Open Mouth = Dumb Falling Out

I'm sure you know people that whenever they open up their mouths you can bet that a bunch of DUMB falls out.  Stupid mouths.  Don't they THINK about the words they are speaking and the possible effect they may have on others?  Do they even care? 

I guess not.  I am subject to stupid mouths daily.  Here is just a sampling of what I hear.

"Your daughter and her boyfriend are going to different colleges.  Certainly their relationship will not last long-term."

"Your son is wasting his intelligence.  Don't you think he should stay in the military where he has a sure and steady paycheck?"

Thanks for caring.  Not.  In fact, fuck off.  Like *your* life and YOUR kids are so perfect.  I'm sorry that you think that the thoughtless lobbing of unsolicited, negative comments forecasting gloom and doom makes me or my kids feel better.  yeah.  You're a true friend.  I never asked for your feedback.  You asked what my kids were up to and I told you.  Your editorial and self-righteous commentary is not needed. 

Here's a deal I'm willing to make right here and now.  Shut your stupid mouth NOW before even MORE dumb falls out, and I will spare you the comments I have pent up regarding your own fucked-up life.

Believe me.  I have a full and winning hand.  

Lupita

OMG!!!  My dreams last night were actual nightmares.  I know I'm stressed out at my job if I start dreaming about it. 

Last night I had a dream that I was at a restaurant.  I placed my order of chili and when it came the waitress, who was named Lupita (I have NO idea where THAT came from as I don't even know anybody named Lupita) decided to take a spoon, have a bite of my food, and then put it back in my chili. 

I had a fit.  I said that I was not going to eat it and wanted to speak to the manager.  Lupita got indignant with me so I had to chase down the manager in this very busy, crowded restaurant.  When I found the manager it was, in the real world, a guy I work with (who is a complete asshole).  He tried to blow me off and the more he tried to blow me off, make me wait, and dick me around, the angrier I became.   After exerting a lot of energy chasing them around the restaurant I had them cornered.  I was angry because both of them thought that there was nothing wrong with the waitstaff eating off of the customers plates as this place was so busy and had lines of people waiting. 

I remember looking at Lupita and said, "How on earth do you keep your job?"

She snorted back at me that it was easy to keep her job because nobody else wants to do shit work for shit pay.  At that point I remember telling her in my dream that at least she was not on welfare.  I turned my attention to the manager and letting him have it saying what a scumbag he was.  In reality, he IS a total scumbag.

Maybe it was my subconscious letting off steam as I had to deal with him earlier this week.  All I know is that I woke up exhausted.  Again. 

The Time Share

Ever gotten a GREAT deal on a hotel/condo but the catch was you had to participate in their time share sales pitch?

I will admit that I did just that when moving my kid to Hawaii.  The rate was really reasonable and I did agree to sit though their high pressure marketing scheme peddling a time share program.

To be honest, I'm not very well versed in time shares as I don't have any interest in getting one.  All I know about time shares is that everybody tries to unload them.  However, a deal is a deal and I will sit through the presentation.

I love stuff like this.  Sales people are always trying to figure me out and they are always wrong.  They think I'm the naieve, sheltered, housewife.  Easy prey.  I let them think that.....for a while.  I smile, nod and ask superficial questions.  When they think they have me, I will lob out an advanced question that leaves them stunned like deer in the headlights.

The time share sales guy said he was a former educator at Northwestern University.  Really?  How do you go from Northwestern to shucking timeshares in Waikiki?  He was weird and I picked up a slimy vibe from him.  He got rather annoyed when I lobbed out my advanced question thinking I was easy prey.  He flat-out told me that I was "over analyzing" the whole concept.  Wait.  He wanted me to plunk down $25,000 without THINKING it THROUGH?  So, I threw it back in his face.  I told him that if he's an educator, when why would he not want me to be fully educated on a major financial transaction?  Dead silence.

Don't mess with me or try to screw me over.  I will own you and have you choking on your own words if you try to pull one over on me.  However, the deal on the hotel was awesome.  Worth it.  I love tying people up in their own lies.   It's a sport.

