Time to make the list

Resolutions and things I want to accomplish in 2011:

Get packed up and across the pond with the cat.
Get into teacher training so I can teach in England.
Get back into an exercise routine.
Go back to Weight Watchers.
Take trips around the UK.
Visit Steve's folks.
Have 1st anniversary at Disney World.
Take Education classes online in the summer.
Get a television for our bedroom.
Have an awesome post-Christmas.
Have an awesome Christmas in Dec together.
Keep up on my blogs.
Graduate from TWU with my Master's in Library Science.
Get a Windows 7 phone once my iPhone contract is up.
Have a great first year as a married woman.

Feels like Christmas

I love that it's 79F degrees again. I want to enjoy my Floridian lifestyle the right way for the next six weeks. I'm fine with having a sunny Christmas this year.

I also found out that one of the UK colleges where I applied for the teacher training courses has offered me an interview. (If you'll recall, the first place I sent my application was all worried about their high school test scores, which may be the case with all their college entry requirements.) Anyway, I'll have to request a rescheduling of the interview as they want to conduct it on the day I'll get to England. But if I can get it for a couple days after, Steve showed me how easy it will be to get on the bus and take a 30 minute trip to the University. The idea of learning to ride the bus, not to mention the metro, will be a whole adventure in itself.

Right now Steve's at his Christmas work dinner and I'm contemplating what to have for dinner myself. I tried to get to the gym yesterday but I did my Christmas shopping instead. (Got Mom a green Christmas sweatshirt for her to wear now though.) I knew that school was out today and more people would be in Wal-mart and Target. I have what I want for everyone now. I still have a few things to get Dad for his birthday and Steve for our post-Christmas (both in January.)

I'm still working on setting up my online education classes too. I still like the idea of taking classes that count toward an MEd degree.

A very good year

Today I finally got my UK Visa.  It took a little over a month to process, taking into account the Thanksgiving holiday.  After getting the papers together for two months so a one month turn out rate from the British Consulate isn't bad at all.  (I think they deserve a Christmas card.) 

Now that the hard part is over, the paperwork part, there is the planning to think of.  By the end of January, I'll be in the UK.  It will be a great start to the new year.  While I hate being away from Steve for Christmas, it does make the holiday much easier to get through knowing that I'll be there soon enough.  This means two Christmases!  We'll put up the tree and open presents and watch A Christmas Story just like it's December 25th.  I still like to think that this will be a great story for our grandkids.  2010 was a wonderful year and starting off 2011 with my official move to England will make it another wonderful year.

So that gives me about six weeks to enjoy my break from school, have Christmas with my parents, get myself packed up, and my money saved.  At least I won't have to fight the holiday crowds at the airport (I can only imagine what the lines at the body scanners will be like next week) and I can have a better pick of flights.  I thought about going over for Christmas, then coming back to get Jake, but that will be a whole plane ticket's worth of cash that I need to get Jake to London.  I was thinking it would be $400-$500 for a cat to travel across the pond but online I'm hearing an estimated $1000 to bring a pet.  That, along with my own plane ticket and the extra baggage fees (I have a lot of sweaters to bring) is going to be a bit pricey. 

Still, I'll be headed to my new home soon and that's made me feel way more Christmasy.  Today I went with my parents to the mall, ate Chic-Fil-A (and the rest of that gingerbread I made at home, thank you very much), got a candy cane from Santa, picked out some new Nike + shoes (purple!) as one of my Santa gifts and had an all around nice outting.  I won't start my new classes until the 18th, and then I should be headed across the pond a week later.  That makes it way convenient to not be travelling and having big, important assignments due at the same time.  I'm still looking into the Education classes I'll take next year too.

Dear Santa

I know what Santa's bringing me this year.  I have wanted an Amazon Kindle or something similar for over a year now.  I investigated the new NookColor but there was a better review for the Kindle on PCWorld, so I asked my parents for it instead.  While I love books and I love browsing books and feeling so happy to carry armloads of them out of the library or bookstore, I really like the idea of a Kindle.  Since I'll be moving (sometime...more on that later) I really can't cart a bunch of books around.  Granted, yes, I have some and I'll always have books I find to pick up, but the majority of them can be housed in one convenient little gadget.  And everyone knows how much I love gadgets. 

The benefits as well will be that I'll be a city gal once I move.  I'll be spending my time taking the bus, the metro and the train.  Instead of worrying that I've forgotten my book each time I step out of the house, I can have this with me.  The battery life lasts for 1 month, it holds 3,500 books, tons of the classics are free or 99 cents and whenever I want a new book, I just download it and start reading.  I also like the idea that I can start up on the page of the book where I left off, turn on the audio reading option and listen to the book for the few pages I need to while I'm on the bus or at the gym.  When I get home, I can have it bookmarked where it left off, and go back to reading it.  That's very cool. 

It reads PDF files too.  Not sure if I'll need that for any kind of work/school related thing but it's nice to know.  I'm not sure how the web browsing works either.  If I can figure out how to update my Twitter and check my email, that's enough for me.

