Filed under: General Peevery | Tags: alarm clock, annoying, children, coffee, drive me up the wall, goodbye I'm going out to play, grating, late, nervous breakdown, parenthood, peeve, peggy ann mckay, pet peeves, sarcastic, shel silverstein, shel silverstien, sick, starbucks, vent, wake up late freak out, you say today is saturday
Fell into bed last night at about 11:00 after a long day trying to wrap up stuff at work on limited brain cells, buying last-minute items, and packing (kind of – there’s still work to be done). I use my iPhone as my alarm clock. It has never failed me. Until today. Some part of my brain hears the news announcer say 8:23. What the crap? Check phone. Phone dead. Commence freak out.
Borrowed from myopera.com (don't know where they stole it from).
Peeved: Oh my… No way!…
Mr. Peeved: What, what’s wrong.
Peeved: It’s 8:23.
Mr. Peeved: Oh (turns over and goes back to sleep – he’s used to my antics)
Peeved: Shit! I was supposed to leave the house 23 minutes ago! Smalls, get up, we gotta go!
I absolutely HATE being late. I HATE feeling rushed. I have a bubble of anxiety and panic rising from my stomach and shit!shit!shit! running through my head.
That IS kind of what my hair looks like when I don't let the conditioner sit for the full 2 minutes.
Throw on whatever is in the nearest dry cleaning bag.
Slap on some makeup.
Throw on some shoes.
Wake up hubby to ask if he tried on the stuff I bought him for our vacation last night. Ignore the Are You Freaking Kidding Me glare.
Wake up Smalls. Well, actually it’s more like carry her limp body to the potty and try to dress her while she flops around like a ragdoll.
Glasses… hate looking for glasses when I can’t see! Aha! Nightstand.
Crap! Need the camera cord to download some pictures for work. Where is the GD camera cord???
Got it. Now, need those invitations to bring to Smalls’ school for her birthday party. Check.
Okay, let’s boogie. What do you mean you want a ponytail? You never let me do your hair and this morning you want a ponytail?
shit!shit!shit!
20/20 vision. Camera cord. Invitations. Keys. Coiffed child. Where’s that phone? Oh, yeah, on the charger.
Unplug. What? WHAT?? 6:49??? Oh for the love of Pete!
C’mon Smalls, we’ve got time to grab coffee and a muffin.
*****
Sick
Shel Silverstein
| ‘I cannot go to school today, ‘ Said little Peggy Ann McKay. ‘I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I’m going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox And there’s one more-that’s seventeen, And don’t you think my face looks green? My leg is cut-my eyes are blue- It might be instamatic flu. I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I’m sure that my left leg is broke- My hip hurts when I move my chin, My belly button’s caving in, My back is wrenched, my ankle’s sprained, My ‘pendix pains each time it rains. My nose is cold, my toes are numb. I have a sliver in my thumb. My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out. My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight, My temperature is one-o-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, There is a hole inside my ear. I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what? What’s that? What’s that you say? You say today is…Saturday? G’bye, I’m going out to play! ‘ |
Filed under: Consumer / Retail, General Peevery | Tags: annoying, bitter coffee, coffee, drive me up the wall, drive thru coffee shop, dunkin donuts, elin nordegren, for the price of a cup of coffee, frappe, grating, have it your way, macchiato, make it your damn self, mcdonalds, nervous breakdown, peeve, pet peeves, sally struthers, san francisco coffee, sarcastic, starbucks, starsucks, vent, wake up wednesday, who carries cash
Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. Why? Because it is “Wake Up Wednesday” at Smalls’ daycare. Which means, there is freshly brewed coffee, (with real creamer!) set out for the parents – FOR FREE. Isn’t that a nice, lovely gesture? They even have the insulated cups with the hot bands and the lids. And, stirrers, which may or may not have been taste-tested and kid-approved.
Now, I can get coffee at my workplace and usually do, but, there is something about having nice, hot coffee in my belly before I hit the elevator and head on up to the office. I could stop at one of those coffee shops I pass on my commute, but that would mean finding a parking spot, getting out of the car with Smalls, waiting in line listening to Smalls tell me how she “needs” a muffin that is bigger than my head, and making my own coffee.
Yes, you heard right. Making my own coffee. See, that is what the world (okay, I’m being melodramatic – the US) has come to. You pay upwards of $2.00 a cup for plain old coffee and then you get the “privilege” of making it, too. Now, if you’re lucky, you’re at a Starbucks where they will actually pour the coffee in the cup for you and leave you to do all the fixins. If you want coffee that’s not as bitter as Elin Nordegren and head over to a San Francisco Coffee, you are on your own. That is, unless you are part of the bourgeoisie that spends upwards of $4.00 a cup for some frappetastic concoction. No, at San Francisco Coffee, drip-drinkers are like gum on the bottom of the latte-drinkers’ shoes. They get handed a cup, whipped and sent off to pour their own cup.
