb he virtually put the phone in my hand and told me what to do to help me get through this week. I don't like the option of medicating this much, but I guess we do what we have to.

There will be much more to come (doctors, therapy, what ever I can do to avoid surgery again) when I return, but for now.....drugs and ice packs.

My hope in documenting my affliction is so that others might understand. I am a damaged musician. I do what I love because I love it. I will do whatever it takes to continue doing the thing I love.

• I will play in and through pain. Even though I know in many cases, that I shouldn't.
• I do not have a trainer to warm me up or ice me down, I will stretch before I get the rehearsal hall and I have a husband who will rub my back and get me the ice pack after I make it home.
• There is no special hospital for injured musicians, like you can find for injured athletes, we are largely on our own.
• The world does not pine for a damaged musician that will not return to their career, there will be no documentary, no compensation for us pitching"thera-patches", no news articles, no radical new therapy developed if one of us ceases being able to play music so that we can return.

No one at the institute knows about my history or my current situation. My medications lay hidden within my case, ice pack in the freezer, bio-freeze in my backpack. All they know is that I was accepted here as a musician that could play.

There are no excuses. 

I am a damaged musician - time for me to play.

Jealousy

Jealousy. The word looks funny, sadly, its definition and the things that come from it are far from funny.
I know I'm going to hit a nerve or two with a few people (probably the ones I'm not talking about who may think I'm referring to them), but so be it.

We are given many things, both spiritual (if you will) and temporal. I feel that we are accountable for those things; whether it be a societal accounting - such as repaying our debts or following through on business deals; a personal accounting - such as being true to yourself; or an accounting to a higher power  - for example, cultivating our inherent talents and perhaps using them to better the lives of others. In all cases we are, in some way or another, held accountable for what we have and we are responsible for what we do with what we are given.

With that being said - why are so many of us so obsessed with wanting what someone else has? Why would we want to be responsible and held accountable for someone else's stuff?

Much of what I have heard the past few weeks is,
      "I will never be as good as they are."
 My response to that is,
      "You're right, you probably never will be."

Am I being callous? Mean?
How about realistic?

Realistic??? Yes. Realistic.

The reason you will never be as good as anyone else is because (ready for this....)

YOU ARE NOT THEM!  

I have a poster in my rehearsal room that says something to the effect of

 "Be yourself, an original is worth more than a copy."

I'm not sure why we think that being someone else would be better. Don't ge me wrong, it happens to me too -  I look at friends, students, and peers who have something I don't and my first reaction is,

        "Wow, wouldn't that be cool!!" 

Then my brain actually starts thinking, 

        "Wow, I don't know that I would want to be accountable for that at this point in my life."

What follows is an example of how this thought process happens in my world:

From the time I was little I wanted a HUGE house! 

 Now I've grown up (maybe grown older is a better way to put that) I'm pretty sure I don't want that big house. Why? 

Because with the big house comes a big house payment, big insurance, I would need to fill the house with furniture of an equivalent nature (another big payment), I would have to maintain a very manicured yard (I'm thinking closed community type housing here...just stay with me), I would need to keep every inch of that big house clean, this means I would probably need to hire help. If I had a big house like that I would be expected to entertain, which means I would have to stock a large pantry with food for entertaining - more $$. I would then be expected to be able to cook (not my favorite thing), along with that I would have to dress well.......do you see where this went - in a big hurry??

The expectation, whether real or perceived, that (typically) comes with the big house, helped me to decide that I do not want that kind of responsibility or accountability - hence, I no longer want the big house. 

It can be the same with wanting others talents or gifts - do I really want to be responsible for that when I can barely manage what I have within myself??

When I was a lot younger, and poorer, and had much less (both money and ability) than I do now I would often covet and be jealous of others. It was at that point in time I found a scripture that I took to heart, in Philippians Chapter 4:

• Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content
• I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
• I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

The thing that I love about this is that while it tells me to be content where I am, it never says that I have to stay put! It never says, be content and never improve, or be content and cease learning or striving - only to be content.

This mentality didn't happen overnight, it took time, it took experience and it took more patience than I thought I had. Do I still wish for things someone else has that I don't? Yep...sure do. But I've adjusted my way of thinking after the fact - I may not have those things, but I have MY things and that should be more than enough to keep me busy and happy.

Be Content 

- but -

 observe keenly, appreciate openly, covet rarely, learn constantly, and improve daily

The lights are out!

Those were the first words to reach my ears last night as I entered Libby Gardner hall for rehearsal.

The lights are out...and they won't turn on.

Whoa! This was dress rehearsal for THE biggest concert of our season and we have no lights???

