Warning

There have been some people who are getting on my nerves lately.

One of them doesn't read this blog, the other does.

I've had it with the passive aggressive behavior. I don't do passive aggressive. I do plain old aggressive aggressive. So, you might want to think about the outcome you're looking for before you continue to press me.

I've been nice. I've been understanding. 

You don't want to like me. That's fine. Unlike you, I don't need to be liked in order to be okay and at peace with the world. 

But, I've had enough of the passive aggressive nonsense. 

We're not in competition, so knock it off already.

If the cards aren't dealt in your favor in the future, just remember, I warned you. That's the best I've got to offer.

Blame the Victim?

As many of you know, last Tuesday (December 23rd) I was rear ended by some jackass who was driving too fast for road conditions. Since then, we've been trying to work something out to get our car fixed, yet everyone involved seems to want to give us the run around.

The police office who handled the incident told me I only needed the case number and that if I gave it to my insurance company that they would contact his insurance company and it would all be handled.

My insurance company says that they will fix my car if I pay the $1000 deductible, otherwise I'm on my own.

The auto body shop that has my car says they need the insurance information from the guy who hit me before they can do anything.

The Verona Area Police Department (which I'm now convinced only hires morons) says that they can't give me that information because it's not an open case and hasn't been processed by some Lieutenant and he's behind because of the holidays... blah, blah, blah.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Did I ask to be rear ended? I don't see how this situation is in anyway my fucking fault and yet this entire situation has been more hassle then last year when I got into an accident that supposedly was my fault.

(I say supposedly because I was knocked unconscious and have no memory of the event)

I hate this. I need my damn car fixed. My employer is spread out over multiple buildings and there is no way I'm going to be able to go without a car for long. No one seems in a hurry to help me though. I guess that's what you get for driving home.

I'm so angry right now I can't even see straight. I. Hate. This.

A Better Version of Myself

I'm really trying to be a better version of myself this morning. 

What I want to do, what I would love to do, is write a ranting and raving blog full of the kind of expletives that would make your grandmother blush. I got off the phone this morning with the most (insert mean, angry, expletive filled tirade here) customer service agent at State Farm. 

She was giving me completely contradictory information to everything we were told yesterday, all in that fake, perky fucking tone. (Sorry, one slipped).

The thing that she said that annoyed me the most?

"Why would you listen to a police officer on how to file a claim?"

Well, the thing is, he is a patrol officer. This is kind of what he does. He has probably handled countless accidents over the years, plus, you know, he's a cop. Are you really going to sit there with your perky fucking tone (oops, again) and judge me for not getting the other guy's insurance information myself when I was still all shaken up from being in a car accident? Really? I'm the idiot for listening to the cop? Maybe, and thanks so much for pointing it out to me. 

Deep breaths. 

Deep breaths. 

In the spirit of Christmas, I am not writing the blog I want to write. I'm going to keep all the anger and vitriol all bottled up inside me. I'm writing a toned down version instead with only a few slip-ups curses that are relatively tame. 

I don't want to be the kind of person filled with anger and vitriol, so I'm not going to let the most annoying bitch (oh, well...) control me. I'm going to let this go, for the moment. A warning to Rob Fox, my insurance agent (not who I talked to this morning), you had better step up, or I'm going to be looking for a new insurance company in the very near future. 

Why would you do that?

The husband talked to our friend Fatty the other day and delivered this bit of news to me, they got rid of one of their dogs Tanner and are looking to get rid of their other dog Shag. Both golden-doodles.

I have never been so annoyed with Fats.
Are you kidding me?

Let's be clear upfront. I have three dogs.
I'm pretty soft on anything soft and fuzzy.
I'm pretty soft on animals in general.

This is the second time Fatty and his wife have gotten rid of dogs they've owned.
This really pisses me off and here's why.

1. Dog are not DVDs.
You don't pick them up and play with them every once in awhile and then trade them away when you get bored with them. They are a responsibility. In return for agreeing to feed, water, take them out and put up with some degree of naughtiness, you get complete and total devotion. It's a pretty damn good trade.

My 3 are not angels to be sure, but they are all so sweet in their own ways. It takes so little to make them happy. Hell, half the time all I have to do is walk in the room.

2. Dogs are not children.
They do not grow up. They do not develop higher reasoning skills. They do not leave the nest.
If you leave them alone in a room with stuff they can chew up, they might chew it up. They are fucking dogs. They aren't going to "learn not to do stuff like that". They don't know. Some dogs are smarter than others, but at their core they are still animals. They are going to do what dogs do.

If they do something bad, most likely it is your fault, not theirs. If they chewed up your book, then next time, keep your book where they can't reach it. You have logic and reasoning skills; use them.

Dogs don't understand you are in a bad mood today. They don't understand why you are yelling at them. They don't remember stuff that happened more than a few minutes ago.

They got rid of their first dog because Fatty thought he was annoying.
This time I guess the dogs chewed up some stuff, so they wanted to get rid of them.

