Cleaned up entry

I haven't sent an entry in quite a while, so I sat down on my sofa, snuggled my bum comfortably and put up my handy foot rest. The laptop found itself on my lap and I decided to try again to do an entry. I did one a week ago, but AOL ate it before it was completely finished. That scared me off for a while.

I can see this is going to be An Issue. When I clicked on the icon in my carousel on my toolbar for AOL, my journal came up, as expected. However, there was no button available to "add entry" or even "edit entry." Nothing at all. It came up as if I am an observer in my own life. Hm. I said, or perhaps the word I used had two more letters in it.

Lacking any other creative options, I decided to use the aol bot for entries. I know some of you do this all the time and have figured out the details. I haven't. I am used to clicking on "enter" to get a new paragraph, not to send an entry.  I want to write about my day yesterday. 

 
I was to be evaluated by a new dentist yesterday. Ever since that gum graft I had in January (graft, not graph, as some people call it) I have been unusually leery of anyone sticking metal objects in my mouth, especially if they are sharp enough to cut me. Even so, I am not ready to accept that this is the best healing situation I am going to get. I put on my big girl pants and hit the road, totally forgetting that we had a monster storm the night before.
I stopped at my previous dentist's office to request copies of my last x-rays, but they had no power inthe office and could not make a copy for me. I should have paid attention to that. I drove on, patiently, as the new dentist is 20 miles from my home. I hit a stop light that wasn't working. Hm, I thought, this area is without power! I kept going, slowly, as watching heavy traffic treat a busy intersection as a 4-way stop is high entertainment.
Eventually, I got to the intended destination to find the parking lot totally empty. I pulled into a parkingspot and left a message for the dentist's office that was just slightly miffed, advising that it would have been nice to get a call to cancel the appointment as I did not know power was out on that side of town. (Hint, hint, I just wasted several dollars in gas and a lot of time.) My next destination was the gym, but it was noon. I decided to avoid the noon rush at the gym and wander the local mall.

The mall had power. In fact, the a/c was cranked up a bit too much for me. I wandered around, vaguely keeping an eye out for some new summer tops. I found myself in Talbot's, a nice ladies' store that actually carries petite sizes. I am short. It's not a secret! I am short, I have red hair, and I used to be extremely skinny. I was razzed all my life over all three situations. No big deal, but being short does make it difficult sometimes to get clothes to fit.
The store is a u-shape, with petites on one side, general merchandise in the middle, and regular clothing on the other side. I slowly meandered down the petite side, lost in thought. The store was rather empty. All of a sudden I heard a clerk in back yell out, "I am in the pygmy section doing what you should have already done!" I was just stunned. I was offended, but also stunned. I had no idea how to react to that, but I did feel it deserved some sort of reaction. I did not see the employee who said it.
As much as I whine about my hearing loss, it's still well within the normal range. I simply had way above normal to begin with. "Normal" is a "loss" for me. I heard things probably no human was supposed to. Anyway, with absolutely no doubt in my mind as to what I heard, I continued on towards the back of the store. No one had offered to help me yet. I passed the center of the U, and walked up the "normal" sizes section. You know, away from the pygmy clothes.

Let me add here that I have absolutely no doubt that staff talks like that in the back room. I don't care. Work humor should not be heard by others, though. I was upset. Finally a nice lady offered to help me. I said I didn't think she could. I told her I had been highly offended by the comment I had heard, and repeated it for her, word for word. She looked stunned also, and asked me if I had seen who said it. I said no, I didn't. I was almost in tears by this time.

 
I just looked at her, and whispered, "I won't be back." I walked out. She said nothing.

Obviously, I left the mall. I went to the gym and let some steam off for an hour on the elliptical machine. I love that machine :-). Halfway through a man got on the machine next to me. I had a book propped up and was reading, sweating, and minding my own business. I sweat hard, but I don't breathe hard. This guy did. He was panting like a horse after the Belmont, but in between panting spells he would belch. Very loudly. These belches were the kind that sound wet. That probably smell bad.

I ignored him, which I think he took as permission to belch at will. My book was engrossing, so I tuned him out. Within 20 minutes or so, he was worn out completely and left. Bye! I checked my watch and headed for the lockers, deciding to rush home and feed the poopers instead of showering at the gym and going a little early to see the Vampire for my massage. The poopers (beagles) were delighted to get their dinner on time, and I showered at home. The Vampire called, and asked me to show up a little late.

That revised plan worked out great for me, and when I got there, I told him about the Talbot's incident. His mother, in Romania, was a gymnist and even shorter than I am, he said. She is healthy, strong, commanding, and short. He said he teased her about only coming halfway up his chest, but he said he assumes probably other people in public have said things to her at times that were rude. He pushed me to go back and get the employee fired. I wasn't wanting that, I told him.

He said the store isn't at fault, the woman is. I disagreed, saying the woman was loud enough for me to hear her halfway across the store - the other employees heard her too. It's a store problem. I would bet that employees have had sensitivity training regarding race, religion, etc, but I would think a store that specifically carries petite sizes, which are hard to find, would not allow crude comments about height. I am over it - it was just a part of my day. I do notthink the woman intended insult.

Later, in retrospect, I stuck with my idea that it's a store problem. Not one employee shushed that woman up. Also, I realized later it could have even been the woman I spoke to - perhaps she was highly relieved that I didn't see who said it - which also explains why she was speechless regarding offering me any verbal palliatives.

The poopers and I made our usual 2-mile evening walk with my neighbor and her dog-niece, the Cairn Terrier. Gayly. This time we didn't have to step over as many branches in the road or wade through flooded streets. We did, however, just make it home in time to miss another huge storm last night. The thunder was so loud that my home shook a few times. Add in some vertigo, and it was like an earthquake for me! Lovely. I love a good storm!

 
After doing some chores, I had to call my niece to see if her daughters can dog sit for me to go to AZ in a few weeks. We talked a long time. I needed to make any possible changes to my flight plans by midnight. I could cancel the flights I had secheduled and set up new ones, which I wanted to do. By the time I was able to start calling the airlines, it was 11 pm. Even so, I should have been able to get information within an hour. I made a call, was transferred, then again, then again.

I was given some codes to use, and they didn't work. I had to call again, transferred again, and again. Finally I was on hold until 1 am, when I gave up (an hour on hold) and decided I needed a small dish of ice cream. This same "hold" problem came up in Florida. I had to call NWA, and was left on hold over an hour. This happened on the one full night we had to go out - and we subsequently had a very late dinner. After that, in FL, I was given incorrect information.

Last night, I didn't get any real information and am now locked into flights I am not happy about. I need to read back in my entries to see if I described the flight home when I was denied access to the first class bathroom on a NWA flight, but a man who sat in coach was not. Right now, NWA is not my best friend.

I think this leaves me TWO endings:

 
1. Maybe NWA thinks I am too short to bother with.

2. Maybe Comcast and NWA have a merger going.