The Press Democrat

I love reading the local paper.  It's nice to finally be home and in one place long enough to do so.  It's been two months. 

Front page today is the sad story of two little girls from Jenner dying in a car accident.  The mother lived.  I've always said that the most dangerous driver out there is the mother driving her kids to school.  They are usually late and have to shuffle kids from one school to another and then be at work or some other commitment.  All of my near misses have been in front of the local elementary school where moms will run you over to get their own kids there on time. 

The other is the collecting of information from social media.  You all would be shocked at what is collected on your habits.  Everything you 'like' or 'click' leaves a trail.  I warned you of that years ago when social media and smart phones were taking off. 

My advice still remains:  use snail mail and pay cash.  And, for Gods sake, SLOW DOWN on the roads out there and running red lights. 

Stressed Out Life

Someday people will figure out that most of the stresses in life are self-inflicted.  Of course, there are some circumstances that are beyond our control but for the most part we bring it on ourselves. 

I know a woman who is freaking out on so many levels.  The stresses are now starting to cause physical symptoms like pain in the body and digestive issues.  Why is she freaked out?  Here's why.  She just HAD to send her kids to the most expensive colleges right out of high school.  The local junior college just was not good enough.  One kid wants to be a school teacher.  Great.  If you're looking for your ROI (return on investment) sending your kid to a super expensive private school to get a teaching degree that can be obtained at a less expensive public university is not a smart financial decision.  Odds of getting hired (the ultimate goal, right?) are the same as there is a shortage of teachers because the pay is not that great for the amount of babysitting/parenting required and all the bureaucratic @#%! that goes along with it. 

The other kid is also going to a private school in another state to obtain a degree that he could get locally.  I can't remember exactly what he is studying, but I guess my point is that don't send your kids off to expensive schools and then complain about how you don't have any money. 

To add fuel to the fire, this woman is running a side business to pay for her kids' college and it's not going so well.  There is a serious cash flow issue going on.  Clients owe her money and they are not paying.  It's the standard "I look good on paper, but my bank account is empty" scenario.  You could have zillions in receivables, but you can't pay your bills with other people's promises to pay you.  Even big banks have made that mistake.  If you're lucky, you can get a loan on your receivables but that's hard to do when the side business itself was set up half-ass to begin with with no legitimate tax records or licenses. 

One more for this stinking pile of poo.  She has been having an affair for the past 6 years and now it's time for her to make a decision.  She's been stringing this guy along for years and now he wants either all in or all out.  He wants her to s*** or get off the pot.  It's decision time and she's freaking.  I suppose she could stay where she's at and keep things as they are, but then she can't be pissed if boyfriend decides to date others, or be pissed if she finds out her husband is doing the same thing she is.  I don't know if toning it down with the boyfriend by being "just friends" and getting together occasionally for coffee so each of them can move on and live their lives is an option for them as I'm too far removed from the details of the relationship.  I would never chime in on such private matters, anyway.  I don't know either of them well enough to do so. 

Goodness gracious...my life is so boring and uncomplicated in comparison.  

I guess my point is, as I wrote at the beginning, is that all of this financial and relationship stress is self-inflicted.  It's ego getting the best of her. 

In a Mood

Yes, Quiet Rage is in a mood tonight.  First off, stop trying to hack my account.  I know who you are and why you're trying to do it.  Stop it.  Cough, Cough....Snowden, et al. Sorry if I expose you as the pathetic worms you really are.  Yeah, keep thinking Putin is your friend.  We all had imaginary friends in our preschool years....until we found out they were imaginary and FAKE.  Don't worry, I don't have any prejudice for political leaders.  I dislike them all equally.  Our own are just as bad if not worse. 

Second off, I just dropped of my baby in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a volcanic rock (a.k.a. Hawaii).  Empty nest syndrome, anybody?????  Just what am I doing to do NOW?  I'm so used to running a youth hostel and animal shelter that the emptiness is unnerving.

