Cox Communications Sucks

I'm not even going to do them the favor of referring to them as "Mox"--I welcome the search hits. Bite me, Cox.

Suffice it to say that I still don't have cable. I just don't know why not. Every call I've made this week--and there have been several, with LOTS of hold time--has netted me a different answer. Nobody there knows anything about anything. The Cox customer service robots are forced to answer the phone with "This is Insert Name Here--I can help you." I have started responding with "I seriously doubt that" or "Well, you'd be the first." They always seem surprised that I'm calling. "We don't show you in an outage area." It's beyond frustrating, and my chat this morning with a supervisor did nothing to alleviate my pain. She was as clueless as her employees. I informed them that if my cable doesn't come back on this weekend, I'm changing to DirecTV or Dish on Monday. They didn't seem to care. And why should they? They've already got my money for this month, and I'm sure they'll take their own sweet time giving it back if I disconnect.

I'm not heartless, really. I know they've had a big job the last three weeks. And for the first two weeks, I was as sweet and patient as I could be. It's only since they began telling me, alternately, that I'm "not showing as an outage" and assuring me that a "service call has been scheduled" that I've become livid.

Okay, deep, cleansing breaths, in and out through the nose. In, out, in, out.

How was my Christmas? Okay, I guess. Non-eventful. (Does that sound better than "boring"?) Lots of gift cards given--even by me. I didn't even have the holiday spirit necessary to stir up my usual "gift cards are not real gifts" rhetoric. I just caved.

I did get one actual gift. A new cellphone, which has the capacity to do so many things it makes my head spin. (Note: capacity, not ability. Ability will require the purchase of some accessories, which a little birdie told me he would like to do for my Christmas present. Don't know when that might happen, though, since that particular little birdie is currently enjoying a long Christmas break with his children, and I don't know if I'll see him until after the New Year. And no, the prolonged absence, combined with the lack of cable, is NOT helping my mood.) Eventually it may function as not only a phone and a camera, but also an mp3 player.

Here's the pretty phone:

(Note: that is a promotional picture from the website. I do not actually know the soulful young man playing the guitar. And yes, it really is that color. Apparently it was that or orange. "Lime" is better. Though seriously, what kind of diseased lime was EVER that color? Hee.)

So, that was Christmas. There was no yelling or family dysfunction, and I did get gift cards that will enable me to go clothes-shopping this weekend, so that's good. My wardrobe is in serious need of enhancement.

I haven't been invited to any New Year's Eve parties, which is fine, since I probably wouldn't go, anyway. I can't even remember the last time any of my friends threw one, actually. It may have been the eve of Y2K. I remember that one, since it was notable for a couple of reasons. A) I was actually dating someone at the time, and hence had someone to kiss at midnight, and B) we made jokes all night about whether we had enough potable water and canned food if the world indeed came crashing to a halt at 12:01.

I find the older I get, the less desire I have to be out among the crazies on that night. And besides, it sucks to find yourself at midnight, the only single person at the party, trying to be inconspicuous in the corner as people begin kissing all around you. Awkward! So I guess I'll stay home and watch the ball drop on TV. Or will I? (Damn you, Cox!)

All in all, not a great end to 2007, which has, for the most part, been a pretty decent year. (The Year of Liz! With a trophy to prove it!) Fingers crossed for 2008! (And, oh my word, how has so much of a decade passed by so quickly? Those lame potable water jokes were made just yesterday. Yowza.)