feels like we only go backwards

More bad news:

-  Over 200 Nigerian school girls were kidnapped three weeks ago by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.  Boko Haram?  That sounds like the name of a restaurant or a Star Wars character. 

-  The Ukraine eastern region continues to fall closer and closer to civil war.  Nice job, Putin.

-  The back staircase of my house has dry rot.  Yup, same staircase repaired ten years ago.

-  The Cowboys were eliminated from Amazing Race last Sunday, after being u-turned by the Afghanimals.  Damn you, Afghanimals!

-  My cholesterol is back up to 230.  Am I condemned to a life of tasteless oatmeals?

This is seriously pissing me off.  Life, you best back off now, or else I am gonna fight back.


 

bad day, redux

Alright, seriously this has to stop.  I had a painting contractor appointment this week.  When I greeted him outside, he asked me, "Are you having problems with your neighbor?"  I was like, "No, why?"  Apparently before I came downstairs, he was looking at the front of my house and walked up my neighbor's driveway to get a better look at the side of my place.  My neighbor then yelled at him, saying he has no permission to walk on the driveway.  I was surprised at that, since 1) people walk up the driveway of houses all the time - mailman, people delivering flyers, Jehovah's Witnesses - what's the big freaking deal?  2) there's never been any issue with the neighbor in the past.  After the appointment, I went and knocked on my neighbor's door to try to smooth things over and apologize, even if there was really nothing to apologize for.  But then he just came charging out of his door, and without even greeting me, launched into a tirade.  He said the last time we painted, the painter got paint all over his wall and his car, and he had to spend over $100 to get his car rebuffed.  He pointed to a house up the block that is being painted and said, "You see the netting that they have around the house - that's how you should paint."  Then he said he now has solar panels on the roof, and if we damage that, it's at least $20,000 a panel.  I was completely dumbfounded.  The last time we painted was a decade ago, and he did not say anything about paint getting on his house or car back then.  In fact, I recall he commented on how that painter was doing a better job scraping loose paint than the previous painter we used, which was when we first moved in.  It doesn't make sense that he would have commented on scraping but not have said anything about his wall or car.  And he was so angry about the whole thing, like he wanted to fight or something.  And was that a veiled threat about the solar panels?  He was being a class-A jerk.  He could have nicely asked me to be extra careful because of the solar panels without bring things up a decade ago which may or may not have happened.  And there definitely was no need to take anything out on the poor painter who just came to give me an estimate.  Obviously this all stewed with me and messed up my last two days.

See - when you have a bad day and pass that on to other people, you make other people have a bad day, and that just gets passed on and on.  Before you know it, you have a Kim Jong Un or a Hitler or a Columbine.  People, please don't do that.  Make a world a better place instead of a worse one.  Spread kindness and not hate or anger.  

Oh something else that happened - I had a dental cleaning appointment yesterday.  When they took some x-rays, they didn't put the lead apron on me til half way through.  I didn't even notice that I didn't have the apron on til the lady grabbed it and put it on me after she took four x-rays already.  I was thinking, "Uh..."  I didn't say anything cuz I wasn't sure if that was the procedure - maybe the earlier x-rays didn't need the apron?  I came home and then texted a friend who also goes to the same dentist and was told that they normally put on the apron for all the x-rays.  So yeah, I am so screwed.  I am going to die of radiation now.  Maybe if that's the case, I should just forget about painting the house and let everything fall to pieces.  Take that, angry, bitter neighbor!      

the sewol

I haven't said anything about the South Korean ferry tragedy.  On April 16, a ferry traveling from Incheon to Jeju, capsized.  There were 425 people on board the Sewol, 325 of which were students on a field trip from Danwon High School in Asnan (a city south of Seoul).  To date, there are 236 confirmed dead and 66 still missing.  That's a lot of young lives cut short, dreams and hopes extinguished, and families destroyed.  A six year old girl was rescued but her entire family was gone.  A vice principle of Danwon did survive but committed suicide after because he felt responsible for the deaths of all the students who were under his watch.  The captain and his crew, who all got off the ferry, have been arrested for abandonment.  Videos recorded by some students during the capsizing are now being released, and it's making the tragedy all the more heartbreaking.    Between this and the Malaysian MH370, sometimes you just want to keep yourself and all your loved ones locked up at home.  My sympathy goes out to all the lives affected.     

a chance is all you need

The past couple of weeks have been terrible.  My Honda's brake pedal went soft on me.  It turned out to be some master cylinder problem that cost me $200.  My refrigerator went dead on me Friday.  Repair guy is not coming til Monday.  I googled and think it's a fuse problem and likely repair will be to replace the entire control board.  I ran into trouble trying to return a couple of unopened, unworn HeatTech tees to Uniqlo (they are supposedly non-returnable "inner wear" items) and stood there for five minutes arguing with the sales clerk til she gave in.  My iPhone battery is acting really wonkers.  I got into a thing with one of my coworkers, who's been annoying the hell out of me with her overbearing inquisition.  I have a work project that is huge and complicated and problematic and is making my stomach queasy.  I have another presentation to do this coming Thursday, and that is making my stomacch even queasier.  My boss is asking me to train a new employee who is coming on board in a few weeks, but I think it's a waste of time because his resume clearly shows he is not a good fit for our group.  I asked her why we are picking this person up, and she gave me this look and said, "We have no choice, so let's leave it at that."  I have been waiting for over two months for my insurance to authorize a new type of orthotics for me.  And I have been waiting for my order of new glasses to arrive for more than two weeks, and yesterday afternoon, my doc called and said they arrived but there was some quality control issues so they had to send them back for a re-do.  I know these aren't necessarily world-class tragedies, but when you add them all up, they just make your life feel out of sorts.  I really just haven't been in sync lately.  I really think the moons must be misaligned or something.  Can I get out of this cycle already?

But I need to be optimistic.  The good thing is, every day you wake up, you get a chance to make things better, or new good things can happen. Sure, it's not likely going to be the case, cuz you don't just wake up a new person in the morning.  But still, it's a chance, and a chance is all you need.  Just like the lottery.

So how about some American Authors: