Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Playlist
I just realized that I didn't post my playlist for the Carmel Freedom Run, which is tragic as it might be my favorite yet.
1. Every Time We Touch - Cascada
2. Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolf featuring Lil Wayne
3. Just Dance - Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'donis
4. Right Round - Flo Rida
5. Take Me On The Floor - The Veronicas
6. Crank Dat - Soulja Boy
7. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
8. Fire Burning - Sean Kingston
9. Pain - Jimmy Eat World
10. I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - Pitbull
11. Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas (sadly something went wrong during download or something so I only got about a minute and half of this 4+ minute song)
12. Toy Soldier - Britney Spears
13. Beat It - Fall Out Boy featuring John Mayer (This was my finish line song)
14. Jai Ho (from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack) featuring Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah, Mahalakshmi Iyer (Didn't actually get to this one)
15. Forca - Nelly Furtado (Didn't get to this one either which is probably a good thing. I love the song but it takes a little while to get going).
Labels: 4th of July, Carmel Freedom Run, playlist, race
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
N.I.T.E. Ride, Freedom Run, and other random stuff I want to ramble about.
The last few weeks have been rather eventful. Let's start with June 27th. Elvis convinced me that I had to do this awesome event that he participated in last year. It's call the Indy N.I.T.E. (Navigate Indy This Evening) Ride. The event begins at 11pm and and consists of a 20 mile bike around the greater downtown Indianapolis area. It begins at the Major Taylor Velodrome (which you can sort of make out in the background of the picture below) on Marion College campus.
Tons of bikes lined up and ready to go.
The Quitter! Ready to ride... and totally NOT a Quitter at the NITE! She was awesome!
More bikes ready to ride!
Elvis talks to Quitter's Hubby (I think he shall be called Shaun White - unless he already has a name and I have forgotten). This picture makes me laugh because Elvis looks pissed and Shaun White looks scared, but they were really just having a normal conversation.
Elvis pretending to be a bad ass.
Shaun White and The Quitter being cute before we took off.
Me and The Quitter (clearly we had LOTS of waiting time before we could start. I was bored so I took a lot of pics and now you get to look at them. Aren't you lucky?!?!)Sadly, I wasn't really able to take pics during the ride. Too bad though. It was certainly eventful. About 3 miles in the road starts feeling REALLY ROUGH. I look over at Elvis and ask him if my tire looks ok. "Um, NO! It's completely flat!" GREAT!!!! Did I mention this was a 20 miles ride and we were only 3 miles in?!?!?! We pull off to the side and start walking to try to get to the next intersection where there will be cops/volunteers. The walk was probably somewhere between 1/2 mile to a mile. Also... I was wearing my spiffy new bike shoes... great for biking, but giant metal clips protruding from the bottom of your shoes don't exactly make walking a picnic.
Somewhere along the way The Quitter and Shaun White catch up with us. We all get to the next intersection and a volunteer radios for help for us. We send The Quitter and Shaun White on and Elvis and I wait..... and wait...... and wait.... and wait... OOOOO Headlights!!! Yes, headlights of the cop car that tails the group and tells all the other cops that they can stop directing traffic/marking the course and go home. And so we wait.... and wait.... FINALLY the mechanics show up and pretty uneventlfully get me back up and going. (BTW... YES I know I should have had a spare tube, CO2 and tools in my saddle bag. And YES next time The Reverand is in town I'm holding him hostage until he teaches me to change my tire. We will not repeat these events again).
With my tire fixed the mechanics take off and Elvis gets my tire back on my bike. We hop back on and are determined to catch up. We start flying down the road and manage to catch up to the mechanics. We plan on following them until we realize, they don't really totally know where they are going either. AWESOME!
This is the course.
We decide that since we're so far behind and have no one marking the course for us the best thing to do is just get to the break point and pick it up from there. We take off again and find a road that we both know will get us where we need to go. Even though that portion wasn't exactly a "sanctioned" part of the ride, Elvis and I had a BLAST. It was probably the 2nd best part of the whole ride. There was no one else around to maneuver through, traffic was almost non-existent... we just rode. There was nothing holding us back. So fun!
We get to the break and wait for the others to show up and then we were off again. The ride took us straight north on Meridian and then wound through Butler campus and then back down through the Art Museum where the path was lit by luminaria - beautiful! The next part was the best. I still don't really know how it happened, but suddenly I realize we're approaching this GIANT downward sloped curve. We start heading down and I begin to look around and realize... we're on AN OFFRAMP!!!! Freakin' SWEET! We make our way to the finish line and back to cars. Down some Gatorade and water. The Quitter and Shaun White make it back and we load up to head home. It was a great event. Can't wait for next year!
