Christmas Spirit is Trickling In...

... But it's coming with a little frustration too.

I ordered a nice item for Sarah online from Nordstrom's a week or so ago. I was feeling pretty good about myself--Free shipping right to my door... yada yada. Well, the order status showed "Item is backordered. Estimated ship date December 19." Well, December 19th came and went with no change, so I got online this morning and went to the "live chat" feature to talk to a person about it. She did some checking and assured me that there were none of these items in Washington State, and because of the backorder status, they were not due to be shipped until late January. I don't mind telling you, I was pissed. I held it back though and was courteous to her as she was to me. After all, Sarah has a birthday coming up in late January, so maybe I could use it for that or cancel it if I chose to. Besides, there are still a few shopping days... No sense in getting too worked up about it.

After work today I went to Southcenter mall to do a little walk-through of the Nordstrom's store there just for the hell of it. Imagine my surprise when I found what I was looking for on the rack! Not one, but 3 or 4 in each size. Things were "clicking" and I was feeling good.

I drove home in the typical rush hour traffic feeling pretty good about having made the "key" purchase of the season, and listened to Christmas music all the way home.

When I got home, I got online to cancel my order. Imagine my surprise (yeah, I'm getting tired of imagining my surprise too) when I see, "order shipped" on my status, with a DHL tracking number. WTF? I got on the "live chat" thing again to see if I could make sense of it. After the nice lady spent a while checking, she determined that they evidently had a different UPC for whatever reason, and it was possible that there were actually subtle differences in the two jackets. She offered to cancel the shipped order and recall it back to the warehouse, but I opted to let it be delivered. This way Sarah will have a choice. Isn't that frustrating though? I went from "nothing delivered until late January" to owning two of them... All in 12 hours! At least it's Nordstrom's--They have an impeccable exchange/refund policy.

One other thing I did the other day that I forgot to mention. I did a little philanthropy of sorts. I went over to the Auburn High School (yes, that's my alma mater) and gave the music department my alto saxophone. My alto sax served me well during my school years, but was never a very good quality instrument to begin with, and I doubted that I would have ever gotten any decent price for it if I sold it. I decided that I would ask the band director there about whether or not they could use it. He was elated, "Of course! We'd love to have it!" I felt like it would be best served that way because I know there are always kids that have musical talent and come from poor homes, and he concurred. This gives them an instrument to loan to students that have a need. I wanted Sarah to see the whole thing, so I had her along with me too. I have no idea what she got from it, but it felt good to me.

I love to be able to do stuff like that!