What's Pissing me off This Week

True to form, I am a raging hormonal mess.  This is what is pissing me off this week.

1.  The City of Surrey.  Usually I don't hate a whole city, so this is big even for me.  The last week of September I came home to three large garbage cans, each with a different lid colour.  They are so big, they don't even fit in my garage.  I have to let Q out of the car, then park Lola, then squeeze out the drivers side door..  There was an instruction booklet that didn't even begin to describe what was expected of us.  I had to research, research how to separate the garbage, how to make biodegradable origami garbage collectors, which days what product was collected.  I invested some time in this, let me tell you.  I didn't mind, though, because Surrey had committed to reducing garbage waste in landfills by 40% over the next number of years.  I thought I could do my part.  I separated the gross left overs from the packaging.  I washed the gross recyclables.  I put up with the fruit flies.  I dealt with the rank smell of fermenting organics in my garage.  I was proud when, in a week with a holiday, we filled one kitchen sized garbage bag of garbage and the rest went into the recyclables or organics.  The first week I put out the garbage, recycling and organics because I didn't know which they would take.  All they took was the garbage.  The next week, by chance, we found something in the newspaper telling us exactly what they would be taking, so I put out the recyclables and organics.  By now, the organics had been sitting in my garage during an abnormally hot week for October in B.C.  There was condensation on the inside from the fermenting of foods, there was rank mold smell, it was disgusting.  I came home from work...and they had picked up the recycling.  Seriously.  I put out the organics the next morning, hopeful they were just a little behind.  After work, I dragged it back in the garage.  Thursday, they pick up the organics.  The organics that were sitting inside my garage because I thought, "No way they'd pick up organics three days late without communicating it to anyone..."  But yes, yes they did.  So now in my garage sits the fermenting, moldy, smelly mess for a third week while Surrey gets it shite together.  I've done my part.  I've done what Surrey has asked.  Surrey has not followed through.  I am so mad.  Q says, "Mommy, if you're really that mad...you should wait 24 hours before you call them to complain.  Then if you're still mad, you can call."  Smart kid.  He's like the mini conscience outside my head when I need it most.

Deep breath...

2.  I am a Canadian citizen who really, really, really loves Grey's Anatomy.  It is the highlight of my week, watching Grey's.  I look forward to it.  I think, "I wonder what will happen on Grey's this week."  So, when I go to tape it on Thursday, so I can watch it on Friday night without distraction while Q is with his dad, I expect to find it and NOT the Vice Presidential Debate.  Seriously, bumped not for the Presidential debate, but for the VICE Presidential Debate.  I do not care to listen to old men sitting around talking about how they'll do this or that, and then don't do either this or that once voted into office.  I want to see how Arizona is dealing with her missing leg, I want to see how people are dealing with Mark Sloan's death.  I want to see if Derek will get his operating hand back.  I know.  I'm a little weird.  But seriously...it's one thing I look forward to.  One thing.  I did find out though, that I can watch it on line for free!!  How did I not know this?  What century have I been living in? 

3.  I had some training this week for a new process that we're rolling out early next week.  Here are a couple phrases I do not wish to hear from the trainer...

a) That's a good question (aka I do not have the answer...)

b) Why isn't this working?  Why isn't this working?

c) Oh wait...let's try this instead.

...I expect the trainer to not read word for word from the training manual the whole morning.  I can read from a training manual.  The guy had no idea what he was talking about.  It was obvious he hadn't done any prep work for it beforehand.  This is a particular sore point for me, because I applied to be a trainer and was told I didn't possess the *basic* requirements for the job.  False.  I can read, so I obviously do possess the basic requirements.  Then I was going to take a certificate program, so I could qualify and the woman who supervises the department told me that even if I did get the training she wouldn't even consider me because I don't have hands on experience.  I told her I train all the employees in my area on new procedures, etc. and she said that I would need to volunteer for a school, teaching a class.  Which is...uh...impossible.  How many schools do you know of that are looking for volunteers to teach?  Not many, in any at all.  So then when I have to sit in a class with some yahoo who hasn't the *basic* skills either, I get a little miffed.  Just a little.  I can feel my blood boiling as I type this. 

