Author Archives: Jen

About Jen

Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

The L.L. Bean Incident

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(To those at L.L. Bean reading this: Don’t worry — I’m talking about how AWESOME your customer service is and how much I love you.)

So… Jon and I got a MASSIVE L.L. Bean gift card from my in-laws for our anniversary (which is tomorrow!) and I decided to get a new swimsuit with it. I ordered a dark green/teal camisole-type top and black swim/jogging shorts figuring that it would be modest and also cover up parts of my body that I’m not so secure with at the moment.

Well… I ordered them with express shipping and it arrived yesterday. I finally got to open the package today and found, to my horror, that they had sent me some black-flowered thing instead of the black shorts. So… I drove to town feeling like I was going to cry — I leave for a mini-vacation on Tuesday and I kind of WANTED this stuff for that!

I got to town and figured that I’d open the bag with the shorts and at least see what they looked like. Well… therein lay the problem because the bag was incorrectly labelled — it contained a humongous black swim top!!! I called L.L. Bean posthaste and was put through to a wonderful customer service rep who quickly explained that they would be refunding ALL of my shipping costs and offered to expedite the shorts to where I’m going to be next week.

Well… I happened to be next to the local independent clothing store and I went in there to see if they had something that would work for right now.Â? They did (!!!!) so I called L.L. Bean back and worked through a deal with the next customer service rep to get my shorts though not expedited.

So… all’s well that ends well and I just spent the rest of my gift card there for some things for both Jon and I.

Triduum Update

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So… I’ve had a pretty nice Triduum this year.Â? (I provided the link for those who are not uber-liturgical type people.)

I went to church in town after church on Thursday and got to exercise my mad choir skillz (thank God for choir privileges there) as well as have a nice quiet service and all that. It’s kind of nice to have a preacher other than Jon occasionally because it’s different enough that I pay attention better and it makes me appreciate the things Jon does well in his preaching.Â? Oh yes… I’m also an evil sinner because with only 2.5 days left until Easter, I broke my Lenten fast and had a Coke with lunch.Â? *insert self-flagellation*

Yesterday, I did the 12-3 fast and went for a walk during lunch to get my mind off of food.Â?Â? While on my walk, I met a very nice Maine Coon cat who allowed me to come close and who sniffed the fingers of my gloves.Â? I left chocolate eggs on/in everyone’s desk with a note saying “From the Easter Cat” so it was kind of cool to have a cat to reference.Â? After grabbing a quick Veggie Delight sub in town, I went to Church #1 and got there early.Â? While waiting for Jon to bring me clothes (I was in jeans and running shoes and figured that I should look a little nicer for Good Friday worship), I got to sit and jam with the people doing music for the service and the whole fellowship/singing old-time gospel songs was really a blessing to me.Â? The service itself was incredibly moving and reading the part of Caiaphas during the Passion story was also pretty intense as I realized the stuff I was saying.Â? That plus the music made me a little teary during the prayers which I guess wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Today, I got to sleep in before going to town to do errands… and having a few frantic phone calls with L.L. Bean over them messing up my order.Â? (That’s another entry.)Â? I stopped at the library and loaded up on murder mysteries to read while I’m off next week, did some grocery shopping, and headed home.

Right now, I’m engaging in some “geek spring-cleaning” as my mother-in-law refers to it — I’m cleaning old crap off my laptop and putting pictures onto CD’s for storage because I’m running out of space.Â? I’m hoping the cleaning will make my laptop run better — especially because I have some things I need to do next week!

Happenings Lately

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[-] Got my taxes done early using TurboTax.Â? For the first time since Jon was ordained, the government is giving us money back which is going toward our April estimate.
[-] The hyperextended knee is pretty well healed up.Â? Now if I could figure out what I did to the other knee…
[-] Engaged in some retail therapy in Great Falls yesterday.Â? Hit up Bath & Body Works, Lady Foot Locker (replaced my 3 year old running shoes with ones that actually *have* arch support), Victoria’s Secret, Wally World, and 2-J’s (like Trader Joe’s).Â? Also had dinner with my aunt and uncle.
[-] Holy Week has started.Â? Jon preached a perfectly depressing sermon today on how Jesus CHOSE to suffer and didn’t take the easy way out and we sang “Ah Holy Jesus”.Â? Yes… I like the somberness and the really OLD hymns we get on Good Friday and during the rest of Holy Week — I know I’m weird.
[-] I’ll be in Chico Hot Springs from the 25th to 28th for the synod pastor’s conference (I get to go chill this year) and I have the Clergy Spouse Retreat from April 4th to 6th so I’ll be getting around the state quite a bit.

This Past Week or So

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-Hyperextended my knee last Saturday kickboxing (OK… doing taebo — it counts!) so I’ve been in various states of knee braces and such.Â? So far, the ACE bandage wins.Â? (Back to having Billy Blanks kick my @$$ as of today.)
-Working strange schedules to make my 40 hours this week despite my quarterly doctor’s appointment/lecture on my sugars/cholesterol and dealing with Montana bureaucracy.
-Eating waaaaaay too much Subway as I work weird hours and need food fast on the way home.
-Just finished Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey — I recommend it for those who likedÂ? The DaVinci Code.Â? It’s the same kind of thing except based around the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels at Nag Hammadi.