If I lived in suburbia, I could go through a drive-thru coffee shop. Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds – all make your coffee for you if you get it at the drive-thru. It’s not really a hard concept. Delis across New York do this all day long (at half the price, I dare add). Regular = 2 creams, 1 sugar. Light & Sweet = 3 creams, 2 sugars. Dark, No Sugar = 1 cream, no sugar. This is not rocket science, but apparently it is too hard to master when you have recipes the like of non-fat, triple whip, venti, caramel macchiatos running around in your head.
There was a genius coffee shop on my commute route that set up a coffee stand (not unlike lemonade stands of yesteryear) in an abandoned parking lot. $2.00 a cup. Cash. Well, who the heck carries cash anymore? I can tell you the day after I remembered to stash $10 in my car console and was driving into work… they were gone. Never to appear again. Seriously?
Remember those commercials where an obese Sally Struthers would hold a starving child and cry, telling us that for the price of a cup of coffee we could feed a village for a week? Well, for the price of a cup of coffee I can buy myself one of these:
It's instant - no timer necessary. (www.keurigcoffeebrewer.com)
Because if the “Have it Your Way” mentality is going to mean “Make it Your Damn Self” then I might as well do just that.
Filed under: General Peevery, Parenting | Tags: all fun and games until someone loses and eye, annoying, baby, baby with eye patch, children, coffee, date night, dog poop, drive me up the wall, embassy suites, fork and knife, grating, karaoke, mother, nervous breakdown, parenthood, peeve, pet peeves, sarcastic, vent, water slide
This weekend was good. It was good because it included a date night. Any time my husband and I are lucky enough to get a date night, we book a room at the Embassy Suites. They have free drinks from 5:30 – 7:30 every night, the most comfortable beds known to man, and a kick-butt breakfast buffet that is included in the (very reasonable) price of the room. If I ever win the lotto, I’m not buying a bunch of houses around the country, I’ll just travel from Embassy Suites to Embassy Suites.
This weekend’s date night was extra-fun because we celebrated a good friend’s 30th birthday with a private karaoke room. Yes, they have those and yes, they are as fun as they sound. You can imagine what my head felt like on Sunday when taking the glass elevator down to the bacon buffet. Maybe it was all that throbbing, but I think what happened next would have annoyed me in any case. As I’m walking through the atrium, there is a baby – not even a year old – with a fork in one hand and a knife in the other beating the crap out of the porcelain plate in front of him. Okay, A) why the hell are you letting a baby fling around two potentially dangerous utensils? All I could think was, “it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” And, B) has it occurred to you that some people are trying to have a nice, calm breakfast and letting your kid tap out Back in Black in an atrium where – duh – sound carries is not the most considerate thing you could do?
Photo from: http://www.dunlapcodding.com
Fine. Obviously this woman has not had the pleasure of a break (i.e. going anywhere without her child) and does not understand that when you don’t have your own kids with you, other people’s become increasingly annoying.
So, I sit down and eat my breakfast (on the other side of the atrium) and begin to people watch. I notice this couple with a child about Smalls’ age following them. I notice them because they don’t look old enough to be grandparents, but they don’t look young enough to be parents of this 4-year-old. As I’m concocting the story of their life in my head, I realize they are getting on the elevator and the 4-year-old has stopped at the coffee bar. Oh no. Hello? People? Are you not watching your child? The child goes up on her tip toes and takes down a glass jar filled to the brim with coffee stirrers. Glass jar, 4-year-old, no parental supervision. Following me here?
I didn't take a picture, so I snagged this one from: brooklynpix.wordpress.com
Okay, now here’s the part that peeves me. The little rascal who has absconded with coffee stirrers then proceeds to lift the container to her mouth and LICK the top of all the stirrers. Like it were a giant ice cream cone. At which point, a woman (who was clear across the atrium) comes over and says, “Rascal!, what are you doing? You need to stay near Mommy!” The mother takes the glass of stirrers out of Rascal’s hand and puts it back up on the coffee bar. No one else seems to notice this but me.
I will never use a coffee stirrer again. Thank you very little.
Maybe it was something in the air. On the way home later that day I pulled up to a stop sign at a fairly busy four-way intersection. On the southeast corner of this intersection some candidate for Mother of the Year decided she would set up this:
Buy yours at Wal-Mart
“Here kids – just don’t slide into traffic!” Oh, and nevermind that this is the corner where the neighbors all walk their dogs. That’s just mud from the water.
