My Single Mom Life

I had finally started to feel better on Wednesday night, really late at night, but I still couldn't sleep, so while the teens were sleeping, I figured I should try and catch up on some of the household chores that I couldn't do while I was down for the count.
So I headed for the laundry basket and found it totally empty.
I opened the washer, nothing in it.
I opened the dryer, nothing in there either.
On top of the dryer, I found all of my clothes as neatly folded as 2 teenage boys can fold a woman's clothes, the dish and hand towels, and I found all of the bath towels hung up where they belong too.
Hrm.
I headed for the kitchen, I had to put the clean dish towels away anyway, and I found the dish strainer full of clean dishes, and not a single dirty dish in either side of the sink.
Double hrm.
I started looking around the house, everything was neat and tidy, things were picked up and put away, and the coffee table was dusted off, so was the tv and stand, all of the pictures, the wooden blinds, everything was just clean and I didn't do it.
While I was down and out of it, the teens did all of the housework.
They said they felt totally helpless to help me, so they decided to help me the only way that they could, to clean everything up.
That was wicked awesome of them to do.
Mark even went so far as to go around and wash all of the doors, door handles, door jams, and light switches.
I still thought this was kind of suspicious behavior though and asked what was wrong with their gaming systems, were they broke, was the internet down, what was the problem.
They insisted that nothing was wrong, they just really wanted to do something nice for me to help me out so that when I did get feeling better, I wouldn't have to do all of that stuff.
Way cool.
The only thing that I really have to take care of before trash day on Monday night is to get out my box cutter and cut down some shipping boxes that I stacked up in the other room from some packages I've received over the last few months, and then take them out to the bins.

Oh, I finally got Verizon to admit that they totally screwed up when they mapped this duplex for Fios.
Like 2 and a half years, maybe 3 years ago, verizon came through and mapped the street for Fios, when they did, they mapped this duplex as a single family home, not a duplex, so when my old neighbors wanted to get Fios, no problem, that side of the duplex is the address number that the Verizon mapper put down as the single family house number, so they were able to get Fios.

I went over many times and checked it out, i loved how fast the internet was, I didn't care about the tv or phone, but man that internet really was super fast, so I called and requested Fios.
I would give my phone number, thanks, then I would give my address, and the would tell me, "I'm very sorry, but Verizon Fios is not available in your area yet."
I would explain to them, it's a duplex, my neighbors in the other half have it, look up their address, they would, and they would tell me that it was a single family home, not a duplex, there was nothing they could do, they cannot change the map.

So just for fun every couple of months for the last few years every time I saw a Fios commercial, i would call them up and request Fios, they customer service rep would get all excited because they were gonna make a sale, and then they'd get to the address question and realize the map was bad and they couldn't sell me Fios.
Bing!
No Fios sales commission for you today!

Today, Mark and I were sitting here and the newest Fios commercial came on, the one where the Fios guy installs it in the whole building and Ted betrays the red-headed cable guy, and we were laughing about how Verizon is taking over the world, they have bought out Alltel, Chad is gonna be out of a job soon, and the poor red-headed cable guy is gonna end up going postal on the Fios guy one of these days, when just or the fun of it, i decided to call Verizon again, it's been at least 5 months since my last call, so why not.

I called and got connected to a rep named Mel who was really happy and helpful until we got to the good old what's your address question, and he said the whole "I'm sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" speech, and I told him nope, sorry Mel, it is, and not only is it, but the frigging box is actually attached to MY side of the duplex, it's on my side of the property, if you all don't believe me, I can go outside, cut all the wires, stuff the box in a box, and mail it to you.
Mel asked me for both of the addresses on the duplex, the one with Fios and mine again, he found that the other side is hooked up for it, they did have it for a year and a half before they moved, and that yup, the mapper placed this duplex down as a single family home with only one address number, not two.
So I asked Mel what could be done, can it be re-mapped?
I already knew it could be, a friend of mine actually lays the Fios line in the Tampa area, he is a mapper, he knows how easy it is to map and re-map if necessary, and he said it's as simple as typing the correct address into the computer system, waiting about 2 minutes for the system to acknowledge it, and bammo! it's re-mapped.

Mel told me that yes it could be re-mapped, it would take about a week and a half in total for them to re-map and then send a tech out here to run the lines into my house and hook up the router and computers etc, and did I want it.
So I said to Mel, "Mel, for 2 and a half years I have been calling and asking for Fios and been told repeatedly that I couldn't have it because it wasn't available in my area yet when it was actually hooked up right outside my bedroom window to my duplex neighbors because the mapper couldn't tell the difference between a duplex with 2 mailboxes, 2 address numbers painted on the house, and a single family home with 1 mailbox and 1 address number painted on the house. I have called approximately every 3 months for all of that time, been told the same thing every single time, and including that no, it can't be re-mapped, and yet I kept calling, so Mel, do you think I want Fios?"

He said,Well it sounds like you do, but it also sounds like you're kind of upset.
I said "Uh, yeah, I am upset. 2 and a half years of being lied to Mel, when I could see the box out my own window, when I knew how easy it was to re-map it, and no one at Verizon would actually check the addresses until you decided to do it today. So tell me Mel, what kind of deal can I get on the price of just Fios internet every month? I don't want the phone and tv, just the internet. The website says that just internet is $44.95 every month, but come on, you guys have been jerking me around for 2 and a half years, I think I deserve a price break, don't you Mel?"
He asked me to hold for just 1 minute.

When Mel came back on the line, he said that his supervisor agreed that due to all of the mess and confusion, all that I have been told for the last 2 and a half years, and that re-mapping this address was nowhere near as complicated as previous customer support persons had claimed and told me it was, that yes, I did indeed deserve a break on the price.
So for the entire first year, I will have Fios for exactly $5 more than what I pay for my DSL right now.
I am currently only paying $19.99 a month for DSL because Verizon had screwed up my DSL account so bad for like 8+ years, even they couldn't access it on the website, they could never figure out why I couldn't make debit or credit payments online through my bank or with my paypal debit card, and because of the whole "Sorry, Fios isn't available in your area yet" fiasco.
So for $24.99 a month for an entire year, I'll have lightening fast speeds, after that, it will go up to it's regular price of $44.95 per month, or I can just go back to DSL again.
I decided to take the offer for the price because come on, after playing the calling game every 3 months for 2 and a half years, there had to be a pay off ya know?
I would have been totally stupid to say no to that price, plus it will be fun to have really fast internet for a year, I know the teens will love it for the gaming.
The tech will be here in about a week and a half, he'll install a 4-port/wireless router, I can set everything up exactly the way I currently have it, or the tech can set it up for optimum speeds, whatever.
I'll let him hook it up his way, and if I don't like it, I'll just hook it up my way later on.

So that was my day Thursday.
A lot got accomplished, sure most of it the teens did, but things got done and that's all that matters.
Now for today, I am going to tackle cleaning out the microwave, cutting down those boxes, and I'll do the rugs if i am still feeling up to it.
I do feel better, but i don't want to push myself too hard or else I may just fall back down again.
I know that my strength is definitely not back up to where it needs to be at yet.
I need to eat more, get more fluids in me, and attempt to get some rest too.