I scoured all of my folders and I never got that email from Ashley Furniture. So today I sent them a polite but irate email detailing everything that happened and asking how they intended to rectify it. I told them I'm unhappy enough to consider canceling the order and fighting them on the "restocking fee" (which, given the price of my order, would be around $270). I realize that with an outfit the size of Ashley it will take a day or two to get an answer. However, no matter what happens, they've lost me as a customer.

One of my largest accounts at work involved a little angel who spent the little life she had in the neonatal ICU. The insurer recently grabbed back a large amount of what they paid us, saying they'd recoded our claims and downgraded them from critical to routine care! Right, we patted her on the head and gave her a freakin' lollipop! I appealed and they wrote back saying that they'd in fact downgraded our claims even further but, being the nice guys they are, they won't take back any more money. The account is aging badly and had about $30,000 sitting on my books. Today the boss told me to write off the balances but keep fighting them. I almost cried doing those write-offs. I had a child in the ICU. I had a child who passed away (and in my case they weren't the same child). I will still keep fighting them. They chose totally the wrong person to ring this particular bell with, believe me. But I'm still feeling like crying.

Now about the cookware. I bought it almost a week ago and STILL haven't used any of it. It's like it's so beautiful, I'm reluctant to put any marks on it. Dumb, I know -- cookware is made to be used. I don't know if I'm still having residuals from my father, who called us worthless slackers if we couldn't get the pots looking like they did the day they were bought. But I've also always been a bit O/C about keeping stuff new. For instance, I will actually try to read a new book without bending the binding (I don't recommend it -- definitely not easy). I probably need to try to develop a fondness for the "loved and lived in" look. Besides, I gave all the old stuff to the Salvation Army yesterday.

I just feel weird tonight.