Somewhere along the way The Quitter and Shaun White catch up with us. We all get to the next intersection and a volunteer radios for help for us. We send The Quitter and Shaun White on and Elvis and I wait..... and wait...... and wait.... and wait... OOOOO Headlights!!! Yes, headlights of the cop car that tails the group and tells all the other cops that they can stop directing traffic/marking the course and go home. And so we wait.... and wait.... FINALLY the mechanics show up and pretty uneventlfully get me back up and going. (BTW... YES I know I should have had a spare tube, CO2 and tools in my saddle bag. And YES next time The Reverand is in town I'm holding him hostage until he teaches me to change my tire. We will not repeat these events again).
With my tire fixed the mechanics take off and Elvis gets my tire back on my bike. We hop back on and are determined to catch up. We start flying down the road and manage to catch up to the mechanics. We plan on following them until we realize, they don't really totally know where they are going either. AWESOME!
This is the course.
We decide that since we're so far behind and have no one marking the course for us the best thing to do is just get to the break point and pick it up from there. We take off again and find a road that we both know will get us where we need to go. Even though that portion wasn't exactly a "sanctioned" part of the ride, Elvis and I had a BLAST. It was probably the 2nd best part of the whole ride. There was no one else around to maneuver through, traffic was almost non-existent... we just rode. There was nothing holding us back. So fun!
We get to the break and wait for the others to show up and then we were off again. The ride took us straight north on Meridian and then wound through Butler campus and then back down through the Art Museum where the path was lit by luminaria - beautiful! The next part was the best. I still don't really know how it happened, but suddenly I realize we're approaching this GIANT downward sloped curve. We start heading down and I begin to look around and realize... we're on AN OFFRAMP!!!! Freakin' SWEET! We make our way to the finish line and back to cars. Down some Gatorade and water. The Quitter and Shaun White make it back and we load up to head home. It was a great event. Can't wait for next year!
Here's a picture of my little tiny car (Yoko) loaded down with 3 bikes (we won't talk about the fact that the bike rack dented my car and I couldn't open my back hatch for two days).June 28th I went to see New Kids on the Block with my best friend since first grade, Jonesy, and some of her other friends who were big fans back in the day. We had an amazing time, though sadly I don't have pictures. We were surrounded by a bunch of other 20-30 year old women, some with their daughters, who were just there to have a good time. This certainly wasn't the BEST concert I've ever been to, but it ranks really high on the most fun list. Rock on NKOTB!
July 1st was the Reverand's bday, most of which he spent in the lab... BOO! And the 3rd was Elvis' bday. We had a little family function and rolled the bridal shower for him and his fiancee and the bday celebrations all together. Fun was had by all and I totally dominated the guess that spice game. I know my spices baby!
Which brings us to the Fourth of July and the Carmel Freedom Run. This time it was just Simmonds and me because Will's foot had been bothering him again. Lucky for us, he graciously agreed to be our driver/photographer so that I could share the event with you now. Thanks Will!
I guess this is technically still the 3rd... none the less.. Tradition pre-race Tequila shot.
This is the best tradition ever!
Morning of the race. I love this picture! Simmonds is genuinely smiley and I don't think my smile could look more fake if I tried. Also, big thanks to Bange for sewing our spiffy bandanas... we were trying to be patriotic.
As the race starts I round the first corner and see my car sitting a parking lot with a window halfway down. I immediately start looking for Will (praying he's close by, because my purse is in the car). I spot him and start to wave as I'm running... he doesn't notice.. I wave bigger... nothing... finally I scream his name and looks over fumbles around and quickly snaps this picture. Nicely done!
And just behind me, he snaps a pic of Simmonds.
Bunch of crazy people running through the streets of Carmel on a Saturday morning.
On the home stretch!
If you look behind the wonderful woman who walked in front of Will just as he was snapping this picture, you can barely make out a light blue tank top... that would be me crossing the finish line. Thanks Lady!
Go Simmonds Go! You're so close!
Simmonds crosses the finish line. Wahoo!
Traditional banana shot. Super sexy - especially the sweat still glistening on my skin.
