I am so tired of seeing people (uneducated consumers) get taken advantage of!

A rant! I wrote an email and everything! SCAMMERS Suck!! Those folks that stop you in the mall and say, "WOW! your child is gorgeous.." (well he is!) and then they try to convince you that he should be a model or on TV (well, duh! of course he should! he's gorgeous!) - but most of us know its all a scam!  So then why do so many people fall for it?

We all want a shred of hope that there is something better for our kids, and of course most of us feel our little angel is the most handsome/nicest etc, but its just evil to play on that hope the "poor" parent has (and I mean "poor" both in terms of economics as well as in terms of pressure to do better for your kids).

Just wrote the letter below to the Kiosk leasing VPs at Westfield mall and sent a similar note to the Stamford Center mall.  (The site where I found the Westfield email addresses - if you are also so inclined to write to them is here: http://www.westfield.com/corporate/property-portfolio/united-states/specialty-leasing/ )

These people in the modeling Kiosks are just trying to make a buck too - but how can they live with themselves and sleep at night?!?!  There is so much information online about the tricks, scams, and high pressure sales they use once they get you in their web of lies...  So just say "no" at the get-go! Don't let them "catch" you! Keep on walking when they come up to you at the mall! I think a part of getting this deception and flim-flam scam to stop, is the malls not giving them space/opportunity to catch you!!!

-----
To Whom it may concern,

I am writing this in regards to the tv auditions/modeling agency booth kiosk at the Trumbull CT Westfield mall - there is a ton of information available regarding complaints of this same company under different names (interface, Industry Models & Talent Studios) and they are also at some of your other CT and New Jersey mall locations.

This is an organization with well documented complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the Departments of Consumer protection.  The are primarily a SCAM company that lures parents into their offices and corners and cons them into paying $500-$1000 or more for photo packages in the hopes of getting their children into modeling. These companies have a tiny percentage of "clients" that they occasionally can pass off to real agencies so they can then claim to have success stories - but the majority of their services are of the bait and switch nature and are deception based with the only intent of parting consumers from their money for little or nothing in return except frustration and dashed hopes after being scammed by a con-artist.  

And this should be no surprise to your company as it is all old news, complaints against these companies are very well documented and available online and elsewhere - and yet your malls continue to allow these SCAM artists to corner large numbers of your more naive customers. And although they may be getting through a loophole by no longer being legally allowed to speak to or get personal contact information from underaged children without a parent present, they have no hesitation to coax or pressure a parent in front of a child who has a hope of a career in TV or modeling.   

The perception we, your customers, have of Westfield Malls is that you are guilty by association for helping these horrible companies to take advantage of us and our children!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE break your leases with these companies and remove them from your malls. 

(here is an old link to one of many stories about this type of scam.  http://ctwatchdog.com/finance/interface-complaints-conn-consumer-protection-cracks-down-on-new-jersey-photo-firm-that-targets-children)

I beg of you to remove these types of flim-flam scam artists from your malls.  This soils the reputation of your company and you will lose consumer trust and dollars by allowing these people retail space in your malls.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely

Mrs Sandra Vasquez

Norwalk CT

Travel Adventure Tips

I missed the posting deadline again for our SpinClass Writers Group this week 
(http://spinclass.wordpress.com) - so as I had this burning a hole in my brain, I had to put it here instead...(recovered and updated from my old Geo-cities website which now lives in the Geo-cities Archive project http://www.geocities.ws/sandidv/)

This post could also be titled "Ways to make or break a relationship."

While I am not a jet setting world traveler, I have taken two outstanding cross-country trips – one with my boyfriend, who later became my husband perhaps because of our trip, and one with a college girlfriend who I have “unintentionally” lost touch with.

If you'd like to test the strength of your relationship with your significant other, before you commit to something longer term, I suggest taking a cross-country trip – and by “take”  - I mean DRIVE. Our trip was round trip, New York City to Seattle Washington.  But if you attempt to do this with your love interest, in order to thoroughly test your relationship it’s worthwhile to note that the destination is not as important as how you get there...  (and please note much of this should be read with an undertone of sarcasm)

So here are a few tips to remember:

• Try to over pack - and then also cram all possible belongings you think you could possibly find yourself needing in an emergency into the back of a 90's Acura Integra hatchback. 
• And for extra safety, be sure to properly position the huge load you crammed into the back of the car so that you are unable to see out the rear window.
• If you don't own a tent, don’t buy one… borrow one.  But be sure it is no bigger than a two-man pup tent (this is especially important if your significant other is over 6 foot tall)
• Empty out your bank accounts but be sure the money you both bring only totals just enough to get you one way across the country.  
• As you drive cross country at night, make sure your significant other is so awed by the incredible starry Montana night sky that he has no choice but to stop his now invisible black car in the middle of the unlit highway and turn off his headlights to get a better view of the stars – this will help you to feel like you are about to pee your pants in fear of a speeding truck or other vehicle coming along and being unable to see you or stop…
• Feel flattered after your trip when your boyfriend tells you “if you can travel cross country with someone and not want to kill them along the way – maybe they are a keeper…”

But be assured that Cross country (driving) trips are also recommended for testing the strength of your friendships.

• And again, be sure to first empty out your bank accounts and to take only enough money to get you one way…
• Encourage your friend to bring her hundred pound dog, which you are probably allergic to.

