Once upon a time, I was in a video store with my then boyfriend trying to pick out a movie to watch. I picked up John Carpenter's Vampires, and proceeded to tell the boy about the coolest scene in the movie, where a guy uses his hot-from-being-fired gun to cauterize a wound he received. Said boyfriend looks at me, shakes his head, and says, "You're not like other girls, Betty."
Name::Braindead Betty From::Indy, Indiana, United States
I'm sure all the other parents out there are familiar with their local sex offender registry, and have checked their address. This is just a friendly reminder to check all the addresses where your kids spend time. My MIL watches the girls while Jay and I are at work, and she recently moved. Her new neighborhood is great, and there's even a little boy next door just Bean's age. Unfortunately, we just found out that the little boy's grandfather, who lives with him, is a convicted child molester, who's only been out of jail for 3 years. So this is just a note to other parents to never take anything for granted.
Oh, and for those not familiar with their local sex offender registry, just google "sex offender registry" and the name of your state, and it should pop right up.
I've always been against dog fighting anyway, but I recently found a new reason for it. Several pit bulls have been dumped in my neck of the woods recently. They have been obviously abused and more than likely used for dog fighting but are still considered adoptable. Why? Because they were used as "bait dogs" rather than fighting dogs. They've had their canine teeth cut out, their other teeth filed down, and are about 20 pounds underweight. Basically, they're kept for the fighting dogs to "practice" on, but left with no ability to defend themselves. It's so sad.
If you'll allow me, I'd like to get up on my soapbox for a minute...
I was at the Dollar General store the other day and saw something that's becoming way too common in my opinion. There was a woman in the Dollar General grocery shopping with her two kids that were in clothes two sizes too small. Yet while she was shopping, she had her cell phone glued to her ear, held by her perfectly manicured fingers. It's entirely possible that I could be reading too much into the situation, and I don't like to make snap judgements, but it seems to me that if she can afford manicures and a cell phone, she could afford decent clothing for her kids and to shop at a real grocery store.
I worked at a grocery store for over 5 years and saw several variations on this theme. People would buy steak and lobster with their food stamps, then head to the office to buy $100 worth of lottery tickets. I know not everyone is like this; in fact, several of the people who worked at the store were also on food stamps. I think that's why the other people made me so mad. I watched people work hard for 40 hours a week, jump at the chance for overtime, obsessively clip coupons and still not get the luxuries that these other people were getting.
I just can't help but wonder how people's priorities get so out of whack.
In case you haven't heard, Anna Nicole Smith died. Sorry, I just felt like I was the one person in America who hadn't commented on it.
When did we turn into the ultimate nation of voyeurs? I'll admit, I'm no better than anyone else. I have DListed and Go Fug Yourself in my blogroll, both blogs dedicated to celebrities. It's kind of unsettling though, when the day after an (at best) B-List celebrity dies, video of her receiving CPR while wating on paramedics hits the internet.
It's not even confined to celebrities, though. Think about what blogging is all about. It's the ultimate exhibitionist/voyeur combo. You get to examine the minutae of everyday people's lives when reading their blogs. Is this us taking "keeping up with the Joneses" to the next level, or is it that we're dissatisfied with our own lives and want to live vicariously through others? (Sorry if that's the case and you're reading here.)
I guess there's not really a point to this; I'm not going to quit spilling my life out onto the web, and I'm certainly not going to stop reading about others. I guess it just falls back to the credo of, "everything in moderation." Let's try to stop resembling a pack of drooling hyenas the next time a celeb flashes her coochie, and maybe we can start taking baby-steps back to sanity.
One of the things that sucks about being from Indiana is the way people talk. It's enough to drive a person crazy about the third time you hear someone refer to "worshing" their hands. Or heading down to the "crick" to do a little fishin'. What can you expect from a state whose nickname is sometimes credited to the habit of asking "Whose ear?" when finding a stray one on the floor after a fight?
Having lived my whole life here, and having family from both Kentucky and Alabama, has made me pretty much immune to most of Hoosierspeak. There are just a couple words that really get my goat though. One of which is "irregardless." Quick, before you check out the link, tell me, do you think irregardless is a word? My friends and I had an argument about this the other night with everybody teaming up against me, and I'm just curious what the non-Hoosiers out there think.
Let me preface this by saying, I love my job. I make good money for what I do, I have benefits, I get to goof off a good bit, but by and far the best thing about my job is my coworkers. From my immediate boss who's as big of a geek as I am and discusses movie and comic book trivia with me all the time to the airhead in accounts payable who tries to argue theology with me all the way up to the president of the company, who is the sweetest, babe-in-the-woods innocent lady ever. Sometimes though, even people that you adore can get on your last nerve. This past weekend, there were 3 regional conferences that our company needed to be represented at. The president's husband got to go to Destin, Florida. The VP got to go to Dallas, Texas. I got to jet off to exotic, exciting...Appleton, Wisconsin. I completely understand why I got the crappy place. Low man on the totem pole and all that jazz. The thing that absolutely drives me crazy is the fact that the president's husband made a huge production out of going to Destin, like it was going to be so horrible. *Said in dramatic, fake-southern-drawl, Scarlett-in-Gone-With-the-Wind type of voice* Because it's such a loooong drive to Florida, and I'll be gone longer and bla, bla, bla... *end sappy voice* And then, yesterday, as we were comparing notes about our seperate trips, he had the nerve to complain about how "chilly" Destin was. I'm willing to bet no matter what the temperature was there, it was better than my -30°F weekend. Just a guess.
A few things I want to talk about, none of which are long enough for an exclusive post:
Bean takes after us so much. Driving to dinner Friday night, I popped in a Suicide Machines CD, and the first thing she yells is, "Louder!" I'm gonna' be in such big trouble when she's 14.
Watching a movie this weekend on TV, I thought it odd that the FCC allows the phrase "tap that ass" to air on network television, but not the word "tits." Does anyone else think that's odd?
It's been 9 months since our wedding, and our photographer still has not gotten our pictures to us. Somehow I doubt there would have been this many delays had we not paid up front. It's getting sooo frustrating.
This is one of the weirdest things I've heard lately. How many off-the-cuff jokes can we come up with involving sausuge?
Along the same lines, Purity Balls are creepy little gatherings where girls pledge their virginity to their fathers. I get the meaning behind it, but surely there's a better way to accomplish the same means than host a lavish, wedding-like reception where everyone gets to witness your father vowing to "war for (your) purity."
Everything in my city has been Colts and Superbowl -centric for the past week. I can understand it for the most part; I mean, it is pretty exciting. I don't know if it's take-up-20-minutes-of-the-30-minute-nightly-newscast exciting, but it is exciting nonetheless. I saw Colts bandwagonry jump to the next level this morning, however. As I was stuck in a horrible traffic jam, I realized that the box truck in front of me had the Colts' horseshoe and the words "Go Blue" scratched out of the dirt on it! Now that's a fan.
So I switched to the new version of blogger, if you couldn't tell by the nifty little tags at the bottom of each post now. So far, I'm very "meh" about it. My main complaint is that I can't make new posts in my web browser of choice, Opera. I have to open a seperate window of IE just so I can post. I wonder if I have to do that for comments, too. For some reason some of the people I usually comment to have not been getting their comments lately.
I guess I can't bitch too much, though. At least it's free.
Is anybody else having weird problems, or is there something in particular that you're loving about the new version? Let me know.
If I could reach through the phone, I'd strangle you.
Monday, September 11, 2006
I absolutely hate being lied to. Which doesn't make for a good combination when you work in customer service. People are always, always trying to pull one over on me. Just today, I've had.. Someone tell me they placed an order 3 weeks ago when I can plainly see that it's really been less than a week. He continued to say that he had a bank statement that corroborated the 3 week time frame. I politely informed him that this was unlikely, as we haven't charged his account yet. Someone else claimed they didn't get half their order. Guess what. We weigh it before it goes out. We weigh the same items again if you call saying something's missing. We're not idiots. I just don't get it. I hear people complain all the time about how horrible customer service is anymore, and working in customer service, I see that it's a few bad customers that ruin it for everyone. Unfortunately, we (CSR's) have to go on the assumption that people are trying to scam us, and that makes all the customers have to jump through ridiculous hoops. It's almost as bad as all the frivolous lawsuits.