Third off, I received a wedding invitation that read, for real, that is was a "Sonny/Saturday Production."  Really?  I will give them credit that at least they labeled their wedding as a largess, theatrical, stage production wayyyyyyyyyyyy over on the east coast (a long stretch for us Californians - as in a 5 hour flight and plus giving up scarce vacation time to boot) instead of a sacred, intimate ceremony for people they actually *know* and care about.  The "weekend wedding" boasts yoga, line dancing, boating, and campfires.  Whew.  I'm exhausted and I have not even finished reading the invitation let alone how to RSVP via their over-blown, online wedding website and that they don't want any gifts other than CASH.  

Wow.  How lucky are they to have so much starting out that they are directing gift giving to fulfill their own selfish fantasies rather than household needs.

Quiet Rage is already prepping my snarky regrets for a response, via snail mail of course!  Brides and bridegrooms commanding and directing gift giving for a sacred life event is as presumptuous as it is tacky.  Sorry, but a wedding is not a for-profit event as much as Bridezilla thinks otherwise.

If I do decide to contribute to their cash only greed-grab fest, I'm going to send the most romantic card ever and with syrupy prose telling them how lucky they are to have each other, their health, and the comforts of an established household and that instead of donating to their self-established "gimme fund" that I'm making a donation in their honor to the Underprivileged, Starving, Abandoned Retards of America.  The point is that the bride-groom can't be bothered or saddled with other people's freely given generosity.  Damn it.  That may require an actual acknowledgement and THANK YOU. 

Better yet - that I'm donating to Planned Parenthood so that their self-absorbed, entitlement attitudes do not perpetuate.

'nuff said.  I can't make this stuff up, people. 

Hi, HI

 The Royal Hawaiian Hotel is one of the oldest in Waikiki.  It's stunningly beautiful and it is right on the water.  I am in the process of moving my daughter to the island and decided to stay at the Royal Hawaiian.  Thank goddesses for the Starwood Reward Points that accumulate for all my business travel. 

When we walked in through the lobby enroute to our room the hair on my arms immediately stood up.  I could tell it was a hotbed of spiritual energy.  I also got the feeling as my daughter gazed at the water that she was coming home to something and she was being welcomed 'back'.  I've always suspected that she had unfinished business from a previous life. 

As we got off the elevator and walked the hall to our room I got an extremely heavy sense of suffering.  It was almost like physical pain as there would be in a hospital.  I also got a sense of entrapment.  I did not want to say anything to my daughter because she freaks out so easily and I did not want to plant any ideas in her head.

I did not have to say anything to her.  When we woke up in the morning she was telling me that she thought the place was haunted.  She told me that somebody kept knocking on her door, but nobody was ever there.  She also said she woke up in the night to see a shadow moving about in the room and that it touched her back.  I fessed up at that point hoping she would not be upset because I did not mention it earlier.  Poor kid...she's inherited my 6th sense. 

Techonolgy - help or hinderence?

Once upon a time we did not have 1,000 distractions pulling at us simultaneously.  When we were on the phone, the phone cord tethered us down.  Mail came to one place and in one form - paper.  We did not have smart phones dinging at us constantly with emails, texts, instagrams, etc.  (the vast majority of such is useless noise of somebody's ego).  You had to PLAN directions if you were going somewhere unfamiliar.  You get the drift.  Once upon a time we had to focus on the task at hand.  Now we can do 100x more at once but with no accuracy and less follow through.  We are bombarded constantly.  There is no peace. 

Are we better off?  Look what we've done to ourselves with our need for instant gratification on all fronts.  We all want our stuff and our answers NOW and CHEAP but we don't want to pay overtime to actual humans who don't make us scream into a phone and only for an automated voice to tell us to press 2 for customer service, 3 for billing, 4 for returns, etc.  

Then after the call there is the dreaded SURVEY.  Really?  My time is valuable.  If you have to annoy and harass your customers to tell you you're doing an ok job you're really out of touch.  I have a hint for CEO's and marketing twerps who think that the 'survey' idea is so grand.  Here goes.  I don't need anything else sucking up my time -- especially to do your job FOR you.  Hey, CEO;s....Get on the phone as a regular, anonymous customer and see how YOU like to be put on hold, transferred, give your account number 1,000 times, and placed in some foreign call center in a third world country where you can't understand a word they are saying only to be told that you will have to call back tomorrow. 