Here's a promise for you, if Fatty gets another dog, I'm going to have to hurt him.
I rarely ever threaten that, and carry it out even less.
But, he gets another dog and you can bank on it.

A flutter

"Look there he goes
Isn't he dreamy?
Oh he's so cute.
Be still my heart
I'm hardly breathing
He's such a tall, dark, strong and handsome brute!"

I'm all a-flutter.
When I got the email saying that he was coming, my heart skipped a beat.
Who's my tall, dark, strong and handsome Romeo?
Dexter!

Season 2 (finally!!) came out on DVD and Season 2 Disk 1 is en route to my house from Netflix as I type. Season 1 was one of the best seasons of television that I have ever seen. I hope this doesn't mean my expectations for Season 2 are too high.

If you have already seen it, TELL ME NOTHING.
Seriously, I don't want to know if it's good or bad or ANYTHING.
If you spoil Dexter for me, I'm probably going to have to hurt you.
And that would be sad for you and me.
Mostly you.

Dexter, Dexter, Dexter...

Horrifying

Every time I think they can't horrify me any more...

This is from the blog of the husband of one of my coworkers:

Absolutely unbelievable

Typically, it's much easier to blame the victim of a crime, rather than the criminal, because the victim goes to police and the criminal hides. It's also incredibly and obviously wrong.

Alaska routinely has the nation's highest rate of sexual assault. To lower the reported numbers, one small Alaskan town had and idea - charge the victims between $300 to $1,200 to report the crime. This was to cover the costs of rape kits (sample containers, swabs and other medical supplies used to collect evidence from women after they are attacked) and the forensic exams. The goal was to push costs of law enforcement onto the victims, which would discourage victims from coming forward, thereby lowering the number of reported cases of sexual assault.

This action was taken by only one small town, and was so abhorrent to the rest of Alaska that, once word got out in 2000, Alaskan state legislators immediately passed a bill making this practice illegal.

That small town was Wasilla. That would be the tiny town left $12,000,000 in debt by the irresponsible deficit spending of their former mayor. The mayor that oversaw the implementation of the "charge the victims" scheme and runaway spending was Sarah Palin.Of course, the neocon viewpoint of reporting on facts would be: Stop picking on our poor, innocent candidates. Bringing up their past record is such dirty politics, that now we'll spread lies about your candidates.

It's a Sickness

Technology the bane, and apparently, the love of my life.
I went for 2 weeks without having a proper computer at home.

No, my Windows 98 Dell Web-PC circa 2000 doesn't count as a proper computer.

It was like death.
I felt unplugged and cut off from the world at large.
Other people could check their email or Facebook, but not me. (Or at least without doing it illicitly at work).

I found that when I did not have my computer to occupy me that life was pretty much the same.
I would love to say that I took up reading or finished that painting that's been sitting in my kitchen for almost 2 years in my spare time when the big green monster was out of commission, but that's would be a lie.
In fact, the only difference was where I sat on the sofa.

I'm drained.
Spending 2+ hours on the phone with Dell Technical Support is exhausting.
Did I run a marathon or just sit my ass on the phone?
I can't remember anymore.
It's all groggy.
I'm going to bed.

I'll see you when the haze clears.

Dell Fucking Blows

I've been on hold for technical support for 25 minutes and counting.
I'm sorry, but Dell is such a piece of shit.
I hate them.
Fucking bastards.
I hate being on hold.

ETA: 1.5 hours later, I have removed/replaced my memory card, hard drive and optical drive only to have Dell ask me to ship my computer to them. Awesome.

Computers are a beautiful thing. No wait, my mistake, I said computers when I meant rainbows.

Computers are fucking annoying.

Frustrating

Today has been very frustrating. Grown-ups shouldn't need to be told to do their jobs properly, they should just do it.... argh!

It shouldn't annoy me, but it does

I went to the gym tonight to work out on the elliptical.
This is important to the story.
I was not planning on using the treadmill.
There were two girls using the treadmills I usually use.
They were using them last night, too.

Okay, I know it's petty and wrong. But I kind of hate them.
The one girl was running on the treadmill so slowly she might as well have been walking.
The other actually was walking.
Not just walking, but walking slowly.

Just watching them annoyed me.
Mostly, because I think it is only the beginning of what I hope is a short-lived trend.
I've seen their type before. They get all "serious about going to the gym" and they come everyday for a week or so, then nothing.
I really hope this is their type.
I really hate running downstairs.

Petty, petty, petty.
I know it's wrong.
I hate having my routine interrupted.

Go ahead. Get serious about going to the gym.
Just don't inconvenience me please.
Really, it's best for everyone if I don't even realize you exist.

I keep trying to shake it off.
Meh.
It's no big deal. Don't sweat it.
And yet, still, it annoys me.

Oh yuck, yuck, yuck!

These news stories make me nauseated.
I cannot imagine doing this.
Just reading about it makes me want to run far, far (far!!!) away.
Yucky!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/garden/15buddhists.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
http://www.slate.com/id/2192282/?GT1=38001

Are the walls closing in on me, or is that just my imagination?
Back away, slowly! More than 15 feet away, preferably.