Service Today

Ok, so I am sick and tired of going out and spending my hard earned money at places of business who treat me like I am privileged to be there and I should just shut up and take what ever they want to dish out at me. My husband is pretty much of this philosophy. He hates to make waves, always has. He asks for a burger with out mayo and onions, it comes with mayo and onions, he simply scrapes it off and makes due. Well Im sorry, but at 10$ for a burger that I could easily make at home for 1$, I expect them to say I am very sorry for our mistake, let me get you another one, and take it off the bill. Mistakes are to be expected, but should be very far and few between.

Maybe Im unique. Maybe its something I inherited from my dad, cause he gets the same kind of things happening to him when ever he goes out to eat as well. Inevitably something goes wrong with my meal. Several times I have made special requests of the staff to not include swiss cheese in my meal because I am allergic to it.. (ok maybe allergy is extreme, but it gives me hives and if I eat too much of it I have a hard time breathing) Both times they did not care and fed it to me anyway. The first time my meal was free. the second time they only removed that one item off the bill. Im sorry, but this is a little more serious than putting on onions when requested it not be there. Melted, swiss looks like every other cheese and if your customer mentions the word ALLERGY you should be extremely careful with that. Most allergies are life threatening for goodness sake! Personally I felt that the management should have come over, apologized, and not only offered the ENTIRE meal to be free, but should have offered us a second meal at a future time on the house. They screwed up, they should own up to it.

One time I went to a famous burger house, and ordered BBQ sauce on the side for my fries. The BBQ sauce had a piece of bacon in it, cause they pre-squirt the BBQ sauce into cups and leave them out on the counter. EWWW

Ive had flies in pitchers of light colored soda, Ive had frozen mashed potatoes, Ive had bloody raw steaks when I have asked for medium well. (I have to ask for medium well just to get a good medium steak.. if anyone figures out how to make a real medium steak.. it will be a miracle)

Ok yes, I usually ask for special requests.. but not always. Once I ordered a spinach and artichoke pizza appetizer from another popular restaurant. There was lots of spinach, but NO artichokes. Grrrr.

And frankly, I should be able to ask for special requests with out it being a national crisis. Why on earth can no one get this?

Lest you think Im only ranting about the restaurant industry - hold on.. cause Im not. Seems like everywhere I go lately I am interrupting someone else's day to make them wait on me. We like to go grocery shopping late at night. Don't know why, but that is when we generally do it. Usually after dinner, and it takes us an hour or more to go through the whole store. (so we only shop once or twice a month - this might have something to do with it) So one night we are loading up our items at the register. The young man checking us out was just finishing up with a customer as we walked up. We finished unloading, and I went to hand him my coupons, and he said just a minute because he was making a rubber band sculpture on his keyboard. I said "I don't think so, you are getting paid to be here, and I am NOT". well he stopped pretty quickly and rang us through, but he should have started ringing us up when our items first hit the belt!

Shopping in stores is difficult enough, but when you run into associates who forget who is getting paid to be there, it is enough to make me want to scream. I can't tell you how many rude idiot associates make ME stop shopping so they can get by. There ARE alternative routes through the store, or you can WAIT till I am finished looking at the products. Occasionally some will ask for permission to go by, but often they just huff and get rude, like I am a bother to them. Um hello.. with out the customers YOU WOULD NOT GET PAID! And I am sure that the store is not going to fall apart if those jelly beans don't get on the shelves for another 5 minutes!

these business say they are competing for my business. Sadly I don't think they are. I think they know that there are disgustingly few options around here, and so we HAVE to put up with the shoddy service they put out. Sadly, I do too. The only other options for me is to drive half an hour to an hour out of my way and then Im still shopping at the exact same company I just left. I have written letters to the stores, they don't respond. Ive written letters to their corporate offices, they don't respond. No one cares, and it is a sad sad thing.

In today's society, we are paying people to treat us badly. And people wonder why today's society puts up with the major injustices of the world.

that which is an incredible waste of time

So I have been sitting at my computer now for most of the day. I cleaned out the rabbit hutch - sorta - and went and fed, weighed and photographed the fosters, and I tested Em's BG's twice. Other than that.. I have done nothing. But yet somehow it is now almost four pm and Im not overtly bored or have any idea how I pasted most of my time today. Ok yes, it was reading things, and playing games, but really, in the big scheme of things I did nothing.

I MUST learn to limit my time on the net for a while. Read a book, get outside (ICK!) do SOMETHING..

Maybe I'll go bake cookies

repressed anger

Several weeks ago my husband asked me if I wanted to go to a Rob Thomas concert. I like Rob Thomas, but I said no. I don't enjoy concerts. Too many annoying people, music is too loud so you can't understand a word people are saying, and too many rude people. Well he wanted to go, so I said I would. Totally not the right day since I had just lost a foster kitten, but he wasn't going to change his tour date for me.

we got seats about 10 rows back, on the isle so they were pretty good. Anna Nalick opened. She was pretty good. Hard on the ears though.. loud and not in good balance. Again, barely could hear the words.

Rob opened. Very cool show.. although he looks a bit like an ostridge when he sings (with my bad eyes and 10 rows back) He didn't play my song, but he probably would have ruined it for me anyway.. so that was ok. He played "lets dance" by the kinks which was interesting. Rewrote a couple of his songs musically, so the lyrics were the same by the tempo and rythem were different... again very cool. Also, he had very good mix guys.. You could hear these words. Guess that is what comes from fame and money.

Two bad things are a) the moronic people who get drunk before coming to a concert, and even with the music up so high and their being a few rows over you can STILL hear every word they are waying and b) the couple directly in front of me, he with the 80's sweater, she with the big hair, dancing in their seats.. no.. not the swaying back and forth and waving of arms, we are talking full out dance club dancing. How they didn't smack each other or the moronic woman sitting next to them (who put her feet up on the chair in front of her even though some one was sitting - ok standing up - there)I will never know. She made it IMPOSSIBLE to watch Rob. I would look to the left to see him, she'd dance to the left, so I'd move to the right, she'd dance to the right, I stood still, I saw more of the back of her head than him! grrrrr

(and then there is my emotional connection to music to begin with. I throw all my emotions into music, so when Im weak, I can give it all over and it makes me stronger.. but when its forced on me and Im not ready to let go, it makes me weaker emotionally. Its why I don't listen to music much any more. Too many time bombs of songs that can make me break)

so anyway. You can't confront people at a concert even if you really wanted to because they can't really hear you, and you have no idea what kind of recreational drugs they took before coming. so at 5am (would be more poetic to say at 3am) I had this dream where I was screaming out.. I don't recall screaming AT anyone, just standing up and screaming.. being pretty foul too. I remember thinking it was stupid so I stopped. Which is when my husband woke me up telling me I was swearing and saying go away (im sure going away were not the words I used)

Guess it has to come out one way or another hun?

Well then...

I have been applying for jobs to collect unemployment. I don't really want to be come employed right now, Im enjoying my time off. I have future prospects with a boss that I adore, so Im holding off to see what happens with that. Till I NEED to work, I don't want to.

But I must at least pretend I am trying.. and ok truth be told I AM keeping my eye out for that 'perfect job'. I won't take any ol thing just to be working again. Im at that stage in my life where I feel that I deserve a job that won't degrade me. They are out there.. they must be!

So anyway.. I found one job at one vet clinic.. was NOT impressed with the vet, was totally NOT impressed with the facilities (I mean come on.. you open up the door in the lobby and you are in surgery!) I explained why I was let go from my last vet job (being asked an opinion) and this vet said I had tell anyone that asks to ask the vet - in other words defer to her. I said that wasn't going to work for me, and tried to justify my position. She again said any opinions should be hers. I found myself fighting her, and fortunately gave up almost immediately and walked out. but WHY would I do that? *rolls eyes* I can understand her opinion being different than mine, and I can accept that, but say I can't have one of my own is just something that gets my fur up.

