Friday, November 30, 2012

50 pounds of junk in a 10 pound bag

Have you ever felt like you are a gazelle on a pair of ice skates and no matter how hard you try, something keeps knocking you down?

The week started out as most weeks do. I finally had enough of the tween induced mess in my house that is also known as my daughter's bedroom, so I went in there with a garbage bag and a mind made up that come hell or high water, this room would be clean. I spent a good part of nap time on Monday afternoon working in there. I was so overwhelemed when I lifted up her bed and saw the contents underneath it that I called my mom and used my "high pitched what am I going to do?" voice. Mom promptly arrived and I knew that if Julie got home from school and saw that I had called in the "big dog" she would get the point. She came home and basically was amazed at the rearranging that had taken place and loved her room. She even helped a little bit, and I know you new age moms (or whatever you would call it) are saying "she should have done a majority of the work." Perhaps you're right, but the thing is, I wanted it done right. I also wanted it done in a timely manner. We made it through Monday night. Tuesday was when all hell broke loose.

I got a message from the treasurer of the knititng guild letting me know that there had been a major snafu with the room we normally hold our meetings in. We didn't have it. I didn't schedule the meeting for November because of Thanksgiving. Someone else scheduled it for the 14th and somehow I had gotten it in my head that it was the 28th. So, I sent out email reminders and newsletters with the change in the date noted. It wasn't until the day before the 28th that we found out we didn't have the room. After some scrambling and running, we did secure a space and had a great meeting, but uffda. Did I ever feel like a pariah. I know I shouldn't have because mistakes happen and it did end up being okay, but it was just another thing that happened that made me feel like I wasn't living up to people's expectations of me. There's been a sharp drop in membership at guild. I feel like it's kind of been since I became the president. Is it me? Is there something that I'm doing that's wrong? This kind of stuff eats away at me. I know you can never make everyone happy all the time but I get in this mode where I am not satisfied unless EVERYONE likes me. I'm working on overcoming that. It will take time, however, I am sure.

Then on Wednesday, my husband was late coming home from work. I finally called him to see if everything was okay, and he answered the phone from the side of the road in a 2003 Ford Brick. The transmission was dead. Gone. Kaput. Game over. We just bought this car in June. My cousin owns a garage and could do the transmission for us. The dealership still has it under warranty and will pay for 25% of the cost to fix it, but we have to pay about $100.00 to tow it back to them so they can look at it and give us an estimate. Are they going to over charge us since they are paying 25% of the cost? I hope not. But do I know anything about cars or dealerships? Heck no. I know how to walk on to one with a pre approval from a bank and say, "I want that one." but when it comes to negotiations or getting a fair deal, I have absolutely no clue what to do. So, I am letting my husband deal with this fiasco. He can talk to the service managers, the parts department, whoever you have to talk to. I'm going to sit on the couch and rock back and forth while I knit and hum to myself and pray that it all works out and I don't end up with a $4,000.00 hunk of metal in my yard.

There's more that I could go into, but I'm not going to because in all honesty, there are people out there who have it WAY worse than I do. I am blessed with parents who care about me and will help me with anything even though I'm almost 30 years old. In spite of all the shenanigans I pull on them, they are still always right there ready to help out when something goes wrong in my life. I will say with all of this car garbage, I've given some thought to becoming Amish. Horses get sick but I'm sure they don't cost as much as Ford Explorer transmissions. Or maybe they do. Oh hell. I'm just going to knit and not think about it.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Trolls and Bucket Dippers

The internet sure has become a playground for faceless bullies to come out and flex their muscles, hasn't it? I've noticed a huge influx in the number of people who will make comments about things that have absolutely nothing to do with them in order to gratify their own egos.
Facebook is like the mecca in the world of rudeness. Having a bad day? Want to go rain on someone elses parade to make you feel better about whatever is happening in your life? Then sign up for Facebook. Complain about every single post someone makes as if it has anything to do with you in the first place. Sit down over dinner and talk about how fat someone has gotten since high school and how disgusting they look. Comment on the number of times they change their profile pictures and how vain that must mean they are. Don't bother getting to know someone on the inside first or learning about them at all. Who cares if they are a great parent or a great friend, or if they have gone through something difficult and posting about seemingly meaningless things on Facebook gives them an outlet or a place to be heard. Don't take into consideration that if you stopped judging them based on what you see on your screen, you might make a great friend. Keep pointing your finger at other people and ignore the three that are pointing back at you. Do you think you might post about things people don't care about from time to time? What you had for dinner? That you are tired? Newslfash, today is Friday and I get paid! Whoo hoo, that's awesome. Don't like it? Then don't read it. Honestly, if you're going to get that upset or annoyed by people who post about what is taking place in their lives, then maybe social networking is not for you. It's just a possibility. People it's Facebook. It is not the be all end all of life. It used to drive me nuts if someone deleted me for no good reason, and it's happened, but I finally realized that those people are doing me a favor by removing their presence because if it bothers them to know that I didn't match my socks this morning, or that I thought whatever movie I watched on Friday night was good/bad/or otherwise, then who needs them? How sad and empty are the lives of the people who have nothing better to do than sit around nitpicking at people for their social networking page. It's YOUR space. If you want to post 0598437689789 pictures of your right ear, then that's your right to do so. If you want to spray your political beliefs all over the place and get into arguments with anyone who will bite, that's YOUR space. Go ahead. But DON'T call me ridiculous or immature or whatever else because of the things that I choose to post about. Don't call me vain because I changed my profile picture to one that I thought was flattering.Be happy for people if they seem to be happy. Be sympathetic to people who need sympathy. Be kind to people who haven't been shown kindness. Everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. So stop being rude and start being a catalyst for a better place for everyone to enjoy.