MindComet

Soldiers Angels

With the announcement of the CommuniCause winner, Soldiers Angels, I went to take a look at their website.  They are doing amazing work, they give soldiers reminders of home when they are so far away and enduring tremendous difficulties.  As I was reading through their site, I was struck by the desire to “adopt” a soldier of my very own.  After reviewing the requirements, I decided that this was something I wanted to do with a buddy.  I enlisted my good friend, Jamie Brooks, to co-adopt with me. 

A few minutes ago, I received the name of my soldier.  Her name is Margaret.  Jamie and I were very excited to have a female (and as a bonus, she has a dog) as we have a better handle on what kinds of things we would like to send in a care package.  Our soldier provided us with an email address, so we reached out with a welcome/about us email.  The good folks at Soldiers Angels told us not to get our hopes up about two-way communication, but sending the email seemed like the right thing to do.  I’ll keep you updated on how it goes and hopefully it will lend some moral support to Margaret.

If you are feeling like you need to do something to help your fellow man, then I suggest that you look into adopting your own soldier.  Soldiers are not at war for their own gain, but to protect all that we hold dear and precious.  The least I can do is to help one feel appreciated and a little more comfortable.

Soldiers Angels

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Sep. 17, 2009

September 11th

It’s amazing how wrapped up in little things we can become…  It wasn’t until I was searching for bits of trivia for our internal communication board that I remembered what today actually is and what it means to so many people.  I am fortunate enough not to have been directly impacted by the events of 9/11/01 like so many others.  Someone called me to tell me what had happened.  I was oblivious as I had “Dora The Explorer” playing on my television.  I was safe in my home in South Carolina, my baby in my arms, watching the horror unfold on the television.

I knew that those actions would change the world my son grew up in and there was nothing I could do to change that reality.  I still feel like I have no control over the world, but I do have control over my reactions to it and how I teach my child to relate to it.  I was proud to be an American then and I am proud to be an American now.  It doesn’t mean I agree with everything that we do as a nation, but it’s my right as a citizen to have and voice an opinion.  God Bless America.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Sep. 11, 2009

Getting Ready For The Fall

Warning: This post will be about boots.  If boots do not excite you, please feel free to come back again later for new posts.

Now that it’s officially September and Labor Day is just a few days away, it’s time to start thinking about boots again.  I’ve missed them in my wardrobe.  But this fall, I am thinking about buying an addition to my boot family.  I am considering purchasing a pair of cowboy boots.  Now, I realize that I am a Mid-Western turn Southern Belle transplant and that as such shouldn’t technically be allowed to wear cowboy boots.  I just cannot help myself.  I also know that I am planning on wearing them all inappropriately.  I will wear them with corduroy skirts and tights.  I will wear them with demin skirts and fleece.  I will never wear them with Levi’s/7/Lucky Brand jeans.  I will never wear them in the mud (or not on purpose) and I will never wrangle, wrestle, or rope livestock in them.  These boots are made for walkin’ and that’s what they’re going to do!  (Thanks Nancy Sinatra!)

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Sep. 01, 2009

A New Car!

So as you may have read, I was in need of a new (or new to me) car.  After what felt like months of searching, negotiating and financing I have my new car!  I would like to thank Charlie of Saturn of Daytona for all of her hard work and professionalism.  I am so excited about my new car!  So now that the car buying task has been completed.  I am moving on to rant, discuss, and praise other bits of randomness.  Thanks for your support!

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Aug. 27, 2009

Car Buying Update

So I have managed to find the exact same car I spoke about earlier at a different dealership.  This new dealership, we’ll call them “Dealer B”, has been very courteous, aggressive, and efficient.  Dealer A refused to put anything in an email, saying “I don’t really like using email and would prefer just to talk to people on the phone.“.  Question to Dealer A, “Is this the 1950’s?“.... If a customer requests a specific communication method, service laws dictate that you use that method.  You sell cars.  Hundreds of other people sells cars too.  If you were the only person on the face of the earth to perform that particular service, then you could afford to be persnickety.  You are not unique and could well afford to take lessons from Dealer B’s efficient and courteous customer service performance.  They communicate with me in a way that is preferential to me, the actual customer.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Aug. 20, 2009

New Car Shopping Rant

I am looking to purchase a new (or new to me) car.  I’ve visited many dealership websites and actual locations and have come to the following opinion; Either they have all the money in the world and are really not needing a “sale” or the idea of heightened customer service has not penetrated their car-selling brains.  While I am physically in the dealership, they’re all hot and heavy “What can we do to get you to sign the deal we want to give you, today.“  but if by chance I am not in love with the deal they are offering and depart, they are practically impossible to reach afterward.  I always thought that car buying was a multi-visit/multi-day ordeal.  Maybe this is my misconception.  My latest frustration point is that I think I’ve found the car I want, but the dealership has been slow to respond to my requests for information.  Again, when I was physically there, my sales rep was courteous and helpful.  That ended the second I walked off the lot.  Now it’s like pulling teeth to get in writing the deal they have engineered for me.  It feels a little bit like trickery and if this were some “buy-here-pay-here” lot I would have walked out by now.  If automakers really want to improve their bottom line, they need to improve the experience of car-buying.  Right now, the experience of buying a car is the same as getting a new drivers license at the DMV or sitting in the dentist chair having your gums scraped.  I will keep you posted on the search for my perfect vehicle.  My hope is that it will be cute, affordable, and gets great gas mileage for a price that I am comfortable with….. I am beginning to think that doesn’t exist.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Aug. 14, 2009

Music, How You Soothe Me

Lately, I’ve been feeling all off kilter…. catawampus if you will.  So I decided I would put my iTunes library to use and created a “Jenny Gets Her Bearings“ playlist.  The criteria for this list was simple… All songs had to “speak” to me.  I know that sounds silly but that was how I decided on which of my 1347 songs made it to my new playlist.  Ordinarily, I would say that having 1347 songs was a little gratuitous, but many of them were songs in albums that I bought because I liked one or two songs on said album.  I’ve now since changed my strategy, much to the chagrin of the record industry, and only buy individual songs.  But enough about my shopping habits…

The songs in my new playlist are there specifically because they make me happy in some way.  Some are peppy, like Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and The White Stripes “My Doorbell”.  Some are angry and aggressive like Green Day’s “American Idiot” or Rage Against the Machine’s “Freedom”.  Others are mellow, like Corey Crowder’s “Learning to Let Go” and Plain White T’s “Hey There Delilah”.  Some just are songs that I love and can’t really explain why like Jack Johnson’s “With My Own Two Hands”, Linda Ronstadt’s “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” - yeah it’s a Christmas song and not the only one on the list - and Johnny Cash’s cover of “In My Life”.

All in all, there are 152 songs in my new playlist and I’m currently playing then in Artist alphabetical order.  Right at this moment (July 28, 2009 at 10:00am) I am on the G’s and listening to Green Day’s “Before the Lobotomy”.  For all of you who may be curious, the last song in the alpha list is 311’s cover of “Summertime”.  As this playlist is the musical equivalent of my spiritual DNA (yeah, upon second read that is a very confusing statement, but one that I stand by and won’t change) it is helping me regain my balance.  I would recommend you create your own spiritual DNA salve-like playlist.  Let me know how it makes you feel.

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Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 28, 2009