Dear Karma......

Hello all, 
 Well Christmas has past and I lived through another "family" event, occasion, and/or Holiday without my mom for now 10 years! Also without my oldest daughter, Jessica who's now going on 26 years old this May 22, 2012! That is going on 8 years this July 2012! Wow...time flies by when you look back but as you are going through it, then it feels like a snails pace!

   I had a beautiful holiday season with my daughter & BFF, Amy 23 yrs, and my soul-mate/husband, Craig. The three of us get along really great and always seem to have a nice time whatever we do and wherever we go. What we actually enjoy most of all is getting our "P.J.'s" on and watching TV programs together on a cold Winter's night and with a fire going in the TV room too! Of course living together, people always get on each others nerves every now and again! LOL...that's just inevitable! But for the most part, we really have an enjoyable life and we are totally waiting for our Amy to graduate with her MA in Library and Information Sciences and get a full time job and she wants to get a studio apartment in Plymouth, MI; a little town near here. There are many old and large houses in Plymouth, which have an upstairs that they will rent out to someone for a minimal charge for this day and age! 
  I love her enough to give her the wings to fly away and grow up even more and be who she wants to be. I'm excited for her and for this for her! She also has applied to go to France to teach English to "middle schoolers"! She chose Strausburg, Dijon or Reims (SP?) for her three choices of the places she'd like to live. Then sometimes the places help her find an apartment and sometimes the teachers that arrive in France have to find their own little place to stay for the 7 months of the program/job.
    Amy will find out in April if she is accepted, but I think with her 4.0 GPA in her undergrad English degree and her 4.0 MA degree program grades, I believe with the great letters of recommendation that she's gotten and her grades with experience; she's got it made! THEN the issue will be if she will actually go or not...LOL..she's pretty much a "homebody"and really enjoys being home more than going out. She has a few very very good and close friends which can mean much more than 25 social butterflies that claim to be your "friends". I've found that to be true also! One true friend is worth more than gold!
   At this point in Amy's life, she has so many choices and "the world is her Oyster!" She has so many choices and so much ahead of her and I cannot wait to watch which roads she takes and how she continues to grow spiritually and in all ways. We've been through so much together, actually all 3 of us have been through so much loss together! It's brought us closer and has made us lean on each other and be pretty full of trust and love and hope for the future. 
    Well, I do have another story for you today!  Along with all of these nice thoughts and feelings and as these past few days have gone by; something not so very nice happened the other day that I really wish to blog about.
    I will make this as short as possible but just felt like blogging about it. We went for our yearly eye exam on January 4, 2012. The 3 of us all had our exams and it was $78.00 per person for the exams. Then when we were done and my daughter was coming out, they told her she had to pay a $52.00 fee for a "contact lens fitting" which she never was told about up front and which she would have declined had she been told because she is responsible for paying her own "out of pocket" expenses now at her age.

     She told Dr. Cassidy (at the "Vision Center" in Canton, MI) that she was surprised and didn't have the money and the woman that was waiting on us told her that her old script from last year is "good for 2 years".  We couldn't understand why then, would they do a "fitting" and charge a $50.00 fee for something that's good for 2 years and she'd just been there last year? Then Dr. Cassidy who has always been helpful and kind in the past; unlike his rude, crass and unpleasant office staff who we've complained about on many many occasions! He offered her to pay "half of the $50.00 fee". She told him she didn't want the contacts right then and he told her that was OK, but if she wanted her prescription, she'd have to pay that fee first and up front!

     Their contact lenses are 33.00 per box. So we went to Sam's Club where we found out they charge only $23.00 per box of contact lenses!!! Amy decided to buy a years worth there because the price was so much lower! The Optician was named "Marie" and she was the kindest and nicest lady we'd seen in those past few days, for sure!! Marie called The "Vision Center" and "Ann" answered the phone. Marie asked Ann for Amy's prescription and said last years script was OK too! Ann told Marie that she was "the only one on phones and we'd have to wait a minimum of half an hour". Marie said "OK"..."even though they are standing right here with me, waiting for the fax"? Well, Ann then hung up on Marie!
    Marie took her lunch at 3pm, which was the time by then. We looked around Sam's club for that time. We came back in 35-40 minutes and the fax was still not there and no one had called back either! Marie called them once more and asked about the fax. That time, Sandy answered the phones...hmm, obviously Ann wasn't "alone" on the phones! Again, poor Marie got hung up on! So she then called again and after almost an hour, they finally sent a fax. Yes, they sent a fax....a BLANK fax...with no explanation and they never told us or Marie that it was 2 years since Amy had had the contact lens script! So Amy called them the next time and Sandy hung up on Amy!!!!!!!!!!! Amy called back again and told Sandy that she just wished to pay the "half off fee that Dr. Cassidy had offered to her on Jan 4, 2012; only a week earlier.  Sandy came back to tell her that she spoke to Dr. Cassidy and he "changed his mind" and she now had to pay the $50.00 fee which he decided to change to now $57.00 fee and then tried to make it look like he did her a favor by "only" charging my 23 yr old daughter $48.00 , out of the original $50 that she had been told it normally costs, but that he'd let her pay "half" of that fee! Amy was so upset by this time, she just wanted to be done and gave her visa over the phone! It was done! WE WAITED  again....and we waited....and Marie finally called the Vision Center to ask where the fax was? Then Sandy told her in a very snippy tone "IT'S COMING!" So finally it appeared on the fax machine, Amy got her 23.00 per box contact lenses and they didn't even send a "REAL" imprinted copy!! Which means in order to buy any contacts in the next 2 years we would have to go back to their office to get the "true copy" with the imprint! 
    We were angry and upset but Marie had the best attitude of all. She felt bad for us and she wasn't too happy at how she was treated either! She told us "let's not be angry with them, Let's just pray for them to be blessed". She said "it sounds as if they "need the Lord so we will pray for them."
     So after praying for them, I wrote my review on "Yelp" because I'm a two year "elite 2011 and 2012 Yelper"! I also wrote to the Better Business Bureau and I'm debating on writing to the Newspapers! I cannot believe this is the same Dr. we have gone to for over 15 years and who we have believed in and trusted.  He's been an Optometrist who has always been nice to us and professional! His office staff (minus a couple of younger girls that were very sweet) has always been something to be desired and they are just plain nasty  and miserable people. 

   One more thing I forgot to mention...these same women who have always had a chip on their shoulder towards us, & who also have been rude to me, personally in a couple of other ways! While we were in the office that day on the 4th of January; they were behind the desk rolling their eyes and giggling and making fun of me. I'm an Interpreter for the Deaf and can read lips very well and besides...you just KNOW....you just know when someone is talking about you and not being nice and making fun of you...I'm 100% positive. They also in the past have known that my dad and brothers are and always have been very abusive towards me. I've even had PPO's against my own brother! That's a whole other long story in and of itself, but I just thought I'd add that my abusive father decided to take over "MY" Dr.'s! He went to my G.P.!!! Then he started to go to Dr. Cassidy! They knew that my parents/brothers were and are abusive...These women know this information; yet they proceeded to always tell me "what a nice guy" my father is! They tried to ask me "how he was doing"? I wouldn't know!! I've forgiven but I have not forgotten. If he came to me with an apology today, I would even see him still, but he won't and I don't choose to be around people who are abusive towards me any longer in my life! Thank you for reading my 1/2 uplifting and 1/2 not so much, writings and ramblings today! Peace to you and yours! Love & hugs, Suzanne

My Family...I love them! ...and we're missing one and I love her too!