So I wrote on my "professional"  Endeavours in Librarianship blog that I'm getting some future plans set up. I have my MLS degree final term around the corner, then by finding out that I have my Professional Teaching Certificate in FL, I can take classes at University of Phoenix so I can keep my certificate valid while I'm gone.  Now, the problem is going to be getting work in the UK.  I just wrote a post to the TDA Facebook page saying, I was just rejected from a PGCE program because I did not have GCSE scores. I'm in the US and gave them my information on my high school transcripts. I have a professional certificate, teaching experience and am working on my second Master's degree. Why are my qualifications not enough? What should I do? Thanks.

If by not taking their high school exam (this is comparible to the FCAT or the SAT), despite the graduate degrees and teaching experience I have, I can't get in the program, it makes me wonder what else I'll be shut out of.  I don't understand that when the program is called the Post Graduate Certificate in Education.  I've graduated college, so I'm eligible, right?  Anyway, if I can't get a teaching job, I'll have to wait around for the "0" library job listings to raise to at least 1 or 2 so I can have a chance of having a decent job there.  Otherwise I'll be working at Starbucks (which isn't at all bad, mind you) and volunteering at the library (another not so bad scenerio.) 

We're still waiting on the UK Visa anyway.  If I don't get anything by the end of the week, it pretty much means I'm not going to be able to get to Steve by Christmas.  We have that whole 10 day time frame to get Jake ready to go with his Pet Passport and I just don't know if I can get him there during the week of Christmas.  It really is disappointing to us both.  We have plans to visit his family after spending our first Christmas together as a married couple.  The UK Consulate may very well take that opportunity away from us.  But we'll manage around it, I know, if we can't be together on Dec 25th.  It's just a bummer to be married for 2 1/2 months and still not know if you'll be able to spend the holidays together.  I was even going to cook a turkey and we were going to go to our church to Christmas service.  I'm already not going to the work Christmas party or the Christmas lights in the park.  Major, major bummer.

So aside from my Kindle for Christmas, I'm asking Santa for my UK Visa, my plane ticket, my cat's Pet Passport and my train ticket home with him and Steve.  I promise, I've been really good this year!

Macy's: Good parade, awful store

Here is the letter I wrote to Macy's today that I will be sending with the order I'll return the minute it arrives in the mail:

Dear Macy's Customer Service:

I am returning this item order.  The item was listed as a sale item but you charged me full price and denied to give it to me at the listed sale price. 

The item option that I listed for the return of the Larry Levine purple coat was not full price.  I even indicated that if the 1^st return option, a different Larry Levine white coat, was not available for the sale price of $90 to send me the Tommy Hilfiger white coat which was on sale and about $80.

I am outraged that you would overcharge me for this item and expect a full refund of $238.50 for the price of this order.  Even now online this Tommy Hilfiger coat is listed online as $119 and you have charged me full price at $225.  

I am very upset with Macy’s handling of this order.  I tried to call and get this order price resolved now that I have the shipping confirmation email, but the customer service rep told me that they couldn’t track down the one day only sale that was only a few days ago when I sent the return information in.  I even sent the information from the website in with the coat and the return order form with a note indicating the price and size.  I even tried to contact another customer service rep who could help me but the same girl kept answering, giving me a different name each time. 

When I contacted customer service for price adjustments, an internet clerk, J.M.J.,  stated that the order was placed on Oct 2^nd and the 14 day policy made them unable to honor the price adjustment.  What kind of customer service is this when the clerk cannot even read the date of a return item that reads Nov 17, 2010?

Even when I tried to get a gift card at the store for returning this item, I was told at the Merritt Island store that they would not give me full price on my gift card for this return item.  This is why I sent them coat back in the first place.  I’ve already had issues with the store in Merritt Island before where they misled me on orders.  I shopped for Docker’s men’s suit separates, which the store told Dockers did not make.  I know this is untrue because JCPenney sells Docker’s suit separates.  I will continue to shop at JCPenney before going to Macys.  I have no issues with returning items or finding good prices on what I purchase when I shop with them.

Again, I’m very upset with Macy’s handling of this order and will not shop at Macys.com again.  I’ve unsubscribed to the email newsletters and have let me friends and relatives know what a horrible, shady company you are.  You do not honor sale prices, which is false advertising and you do not offer any kind of customer service except to ignore the customer’s legitimate claims.

My complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau is listed below:

I ordered a coat on Oct 2, 2010, which I sent in for an exchange on Nov 17, 2010.  In the return package I sent the unwanted coat, the exchange order form and the information for the coat I wanted in exchange from their website.  They had a one day only sale online on Nov 17.  The original coat was $80 and the coat on sale that I wished to exchange it for was approximately $80-$90. 

When I was given information that my exchange order had been shipped on Nov 23, they had charged me full price, $225, for the new coat.  On Nov 23 the coat was listed as being $135.  When I contacted customer service on the phone they told me that they could not find any information for a one day only sale.  When I contacted customer service price adjustment online they sent me an email today, Nov 24, stating that since the order was placed on Oct 2 (the date I ordered the coat I returned) they could not honor any sale price after 14 days anyway.  Today the item is listed as $119 and they refuse to give me any other price other than full price.

So they have falsely advertised sale items, refused to give me compensation and my only hope is that I can send the coat back and have my $225 replaced on my credit card. 

Thank you.