Follow Up

My mother is a customer service nightmare. She will badger, bother, and complain til you are worn down. And then she'll tell you all about her job, that involves customers, and how SHE treats her customers...and soon you want to offer her $100 just to shut the hell up.

But...she's probably right, in most cases, to follow up. I am reluctant to bother my children's teachers. After all, that is a fairly thankless job. But when my son received a less-than-stellar grade on his report card, in PE no less, I was fairly shocked. He got the equivalent of an A+ in "content" (whatever that means) and a far lower grade in "participation". If you know the dude, you know he is ALL. ABOUT. PARTICIPATION. Especially when it comes to sports. So I emailed the teacher, asking how we could get that grade up. "Oh no!" she immediately replies, "that was a mistake! I'll fix it and print another report card". Slam dunk.

In recent weeks I asked the 5th grader's teacher to talk with me about her choice of read-aloud book for the class. The book in question was arguably mature and disturbing, and come to find out the teacher was "editing" as she read. I told her I was not interested in banning books or being a "Tipper Gore" type.. as you know I am ALL. ABOUT. BANNED BOOKS., but wanted to explore other, more appropriate books. We ended up having an amazing hour-long conversation about books, education, and my daughter. Much gushing on both ends. Happy ending.

So the other day I order a long-admired pair of boots online. They are pretty cheap, but you know me. I am ALL. ABOUT. THE DISCOUNT. The company sent me a $10 off purchase coupon...I used it, it didn't show up on the order - I called the company. The fine print, sadly, read that I had not spent enough money to get the discount! But, as a first-time courtesy, they were going to take the $10 off anyway. Sold.

Now to talk to that school board....