Saturday, March 26, 2011

Riddle...

How many UPS stores does it take to mail a saddle?? (Answer at the end of this post.) Also there's an F-bomb. You have been warned.

I have a Smart phone that my wonderful, amazing brother bought me. It enables me to keep in touch with everyone at all times. I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Thursday night I made the mistake of checking work e-mail during a meeting. What I read pissed me off so bad that I was fuming the rest of the night. A person at my school who is in charge of the after school activities took it upon herself to not sign my little guys up because she didn't think they could get picked up. (Illegal.) She wanted me to call and tell their parents. There was no e-mail for me to respond to that would express how I felt. So I fumed.

Friday morning I walked into the office and TRIED to be nice. I really did guys. I smiled and everything, but she snapped at me first and I lost it. I've never lost it at work, but NO ONE fucks with my little kids. They are amazing, and if you don't want to give them a chance, your loss. I told her it was illegal to exclude them and she told me I was going to cause the cancellation of all after school activities. Well, I lost it again. At this point my principal came out and grabbed me. She's amazing. I love her. We talked and the person came back to talk to the principal about our "discussion" and she started again about how my kids will cause the school to have to stop doing after school classes and that no one will be able to teach them.  Again, I lost it. I was so pissed. I'm still pissed.

The kids were great, but I got to end my day with a screaming match at the bus drivers. Smoking and not allowing my kids on the bus because you're "talking" isn't a good excuse. I was SO professional yesterday!

After work I called my husband and said I needed Pony time STAT. He went with me and we drove the hour and twenty minutes to the barn. All the horses had their blankets off and were enjoying the sun, even though it was a bit cloudy. Denali wanted nothing to do with us and was with her friends. We walked out to the pasture and started walking around the pond. Denali started to follow us, but when we'd turn around to look at her she'd start to graze and pretended like nothing was going on. It was hilarious. She kept doing this until we stopped by the pond, then she admitted that she liked us and came up to hang out. She's such a sweet girl, and is so happy now. She reminds me of the mare I bought before I went to Denmark, except this one is broken. We wanted her to come get treats, so without thinking I threw the rope around her neck to lead her over. FAIL!!! It obviously really bothered her and she took off flipping her neck around. I felt so bad. We got her to come back and I put the rope around her gently, and make her walk two steps then took it off. I didn't want her to think running away was okay (although understood.) While petting her I noticed a large lump on her neck so I wrote the vet anal e-mail #3,294 since November. Poor woman. She probably regrets the day that she took Denali on as a patient. We'll see what she says. Denali is still a little off. I asked my husband what he thought and he thought she looked fine, but did admit I knew her better than anyone. Oh mare. What in the hell am I going to do with you?

Today was probably the busiest day I've had in a while. I met Pia's mom for coffee at her house and then we were going to a Jumper schooling show. On our way I needed to stop to drop of my Passier at a UPS store to ship it. The woman seemed really competent, but then informed me that her store doesn't do COD. They had a problem and got sued. I had my saddle on eBay, but took it off when I found out I was going to have to pay $63.00 in fees. The girl who had made me an offer e-mailed me and still wanted it. She just wanted to be sure I wasn't a scam. It did seem pretty shady, so I totally understood her fear and COD sounded like a good compromise.

That didn't work so the saddle went back in the trunk and we went to the show. It was fun to watch the horses go over the fence, but I know NOTHING about jumping. Nada. Pia's mom use to event so she tried to explain it to me the rules.

After the show we went to UPS store number 2. I felt bad for the guy working at the desk. It was a stones throw from the tack store that told me this store ships saddles all the time. He looked at my saddle like it was an alien object. He said I could leave it and his boss would do the COD on Monday and pack it. Nope. Not leaving my saddle. So the Passier went back into the trunk for a second time and Pia's mom pulled out her cell phone and called a third UPS store.

The third one was just right. (I feel like I'm telling a fairy tale now...) He seemed confident and competent. At this point I think I was unable to form sentences and Pia's mom had to help me. He probably thought it was my big day out and she was my case aid. I was just so frustrated and worried at this point I couldn't function. By the end of paying the nice bill (note: saddle to Maryland from Seattle = expensive) I felt better and was able to hold some sort of conversation on the way back to her house. BTW: If you think Pia is cute, you should see Pia's mom's dog. CUTEST THING EVER!!! I think Maize (sp?) needs her own blog! She's the cutest French Bulldog EVER!

