Pillow Talk

I want to remind all my avid readers (all 5 of you) to please, please, please make sure to check your electronics/appliances before leaving the store.  I purchased a Cool/Warm Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier from Bed Bath & Beyond in San Diego.  I didn't look inside - even after I got home - and kept it in the trunk of my car and made the move with it.  When I finally opened the packaged, it had been used with these hard water stains crusted all over it and the instruction booklet was ripped in half!  Really... who does that?  Anyway, we went the Bed Bath & Beyond nearest to where I'm staying but they didn't have it in stock, so then we drove about 15 miles out of the way to get a brand new one.  Was it worth it?  I'm not sure yet, I'll make sure to report on the benefits of a humidifier once I have some empirical data.

I tried to stall dropping Will off at the airport for as long as I could, but making him miss his flight really wouldn't have helped out any in the long run.  Afterwards, I went to the nearby Vons and bought some snacks and light groceries.  I also bought this little guy - it's a succulent called a Panda Plant!  It's cute and small and fuzzy... since I don't have either of my little furry babies around to keep me company, I decided to buy a fuzzy plant because petting it provides a more rewarding experience than just regular leaves.

Then I unpacked most of my clothes and did enough ironing to last me a lifetime but my shirts will all be wrinkle-free! At some point in my organizing/ironing... I realized that my Temper-Pedic pillow was missing!!!  Those of you who have ever traveled with me or witnessed me travel know that I cannot spend a single night without my pillow.  My chiropractor recommended it for me 5 years ago and we have never parted since.  I get aches and pains in my neck, shoulders, and back due to my scoliosis and the pillow is one of the things that help me upkeep my infrastructure.

At 1:30pm, I called the front desk of the Worldmark by Wyndham on Tropicana to let them know I had left my precious pillow behind.  The manager told me that she would check on it and call me within the hour.  Ok, great... *iron, iron, iron*

Then 4:30pm rolls around and she still hadn't called me so I decided to just drive on over and see about this situation.  I get there and announced myself and what I needed... the manager's like "Oh, it's you! The room hasn't been changed over yet...! Here, we'll make you another key and you can go get it."  I smiled and said "Thank you," but secretly super despised them for making me go look myself after THREE HOURS of doing nothing.  Awesome customer service.  I went back to the room and it's in complete disarray... all the bedding is on the floor and all the drawers were pulled out.  I guess it had been halfway cleaned when someone abandoned it.  So, I called the front desk and reported what I found - NO PILLOW!!  They asked me to come back up and the manager runs around for a while to look in their Lost & Found and like talk to some workers... she came back with a dumpy lumpy pillow inside a plastic bag and tried to give it to me!  Ugh!!!!

I left because the manager said there was no way to locate it tonight since all the cleaning workers had left for the day.  She had given me her information and asked me to call back in the morning.  I'm furious because I'm thinking someone stole my pillow - I mean, it's not super valuable but it was $99 when I bought it and it's Temper-Pedic and suuuuuuper comfortable.  People are known to take less notable things.

To assuage my intensely angry feelings, I decided to find my favorite place to eat in the whole world - Souplantation.  It's called Sweet Tomatoes out here but it was perfectly identical to the one in Rancho Bernardo that I used to eat at with my coworker buddies Audrey & Lauren (except that they still provide "premium toppings"... that ended in SD months ago - classy).  Along the drive, I put my headset on and filed a complaint with their customer service department.  And then voila! before I even reached the restaurant they called me (I didn't answer) and then they called Will who relayed the message to me that they had magically found my pillow and was ready for me to pick up!

LESSON: Never take no for an answer when something is important to you!  Just because they don't care about my pillow or my quality of life... doesn't mean I should be made to feel the same.  And look at all of my pillow's happy friends rejoice!!