http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2011/02/16/17293771-wenn-story.html

Yes, body image is a big issue, and always will be for women AND men (and apparently dogs). I know what a good idea is! Let’s write this story to give people a new idea on how to stay thin! I know what I am having for lunch. Anyone with me??? (I kid)

The only reason I am posting this on my blog instead of facebook is because I am pretty positive nobody reads my blog.

Kids….you are perfectly fine just the way you are! No need to lose weight or go on any diets. Just eat healthy the majority of the time. Everything in moderation is the key! So keep fit and have fun! (Thanks to Hal Johnson and Joanne Mcleod)

To start off, I worked in the Child Minding (babysitting) area at GLF for a couple of years (ending in 2007). When I was working there I found out you can volunteer at the gym and receive a free membership just for 3 hours a week. WOW! Why don’t more people do this, I wondered. I thought to myself; when I have my own kids I am definitely going to volunteer. They can come with you AND you get a free membership to a pretty good gym. Sweet deal!

Fast forward to September 2010. I am realizing that this baby weight is staying put and started to think about how to rid this jiggliness. Oh ya!! I could volunteer at GLF. So, I stopped in one Saturday and spoke to the girl at the front desk. She told me to bring in a resume. I was thinking, I just want to volunteer, why do I need a resume? I even did your lame-o training when I worked here. Seriously. Either way, I had her leave a message for the manager as well (who I knew as a CSR when I worked there – now the manager). Well I didn’t hear back from her in a couple of days, so I called. She was not available so I left a message for her to return my call. I didn’t hear from her. I took in my resume that weekend with a note attached regarding all of the above. I hadn’t heard back from her, so I called….Guess what? Not available! So I emailed her stating all of the above. I waited another week with no response. We are now into October and I was emailing one final time that stated I was wondering if they needed volunteers at this time because if not, I am going to put my efforts towards somewhere else. I received a call the next day. Apologizing for the delay getting back to me (I am sure they learned this in the lame-o training). So an appt was set up to meet. I was lucky and didn’t have to do the interview portion of the volunteering process. Here comes the membership process.

So, I sat down with the manager, who filled out the volunteer forms, and the membership co-ordinator sat down with us as well to fill out the membership portion. The manager handed her a “certificate” to attach to the membership paperwork that stated I was volunteering for JUMP (babysitting) and that I would be receiving a free membership. Her response – SWEET! When it came to the bottom of the membership agreement, I was asked for my banking information. The reason (which in hindsight was not a good reason)? We have banking info on all files for volunteers and employees. Of course it makes sense for employees, but why me? Oh well. I had to call Matt to get the account info, but signed my name and filled out Royal Bank for the bank name, leaving the rest of the banking info blank. She filled out the total sale portion in regards to the personal training I would be receiving. I paid that and she kept the form until I got her the banking info. When I came back to the front desk with the banking info, she then handed me the membership agreement.

All I can say is: READ THE MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT CAREFULLY! And DO NOT give them your banking information. I can’t prove it, but there was information filled out on my agreement after the fact I filled it out. I didn’t check when she handed it to me until I started having money taken out of my account. I went back to the agreement and discovered it was filled out stating I agreed to $24+tax for payments and I would be paying the bi-weekly. This was NEVER discussed with me. Of course I would have said no. I was VOLUNTEERING. While I was doing on-line banking, I was scrolling down and looking to make sure everything looked ok (I do this weekly). I noticed a withdrawal of $27.12 from GoodLife. I had volunteered the night before and was trying to figure out what I bought. Of course nothing! So I scrolled down further and discovered two other withdrawals for the same amount! Holy shitballs, they are taking money out for a membership. I called right away and actually got to speak to the manager when I said it was Karla from JUMP. She said that she would look into it right away. Good! I didn’t have to get angry, I thought. This is where I will try to “shorten” it up a bit. The third payment was taken out October 29th, but in the meantime of her looking into it, and me asking where the refund was and I was informed that it would take 10 days to receive the refund, another payment was withdrawn on the 12th of November. It took until the 25th of November to receive 3 of the 4 payments back in my account. WAYYY to long. I contacted her on December 2nd and said that I was still missing the payment from November 12th. Of course she looked into it. I asked for a number I could call and speak to someone directly. She ignored that question like the plague. She was in JUMP one night and I asked her while she was there. She said that there is no one person she speaks to and they will only tell me that it is being processed. Try looking up a number for head office. All you can find is a number to discuss membership sales. Hmmm….I wonder why??

