My Week, Part 2

Thursday, October 20, 2011
Boogie the Giant Schnauzer is spending the day at the vet, having one of his lumps removed. Hopefully it won't be too bad for him, as his vet has found a sedative that seems not to knock him on his ass.
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I'll be mailing my ballot today for our state's November election. There are three seats on our school board that are up for grabs, and in researching the candidates I was struck more by what they didn't say than by what they did. All the interviews were about school vouchers, pay for performance, etc. And I think those issues are important. But NOBODY talked about the intersection between science and faith in public schools, not even Mr. "I teach dawn seminary classes in between solving world hunger and praying my way to salvation." I even tried a search on "evolution" and the candidates and came up empty. Since my county is SO VERY RED, this makes me suspicious, precious. Also? My county no longer springs for the postage on our mail-in ballots. WTF?
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You all know I support the Occupy Wall Street movement. What I don't support, however, is the marginalization of women under the thinly veiled guise of "seeing the light." Dude basically makes a "Hot Chicks of Wall Street" video and then tries to make it sound all noble and enabling. Whatever. As my Hot Daughter notes, "What a dipshit."
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My new work assignments have me feeling like I'm running around naked with my hair on fire at the moment. I don't particularly like feeling this way, but if it translates into me making a butt-ton of money this year, I think I can suck it up and make do. But if I don't make a butt-ton of money this year, then I'll probably be crankier than usual. I know, I know - what ELSE IS NEW.
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How come people can't be on time? Even to meetings THEY THEMSELVES CALLED? And why do I always take it personally?

8 comments:

vince said...

Perhaps you take people not being on time personally for the same reason I do - it says the person doesn't believe your time is important.

I understand sometimes things come up, but if it happens regularly, I'm pretty sure they don't think your time is important.

As for the video, some guy somewhere can almost always find some way in which to turn almost anything into a "hot chicks" item of some kind. You know Playboy is gotta be working on this for an issue.

Tom said...

Butt-ton? I've heard of "metric ton" and even "Imperial tonne" but what the heck is a "butt-ton"???

And where do you store it? a Button-Hole, of course.

Unknown said...

Tardiness is my pet peeve. And the WORST thing they can do when they show up late is to say "I'm sorry, I ran a little late"... DOH, I see that! That's not an excuse, that's a circular reasoning! ::deep breath:: okay, it passed.

Anne C. said...

Perhaps they meant it as an acknowledgement of the fact that you have been waiting for them, rather than an excuse. Is it better for them to not say anything at all?

Unknown said...

Good question, Anne. I think an honest acknowledgement like "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, I appreciate your patience" would definitely be better than an illogical sentence that doesn't really mean much... Plus will validate my feelings, as opposed to giving themselves a free pass for their obvious inconsideration. A generic pacification in the moment, to me, has as little weight as people saying "hello, how are you?" to a vague acquaintance when they are far from being interested at that moment in how they really are.

The point is that being late is rude and it inherently assumes that the time of the people kept waiting is somehow less valuable. So barring a true emergency or an unforeseen event, I find that it's extremely insulting. And not properly apologizing for it makes it worse. [end of rant]

Anne C. said...

filelalaine, the sentence you propose is a good one, and your complaint perfectly just. I have, since becoming friends with ex-military, done my utmost to be more punctual.

I have less poor judgment of the late because I have seen from where it arises. Whether it be from the desire to get "one more thing" done or because you have a baby or a toddler. It appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with me. Now if it's someone who in general accords me little respect, that's another matter.

Plus, I'm forever giving offense to others, and they give me their forgiveness, it seems only right that I give it to them.

The only thing on lateness that makes me apoplectic with rage is people who use the phrase "if you're on time you're late." Oh, really? So I organize my life to meet stated obligations and you have your own extra expectation because really, the original expectation wasn't good enough for you? Fuck off, fucker. IF I ever deign to meet with you again, rest assured I will arrive an hour early just to say, "if you're 10 minutes early, you're late." It's hard enough to meet others' expectations without them moving the goalposts some unspecified distance for some stupid power grab.

(That reminds me: I actually used to arrive late on purpose, even if it was to sit in the car, so my uncle would always be the first to arrive. It worried him to be the second arrival to our lunches because he'd rather be the one waiting than me. Odd, but true.)

Janiece said...

I'm chronically, chronically early, because that's the way I was raised and it was reinforced by my military experience. But I don't consider someone arriving on time to be "late." You're on time - and I'm early, and that's okay with me. I like being early, but I try not to be judgey if others choose not to be.

Anne C. said...

Have I told you lately that I love you, Janiece? Your forbearance on my tardiness especially when we first got to know each other is much appreciated! (It's surprising you did not give me up as a hopeless cause! :)