Am I really so naive because I want my adult Christmases to have the same magic that my childhood ones had? Am I the only person in the world who doesn’t want to get bitchy during the holidays? Is there something wrong with liking It’s a Wonderful Life? Am I weak because dealing with other peoples’ crappy attitudes is starting to tarnish the joy I have during this time of the year?
Maybe it’s because it’s the time of the year when it’s dark and chilly and doing things takes a disproportionate amount of effort. Maybe it’s that I’ve got so much to do and so little time to do it. We have no tree up yet. I haven’t bought even one present. I’ve got a project that I need to finish before Christmas on penalty of self-beration. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the slightest clue what to get anyone I know for Christmas, and it’s too late to catalog shop, isn’t it? And I still don’t really have any clothes that fit, and I want to bake but I can’t eat the results.
In any event, I’m so unmotivated right now that I’m having a difficult time getting up to go pee, much less do anything else more productive.
Oh, and I need a bath.
keeping in mind that this is a rough translation from the bare minimum of English this woman actually spoke and understood – will I get fined for asking for someone who actually speaks the frigging language??
Me: Hi, I was calling because my husband signed up for another cell phone provider and accidentally ported his Sprint number rather than signed up for a new number. Is there a way to go back to Sprint and our old rate plan if it doesn’t work out?
SprintPCS: I have that number listed in my system as still active.
Me: Yes, he just did this, it’s still in processing.
SprintPCS: I have that number listed in my system as still active.
Me: Yes, I’m sure it’s still active, it hasn’t gone through yet.
SprintPCS: But I have that number listed in my system as still active.
Me: He just left the other store 10 minutes ago. It hasn’t gone through yet.
SprintPCS: Oh, then he just did it! It would not have gone through yet.
Me: Yes. Is there a way to go back to Sprint and get our old rate plan back if we need to?
SprintPCS: Please hold.
SprintPCS: My manager says that we can’t give you that information. Since you have signed up with another provider you are no longer our customer and it would be illegal for us to tell you if you can come back or not.
Me: Nevermind. We’re not coming back. *click*
Sprint may have a digital signal. They may have near DSL internet speeds. We may have had 2000 minutes and 2 lines and “unlimited internet” (definition keeps changing on this) for under $100.
Nothing is worth being called a liar to my face, or dealing with the absolutely moronic “customer care representatives” there. Being told my account is not valued highly enough to talk to Retention.
Granted, T-Mobile did make a big boo-boo last night and had me seriously considering whether I really wanted service with them. Their web page states:
“Note: plans include two lines of service. Up to three additional lines can be added to the FamilyTime plans for $10 per line, per month. A one-time activation fee of $35 per line applies.”
I called to get hub’s line added to mine and was told I’d have to switch to a special plan that costs more and has less minutes for that. When I told them I didn’t understand why I had to do that when the web page stated differently, the CSR started in on me. “Look, MA’AM, I’m not going to argue with you. I could let you talk to my supervisor, but I guarantee he will say the same thing!”
Dude, I wasn’t arguing with you. I was trying to understand something. You were arguing with me. Thank you for making me feel like an idiot.
And the worst part is that I hate arguing so much that I started freaking crying when I was on the phone with him, then my rosacea kicked in because I was upset and my nose has been bright red since last night, and someone’s going to confuse me with Teddy Kennedy on a Saturday night if it doesn’t die down.
Um, in other news, we bought a popup camper today.
Maybe it’s the time of year. When the time changes, it’s a giant energy sucker. I can’t seem to motivate myself to post anything. It used to be that I would say to myself dozens of times over the course of a day, “Hey, I need to blog about that”. Now I can’t think of a thing that seems worthwhile to post.
In any event, last night I remembered a riddle that my mother was never able to figure out. It does have an answer, but I’m not going to post it. Yet. Can you solve it?
God made Adam out of dust
But thought it best to make me first
So I was made before the man
According to Gods Holy plan
My whole body God made complete
With out arms or hands or feet
My ways and acts did God control
But in my body he placed no soul
A living thing I became
And Adam gave to me a name
Then from his presence I withdrew
For this man Adam I never knew
All my makers laws I do obey
And from these laws I never stray
Thousands of me go in fear
But seldom on the earth appear
Later for a purpose God did see
He placed a living soul in me
But the soul of mine God did had to claim
And from me he took it back again
And when this soul from me had fled
I was the same as when first made
Without arms, legs, feet, or soul
I travel from pole to pole
My labors are from day to night
And to men I once furnished light
Thousands of people both young and old
Did by my death bright lights behold
No right or wrong can I conceive
The bible and it’s teachings I can’t believe
The fear of death doesn’t trouble me
Pure happiness I will never see
And up in heaven I can never go
Nor in the grave or in hell below
So get your bible and read with care
You’ll find my name recorded there.