I took some comfort in the fact that, on the long list of things that were my job to worry about, this wasn't one of them. So I found a comfy seat and chatted with Laurie and Dave and observed the reaction of other orchestra members as they came in, looked at the pitch black concert hall and made comments:

"Why aren' the lights on?"
"Ooh, Beethoven by candlelight tonight huh?"
"We are rehearsing, right?"

Having no lights and no rehearsal space was legitimate concern, this was going to be a huge concert, this was our first and ONLY run through with the soloists, we needed this rehearsal!

In short order the word came down - we're moving to room 200, grab chairs and stands! Room 200?? Oh geez! In passing me in the hall I heard Dr. Baldwin comment, "of all of the rooms to rehearse Beethoven in, Room 200 HAS to be the worst."

The Thompson chamber hall at the U of U

The Edgar J. Thompson chamber music hall is primarily used for just that, Chamber music. It has high ceilings, low lighting, and ornate, semi-over the top baroque type architectural decor, complete with gold accents. It is not a room built to house the sound of a 90 piece orchestra and 100+ voice choir, however, it was this or nothing.

True to community orchestra and choir form everyone hopped to - we were set and ready to play not too long after our scheduled start time. I knew this was going to be hard on us, the sound would rebound like an out of control racquetball in that room, it was going to get warm in there, we weren't going to be able to see as well as we would like and it would be fortunate if the choir could see the conductor at all! Dr. Huff took the podium, the soloists stood facing the orchestra so they could see and hear, choir members standing on chairs, orchestra folks still jockeying for the best possible line of sight.

Us, trying to fit into the Thompson hall.....

Something happened to me during that first segment of rehearsal......

The wash of sound....nothing in that room sounded at a piano dynamic

The soloists....operatic voices, right in my face, the kind that I've coveted since I was young

The choir....volume rising and falling in the ebb and flow of sound coming from behind me

The orchestra....hearing everything around me, but myself

I thought - this must be how it was, way back, before the ultimate engineered concert hall, before the union demands, before the high efficiency lighting, before.....

There comes a time, for many of us in music, that we do this for so long that it becomes habit, routine, usual, nothing special - which is a shame.

I allowed it to take me, take me to that place where it became something special. It was all I could do to not let the tears run down my face. I was having that small moment when it is no longer mechanical, no longer counting, no longer bowing, no longer pinpoint focused listening so I didn't miss anything, no longer "the usual."  

I was in the music.

....and as fast as it came, it was gone! In a panic my eyes focused back in, but they were right where they should have been on the page, my fingers following along, my brain on the correct count. 

Inhale. 

Play.

And hope for the lights to go out (or did they come on?) more often.

Speak "Friend" and enter

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately (I know, I know, to quote Alan Menken - "A dangerous past time") about some of the things I've been seeing pop up on facebook and other social media regarding how "offended" people are at how some of their friends are reacting to ideas, lifestyles, etc.

I'm going to admit some things here that some of you are going to get your feathers ruffled over

I am a democrat, socially conservative, economically liberal.

Does that fact that you now know that change your opinion of me? 

I will sign a petition saying that marriage should be between a man and a woman. At the same time I will vehemently defend any same sex couple that wants to adopt, love, care for and raise a child.

Does the fact that I support both things make me a disparaging hypocrite in your view?

I'm proud of my religion. I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon. I attend the temple, I go to church (most) every Sunday. I have no problem with other faiths, I love learning about them. I've attended more than one Catholic mass and Protestant service and appreciate all that goes on therein.

Does the fact that I'm a Mormon bug you? 

I'm an Aggie and a Ute. However, all through my growing up years I was a Cougar - But when it comes right down to it now I'm an Aggie through and through....then there are the fighting Irish!

Does the fact that I'm Aggie blue, with leanings toward the Irish, throw off your groove?

I think that many of you reading this know ME. You know who I am, what I believe, how I believe it, and that I live it, act it, and do it.

You know that I love YOU for who you are and what you have contributed to my life. I hope that my opinions, beliefs and convictions don't affect the way you think that I think about you - as a friend, a support, someone who taught me, and as an individual with your own way to think, act and do as you have the conviction to do.

I hope we all take time to think and realize that the people we associate with we choose to associate with; and this because in some way or another they have touched us and touched our lives or the lives of our families and children in a positive way - and there is nothing wrong with positive, regardless of our personal views and beliefs.

We can disagree and still be a support to each other. 

We can still call one another "friend" and mean it.

You gotta know the territory!! A commentary on laptops and .45s

I'm one of thousands who have watched the viral video of the Dad who shot up his daughter's laptop due to her, shall we say, indiscretion on facebook  (I will not re-post the video here due to vulgarity). I know that many of you have strong feelings in both positive and negative directions about the way this was handled - that said, some of you will agree with me and others of you, well, we will just have to agree to disagree.