• Be sure that the dog is having an allergic reaction to flea bites and is losing her hair in patches which gently float on the breeze in the car when you have the windows open
• Be sure to have no air conditioning in your early 80's Subaru wagon (so you almost always have the windows open… see previous item)
• Be sure to travel through New Mexico and Arizona during July when you can catch those record high temps (it really is a dry heat… and see the two prior items)
• Be sure to visit Chaco Canyon and don’t let your friend warn you ahead of time about the scorpions and rattlesnakes that may settle outside your tent at night.  (best to not pee before you go to bed to assure you will only see them with your flashlight just before you potentially step on them on your way to the bathroom…)
• be sure to also make a side trip to rescue an additional hundred pound dog from a white supremist-racist in Kentucky who lives on a former slave era tobacco plantation and who named the black furred dog “watermelon”
• be sure to enjoy peacefully sleeping over on the plantation once you realize its too late at night to drive on unlit and unpaved Kentucky back roads though the tobacco fields and then try to escape as quietly as possible the next morning without having to see "the man" again
• be sure when you put the second hundred pound dog  in the back of the car that it will fight constantly with the first one
• be sure that the second dog ,who has never traveled before, is also so traumatized by the trip that he constantly tries to climb into the front seats and sit in your lap while you are driving
• If your friend then takes you and the dogs to her cabin in the remote mountains of Idaho, check ahead of time to be sure that there is no running water - and especially that the outhouse is far enough away from the cabin that you are sure to get lost in the dark coming back from it.
• Also be sure that the outhouse seat is cracked and painfully pinches your butt no matter how you try to sit on it
• Additionally be sure that the particular breed of dogs that you are traveling with is a herding breed – so when you frolic ahead of them in an Idaho field, enjoying the sun and breeze – they feel the need to run behind you and nip your ass to keep you in line!

but most of all - bring an open mind and find the fun and humor in it all - on a road trip and in life - there's always an adventure to be found!

“Sometimes it's a little better to travel than to arrive”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Witness

I ask myself, “who am I to write about the horrific and historical events that happened 10 years ago on Sept 11, 2001?” I didn’t personally lose a family member or friend.  And although we have family living in New York City and some within a few blocks of the area where the twin towers once stood – they were all physically unharmed.

So I ask myself again, “who am I to write about Sept 11^th?”  What right do I have to write about a time, and an event that caused so much deep and personal pain to so many?  But didn’t affect me to that level?

Who am I to write about Sept 11^th? I wasn’t there - but we live a mere 50 miles away from where the World Trade Center once stood.   Why do I feel I can write about Sept 11^th? Because, not only was this a horrific historic event, it was for us in this part of commuterville CT, a local event.

So who am I to write about Sept 11^th? I am a witness.  I am a witness to a moment in time that will be remembered by all the witnesses for ages to come.

On my drive to work, I heard the breaking news report by our local/NYC radio station about a plane that had crashed into the North tower moments before.  Then just after 9am as my stunned coworkers and I gathered and watched the live local news report about the “accident” on TV, our coffee cups in hand, we witnessed both in amazement and horror as the second plane crashed into the South tower…  I am a witness to their shock and pain, many of them were reverse commuters who lived in NYC and rode the train daily to our office in Westport CT.

I was a tearful witness to stress of the wives and husbands and family members not being able to contact their loved ones in NYC to check if they were ok, as the cell phone towers were knocked out. 

I was a witness to our commuter train stations being eerily empty of returning riders during the usual evening rush, and to the horror on the faces of some of the ones who made it back. 

And I am a witness to the pain on the faces of the people who waited there at the stations for hours – hoping the next train that arrived would be carrying their heart back to them.  I am a witness to the many flyers posted there for days-weeks-months after that followed, “have you seen… missing… 9/11…”

And I am a volunteer mourner.  I don’t know the deceased other than when their thousands of names are read aloud every year for the last 10 years, but I mourn for them on behalf of their families.  And I mourn for the thousands of families who’s loved one was never even identified.

I pray for the victims and for God to lighten the burdens of those they left behind.  I will mourn for the loss every year when lists are read again.  And I will always try to stop what I’m doing, to listen and pray and probably choke back tears or cry for a bit as I admit that I cannot even imagine what this must be like for them.

And I am a mourner every time another local news story tells us how yet another “survivor” or Firefighter or NYPD officer or rescuer has died of health issues related to dust inhalation.   

I am a witness to terror – to humanities ability to hate on each other with such violence and disregard for life – if its culture is different than yours…

And I am a witness to heroism – to humanities ability to help, to throw themselves into danger – at the true risk of their own life – to save a fellow human…

And I am a witness to the NYC skyline landscape which we took for granted - being forever changed.  Driving into the city shortly after 9/11 to check on Ma, we were surprised at the skyline, the plumes of dust and smoke that lingered and hung over the city for days on end.  And then, once the air was cleared, seemingly a million years later, the gaping hole left in the skyline.

My 8 year old – and all the children born after 2001 may never really get it... This is “ancient” history to them, perhaps much in the same way as segregation, Dr King’s assassination, vinyl records and 8 track tapes are in the past to them. So I am an intentional witness to them – I tell them why we all should stand still and say a prayer or give thanks for our lives even for a moment on this day.  It happened in other places too – not just in NYC – and it could have happened anywhere to any of us.  So, even 10 years later, even if it happened before you were born, we should remember.   

I’m a witness and a mourner - and every year for the last 10 years I dig up and remember what I wish had never happened, what I wish I had never seen or heard or shared through the faces and hearts of the people around me – and every year I cry and choke up and then on Sept 12^th I hide my pain back down deep inside because ... who am I to feel like this? by what right do i have these feelings of pain? I was not a "victim"... I am only a witness.