Stop whining & just do it...

There were some messy problems resulting from hubby’s recent employment change that I felt he should take on, but he pushed it back on me… I did it, but inside I’m whining…

Time to take a deep breath & dive in….

There was a time when I would have complained about having so many errands to run in one day, especially if (like today) it was raining all day… But today was different because it was my sister’s birthday & all the errands were for a good cause – her happiness!
:)

My friend’s son is getting married & she’s wrangled me into going to the bridal shower… SO not my thing! But she’s a good friend so maybe I can deal for one night…

Today I was constantly on the move, so much that my feet hurt… So when the chemist from across campus wanted me to come over & check out the results of some tests, I didn’t want to go… but I caught myself & remembered a hard-working friend who does this kind of running all day every day and I decided to stop whining and show the guy some appreciation for all his hard work by hauling my hiney across campus again…

I had to call a supplier that has botched our last TEN orders and ask them for yet another quote… The last order came in two months late, all the containers dented & leaking, and some of them not even what I ordered! Worst of all, when I complained, the supplier said they could do nothing about it because I had ordered the wrong thing… I hadn’t, and I could prove it, but I decided to let contracts deal with that, and focus on getting good materials in as soon as I could… I did NOT want to call the same company and PAY them to replace what I had already paid a small fortune for, but my project is in a hurry and we actually need their stupid material, so I swallowed my pride and on the advice of a colleague, left the Vice-President of Operations a polite but direct voice mail…

He called back right away, at first defensive about the unresolved situation with the nightmare order from hell… Rather than focus on the current problem, I told him I was less concerned with what had happened than with figuring our what we could do to prevent dents & leaks in the future and get our materials right away… “I need to place an order,” I said, “but I have to tell you that I need you to get it to me next week.” His attitude immediately shifted & he said, “Well, I appreciate that you aren’t calling to complain, but I am VP of Operations, you know. I can help iron out these wrinkles.”

After our conversation, I not only had my new materials on order, but the company had totally reversed its previous stance & agreed to replace the bad containers free of charge! After we hung up, the account manager who had botched the last order called. He opened with, “It seems you’ve created quite the stir up here.” I answered noncommitally… He told me he was calling to apologize & to let me know the botched shipment was all his fault…

I could have been gracious and said, “That’s ok,” but it wasn’t ok at all… This guy has botched not only the last shipment, but EVERY shipment! Plus, I have to practically beg him to call me back when I want to buy something, a habit any sales professional should know isn’t desirable…

I’m not proud to admit this, but “That’s ok” was just more than I could stomach… So instead, I was a bitch & told him, “I know it was, Jim, but it’s nice of you to admit it. That means a lot to me.”

Ok, so maybe I wasn’t so nice, but at least I didn’t whine.

pick up my sister & spend the day with her… She needs me…

but sometimes when you care about someone or something, there are things you have to do even if you’d rather not… I whine about those things more than most of my girlfriends… I’d like to be able to give more freely of myself in times of crisis…