So then I had another interview at another clinic. Seemed to go well. The ad said full or part time. When I got there, it was only part time, five days a week, 30 mile round trip from home. Gas alone would be 40$ a week, for a 20 hr a week job. I had a feeling if he offered me the job that he wouldn't be able to offer me the $ I would need to make that worth while. But then there is the subsidsed health care... so I was teetering back and forth on taking it. (and he said it was a good chance it would go full time with in the year)

I liked him a lot, liked the clinic. There were some negitives.. the co-owner didn't seem to like me. Well actually she didn't seem to even give me a chance to be honest. That would have been hard to overcome. He said he would call the first of this week, and as of yet I have not heard, so I guess it isn't even an option any more.

As I said, I LIKE being home, so why does this one bug me too? *shrug* Oh well. Honestly, it is their loss. Guess its the whole PLEASE let this be the one that works out and it is the loss of the fantasy that is bugging me more than anything.

What else is new.. Since I am collecting UI, the DOL feels they can push me around and make me jump through hoops. A couple of weeks ago they made me go down to one of their offices and log on to their job search computer... cause apparently I have no idea HOW to find a job. Then yesterday they made me come down to their offices again to sit through a 3 hr seminar on how to find a job, and interview. Now.. we are all UNEMPLOYEED because we previously HAD A JOB.. right? well they sat there and talked to us like we were fresh out of highschool and had absolutely no idea how to go about locating job openings, and gave us interviewing tips like don't chew gum and smile. *shakes head* There were a few small jems in the whole mess, but if you fell asleep cause they were so monotonous (I mean come on, you do NOT need to say the same thing SIX TIMES!!! {fyi the six time thing, happened continually}) If Im still unemployeed in a couple of months I get to go back in and do the same thing all over again.

I miss the good ol days when you put your three contacts for employment on the back of your claim card, sent it in and they left you alone.

Well.. I should probably get off line for a while (OH THE HORROR) and clean and exercise.. and probably read that book I got from the library. My brain has been kinda foggish lately, so concentrating has been a bit difficult. Need to work on that instead of just saying "OH WELL" and playing solitaire instead :)

I need to be reminded of this, and often

"The Rock"

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when
suddenly his room filled with light, and the Lord
appeared. The Lord told the man he had work
for him to do, and showed him a large rock in
front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man
was to push against the rock with all his might.

This the man did, day after day. For many years
he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders
set squarely against the cold, massive surface of
the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might.
Each night the man returned to his cabin sore,
and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been
spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of
discouragement, the Adversary decided to enter
the picture by placing thoughts into the man's
weary mind: "You have been pushing against
that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged.
Why kill yourself over this? You are never going
to move it."

Thus giving the man the impression that the task
was impossible and that he was a failure. These
thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
"Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put
in my time, giving just the minimum effort; and that
will be good enough." And that is what he planned
to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter
of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your
service, putting all my strength to do that which you
have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even
budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is
wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend,
when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I
told you that your task was to push against the rock
with all your strength, which you have done. Never
once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it.
Your task was to push.

And now you come to me with your strength spent,
thinking that you have failed. But is that really so?
Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled,
your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused
from constant pressure, and your legs have become
massive and hard. Through opposition you have
grown much, and your abilities now surpass that
which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the
rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push
and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This
you have done. I, my friend, will now move the rock."

At times, when we hear a word from G~d, we tend
to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants,
when actually what G~d wants is just simple
obedience and faith in Him.... By all means,
exercise the faith that moves mountains, but
know that it is still G~d who moves the mountains

the grumpies are back

And I can't seem to get rid of them. Exercise isn't working, food isn't working.. sleep isn't working.. although it came the closest. I have a pretty bad headache too.

Im feeling useless... and Im feeling like that is not a good thing. How stupid is that?

Today is going to be interesting. I have a job interview. I need to get my nails done, and my grinder came in for the kitties, so I need to go out and get some chicken and supplements for them to start them on their raw diet.

sigh.. no wait.. no sighing.. happy.. yes.. happy.. things are good. really. (if I convince myself, it will happen)