Gracious

I'm fed up with mainstream entertainment. Today, I caught an episode of this new TV show called The Millionaire Matchmaker. It was completely ridiculous. There's a woman named Patti who runs a business out of matching millionaire men with women who have been screened beforehand. This is what I gathered from today's episode: Patti is so far from being qualified to match people that I honestly think a five-year-old could do a better job. She actually said on camera that her business' goal is to "sell love," which is wrong in so many ways to start with. She has a couple of girls who help her screen millionaire applicants, which just means they make sure that the guys have a lot of money in the bank. Then all the desperate women who know about show send in pictures of themselves so Patti and her crew can weed out the pool based on looks. "No, too plain Jane," etc.

Next, Patti meets with the millionaires to find out why they aren't married yet and sets out to fix whatever quirks are keeping them from walking down the aisle. On today's show, both of the guys seemed sweet, but one needed some help with his rocker wardrobe and one was...to be blunt...boring and asked too many questions. Ok, so they need to call up their moms or get a good female friend to give them a few tips. They certainly don't need some matchmaking service to "fix" them to fit into what a millionaire "should" be like. Patti told one of the guys that he needed to move into an upscale home to find love.......

What?

The guy owned two really nice properties but chose to live in a house with his old college roommates when he was in the area and asked Patti if he really wanted a girl who only liked him for his upscale homes. As for the house, it could use a little cleaning and I understand that a grown man still having two roommates is a little eh, but I felt sorry for the guy being yelled at. I thought he was going to put up a fight, but at the end of the episode, he was looking for an expensive condo.

But back to the matchmaking process. So once the ladies weeded out the plain Janes, they picked 12 women to meet the two millionaires to see if anyone clicked. If so, they went on another date. I don't understand. There's no natural setting, there's a ton of pressure and maybe...just maybe...the guys would have clicked better with a non Baywatch-looking girl.

But what really got me is when Patti told one of the guys that he had to decide to fall in love before it would happen. I almost changed the channel. I probably should have, but I was enthralled with the superficiality of the show...

What's worse is all these commercials for psychic love readings. "Are you and your lover meant to be? Text love to 6637."

"Call 1-800-555-3476 for your free reading to see what this year has in store for your love life."

"Want to see if you're a match made in heaven? Text your name and your lover's name now to find out."

Or what about the ads for chat lines featuring some unrealistic female talking on the phone in lingerie? First of all, who wears lingerie if they're alone? Second of all, I guarantee you that the majority of the people who are that desperate do NOT look like that.

What's the customer service number? I'm going to tell them what's what. Are there really people out there who are going to break up with their boyfriend or girlfriend if an absurd text tells them their love score is 3 instead of 10? Where are these people? Can I whack them across the head and tell them that all that stuff is so foolish it's not funny?...

I'm also sick of hearing the same five songs on the radio. It's either hearing people talk all day, two million obnoxious car commercials in a row or some crap music that someone gets paid for. I'd rather count the number of illegal drivers that pass me on the road. By the way, I've decided that Charlotte has some of the worst drivers EVER. I know I'm not perfect, but sometimes I think everyone is just trying to kill me. It's like bumper cars without the giggles...

In other news, I got a new job! I start working as a full-time staff writer at the Enquirer-Journal in Monroe on Monday. Eight-thirty in the morning in fact. Ew. It already takes about 40 minutes to get there...But that should be the only day that I'll have to be there that early. I'm going to meet some judges and media reps at the courthouse that morning and then work on some features. It's a big weight off my shoulders because I had no idea how I was going to pay for everything coming up. Rent: $350 a month, tuition: $382 a month for 4 months (for two classes), cell phone bill: $50 a month, Texaco bill: $100 this month. Then groceries and whatever else I may need, plus things that Dad calls "unexpected expenses." I've also added a category called "things I forget about." Oil-changes, haircuts and new tennis shoes go here. I'm sorry, when does my money get here? I thought I signed up for direct deposit; they must be forwarding it to someone else. It all seems pretty indirect to me. Twenty-three hours a week just doesn't cut it...expecially when a fourth of it goes toward taxes, so this job is a good thing.

Plus, I've decided that people annoy me a lot at my current job. A communications major probably shouldn't feel this way. But honestly, I talk to some customers and literally have to take a deep breath and wait for the redness in my face to fade away before I can speak. There are some crazy people out there, and I think most of them are on my call list. Whoever made patience a virtue never worked in customer service. I suppose I should get used to it.

I told Sarah that I've probably brought it on myself. For the past year, I've prayed for more patience and shoot me now if God didn't take me seriously. Any time I'm behind a slow driver or call a customer who forgot to put in her hearing aid, I can't help but think, "Alright, God. I know I asked for patience. Fine, so I did." Gosh darn it.

After I ran into an incredibly rude dental assistant last week and almost lost it, I figured I must still need work.

As far as school, it's going pretty well. I turned in my first paper yesterday! It was on epistological literature in the New Testament. It took me two days (the two days before it was due), but would have taken me one if I hadn't been distracted by nice weather and gotten frustrated with the footnote option in Microsoft Word. And it only had to be 6-8 pages, which isn't much at this point. Mine was two lines over 8 pages, so I figure I'm in good shape for the other four papers I'll have to write for that class.

To end this entry, I have a story! A couple weeks ago, one of my co-workers called a customer who told her why she wanted to cancel her subscription. The customer has a brain tumor - terminal - her husband was recently laid off and their insurance won't cover whatever she needs to have done. I don't know all the specifics, but the doctor told her she has a year to live without treatment and two years with it. He suggested she not have treatment because the insurance won't cover it and it's terminal anyway. (Hopefully he didn't tell her that so bluntly). So anyway, when my co-worker got off the phone and told us all of that, we were completely silent. What would I say to someone like that when I'm sitting here, annoyed that I have to talk louder for a customer who's hard of hearing? When I get frustrated that it takes longer than usual to get to work because of some road construction? It really puts things in perspective.

I started thinking that if I was told I had a year to live, my outlook would probably be different. I would have more fun, worry less and stay on the phone longer with friends and family. I would roll down the window more, play the music louder and completely embarrass myself at a red light by singing at the top of my lungs. I would give more things away, go barefoot more and finally write all my quotes in one book. I would visit every relative I know of and spend a week with each of them and never once accept that I had a year to live. I think the whole world would be different if we all lived like it's the last day on earth.

I also know that God can work miracles and often does. My pastor told a true story a few weeks ago about a friend of his who had a cancerous mass on his abdomen. The guy's friends and family prayed for him again and again and when the guy went back to the doctor, the doctor looked him in the eye and said the cancer was gone. Just like that.

A girl in our church had lyme disease and awhile back, the pastor and all of the deacons in the church prayed over her and anointed her with oil during the service. This past Sunday, the pastor updated us on the girl. The disease was affecting her vision and when the girl's mom took her to the doctor, almost all of the disease in her eye was gone.

I may not know what all the technical terms are and maybe I'm not explaining it 100 percent correctly, but if those aren't miracles, I don't know what is.