After dropping of Pia's mom I had to run back to Seattle to pick up two 8 year old's for a riding lesson at my old barn. Our school holds a huge auction every year and I was auctioned off for a "Day at the Barn."  Her father is an executive at Microsoft so I'll let you guess what they paid. Let's just say the auction made over $150,000 last year. It's an amazing school.

My old trainer was SO good with them. She explained everything and they were SO into it. It was a great experience for them and they LOVED IT. By the end of their lesson they trotted a little and on the way home their trotting story turned into them galloping around. I smiled and remembered what it was like to be a horse crazy 8 year old. I am SO jealous of their lack of fear. They have none. I wish I could have some of that.

My evening ended at a pool party, which required me to wear a bathing suit. Not so exciting, but still fun. I forgot how much I love swimming and water. Maybe that's where Denali gets it.

(Oh, in case you didn't figure it out: 3 UPS stores.)

11 comments:

Cygnata said...

Are the kids being included now? I hope the excluder and the drivers got in trouble. Assholes, the lot of them.

She probably thinks your kids will "contaminate" the others. Gods forbid your kids have ANY interaction with "normal" kids. The normal kids might *gasp* learn some empathy!

-Cyg

Oak Creek Ranch said...

I shipped a saddle from LA to New York (sold on eBay) and it was really expensive! Plus eBay fees. Plus PayPal fees. Oh well. The saddle is in a new home instead of taking up space in my tack room. I'm glad I didn't do COD!!

Brooke (FBX Adventures - In Parenting) said...

Yeah, I know the risk that comes with doing COD, but I've talked to the person so many times and the UPS guy said it would be fine. I couldn't believe the price that it costs to mail a saddle.

Checkmark115 said...

is saddle shipping based on weight or size? I am selling mine on ebay, an am afraid of the fees! lol

Rebecca said...

Hope everything ended up working out with the kids, it sounds like you were around a lot of "professionals" (blech, or not) that day.

"By the end of their lesson they trotted a little and on the way home their trotting story turned into them galloping around."

Ha, I always love how that happens. And it does, every single time.

I'm also always jealous of how little kids seem to have no fear. I'm pretty sure I was only like that for a couple years of riding.

Brooke (FBX Adventures - In Parenting) said...

Saddle Price : $1000 (sold for $900)
eBay Fees (or so it told me) $62.00
Paypal fees (or what it would have been): $29.30
Shipping/insurance/COD: $107.00
Package/tax: $25.00

So I ended up spending $132.00 to ship a saddle. I figured I "saved" $91.30 by selling it off of ebay. Not something I'd do again, but I couldn't afford to get any less for this saddle than I did.

in2paints said...

I went through the same stuff when I shipped my super heavy Circle Y saddle from NC to CA. Why all the buyers are always across the country I'll never know. $163 to ship that thing, then factor in eBay and PayPal fees... let's just say I'm glad it's over with.

My saddle weighed about 34 lbs, but they have some crazy formula for size and weight and your 34 pound object ends up having a "shipping weight" of three times that much. It would have been cheaper for me to buy my saddle its own plane ticket!!

Achieve1dream said...

Wow that really sucks about the school. People can be such losers. I hope everything worked out and that your kids are being left out because of losers with no brain.

Wow, what a challenge to get a saddle shipped. I had no idea it was so difficult and expensive. The three UPS stores does sound like some sort of fairy tale lol.

Let us know what the vet says about the bump on D's neck. I'm sure it's nothing, but I'm a worrier too. :)

SprinklerBandit said...

Ugh. I shipped my last saddle by post office, which I hate, but it was going to be $160 to use Fed Ex. Fail.

I sell on tack trader, though. No fees other than paypal.

Gingham said...

Frankly, neither of our brains were functioning (clearly) and you at least persuaded me that maybe I don't need to sell my saddles quite so fast. :)

RiderWriter said...

Been gone for a bit, so catching up. I SO get your anger over "your kids" being treated like "they don't belong." That is BS of the highest order and just WRONG. I sure hope your principal has come down on your side. My mom taught special ed for 25 years and I heard many, many battle stories about when she had to go to bat for her kids. You guys are earning your halos, that's for sure!


My husband ships stuff, sometimes very heavy, all over the country on a regular basis. Sells a lot on Ebay w/ Paypal, too; I hadn't realized how much of his "profits" that he likes to brag about are being eaten up in fees! Might have to call him on this sometime...