4.  Recently, there was a young girl who posted a video to either YouTube or Facebook, crying out for help.  She was depressed, lonely, sad, bullied.  A week later, she committed suicide.  Facebook R.I.P pages start popping up, with thousands upon thousands of people *liking* her, and hating bullying.  People say how much they loved her and miss her.  Radio stations, news stations, Internet websites are playing her story over and over.  Don't get me wrong.  It is a really, really sad thing that happened.  Bullying is horrible.  Tearing someone else down just to build yourself up.  It is terrible.  It is so sad to me that she felt there was no other way out.  Here is what is pissing me off though....all these people who say now that they love her and are creating these Facebook pages for her...where were they while she was alive??  Where were they then?  Why did they wait until she killed herself to tell the world what a wonderful person she was.  There are signs, there are always signs, and no one chose to see them until it was too late.  No one cared enough while there was time to do something about it.  What?  Does creating a fb page make you feel better about your indifference while she was alive?  Guess what?  It's a lame attempt.  She was a person.  The disregard for human life in our society makes me sick.  Creating a webpage, posting a video on You Tube, liking a Facebook status is not a humanitarian deed.  Get up off your ass and DO something about it.

Well, I could go on forever.  Bad Drivers?  If I wrote about every time they pissed me off, we'd have to change the name of this blog.  The price of gas?  Highway robbery!!  In a few days however, none of this will seem so dire and I will blissfully return to a state of calm.  Pray the state of calm comes quickly - for those around me.

What's Pissing Me off This Week

I'm thinking of making this a monthly post, you know, because it's therapeutic to get things out and not keep them bottled up inside. Actually, I thought of making it a weekly event, but I like to think of this blog a *happy place* so airing my piss offs all the time might not be how I envision my blog presenting itself...or myself...

#1 is The Real Housewives of Vancouver - OMGoodness.  There is nothing real about them.  Nothing.  Curiosity got the best of me the other day - seeing as how the ladies are from my town, Vancouver - and so I sat down to watch for a few minutes.  It made me physically sick to my stomach.  Every single one has had plastic surgery, and their lips are so hugely injected, they don't even have a normal shape anymore.  They might be angry, happy or sad but you cannot tell because they've got botox up in everywhere.  They are horribly self absorbed.  They're so mean to each other and those around them.  They are the epitome of everything that is wrong with our society - where little girls stare in the mirror and pick their image apart, where children are teased by other children because they're different, where those who are in a position to help those in need stand by and do nothing.  If this is what having money does to people, I can do without.  Give me a heart for those who have less than I, and keep the money.

I think what pisses me off the most, is that we glorify this behavior by giving them their 15 minutes of fame.  We watch as they parade around half cut, using words as weapons, and wasting money like it is worthless.

It makes me sick.

#2 is Mama's Boys of the Bronx from TLC.  This is a close second...in that it pisses me off just about as much as The Real Housewives.  These grown men still live at home with their mothers who do EVERYTHING for their sons, short of wiping their asses, although...who knows.  They show this clip from one show where the mother's have gone on a vacation for the week - leaving a week full of food in the fridge...and we're not talking raw materials here, we're talking fully cooked, labelled meals.  Half way through the week, one guy has run out of food, the house is a mess, and he has no clean clothes to wear, and you'd think he has to solve some problem that actually means something in the world - he's completely lost.  He has no idea what to do.  You know what you're going to do, buddy?  You're going to grow some balls, treat your mother with respect, and do an effing load of laundry.  They're inviting all these girls over to their mother's houses to party and such.  It is just so disgusting to me. 

When did it become okay to be complete leeches in society?  When did we reward men for acting like assholes?  For treating women, their mothers no less, like shit?  When did this become okay?

There are children going to bed tonight hungry.  There are children who are abused, children who are alone.  There are children, children, who are killing themselves because they've been teased and ridiculed and picked on for being themselves.  There are adults who have lived a life full of sadness, there are adults trying to stay afloat financially, mentally, physically.  Instead of choosing to focus on these, the ones who need us, we sit at home and watch women spending a $1000 on a pair of jeans or $500,000 on one of their several cars, a 29 year old woman living on the incomes of her two former husbands.

What are we teaching our children?  These children hold the future in their hands, and we hold them in our hands.  Are we teaching them to be sympathetic to the needs of those less fortunate or are we teaching them to stomp on the weak on the way to the top?  I really hope it's the latter, but I fear it's the former.  What am I teaching Q?  Will I be opening his car door and cleaning up after him when he's 30?

Oh, I hope not.

And I'm totally pmsing right now...in case you couldn't tell.