I’d always thought that when you offer up an abject apology, the recipient’s job is to either say “that’s ok, don’t worry about it” or say “apology not accepted, you can go to hell”. There’s nothing worse than groveling in front of someone and them ignoring you. Was it on purpose? Are you being told to go to hell? Did they just not see it? Who knows. I think I’ll just have to stop reading that blog, since the whole situation has my feelings totally hurt. Which is stupid. This is the internet. This is not life.
We’re going to Orlando this weekend. We’re supposed to be going to Orlando this weekend. Hub’s got jury duty tomorrow morning. He’s already had it extended once. Maybe I will just go to Orlando without him.
I need to buy some more clothes. Just about nothing I own fits properly anymore.
Men do not realize that women often aren’t taken seriously because of their gender. Granted, it’s not an easy thing to observe. It’s not a hostile thing, surely; more of a brush-off. Like the scene in The Princess Bride where Buttercup kisses the ailing king on the cheek and tells him she just wanted to thank him for being so kind to her because she wouldn’t be alive in the morning, and he said, “Well, isn’t that nice. She kissed me!” That’s more of an example of senility, but it’s the same sort of attitude. There are simply those men out there who prefer not to talk to women. I ran into an example a couple of weekends ago at Gunstock. Not surprising, really – hold a gun-related event in Texas and it’ll be full of good-old-boys. There were something like 4 women who were there and visible the entire weekend. One of the guys there… To women, he is cordial but distant. To men, everyone he meets is his new best friend. It was difficult trying to explain this to hub without being perceived as a feminazi or overly sensitive. Probably, I came off as both.
When I was running 4-5 on-site tech calls a day, at least once a week I would show up and encounter a confused looking man. “But I thought there was a tech support guy coming”, he’d say. “Well, I’m the tech support guy”, I’d say. “You? Nawwwww”, was the response. Then I’d proceed to fix everything and garner some respect. If I ran into problems, I’d get comments like “Well, maybe one of the guys at the shop can fix it”.
It is a fine but dangerous line women walk. We are perceived as being complainers, nags, bossy, or feminazis. Sexual harassment is believed to be a sham. I assure you, it exists. I encountered creepy and unwanted attention as young as 12 years old. The whole attitude of “oh, you’re just over-reacting, I was only kidding!” belittles and demeans whoever is complaining. A better response would be “I’m sorry that what I did made you uncomfortable”. Why is it so hard for people to apologize? Why is it so much easier to brush off their concerns and joke about them? Are people afraid that by apologizing, they are exposing a vulnerable part of themselves and therefore might be wounded for it? That’s stupid. Better to be perceived as an honest person who cares even a little than as an asshole. I will help out honest people in the future. I will be much less likely to deal with assholes.
Double standards suck. A guy gets his girlfriend pregnant. He’s in trouble, yeah, but she’s branded a slut who will screw anything that moves. Women who want to keep their last names after marriage are feminist bitch troublemakers. Men who stay home to take care of the kids while their wives work are whipped.
Now all this makes for some amusing life experiences. There’s nothing quite like doing something that’s considered a male activity and doing it well. I get a lot of respect for the buck I shot a couple of years ago. I get private amusement at going to a gun range and shooting a nice evil black gun in front of a bunch of guys. I like being able to fix computers, even though a lot of time it seems like I have to start over three or four times because I don’t get the whole story the first time. Weirdly enough, sometimes women don’t take me seriously either – they’d prefer a male fixing their computer.
The moral? Do whatever you want to do. Don’t worry about what others think you should do based on your gender. If you want to do something, do it – and do it well enough both to please yourself and pleasantly surprise others.
What the hell was I thinking when I accepted as moderator of a panel? I’ve never even seen a panel before, except for the La Leche League conference last year. I’m way too fat to do this, people are going to be looking at me and wishing they didn’t have to. 90% of the time the things I thought were clever witticisms fall flat. I’m not one of the cool kids. I don’t have anything to wear and if I go and buy something it will be completely wrong and I will stick out like a sore thumb. I can barely keep myself together, how in the hell did I think I could keep a panel together?
I suck I suck I suck I suck isuckisuckisuckisuckisuck.
While I was out of town from Thursday until Sunday, I got over 70 spam-ments. That’s assholes who run scripts to spam my comments. Although it completely goes against my philosophy, I’m considering turning off comments until there’s some way to fix this.
Leave it to spammers to turn something great into shit.