I contacted her on the 11th day (waiting from December 2nd) about the November 12th payment. At this time I was told it could take two to three weeks. Not what she told me previously. While this was going on, I looked into stopping payments coming out from GLF. They charge $15 over the phone $10  online or free in person if I can’t solve the problem myself. Of course I was lazy and did none of those options, having faith that no more would come out. WRONG! On December 24th another payment came out. At this point I still haven’t received the payment back from November 12th. OMG!!! What is going on! I contacted her on January 3rd saying no refund for either payments yet. It took until January 7th!!! to receive ONE of the payments (November 12th) back. To this day, I am still waiting on the payment that was withdrawn from my account on December 24th. I email her weekly, letting her know still no payment. When I speak to her in person she lets me know that she will email me if she hears anything. NOTHING yet! She informed me that she has removed my banking info from my account and no more payments should come out. Does that mean it won’t come in either??? I can’t wait to speak to her tonight. Hopefully she is in. I will keep you posted.

To recap: It is January 27th. I am still waiting on a refund for a payment that was withdrawn on December 24th. I was told, however, that I would receive $54.24 (Nov/Dec withdrawals) back. I only received $27.12. Leaving me to continue to fight for one more payment. This whole time I can’t help but wonder if the membership salesperson has been receiving commission on these withdrawals and is that being reversed????

I look back at it now, and yes, I did a couple of stupid things, but who thinks you are going to be scammed like this??? I will from now on!!

Sorry for the lengthiness, but boy do I feel better!

UPDATE: It is April 8th, 2011. I received a call from the manager on Thursday, March 10th (wow, was it really almost a month ago??) letting me know that she spoke with head office and they informed her that they refunded my payment from December 24th in January and I should check my statement. I said okay then, I am owed a refund from a payment that was withdrawn on November 12th. Either way I am still owed $27.12. She told me she would call me back. I am still waiting for the call. I have sent an email once a week and still nothing. And today there is still no refund for a payment they withdrew from my account on November 12th! Almost 5 months ago!!! This is bull!

Just had a yelling match with a different manager and she told me she would look into my issue in the next week or so. Are you kidding me??? I have been waiting 5 months! I feel sort of bad that I yelled, but come on! I was FINALLY given a number to call to speak to someone at head office (which I was informed it is plastered all over the gym – the one I don’t go to I might add!) I spoke to a person and she said that my October 1st withdrawal was showing as a legitimate membership payment. She is sending me a cheque in the mail for the refund. Why was this never discovered in the first place??? Whatever! Either way, once I receive the cheque, this matter is finished.

Goal of the Day:
Give my husband at least 5 hugs (kisses out since I am battling a flu bug, although I am feeling better) before 9pm.

GOAL COMPLETED!

It seems like the only time I blog on my blog is when I upgrade my site (this only occurs because I try to do it before Matt). 

So I have been home today sick. These sorts of days usually give me lots of time to think. I entertained myself this afternoon watching some very informative TED talks and some I fell asleep to. A couple of them happened to talk about happiness. This is a topic that always interests me because really, isn’t everybody always searching for true happiness?? (Maybe not….maybe I am the only one with this thought).  One part of happiness discussed involved how we are less satisfied when given too many choices. We will always dwell on what we could have had instead of being happy with what we were given, without any other choice. Well actually there is supposedly a magical number of choices that we would be happy with, but this person said we far surpassed that number. I think dwelling on what I could have had is a big problem of mine. I talked forever about wanting the job that I currently have now and how it would be the perfect job, etc. These thoughts occurred when I had an office type job. Now that I don’t have an office type job, my brain is telling me I would be happier with an office type job. When will I win?? I am pretty sure no matter what job I have I will always have good and bad days, this I know. But will I always wonder if there is a better job out there for me that will be my perfect, ideal job?According to my thoughts 2 years ago, I would be in that job right now. So I should be happy, right? Most of the time I am. Then there are times where I feel stuck and wonder why I subject myself to “beatings” from little ones….the answer to this is because the good by far out-ways the “beatings”. Some days it’s scary to think I am affecting children’s lives. Other days I feel privileged to work with the children to better their lives. I work with children that have autism. It is a challenging job and my mood affects how they perform during my session with him/her. I have always said I want a job working one-on-one with children and get to travel to different locations. Guess what? I get to do that on a daily basis. So, I have my ideal job! Woohoo for me! So why are there days where I don’t want it anymore or I am not wanting to go? I am choosing how I feel every day. I think to the point of this blog post is to end with something I try to tell myself every day…and I wrote this to myself when I started the Autism and Behavioural Science program:

