I Hate This

How do you explain to a 9 year old that the reason you haven't seen him in a long time is because his mother hates your guts?

Shut the Fuck Up

I'm talking to you, Kanye. And you too, Joe Wilson. (Just for good measure).

I am sick and goddamned tired of people just spouting off whenever the urge strikes them. I'm all for free speech, but there is a time and place.

Time and place!!!

Either one of them could have had a little self-restraint (and some goddamn self-respect) and waited until they were in front of one of the gagillions of media folks and had their say.

Instead, they get to go through the rest of their days as "that guy" who really, bottomline, just embarrassed themselves.

Douchebags

Did this parent just drunk-email me?

This is an email I received upon my return from work after the holiday weekend:


From: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, September 04, 2009 9:17 PM
To: Kristen (Tokay High)
Subject: Parent of xxxxxxxxxx

I would like to make an a pointment with u about my sons grads and stuff
e-mail me or call me at 209 570-xxxx thank u I would like it on a monday
any time would be good


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry


Let's begin, shall we?

1. He sent it at 9:17 p.m. Friday for an appointment on Monday? Which was also a holiday? Really?
2. I hid the kid's name, but trust me, he misspelled it. Let's say it again...He. Misspelled. His. Own. Kid's. Name. I understand that predictive text is nobody's friend, but seriously?
3. Capitalization? Spelling? Punctuation? Ever hear of these things?
4. Are we talking about more than one child? "my sons" suggests we are.
   
5. This should be an interesting conversation, since I'm not really sure what "grads and stuff" are.

So I hesitantly, but politely replied:

From: Kristen (Tokay High)
To: xxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Parent of xxxxxxx
Sent: Sep 8, 2009 8:07 AM

Good morning,

My week this week is fairly open, with the exception of Friday, when I
will be off campus all day. Next Monday I have time between 7:30 a.m.
and 9:30 a.m., then between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Please let me know
what works for you.



To which, he replied:


I don't work on mondays so that's the only day I have opend so any time
is good just let me know pleases. Thank u so much xxxxxxxx



Ugh...this is bad...Don't get me wrong, I totally love technology and how email is yet another way that parents can communicate with us (because, honestly? I hate talking on the phone), but not if I'm subjected to "LOL speak", poor grammar/punctuation, etc.

At least I have something to look forward to on Monday.

This Makes Me Want to Punch Somebody (But then again, what doesn't?)

Since I started back to work, I usually run my air conditioner from when I come home from work until I'm getting ready for bed, just to get the cool air moving throughout the apartment, so it's cool enough for me to sleep. Last night was such a lovely evening, I actually turned off the a/c and opened up the front windows and door...nice breeze...no loud children...the smell of garbage...

Say what??

Oh that's right. My next-door-neighbor currently has not one but two open bags of garbage sitting on her side next to our shared laundry room door. And last time I checked, her garbage can was not overflowing (especially considering yesterday was garbage day), so I am PERPLEXED beyond belief as to why, why, why this is the case.

Why don't I just ask her about it, you ask?

Let's count the ways...

1. She has that rail-thin, bleached-blonde, crack-whore look about her. Those kinda folks are already a little jumpy and impulsive, so you never know when she might pull a shank on me, or ransack my apartment for drug money. So I try to to interact with her as little as possible, and usually consists of some sort of brief greeting in the laundry room.
   
2. I have heard her on more than on occasion going off on her kid...nothing like abusive, but just like ragging on him...oh and he's like 7, so off course there's no reason why he should be making any mistakes, right?
3. There always seems to be "other people" hanging around at her place. Taking in to account her rail-thin, bleached-blonde, crack-whore appearance, you can only imagine the kind of characters these "other people" are. So it's a little scary sometimes.

So let's review...she's a hard, potentially drugged-out woman with a ferocious temper and a number of equally hard, potentially drugged-out friends.

So the bottom line is that something drastic will need to occur before I consider confronting her. That may make me a wuss, but I trust me, I'm secure in my wuss-dom. I'm hoping that when the landlord comes to get the rent checks he will see this and lay the landlord smackdown (as much as a 70+ year old landlord can, I mean).