Filed under: General Peevery, Parenting | Tags: annoying, car carts, children, coffee, drive me up the wall, grating, grocery store, mother, nervous breakdown, parentood, peeve, pet peeves, sarcastic, shopping, starbucks, supermarket, torture, vegetarians, vent
Going to the grocery store with children should be officially deployed by the Department of Justice as a form of torture. Having your fingernails yanked out is nothing compared with the hour of pure hell involved in picking up a few items for the week in the company of kids. If I really wanted to torture information out of someone, I would ship her off to the local Kroger with my 4-year-old (Smalls) and my 12-year-old (Biggie).
Phase I – The Parking Lot: Smalls insists on sitting in the in the “car” cart. Biggie insists on trying to fit into the “car” cart with Smalls. Smalls freaks the heck out that her sister is trying to sit on her and screams at the top of her lungs. Then Biggie says, “Fine!”, gives a colossal eye roll and insists upon pushing the “car” cart.
Phase II – The Entrance: Biggie, who weighs no more than a small cat soaking wet, attempts to push the cart, making it just inside the doorway where the back of Torturee’s legs act as a guard rail for said “car” cart. Biggie insists that the cart is broken and unmanueverable. (Which, is only a half-lie because while it is unmanueverable, it is not broken – some Secret Torture Agent actually designed it that way.)
Phase III – The Preparation: Torturee decides that to make it any further she needs a Starbucks. Biggie has watched “Food, Inc.” and decided she is going to be a vegetarian. Biggie takes off to go get vegetables and instructs Torturee to “text me if you need me.” Ah, one down one to go. Torturee, coffee in hand, manuevers cart over to cream & sugar station. There is no room for cream in her coffee.
Phase IV – Produce: Torturee attempts to navigate through the produce section. Biggie, the vegetarian, realizes she does not really like any vegetables and will start her new diet next week when she has a game plan ready. Biggie decides to randomly stand directly in the path of the giant “car” cart. (She is an undercover Jr. Secret Torture Agent and this is part of her requirements to making full-on STA status.) Smalls has collected 6 bottles of Naturally Fresh salad dressing and a Kiwi in the “car” portion of the “car” cart.
Phase V – Aisles 1-5: Biggie decides that the supermarket has the best acoustics to practice her step routine in. She intermittently trails behind Torturee thrashing like a bird with a broken wing and singing “Shorty is like a melody in my head…” and speeding ahead to debate the necessity of sugar-infested delicacies such as Lucky Charms and Pop-Tarts. Smalls discovers the “car” cart has a working horn and has decided to grab an economy-size can of Hormel chili, just in case her friends decide to come over for a playdate next weekend.
Phase VI – Aisles 6-10: Grooving along to a wonderful melody of “… got me singing like…” STOMP, HONK “…every day, like my iPod stuck on replay…” STOMP, HONK, HONK, STOMP, Torturee takes a sip of her latte only to have the lid leak all over her, her purse and the coupon accordion in the front of the cart. Smalls has added a 24-pack of Irish Spring to the “car” cart because, well, chili is messy.
Phase VII – Meat & Dairy: Biggie, the vegetarian, decides to recount the various forms of slaughter she witnessed in the movie while poking a pot roast and saying, “ew, Blood, Blood, Blood.” Smalls can’t bear the silence, so starts in with a song of her own… “Hey soul sister, hey there mister, mister…” Torturee corrects Smalls: “it’s ‘ain’t that mister, mister.'” Smalls promptly tells Torturee that she’s an idiot and never to correct her again because she is always right (paraphrasing here). Smalls then resumes her chorus, which is the only portion of the song she knows, pausing only to scream “CHOCOLATE PUDDING!” at the top of her lungs.
Phase VIII – Checkout: Torturee, having ditched half the list in attempt to get the hell out of the supermarket, approaches the checkout. There are only two cashiers and the place is packed. Biggie goes on a candy-finding mission, Smalls resumes horn honking to the tune of Soul Sister. The lady in front of Torturee decides she has three different transactions, one of which requires food stamps and another of which requires a check.
Torturee unloads from the “car” 6 bottles of Naturally Fresh dressing, a kiwi, a tub of Hormel chili, a family pack of Irish Spring and a bottle of Pinot Noir. Hey, she’s going to need that! Biggie jumps on top of “car” and when Torturee yells at her to get down, decides to stand directly in front of the cart, where Torturee needs to push it. HONK, HONK, HONK. Torturee cries, “the next person who honks that freaking horn is going to get beat!!” Biggie and Smalls look at each other – “wasn’t us”… Lady pushing child in “car” cart in next aisle over gives Torturee a dirty look.
Torturee, “I’ll tell you anything, I promise. Just give me a wine opener!”
Biggie, “Now that I’m a full-on STA, can I shave my legs?”
Perpetually Peeved 