Pet Peeves

Last week I had to go to the eye doctor to find a new pair of glasses and realized that I was due for an appointment anyway. I came back a few days later and I want to know something. Why make an appointment for something if the person you're seeing makes you wait for 20 minutes? I have yet to meet a doctor that doesn't make me wait at least 10 minutes.

The lady I saw was extremely nice (which of course makes me feel bad for saying the previous), but another annoying thing is that she kept talking...I'm not kidding, the entire time. It's like when I call customer service for Verizon and the people will NOT shut up. "Ok, just hold one more moment. Thanks for your patience. Yep, here we go. Here it is. Alright, now let me just do one more thing. Thanks for holding. Ok, ma'am, this is it. Just a moment."

My head was already in this weird metal mask thing and she kept asking me random things, then telling me how wonderful I was doing. (It's blurry; why is that great?...I hate getting the letters wrong in the first place). Plus, it was 8 something in the morning and I don't officially wake up until 10:27.

Here's another pet peeve: ungrateful nit-pickers. We got a press release at work yesterday about free movement classes for disabled children. No one asked us to do an article, but I thought it was interesting so I talked to the people in charge. The lady who founded the organization was SOOO happy to have the publicity and after it ran this weekend, I e-mailed her a copy like she asked.

Well my co-worker is friends with one of her volunteers and she told him today that her boss was unhappy about the article. We should have used "children with disabilities" instead of "disabled children." Let's take a poll...Who says it's the same thing?

"They're children first, then disabled," she told her volunteer. "That's why I should have read over the article before it went to press."

One. You can't do that. As a courtesy, we could offer to read back a few quotes to be used, but it's the editor's job to read it before it's printed. Two. Free publicity; why are you mad? I told my co-worker that I wish we could retract the article and run a big black space.

I kind of hope she'll e-mail me so I can respond. I wouldn't be nasty, just explain why we write "disabled children." Besides it being AP form, I didn't write "children who are typically-developing," either; it was "typically-developing children."

This was after I was cussed out by a guy's mom for putting his name in the paper. I'll try to give you the brief version. So there was a murder in 2006 and 11 people were charged. The guy was killed because he found a bloody car on his lot and the mob thought he killed a guy who was at the time missing. One of the guys charged pleaded guilty in May and got off on probation. Two weeks ago, he assaulted a guy again and his jail time was activated. Well I wrote a short article about it and the mother of the guy who was originally missing (and later found dead) called me and called me names for putting his name in the paper.

WHAT? It's only been in several newspapers a million times now and he wasn't even charged with anything. He was a victim. She told me the newspaper is shaming him for putting his name in there and I was confused. I am incredibly sorry for her loss and I'm sure it's difficult for her, but she doesn't need to call me names for it. When she was done ranting, it went silent and I asked if she was still there. I don't think she hung up, but she didn't say anything, so I hung up.

Of course, if I'm offended by that, I'm in the wrong business.

Alright, I think I'm done. I just told Pete yesterday that things can always be worse, so that's something to keep in mind...By the way, "alright" is apparently "all right" according to AP style. Whatever; I like my version better.

On a different note, I love my new place! (Here is where I give my family a shout-out for making the trip to help me move. Don't know what I would've done without them). I was a little nervous about moving, but I really like the lady I'm living with and it's nice to be in a house instead of an apartment. (I've decided I only get nervous when I go to a vending machine. I hold my breath after I punch in my selection because you never know when it'll get stuck). We went out with one of her friends last night to get dinner and they're really funny together. And extremely nice.

I'm also excited to be in a place with sidewalks! I have yet to go for a walk, but I will soon. Maybe not tomorrow because it's supposed to rain...which is good I guess because my car is dirty. Although the dirty car is really just a testament of my faith. Faith that it will rain.

Oh, that reminds me. Mom said Emily has a favorite singer now. Enya of all people. Maybe she'll be refined.

One last thing: if you have time, check this Web site out: http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html.

My aunt sent it to me and it tells you how southern (or unsouthern) you are. I got 81% Dixie, which surprised me. It asked me if I still use Confederate money. I told my aunt I use Debit.