Would you like to know something that irks me? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t be reading my blog. Vendors who insist on setting up an appointment at my place of employment to walk me through using their (un)complex websites. That’s what’s irking me today.

A couple days ago I got a call from Greg, our sales rep at CarQuest. Our mechanic, Dave, wanted to be able to order at look at parts online. Ok, that’s fine. Greg said someone would be contacting me to walk me through downloading the software, etc. No biggie. A bit later I got a call from a woman and although her English grammar was fine, I had to struggle to understand what she was saying through her thick accent. She has me go to a website where I assume I’m going to to download some software for CarQuest. I can’t imagine what kind of software it was. A parts catalog perhaps? It turns out I’m really not downloading any software pertaining to CarQuest parts, but I am running an application for remote access, making me a captive of my own computer. Now I am forced to sit there and watch her navigate around the CarQuest website. It’s a good thing too, because their website was so much different than other shopping websites. There was a sidebar with links to different places like car parts, a search field, OH and when you go to the part you can click on a link to see a photo, and… wait, how is this different from every other website that you can purchase things on?? Oh I know, it’s not!! Why couldn’t she just call me and give me the url, user name and password is beyond me. And also, there is nothing that irks me more in this type of situation than when people use the mouse cursor to circle things, around and around, over and over again. I’ve had the ability to keep my eyes on something that moves since I was in a crib. If you move the mouse I’m not going to sit here and think, “holy crap where did the mouse go??!?” I can read too, you know. When you tell me to click on fill-in-the-blank-here, chances are I will find it relatively quickly. Uuuuuggghhh. I asked Dave if he wanted me to show him how to use the website. He said he could figure it out himself. Good luck Dave.

Tomorrow a sales rep from UPS is stopping by my office, probably so he can proceed to treat me like I’ve never seen a f***ing computer before. All for the sake of, get ready because this is good stuff, all for the sake of showing me how to download my bill electronically. Really? You need to drive all the way to my office to show me how to download my bill? Really? Once again, you can’t just give me the information I’ll need for future bill reference over the phone? Oh, but I suppose the website does have so many features!! They must be features that no other website has, because he insists on showing them to me in person. There must be some good stuff on that website. I’m really excited to see what it is!! I hope it’s not too difficult to pick up.

What a fun weekend I had!! Sarah brought Kristy and me to the John T. Petters Foundation Legacy Gala on Saturday. It was my first black tie event!! I got to rub elbows with the likes of Bill Cosby, Smokey Robinson and Dick Enrico from Second Wind Exercise Equipment. Alright, maybe I didn’t rub elbows with any of them, but we were in the same banquet room.

My adventure began on Thursday when Sarah and I went shopping for the proper attire. We found both our dresses at Bloomindale’s in MOA. I bought a fun BCBG yellow gown (regularly priced at $352, I snagged the gown for a mere $60) and Sarah bought a BCBG blue strapless number that was adorned with chocolate colored flowers. Oooh, oooh, and Bloomingdale’s has a petite section, so my beautiful yellow gown didn’t need any altering to fit my 5′ frame!!

Friday I went shopping for jewelry and accessories after work. One hour and one pair of earrings later I decided to continue my search on Saturday.

On Saturday I went to Maple Grove. First I hit up DSW. I couldn’t decide between two pairs of shoes. Since I didn’t have my dress with me I decided on both, which proved to be a good choice as my second choice pair matched the dress better. Then I spent the next hour and a half looking for necklaces, Nalgene bottles for Nick and a video game for Nick. I don’t know how he absently weasels his way into all my shopping experiences, but he somehow does it every time. From their I went home and got beautified; nails, hair makeup and the like, then headed over to Sarah’s where Kristy was getting ready and Scott, Sarah’s co-worker and Kristy’s-not-a-date for the evening, was waiting.

We headed downtown to the Hilton shortly after. The theme of the evening was “A Night in Beijing”. The place was decorated with bamboo sticks and those fun little paper mache looking globe light thingies. There were men in suits, women in fancy dresses and wait staff walking around with trays of champagne and hors d’oeuvre s. There was a silent auction which included things like jewelry, art, sports and entertainment memorabilia and vacations.

And then there was the Tiffany table [insert choir of angels singing here]!! For a mere $200 (which didn’t seem like real money because during registration they gave you stickers with a bar code associated with your credit card number) you could pick a little blue box. It’s contents could range from $40 to $2500. Earrings, necklaces, bracelets, diamonds, silver, gold … votive candle holder. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get something sparkly valued at $2500 from Tiffany’s for $200. I justified it by telling myself it was no different than going to a casino. It was a gamble, but I was guaranteed to get something out of it. And of course the money was for a good cause as well. I put my sticker on the sheet, selected a blue box, untied the ribbon and got a piece of paper. A piece of paper that said “Elsa Peretti Silver Bone Cuff $575”. Woo-hoo!! More than $200. It’s a fancy little silver wrist cuff that has a little hump that fits over the funny little wrist bone. Woo-hoo, it wasn’t not old womanish and gaudy!! After a few failed attempts to get it on, Kristy discovered the secret, and I wore it happily all night long.

Dinner was excellent. An Asian salad, best scallops ever, a filet mignon that could be cut by a butter knife and for dessert green tea mousse. The dinner entertainment was the Chinese Circus. They were some crazy acrobats that could contort and balance themselves, and balance objects and do all sort of crazy mind bogglingly impossible things.

Dinner was followed by a live auction. They auctioned off things like cars, vacations, Super Bowl and other “priceless” experiences. A surprise item of the evening was one of Hulk Hogan’s three championship belts, signed. It went for $21,000. After the auction was a comedy act with Bill Cosby. I thought he was very funny. He did a lot of stereotype comedy, which I love.

Watch my mediocre video of Bill Cosby here!!

After the festivities were over we mingled around for a little bit, eventually making our way up to the Imperial Suite on floor 24 where we stayed until 3:30 in the morning.

It was a great experience. Thanks Sarah!! I had a lot of fun and hope to do it again [hint, hint].

Pictures will be added to the gallery soon!!