“Remember – I CHOOSE my feelings. Choose happiness, choose sadness. I have control.” 

I sort of lost focus on the TED talk that I was watching. The point was that synthesized happiness is just as good as naturally occurring happiness. Synthesized happiness is us seeing the good in things. He gave a few examples. The one I liked was:

If you go out on a date with a guy and he picks his nose you think ew! I’m never going out with him again. If the guy you are married to picks his nose you think he has a heart of gold, but keep your hands out of the chip bag! 

Bottom line = You  choose how you feel. Let in the positive, keep out the negative. I figure if I type it out, I will be more likely to stick to my own advise. HA! We’ll see. 

I apologize for any rambling that doesn’t make sense….this is how me and my sister have conversations. ]]> http://www.karlawithak.ca/2009/01/27/happiness/feed/ 0 http://www.karlawithak.ca/2007/07/25/facebook-information-and-privacy/ http://www.karlawithak.ca/2007/07/25/facebook-information-and-privacy/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:00:51 +0000 karla http://www.karlawithak.ca/2007/07/25/facebook-information-and-privacy/ I knew that facebook was huge and yes it is a great way to get in touch with people you haven’t seen, heard or even thought of in a hell of a long time. It was an article I read today that has changed my opinion about how limiting your profile information is so important to do. Right now, there is an investigation into a murder that occurred in the town I lived in for 2 years and met Matt in. I was searching to find the couple’s name that was murdered and I came across an article that referred to a young woman that was seen hanging out with the killer. The article says she refused to talk to the media about the situation so the media got their own information about the young woman their own way…..yes they went to her facebook page where they have painted their own picture of her just from information listed on her facebook page. They even went as far as to list her place of employment.

“On a page on Facebook, an online social-networking site, a Jane Sparks from the Alabama area said she was born in 1988. The woman describes herself as “a crazy lil chick.”
The page, on which she identifies herself as single, is littered with references to a partying lifestyle. Two pictures show marijuana buds (the site says her cause of choice is legalizing pot) and she lists her interests as “mostly just partying and chillin’.”
The blonde-haired teen, who has 54 friends listed on her site, says her employer is Sunny Days Golf Course in Alabama.
But staff at the course said Sparks hasn’t worked there in more than a month.”

I have changed the name and location, although you may already know the correct information, I am choosing to not list it.

My point is we need to be careful about how much information we list on our page. Is it really important for people to know your phone numbers? Or where you work? Think about just listing what you do rather than including where you work. Does everyone and anyone really need to see who you have listed as friends? Maybe not. All I am saying is just make sure you have your profile limited to the least amount of information listed as possible.

The disappointing news, as Matt let me know is that even if you delete your account with Facebook, they still have your information and will always have it. Although it may not be posted, your name, photos, etc. will be in their system always.

I don’t know about you, but it shocked me with the reference to her facebook page and chose to create an image of a girl who was trying to stay under the radar. Scary!

It makes me think, what have I gained from Facebook? Yes, I have come into contact with people that I haven’t seen in a long time, and it allowed Julie and I to connect and arrange a meeting after three years, but what I have lost is countless hours of looking into others lives, feeling nosy when looking at others’ photos and wondering who has recently updated their status. It is just weird for me that it has become the norm to check my email in the morning and then check the Facebook home page. An odd addiction so many of us have developed. For me, it’s to the point that I just want to get rid of it. It is surprising how it is such a craze! I congratulate those who have not given into the peer pressure (Dana and Rachael) and don’t have a Facebook page yet. No matter what, don’t give in!!