I think we hasten to judgement on a situation to which we have very little background knowledge. What do we know? We know that this young lady has a history of internet trouble with regard to what her parents allow. We know what she posted about her parents. We know Dad's feelings on the matter. We know what the outcome of her disobedience was.

Now, because we all come from different places, with different experiences and values we each put our own spin on what we thought would have been more appropriate, some of us have applauded what was done and have taken notes in the margins of our parenting "how-to" manual, just in case, while others are condemning the man's actions as over the top or inappropriate.

Here is my spin.

Children are to be respectful of their elders 

You can call me old fashioned, you can call me repressive or a stick in the mud - but this is something that needs to be continually taught and reinforced.

      Kids talk and "dis" on their parents, even the good kids...even on good parents. I know this how? I hear it almost every day. Every child has problems with the adults in their life; it's the nature of people being with people. However, if you think that children are more disrespectful of their elders now than they were in years past - think again.

I found this bit from the Pew Research Center as part of a report exploring the Millennials:

They get along well with their parents. Looking back at their teenage years, Millennials report having had fewer spats with mom or dad than older adults say they had with their own parents when they were growing up. And now, hard times have kept a significant share of adult Millennials and their parents under the same roof. About one-in-eight older Millennials (ages 22 and older) say they’ve “boomeranged” back to a parent’s home because of the recession. (See chapters 3 and 5 in the full report)

They respect their elders. A majority say that the older generation is superior to the younger generation when it comes to moral values and work ethic. Also, more than six-in-ten say that families have a responsibility to have an elderly parent come live with them if that parent wants to. By contrast, fewer than four-in-ten adults ages 60 and older agree that this is a family responsibility.

     Kids will always have problems with authority, but they are not ALL rebellious, horrid, and undisciplined.

Kids are kids. They are not the parent. 

What they are asked to do and be responsible for in a family situation is the domain of the family - it is not our place to judge what they are asked to do - with the caveat that if the deed is of a violent or evil nature, certainly it is not appropriate. But keeping up house, doing chores and little services for those you live with is not disproportionate to the state of most any family.

As a parent, talking only goes so far - especially at a time in society where all we do is "hear" stuff. 

We hear government say they'll do this - but it never happens. We hear people threaten, but they never follow through. Its like the little boy crying wolf, just to see if he can get a rise out of the towns people.
     To all the people that think that reasoning and talking to their kids is the only way to go...I beg to differ. Every kid is different, and surely every kid is not going to respond to a parent kindly sitting them down and giving them a heart to heart over every mistake or stupid action that they make.
     Kids "hear" stuff - all day - all the time. Music, talk, chat, video, sometimes the only way to get through to them is for them to actually HAVE a physical experience. There is so much virtual, so much talk that they come to a point where they are beyond feeling or even understanding unless they actually experience something.
      Ask a person who is a "cutter" why they do it? Often times it is so they can "feel." Granted, that is an extreme case, but hopefully you get the drift of my point. Talk does not experience make.
      In the opening scene of the music man the salesmen on the train go on and on about how things are changing and how you can talk and talk and talk but its different than it was - and that you've "gotta know the territory!" As parents we need to know the territory and there are times when we can talk all we want, but it isn't going to make much difference.

What good is being a parent if you don't follow through on what you say?

Your job is to PARENT not be a "friend"
Dad with the .45 didn't seem disproportionately angry or upset for the severity of the situation. This was not a first offense for this young lady, and the previous course of action taken by the parents didn't deter her from continuing her inappropriate behavior.
     While some think it was not the appropriate course of action, it was, on his part, a follow through on the course of action he had decided upon and warned his daughter about. We just don't know, maybe when it came right down to it he may not have wanted to do what he said he was going to do - maybe he thought "wow, I am really going to have to do that now...dang." He was brave enough to do what he said he was going to do and be the parent.
So, there it is. I guess in this world of being able to see what everyone else does, almost as they do it (Think about Fahrenheit 451), we need to realize that (most of the time) we don't know the WHOLE situation behind the three minute video we are viewing. We are welcome to our own way of doing things but should not be too quick to judge the way others do things. It all goes back to one of the last lines in the scene above.....

YOU GOTTA KNOW THE TERRITORY!!!

Customer....Service?? (Bit of a rant)

Yesterday, Friday, was the end of the quarter and since I am one of those highly diligent teachers (hahaha) my grades were done on Thursday before I left the building  - hence, I had the day to myself. I did a little ab workout, and some stretching, then I decided I needed to hit the mall and get a new pair of jeans.

Now, this is no small decision for me. Pants shopping is probably the one thing I loathe most of all. Since I'm not a slender girl I have to shop at the fat lady stores (get over it, that's who they cater to so lets call a tree a tree, shall we?) So I steeled myself for what is typically a depressing, overwhelming, time consuming farce of me, squeezing into or swimming in, as many pair of pants as I can stand to try on before I give up, in tears, and go home.

