have Saks first

last night i was up till 3:30am "cleaning." that is....going through stacks of papers and bills and yo-yos and used ear plugs and i stumbled upon two expired Credits. one to Saks, one to Nordstroms. at midnight (the wonders of email) i wrote both establishments to see if i can still use my expired credits much like the time i served expired whipped cream and cookies to jonah and his friend. (see any blog entry from last year).

WELL, i was up soooo late last night i thought nothing would get me going this a.m. I was awakened early by a friend on his way to drug testing (that didn't do it). i was then awakened by my sister in law checking in about my mother's 80th tea party tomorrow and about our 18yos double date last night....that didn't bump me into any particular kind of functional consciousness....teenage dates and geriatric tea parties? ho hum. and lastly, one of any number of doctors offices called to give me platelet and/or coumadin results for the day. that almost woke me up - but not quite.

but then...i walked downstairs to SEE the fruits of my midnight labor, the perfectly clean, long dining room table with only an Alex Katz book on it and a vase of dried flowers. the table top is so clean and devoid of Citibank statements and a month of my daugter's blood levels that you can actually see the rings left from the plastic red cups of cheap generic brew when Jonah used the beautiful spanish colonial dark wood table to play beer pong with his friends one night last month.

and i walked over to my little office, adjacent to that room and on the email were two notes back from Customer Care. one from Nordstroms, one from Saks. they wrote me back telling me that they'd be in touch with me to resolve or at least help out with whatever issue i had. that's more than certain family members would do!!! i was delighted. i felt seen and heard. and the satisfaction of Getting to the Bottom of things. i knew exactly where my expired card and certificate were because i'm temporarily SO organized. i called the numbers they left me. Customer Caring People answered. Saks Lady said she'd move the date on the $21 credit to whatever i needed her to do. And Nordstroms Caring Person said "oh don't worry about the expiration date at all! - it's ALWAYS still good."

i suddenly felt adrenline in my body. an alertness. an acuity that i didn't think possible. i think, as i get older, if i have to ever stop drinking coffee to minimize bone loss, i can instead accrue SaksFirst Points and Nordstroms Notes to wake me up. and at the rate that coffee and gasoline have gone up in price lately, i think i'll be ahead of the game.