To Review or Not to Review

I have been thinking a lot lately about whether or not I should do reviews on my blog. I may or may not want to draw more readers and/or generate some kind of income off of this. But at the end of the day this is still my personal space to rant and get things off my chest. I suppose I can separate the two somehow, but I'm not that blog savvy. But then it also comes down to 2 things. 1 - I'd have to break my no pictures rule if I did reviews. 2 - what would I review? Beauty products? Food? Places? They're all a dime a dozen.

So I have to think about this, again trying to find my niche, my main theme, scope of where I want to go with this. I'm going to have to start by coming up with posts that will generate more hits when people search. While I initially didn't want that many readers, I may end up sucking it up.

Any ideas on what I should do? Drop me a comment!

xx L

Customer Service

Now I know I'm not one to talk about good customer service, but I know from the multitude of trainings I have gone to over the years, that the customer comes first. Without paying customers, you have no paycheck. I also know enough that I am not cut out for most customer service jobs, at least not face to face ones. But that's me in general not getting along with people. I digress. There are a few stores where I see a decline in service, where I used to get pretty decent or great service, to now horrible service. JCP being one of the top offenders. No more than a few months ago JCP offered me great customer service no matter what department I was in, if I was looking for something, or if I was being rung up at the register. They got an A+ for that. As of my last few visits in the past few weeks, the decline is noticeable. I ordered some things online and I had to return about 90% of it, the sizes were off and it's always a guessing game when ordering stuff online - at least for me. I brought it all in to return and the woman at the register was nice when she started the return, towards the end when I was walking away, she muttered something under her breath and was very stank with her 'thank you and have a good day' I forgot an item so I went to a different register to return and it was even worse. This chic didn't even hide her irritation at doing the return and was so snappy with me I was contemplating asking for her manager. A third time which is making it the last time for me and JCP, I made a purchase (didn't want y'all to think all I did was return stuff - fun fact I hate returning things) and once again at the register the woman was rude to me. She had the worst attitude when I asked her when to swipe my card and when it didn't go through she rolled her eyes and said it didn't go through because I cancelled it. Like really? Ok. To top it off she wanted me to fill out the customer service survey and wrote her name on it. That's asking for me to go on the site and rant abt how your customer service sucks! I threw the receipt out but I wish I didn't, I could have totally rated them low across the board. Besides that fair and square pricing is not so fair and square when you break it down and compare it to older prices. They took away their coupons, so it doesn't even make sense. To be honest, I only buy stuff at JCP now when it's clearance, or I can't find it anywhere else. But it's not my go to cheap store anymore.

Here is a story with a better ending - at least for me. The man and I usually go to this spot by 71st Austin St area for brunch and it's consistently good food and decent service. The last time we went, bad on both counts. His steak was well done, with the exception of a bloody vein that ran through part of it. Our waitress/server was not so great on English and struggled to understand what fried eggs meant. Then she neglected to inform us that there were no home fries and that we were getting French fries instead. Like I'm eating eggs and french fries? I had pulp all in my mimosa, which made for a bad drink experience. No one came to fill up our water glasses, clear the table or check up on us. Not to mention the incredibly long time it took her to come and take out order. She took so long to come back for the check with my card in it that I walked up to her and gave it to her. At this point I was fed up, so I asked for the manager. She really tried to play it off, like manager? Who is the manager? Yes chic your manager, the guy in charge. He just so happened to be walking in at the time I asked her, or I'm sure she would have never got him. When she wendy to tell him I wanted to speak to him, she said something slick I didn't quite catch in Spanish, but by the look on her face I know it wasn't good. The manager was understanding enough and shocked really. I told him that we had a good enough time with the server on all our other visits and never had problems until today. He was apologetic and said he is making changes and to give him one more chance. He comped our bill and said to come back in a few weeks and see the differences. So we will wait before going back. I don't want to lose my go to brunch spot.

Will keep you updated when I go back!

The Liebster

I was given the Liebster Award by my cousin Fatima from Baby Teems.  Let's see how well I can do this.

The Challenge: 

Once this award has been given to you you are challenged to share eleven random facts about yourself. You then have to answer eleven questions from the 

blogger that gave you the award. Then you have to pick eleven bloggers to share the award with, and come up with eleven questions for them to follow. Ok here we go.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I celebrated my first birthday in Jamaica during Hurricane Gilbert.
2. I collect ticket stubs - movies, shows, concerts - I have them all.
3. While I was am obsessed with strawberries, it is not my favorite fruit.
4. I've sprained the same ankle over 8 times (I stopped counting after that)
5. My right index finer nail is narrower than it's left counterpart, and grows slanted.
6. The only colors I have not dyed my hair are blue and green, don't think I ever will either. 
7. I'm OCD about organizing things, but am messy in general, until the fated day I decide to clean and I go ALL in. I'm talking down to the way the bottles of lotion are positioned on the dresser. :-X
8. I would like to be a stay at home mom when that time comes, contrary to what most people think about me.
9. I want a Corgi when I move somewhere I can have pets. A Corgi or a Golden retriever, or a Rottweiler. Random and very different choices, I know. 
10. I'm terribly afraid of heights and don't like flying or roller coasters.
11. I also don't like long car rides, or sitting in movie theaters too long because I feel trapped and need to get out to move.

Eleven Questions from Fatima: 

1. What is your nationality? My mom is Chinese and Black Jamaican, my father is Indian Trinidadian.
2. How many siblings do you have? I have a half sister by my father.
3. What was your favorite subject in school? Creative Writing
4. Where is the most memorable place you have been so far? I haven't gone many places, but out of the few, I'd say Jamaica.
5. If someone offered you great wealth in exchange for fame, would you take it? I'm not too sure how to answer this, but I'm going to go with no.
6. If you could live somewhere else, where would it be? Sweden, or any other country with free health insurance. But seriously, I wouldn't leave NY unless I had to.
7. If you were a professional athlete, what sport would you play? Me a professional athlete? HA! If I was one, maybe I'd play American football, or be a wrestler. Something where I could tackle people. LOL 
8. What is your ideal job? I would have to say magazine editor.
9. What do you love about yourself the most? Can I pass on this question? If I had to choose, I'd say... there isn't anything I can pinpoint at this moment.
10. Would you rather have a nice car or a big house? Big house hands down.
11. We all try to maintain a kind of popularity as a blogger. Would you say that you were popular growing up? Not hardly. I was always the odd one out, the nerd, the geek, the loser.

I shall now pass the torch to 11 2 blogs (because 1 +1 = 2, and I don't know that many people)

1. MJ Fan Girl
2. Feeling Fabby

Here are my questions for those above who wish to take the challenge:

1. If you had the chance to change one thing in your life, what would it be?
2. What's your favorite childhood memory?
3. What's the most challenging thing you've had to do so far?
4. If you could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive, real or fictional) who would it be?
5. If you were Rose in the Titanic, would you have let Jack die?
6. If you could be anyone else for a day, who would you be? (Has to be someone alive)
7. What would be your ideal date?
8. What do you like to do when you're alone?
9. What's your pet peeve?
10. If you had to choose between being frozen to death, or being burned alive, which would you choose?
11. What color underwear are you wearing right now?