I arrived at Fashion Place mall and headed to said store (cough couLANEgh, cough BRYANTcough) with my head held high and little hope in my heart. As I entered the store I was excited to see color - I love it when the spring colors start coming in, it was an encouraging sign. I then realized that I was the only customer in the store - YES! All the help I needed right at my fingertips, bored sales associates ready to trade out sizes and styles until I found just what I needed and they could make a big sale!

I wandered in toward the jeans, expecting to be greeted by a sales associate, but there was no greeting, I didn't see a soul. I began pawing my way through the pile of  "blue dot, curvy" jeans trying to find a size I hoped would work. Success! I yanked them from the middle of the stack, sending several other pair flopping to the floor. I looked around, still no sales associate anywhere near - I picked them up and shoved them back onto the shelf and headed for a dressing room.

It was at this point that I was greeted by a sales lady - who asked if I would like a dressing room. I answered in the affirmative, and, thinking she was going to open the room for me, I waited for her to make a move toward the dressing room. But she didn't, she continued arranging clearance items on a rounder, not making a single move toward the dressing area.  I was puzzled. In a split second a second associate came from the back of the store - "Hey, Amy, could you open a dressing room for this lady?" the first associate bellowed. Amy nodded and I followed her to the dressing rooms. She didn't say a word to me, no "how is your day?", "did you find what you needed?", not even a smile. She opened a room for me and walked away. I should have left the store then.

Lane Bryant Jeans (I should look so good in them...)

I tried on the pants - they fit, except for the length (go figure). I thought, I'll just ask the girl to find me a tall to try on, so I waited....and waited....and waited. Finally, I took off the pants that didn't fit, put my clothes on and went back out to the sales floor. The first associate said "did they work?" I replied in the negative and told her that I needed a tall. She looked at me, said, "ok", and continued to organize her clearance rounder. I stood there, a bit put off to say the least - wasn't it HER job to help me find the correct size? I wandered back to the stack and muddled through them again - no tall. I came up behind the associate and told her I couldn't find one in the stack, her reply? "Oh, well, that doesn't surprise me, maybe we have some in back." Again I waited for her to comply with (what I thought) was an obvious unspoken request to go and FIND me a pair of jeans in a tall.

But she just STOOD there. I then asked her, holding my voice and my fists as steady as I could, if she might try and find a pair in the back that I could try on. "Oh, sure," she said, "but you might like these too." She handed me a pair of jeans in my size but different style, "try those and I'll go look." Off she went to the back storeroom and I returned to the dressing room.

The pair she handed me did not only not fit, they were extremely short and honestly - ugly. Again, I waited...and waited....aaaaaand waited. Finally, after about 10 minutes I put my own clothes on and, yet again, exited the dressing room. I found both associates sitting on the floor trying to fix a vacuum cleaner, the one looked up at me and said, "well, did they work?" I told her no and asked if she had found any of the others, in a tall, in the back. "Oh, no..there weren't any."

I just stared at her. She hadn't the decency to come back to the dressing room and tell me. Neither associate had bothered to check up on me as I was trying on clothes, I wasn't greeted when I came into the store nor was I helped as I tried to make a selection. That was it, I was done. I said, "so would it be too much of a bother for you to call your Jordan Landing store and see if they have any?" She looked at the second associate, and said - "hey, will you call for this lady." REALLY????

 Amazingly enough, Amy had the presence of mind to be able to use a telephone, (she DID know how to talk) speak to the Jordan Landing store and confirm that they had one pair. I was outta there!

I was not happy.

When I walked out of the store into the mall I was accosted by a dark haired, foreign sounding beauty shoving a small packet into my face telling me about how wonderful this vitamin e rinse would be for my hair. I took a step back and she followed....mercilessly. Was this some kind of cruel joke? From almost having to run the register to make the sale myself to nearly needing to file assault charges on a hair care sales girl??

She kept on me - "here, step over here and let me curl your hair with my fantastic curling iron!" I looked at her.....does this hair -------------------->
LOOK like it needs a curling iron???? I asked her as much. It was like I never said anything, she was totally oblivious to the fact that I was even talking.

It was at that point that I put my hand up and said "I'm in a hurry, maybe another time" and started walking away. She yelled after me for another 15 seconds, at least thats about how long it took me to get out of earshot, for all I know she's still talking at me.

What has happened to customer service? What happened to respecting an individual's space? Kindness? Courtesy? Smiling? Being helpful? Opening doors? Taking off hats? Ladies first? Shaking hands? Being Gracious? Saying Thank You? Asking? Listening? Making sure the customer comes first? GAH!!! *deep breath.........

Alright, I'm finished ranting now.....thank you for listening...oh, and yes, I did get my pants. :)