On the Sevens: Cycle of 7 and Transitions

Everything tends to cycle on the sevens.  Humans shed all cells within a seven year cycle.  You are not the same person (literally - all your cells have renewed) every seven years.  Human milestones and rites of passage tend to hit on the sevens (birth, childhood - age 7, puberty - age 14, marriage - age 21, giving birth - age 28, etc.,)  Economies tend to cycle every seven years.  Human relationships and infatuations with media stars tend to last about 7 years (Seven Year Itch). 

My point in all of this is that everybody goes through a major life transition about every seven years whether it's out there for the world to see or it's more of an internal shifting. 

In my household at this very moment myself, my son, and my daughter are all on the seven cycle to the point where it's almost cliche as it's happening *right* on the 7 year mark.  We are all in transition at different stages of life.  I'm 49, my son 28, and my daughter 21. 

Imagine all the energy of transition swirling about around here.  All three of us are readying ourselves for what's next - and anxious as we're not really certain what that's going to look like.  All three of of us are undertaking MAJOR life changes that include moving, career changes, relationship changes, you-name-it changes.  We are all scared.  We are all excited. 

I have a very spiritual bond with my kids that I know originated from something much larger than ourselves.  Right now the three of us are energetically in a huddle, arms around each other, contemplating our next 'play' and knowing we are there to support each other. 

M's Boyfriend: Disaster has touched down

Whoa.  I blogged about 8-9 months ago about my CA bff's boyfriend and NOT liking him.  She asked me repeatedly what I thought about him.  I stammered.  I hemmed.  I hawed.  I tried changing the subject.  Who am I to judge the quality of a relationship?  I do have an extremely acute intuition and pick up on vibes that are lost on most.  My CA bff knows this.  That's why she asks.  However, I never said that my reading of vibes is fool proof.  I would feel like total crap if I said something negative about the energy I was sensing from her boyfriend and I turned out to be wrong.  I walk a fine line.

I'm not wrong.  My initial reading of his energy was (sadly) spot on.  I was sooo hoping that would not be the case knowing what a sad and messy divorce M went though and now on her quest for finding a decent guy.  I wanted it to be him.   I gave M's boyfriend the benefit of the doubt on countless occasions.  Hey, we all have our bad moods and bad days, right?  Nobody is perfect.

The other night was the last straw at a large party we were all at.  M's boyfriend lost all credibility in my book.  He was being a belligerent drunk, swearing at M (screaming the F word at her in public) and completely ignoring M when his ex-wife arrived.  He was so slammed drunk he fell down on the dance floor and broke two of his fingers while dancing with other women he was trying to impress (karma is a bitch).  M is in tears.  I'm trying to console her.

Knowing that nothing good ever comes from an intoxicated couple arguing, I crept off to the hillside to visit the chickens and to be out of the line of fire.  M, her boyfriend, and I all rode together to the party.  M's daughter drove us and was the designated driver.   I was captive as this party was at a remote, rural location.  I was alone.  The host and hostess were having their own heated argument over the expense of the extravagant party so, again, I went out by the chicken coop and cried because I was so overwhelmed by the sad energy all round me.  I just wanted to go home.

Now...  M is asking me in a sober state my take on the night.  No guy, no matter HOW much he likes to drink, party, snort coke, whatever, should berate his woman in pubic using profanity.  Of course he apologized the next day.  All abusers do.  The other thing is that he is living with M, but does not want to act like he's in a committed relationship.  He can't have his cake and eat it, too.  He likes living in M's house rent free.

Wanna get away???????????????   I feel crappy because I broke the 'girl code' and did not immediatly bad mouth the new boyfriend right out of the gate when I first met him and felt vibes that were not good.

Tax Returns??? No can produce????

'He-who-shall-not-be-named' is still refusing to release his tax returns.  Why?  He says because he's being audited.  All the more reason to release them.  ...and that we're too stupid to understand them.  Please, King of Ego, prove yourself right and that we *are* too stupid to understand them.  What's he hiding? 

