people who don't listen

Stupid problems at work because people won't listen to each other when they talk.

It's been driven home pretty damn clearly that people hear what they want to hear and alter their memories to suit.

I'm just so depressed right now. I can't even work up a good rant.

Things could be worse though, I suppose.

Or as somebody once said (I'm betting it was Oscar Wilde):

"Cheer up, the worst is yet to come."

people who mess with my brain when I'm sleep deprived

So I went to Wal-Mart at about 10 last night.

It was one of the more surreal experiences of my life.

There was a group of really hideous redneck kids hanging out in the chairs in front of the pharmacy.

Half of the store was roped off with Police Line tape.

There was a guy wandering around the store playing polka music on his accordion.

And, last, but not least, the store associates were playing Rocky Horror Picture Show on every single television in the store, and over the loudspeakers.

Totally fucked up, man...

people who fuck up my paycheck

Argh. So the place that I work for, neatly halved my fucking paycheck today. Yeah. HALVED.

Of course, this happens when money is already really fuckin tight, and we were counting on getting, oh, my FULL paycheck to help pay bills and stuff. Sheeeeeeeeeeeit.

However, this is our once annual financial disaster time. Every single fucking year, right before my husband's birthday, we have some sort of monster fiscal fuckup that negatively affects us. Seriously. For the last four years something major has happened to us that makes us very very poor right on my husband's birthday.

This year, I suppose it's relatively minor. We're just $200 overdrawn on our checking account and my paycheck is only going to be half of what it should have been.

At least it's not like last year where we were like $800 in the hole, and I was 12 months pregnant (or at least felt that way).

So I call my mother (who deserves an entire blog in and of herself) and whine, because that's what daughters are supposed to do when things really really suck, and she's just absofuckinlutely wretched. You'd think that after 30 years of dealing with my mother, I'd figure out that she's the LAST person I should call when I'm having any problems, but no, hope STILL springs eternal and I think, "maybe this time..."

Not.

Yeah, she spent the entire time bitching to be about how it was my fault that I invited here to spend my daughter's first birthday here and why should she have to fly because they won't let her on the plane with her boobie prosthetic because the last time she flew she had to whip it out and let some random airport employee inspect it before they allowed her on the plane and that was totally traumatic (moreso for the poor airport employee, I imagine) and why should she want to fly when she knows its going to be awful...

her helpful advice was to berate me for not marrying rich.

thanks mom, and thanks stupid workplace... it's been a great day.

people who don't change

I just, out of morbid curiosity, googled an ex-boyfriend of mine.

Well, morbid curiosity, and a healthy desire to keep tabs on the fuckin psychopath. Just want to make sure he's not getting ANYWHERE NEAR ME or my family.

Anyhoo, so I googled him, and found an interview with his most recent ex-girlfriend in a newspaper. In which she was spouting all of the same brainwashing that he attempted to pull on me. (Didn't work, by the way)

This is 10 years after I left his ass. He's still talking about, pulling and doing the same old shit. That's SO disappointing.

Admittedly, he is a psychopath, but still... I had at least held out hope that he had enough of a shred of intelligence to change at least somewhere along the lines.

But no, he's just your every day average ordinary dumbshit, with the same undeservedly huge ego, and the same utter lack of self-reflection. And did I mention that he's a pscyhopath?

Regardless, I hold out hope for all human beings that there will be growth, or at least some change in their patterns. Grow or die... and apparently most people hit "die" by default.

This is one of those things that consistently disappoints me about people. I'm not sure I can even find it in myself to hate this particular characteristic. It's just... absolutely worthless.

On the other hand, I'm pretty amused at myself in this post. My mother had told me, day after day, when I was in highschool that I would become more forgiving of people as I get older. Heh. Apparently not.

Nobody needs to be in the exact same mental geographical location they were in ten years ago. Or even two years ago. Or maybe even five minutes ago.

GROW OR DIE!

people who oversimplify

So, looking at my baby daughter this morning, I was struck by the sheer volume of information about human interaction that she's learned in just a year... and how far she has to go.

Which led me to thinking about how books like "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" and "Four Simple Rules" etc, etc.

Ok. There is so much other stuff that we have to take into consideration if we are going to be fully functioning adults. And I am very very glad that there is quite a lot of richness and depth to adult human interaction... otherwise we'd still be punching each other to show affection or bashing each other over the heads with milk cartons (or whatever is handy) when upset.

What I'm getting at, is that if we simplify to the point of these books with their rules and their "harkening back to a simpler time," then we start to veer frighteningly into fundamentalist territory. You know, the place where you don't have any questions, because all the answers are right there.

Or as somebody else put it, when all you have is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

I'm not going to deny that as adults we have a tendency to make things more complicated. But, I think we also have a great desire to make things way too simple. Maybe it's laziness, maybe it's a desire to have all the answers... I honestly don't know.

Regardless, this bugs the shit out of me.

people who don't listen

This has to be the one thing about other people that drives me over the edge on an oh-my-god-I'm-going-to-find-a-way-to-strangle-you-and-dispose-of-your-body-so-that-it-will-never-be-found consistent basis.

ok. If you ask somebody a question, at least have the courtesy to listen to the answer.

If somebody is trying to explain something to you, LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'RE SAYING.

Take off the cute little ear muff filter thingys, step outside yourself for half a fucking second and PAY ATTENTION.

aargh.

Like today at the bank. I go up to the teller with $64 in cash and ask to have it changed into six rolls of quaters and two rolls of nickels. Doesn't sound that hard, right?

So, 15 minutes later, she shows back up with 3 rolls of quarters, six rolls of dimes, one roll of nickels... and then proceeds to painstakingly break open a roll of quarters to give me the rest of my cash back. At which point I said, "Wow, six rolls of quarters and two rolls of nickels, like I originally asked for, would have been much faster and easier."

and she looks up at me with blank bambi eyes.

Or when I was working at the college bookstore... constantly would have students walking up to me and saying "Oh my god, I need this book for class in like, five minutes. Do you have it?"

And I would reply, "Yes, it's right there on that shelf."

"BUT DO YOU HAVE IT?????"

ok... maybe we need to go back to basic listening skills... weren't people supposed to learn this in kindegarden?

And this post leads me to my next least favorite topic:

"People who don't read signs"