The problem with the whole Rogers customer service setup

I currently have TV, Internet, and home phone through Rogers. This was not my idea, but they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. The problem is that whenever you go to customer service, they ask which service you're calling about. Since I'm calling about billing issues, I'm calling about all the services. But they don't give me this option! It is an option in the very first voice menu, but it's not an option in subsequent menus or on the website. Very frustrating.

SEXISM!

All the best Mother's Day cards say "from your son". And the messages on them aren't gender-specific, or even based on gender stereotypes! Some power in the greeting card industry just randomly stuck "Happy Mother's Day From Your Son" on all the best cards, leaving only lame ones for daughters and genderless children! WTF?

And don't get me started on the difficulty finding a humorous card for a grandmother from an adult grandchild!

The problem with continuous learning

Conventional wisdom is that you have to be learning continuously, constantly acquiring new skills.

The problem with that is no one tells you what you need to be learning.

I'm improving my translation skills constantly by translating, but I've just never stumbled upon anything where I thought "You know, it would be helpful if I could take a course on that." I do employer-mandated training like WHMIS, but I just never come upon anything that I'd like to improve that can be taught in the classroom.

I'm the kind of person who can pick up new software very easily - I don't actually require classroom training to use new software - but that's very difficult to do when you can't actually think of anything to use the software for. For example, I have Photoshop. But I can't use it because I've never had to use it for anything except converting images. Some people improve their photoshop skills recreationally à la Worth 1000, but my creativity simply does not inspire me in that direction. It has never in my life occurred to me "Hey, someone should photoshop [idea]!" So I doubt I'm going to pick up any new software skills until I find the need or want to use any new software.

I would happily take any course my boss told me to, except that she doesn't, she usually just tells me to pick some courses that I'm interested in (and I'm not). I'd be happy to take a course if something occurred to me "Hey, I'd like to learn that," but nothing has so far. I'll happily learn any new software, but there isn't any I need or am actively interested in doing that requires new software.

I wonder if this means I'm getting old and set in my ways?

I'm so sore and grumpy today. I wore my old flat sandals shopping yesterday, and they gave me blisters for some reason, even though I've been wearing them for years. Then on the way home I got on a bus that was supposed to go to Yonge, but it only went as far as Bathurst, so I had to walk home from Bathurst. (What's the point of a bus that goes from Dufferin to Bathurst?) On the positive side, I did get a couple of tops, a really cute skirt (yes, cute.), and a couple of library books, so I think for today I'll just plunge into a nice fat library book and nurse my aches and pains. I wish I had a heating pad, but I don't feel like walking all the way to Shoppers (two whole blocks!) to buy one. Especially since I don't know what they cost or if my Shoppers even has one.

�����Por qu� no puedo dormir???? (Is this the right way to do �ber-exclamation-marks in Spanish?)

I had a drink with dinner and had a cup of SleepTime tea (Tranquilith�! Best translation pun ever!) before bed. I did my dishes and threw out my garbage and read my comics and signed off just after 1:00. I put on my comfy sweats and sat in bed and worked through a couple more chapters of Cancer Ward until sleep seemed more appealing than reading. I sorted the pillows out (taking our favourite pillow for myself since James isn't here tonight) and arranged my stuffed animals and curled up on my side of the bed and tried to think happy thoughts. I thought of snuggling and merlot and quidditch and impending financial security and that time I had a really big painful zit and I squeezed it and it popped in a most satisfying manner without leaving any evidence behind. In my head I wrote letters to the editor and love letters and my MA thesis. I planned my outgoing voicemail message for my office and pondered what outfit to wear on the first day of training when I don't know if we're dressing for the office or for the classroom and tried to calculate how much longer until the peels finally grow out of all my nails.

Still can't sleep.

Now I'm sitting up in the dark drinking milk and blogging even though I should be reading Cancer Ward because I have to return the book this week, and then I've got 2 other books due on June 3 that I can't renew.

This is not good. I had planned to wake up at 9 so I could go to Yorkdale and browse all the stores for office clothing that appeals to me and be home (or at least on the bus heading home) before the high schools let out and the mall and buses are flooded with high school kids. But I doubt that's going to happen, and so it's another day of waking at noon and feeling like a failure.