The media wants us to believe that our only choices this election go-around are either a vote for corruption or a vote for stupidity.  No media time nor attention has been fairly given to any other candidates of other political parties.  That's the real crime story here.  A third party getting media attention would really shake up the establishment we're trying to send a message to, right????  We have to take it upon ourselves to dig for alternatives. 

Don't let anybody ever tell you you're wasting your vote and that you HAVE to vote for one or the other sad sack of candidates.  Imagine.  What if the entire country voted out-of-the-box?  Think about it.  

Bad Moms

Yup.  I knew the revolt against the 'bored moms on prozac' was just a matter of time.  My life has been made into a movie.  Seriously.  I went to go see this as a joke with a couple of my friends, but it became apparent that this was *really* based on my life.  You all have no idea.  My life is now a comedy movie.. appropriate.

Whoomp!!!! There it is

OK.. I'm not always such a bitter buzz kill.  This is my place to process what generally annoys me and then it's gone.  Hey, nobody gets hurt or killed...and maybe....just *maybe* I can plant a seed of alternative view points.  No, strike that.  There is no way I can change the world. 

My happy safe haven is DANCE CLASS.  It's official - I now have my OWN DANCE and everybody in class now thinks of me when they hear this song.  Whoomp!!!!  There it is...literally.

2016 Olympic Games

My earliest memories of the Olympic games were sometime in the early to mid 70's.  I remember wanting to be Dorothy Hamill.  I even had the haircut.  I would go out to the local neighborhood outdoor ice rink (complete with a staffed warming house that sold snacks - didn't everybody grow up like that??) with my skates and take the shovel to remove the snow and scrape level the ever pesty frozen dog piss bumps to practice my spins and glides.  I had to compete for ice with the boys playing hockey and more than once got hit in the head with a flying puck (maybe that's what's wrong with me).

My other memory is that of Nadia Comanici.  I thought that if I would go out in the backyard during commercial breaks of Saturday morning cartoons (remember those???) and tumble around in the grass and hang upside down from the clothes line poles I had a shot.

Ahhhhhhhhh the optimism of youth and the spirit of the Olympic games.  And I'm here to squash the fantasy for you.  I'm such a buzz kill...but you keep reading in spite of it.

Bryant Gumbel did a fantastic piece of the 'real' Olympic games and what a ******g joke it's become.  Not even a joke as that suggests happy laughter, but a source for greed and bribery on the part of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  My love for the Olympics began to sour with Sochi when I intuitively suspected that something was gravely amiss, but Rio is even worse.  The athletes are nothing more than disposable pawns in the IOC's quest for obnoxious luxury on the backs of third-world countries with dictators for leaders.

.....and those athletes are overshadowed by ones who dope, cheat, and are really from countries other than the ones they are supposedly representing.  Pretty sad for this is supposed to be a showing of how the world can come together.

Watch Bryant Gumbel's piece on the Rio games.  Norway told the IOC to shove it.  Yea Norway!!!  The games will now be held in third-world shit holes for ever after.  Why do I care?  I have a kid who is Olympic material for the 2020 games.  If my kid decides to participate, I want it to be for the right reasons and to not fulfill some greedy asshole's agenda.  I can't make this stuff up. 

Putin + Snowden = Computer Hacks

Our collective attention span as a nation is about as big as a gnat's ass and getting smaller by the minute.  We all have ADD and no amount of pharmaceuticals pushed by your local doctor who owns stock in the company can cure us. 

I've been waiting for the press to put this together, but since they have not figured it out I will give them a clue..... Putin + Snowden = Computer Hacks.

By now everybody has forgotten about Snowden, the US intel who opened up his mouth.  I respected him UNTIL he took off for Russia to hide and won't come back.  It's no coincidence, people, of our hacks coming from Russia.  We gave them the material and the means to do so.  Putin is NOT our friend, and neither is Snowden whom I suspect is a double agent.  If you think otherwise, you must be 'Putin' me on (sorry for the bad pun).

Putin and another political presidential candidate have the SAME megalomaniac personality disorder.  There is a lot to be gained from Russia messing with our elections and other things of national importance.  They are sitting at the Kremlin LFAO at us.