Bad luck strikes again!

Boy it didn't take long! About 2 months ago I bought some concert tickets & cashed in my rewards through my bank (a rewards program I pay to be a part of!) and instead of opting for cash (word of advice - go for the cash!) I opted to get a little more value and choose the Marriott Gift Checks, so we could have cocktails and not worry about driving after the concert. In the past I've cashed in my rewards points for gift cards for retail chains such as the Gap & Best Buy and they are just gift cards - no coupon rules, or wierdness - just straight up gift cards to use as cash. I "ASS-U-ME"-D that these gift checks should be the same way. And in all honesty, the probably ARE supposed to be that way. However, in booking my reservation that was going to be $300 (I only had $100 in gift checks) I noticed that Marriott had a guarantee program. So, I looked around, found a cheaper rate & they honored it through the program at $175. So, I read all the rules to the guaranty program and it states you can't use Marriott rewards to pay for it but it didn't say a darned thing about gift checks so I totally thought I was good to go. On the gift check, btw, it also doesn't say anything about using it for a discounted room - it says things about associated rates - like Orbitz or Travelocity, or corporate rates, or group rates but I didn't go through any of those programs. So, the day comes for the concert & we go to check in and the girl snatches the gift checks out of my hand, literally, and says I cannot use them. Firstly, I've never been asked to pay for a room upfront and found this very strange. I felt as though I was being interrogated. We were obviously wanting to have a good time and not let this w-i-t-c-h ruin our plans, so we just asked for them back and told them to put the room on the card. We'd deal with it in the morning and my husbands plan was to apply the bar charges to the room anyhow. In the morning we tried talking to a manager who told us even though it didn't state it on the gift check that it couldn't be used with discounts - it was "implied"!!! I couldn't beleive the words coming out of this manager's mouth - this is America - nothing is "implied" around here!! Everything is written out in black and white!! So, alas, I say - this $&!% only happens to me!

Hello again, hello

It's been a while since I last posted - I can't believe how time flies these days. Well, I've had a lot of "Leigh-isms" happen since I last posted. We finally sold our home but of course not without a little bit of drama. It was supposed to happen on the 27th but ended up happening on the 2nd, which wouldn't be such a big deal but I'd asked to have the 1st of because they said it was definitely happening that day and we drove all the way to Tyler (4 hours) and we weren't able to close. Then, the kid buying the house accused us of removing items from the property that were never there to begin with - the realtors had to pull out old pictures and take him out there to show him what he was describing never existed. By that time we were back in Houston feeling helpless. Once we got word he signed and the loan funded, we called to get the utilities turned off and TXU then tells us that they cannot get the electricity out of our name until the 7th - so, basically, we get to pay for 5 days of electricity we can't even control - seriously, does this stuff happen to anyone else? I don't even know if the water got turned off - they said I had to write an email giving them the acct# and date for it to be discontinued - I haven't even followed up - I'm sure I'm still paying for the kid's water. I shouldn't complain - at least we sold the house, in this market that's a blessing. I just never even thought any of this could happen - why wouldn't they be able to turn off power for 5 days - I bet if I didn't pay my bills they'd have it off within the hour!!