Yes, I succumbed to the peer pressure a long time ago and set up a MySpace page. At first I loved it. And still do, mostly. I caught up with some folks from high school, keep up to date on most of my favorite bands, not to mention find all kinds of new local bands. Lately it's just gotten out of hand though. I'm starting to wonder if the good stuff is worth all the trouble.
Recently I was contacted by someone I haven't spoken to in years. By choice. Granted, he said he was reaching out because he wanted to apologize for "doing wrong by me" because he's "not an ass anymore" and wants to "atone" for the things he did back in the day. And this guy didn't just treat me like crap, he treated me like a big steaming pile of elephant crap. As in, told my friends that he had gotten syphilis from me. And when I had my (negative) test results back, he recanted and said that he had gotten syphilis from his cat. I don't even wanna' know what he was doing with his cat. But that was when we were all a lot younger. And because I'm a sucker and an optimist, I told him there was no need to apologize; that it was all water under the bridge. I seriously need to grow a pair. I'll let anybody get away with anything as long as they 'fess up and apologize.
I also have reconnected with a girl that I was really good friends with in high school. We lost contact when she entered an abusive relationship and her asshole boyfriend decided she couldn't have friends. Especially friends who encouraged her to think for herself. So of course I was out of the picture. I was overjoyed to find that she had found the strength to leave the abusive asshole and was currently going back to college. My joy evaporated quickly with each bulletin that she sent out. She has become a raging Republican. Which I may not agree with, but I don't choose my friends based on their political affiliations. The problem is that she sends out increasingly offensive bulletins full of patriotic brainwashing rhetoric. It's gotten to the point where it has crossed the line into blatant racism. The most recent bulletin she sent out was crabbing about a stamp the USPS was planning on putting out commemerating a Muslim holy day. Because, of course, all Muslims are responsible for what a few radicals have done. < /sarcasm > I know the easy solution is to stop being her friend, but I feel honor-bound, in a sense, to try and help her. Even though 9 times out of 10, things like this are bound to fail. I just don't know.
I guess I could ignore everything except the bands.
Me: This is Betty, how can I help you? Man (in a very effiminate voice): Don't you just sound adorable?! Me: Thank you. Man: Who did I call? Me: This is (company's name). Man: And what do you do? Me: Screenprinting and embroidery. Man: And where are you located? Me: Indiana Man: Well, this is odd. I'm in southern Florida and trying to call my tennis partner! Me: Well, I could use a tennis partner, but Florida would be a long drive. *laughs* Man: Oh, you play? Me: I pretend to. *laughs* Man: Shall I hazard a guess as to how old you are? Me: Why not? Man: 27. Me: Oh, no. I'm 23. Man: Oh well, you wouldn't talk to me. *pause* Do you like older men? Me: Well, my husband is 8 years older than me, so I would say yes I do. Man: Oh, you shouldn't be talking to me. You're married! Me: Good luck getting a hold of your tennis partner then.
And if that wasn't strange enough, the following conversation took place the same day:
Man: *mumbles incoherently* Me: I'm sorry? Man: This is the place that sells (product), right? Me: Yes, this is (company name). Can I help you? Man (yelling at top of lungs): Your prices are too fucking expensive! Me: We find our prices to be quite competitive, especially considering the above-average quality of our products. Man: I don't know how you figure that! Five dollars for a mug?! Forty dollars for a fucking sweatshirt?! Shit, give a nigger a break. *pause* I mean, for fuck's sake! Me: Could we continue this conversation without you cussing at me? Man (lowers volume considerably): Oh, I'm not cussing at you. *pause* *man hangs up.*
Hopefully I made him realize that being rude and yelling weren't the best way to convince someone to change their pricing scheme. For some reason, I doubt the stupidity ends there.