And us at the starting line.... at the end of the race.... Whatever!After the race we went to Bub's Cafe for breakfast. Will made us sit outside and implied that we didn't smell too hot after running 4.5 miles so it would be rude to sit inside. The restaurant was hoppin' since Carmel was having freedom fest and Bub's is literally walking distance from the festivities. We had to wait for about 45 minutes for a table but it was worth it for the quote from Simmonds. There was no where to sit while we waited and clearly we were tired, so Simmonds and I sat in the parking lot, eventually Will caved and joined us. I was really tired and eventually threw my hoody on the ground and leaned over and laid down. Simmonds... "Don't do that you look homeless." HAHAHA! That's right, Carmel has to import their homeless from Noblesville. HAHA! AWESOME!
That night Will and I headed up to A-town to attend K-dog and The Doctor's traditional 4th party. Sadly, weather wasn't really cooperating, so no fireworks and a fraction of the crowd that usually comes. Oh well... more wine for me. :-) Eventually it was just me, K-dog, The Doctor and Will and we played Sing Star for a couple hours before calling it a night. Good times!
Ok... I think I've crammed enough events into this one post.
That night Will and I headed up to A-town to attend K-dog and The Doctor's traditional 4th party. Sadly, weather wasn't really cooperating, so no fireworks and a fraction of the crowd that usually comes. Oh well... more wine for me. :-) Eventually it was just me, K-dog, The Doctor and Will and we played Sing Star for a couple hours before calling it a night. Good times!
Ok... I think I've crammed enough events into this one post.
Labels: bikes, Bub's Cafe, Butler University, Carmel Freedom Run, flat tire, Fourth of July, Indy N.I.T.E. Ride, Marion College, New Kids On the Block, tequila
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Customer Service in a Bad Economy
When I was about 15 years old a friend of the family hired me to work as a part time seasonal cashier in the luggage store he was managing. Because I totally rock, it eventually turned it into a full time gig. I paid my way through college working retail, starting in high school as that Christmas season cashier and moving on to everything from sales to stock to eventually Assistant Manager. During this time I developed a strong sense of what good customer service is. As a result, I tend to have pretty high standards.
I'm that person who asks to speak to the manager when the customer service rep at the cable company is being rude. I'm also the person who asks to see the manager when a waitress does and amazing job and should be recognized for it.
Recently I've had two customer service experiences that have been really great. My Polar Heart rate monitor was dead. As in, no display. I was fairly certain it just needed a new battery but because I need it to be water proof, I had to send it into a Polar repair center to be fixed. I printed out the repair form from their website and was just about ready to send it in. Then I noticed that they recommend authorizing $75 for the repair. I quickly called the repair center and explained that I only spent $100 on it in the first place and frankly if I was going to spend $75 to repair it, I'd rather spend a little more and upgrade to get a couple extra features. The woman explained that I could just have them call me before they do the repair and that if it was going to be more expensive they actually offered a trade in program that would save me about 30% on my upgrade. AWESOME! I sent it and luckily it was just a simply battery replacement. All said and done a little over $20.
Just a couple weeks ago tragedy occurred when after a run I removed my Maui Jim sunglasses and one of the titanium ear pieces snapped in two. I nearly passed out when I looked at repair instructions on their website and found NOTHING about replacement ear pieces (only the bridge) for my model of glasses. Again, I called preparing myself for the worst. The lovely woman at the repair center informed me that there was no pricing listed for the ear pieces... because they replace those for FREE!!! I should just include the $10 processing fee. I boxed them up, sent them off and about a week and half later opened a box to find my Maui Jim's in a new case, with BOTH ear pieces replaced. AWESOME!
I've also recently heard many stories of people calling to cancel or change services such as cable or satellite radio and the customer service reps bending over backwards to keep them as customers. So my question is, do you think good customer service and a bad economy are correlated? A few years ago I had a tragic thing happen with a Coach purse. Now, Coach is one of those places that I can pretty much ALWAYS count on EXCELLENT customer service. But, I sent my purse in for repair and got back my unfixed purse and a letter for 40% off my next Coach purchase. Talk about disappointment! Coach has a lifetime warranty but wouldn't fix it. Maui Jim has a two-year warranty that had long expired and they fixed it and sent me a new case.
Are companies fighting to keep their customers now? Hoping maybe if they fix the broken item they own today the customer will be more likely to purchase a new one from them when times turn around? I have to say my experience with Maui Jim and Polar certainly gives me more confidence in making purchases from them in the future. Now, I'm not saying I won't buy from Coach again... but it's been a few years and I'm still carrying the 40% letter around waiting for the PERFECT bag.
Labels: Coach, customer service, economy, heart rate monitor, Maui Jim, Polar, sunglasses