B.S.

B.S. confuses and offends me. It comes in many forms. Much of the time it's expected, but sometimes not. It is when it is unexpected that it sticks in my head, and I find the need to process it to death. If I can't make sense of something, it will bug me for time unending. A waste of time and brain power? Yeah, maybe. But it is what it is, and this stuff bugs me. Current b.s:

+I have a mother's helper who cleans my house and runs errands for me as needed. She and I have developed a "go with the flow" relationship. If she needs to change a day, no big deal, if I need something, she's pretty flexible. She has gotten into a routine with us, in a sense. When she cleans, she stays for 3 hours, and will get done whatever she can in that time. If something is not completed in that time, it's left undone. She has gotten rather casual about changing days/times. As a general rule I don't care. I truly don't.  But it has started to feel a little like she's taking advantage. When she grocery shops, she's gone for about 1.5 hours. I don't watch the clock. I just know that this is about how long it takes her, give or take a few minutes. When I first hired her, she quoted me a pay rate for shopping, and one for cleaning. One day that she shopped, for 1.5 hours, I rounded up and paid her a couple of bucks more. It then became an expectation that she would get that amount. Again, I really didn't and don't care. I am very grateful that she is willing to shop for me, and works pretty hard to get what I ask for. So yesterday she came to get the shopping list. She left, and I focused on other things. After an hour or so, I got on my bike. I was cruising through a nearby neighborhood, and was heading around a cul-de-sac. I noticed a car that looked like hers. I glanced and thought that the person looked like her, but dismissed it....sort of. I continued a loop around the neighborhood, and ran into the car again. (Not literally) This time I was pretty certain it was her. My head started to process. I decided that I would only care if she was dishonest about being there. I watched as she turned down my road, then followed a minute or two later. I arrived home, and walked in. She asked me if I had been running. "Biking," I said. "That was you?" she said before she could catch herself. "That was me," I said. "Did you see me?" she asked. "I did." End of conversation. She quickly informed me that hubby had paid her, said a couple other unrelated things, and dashed out the door. Ummmmm......

+I have been attending the Natural Health Improvement Center. I was eagerly following the program designed for me, until the multitude of supplements they had me on started making me physically sick. I informed them of this. I was taken off of them, then restarted on them again. I got sick again, and the recommendation for me was to stay off them a day or two and start them again. No discussion or explanation as to why this was a good idea. I did not restart the stuff a third time. I emailed the Center to say that I planned to stay off the stuff for at least the weekend or longer til I thought it all through. Not only was there no discussion about this, there was no response at all. Not good enough! I want to discontinue the program. I paid for several appts. in advance and am guessing they are not going to be keen on refunding my money.

+My daughter is extremely timid. She was recently involved in a program at school which involved meeting with adults to discuss poetry and exchange poems. She did not feel comfortable writing poems. She did attend every meeting and group. At the end of the weeks long program, there was a presentation, and she stood up with her class. She came home that day with an anthology. A really neat collection of letters and poems that the students and adults had shared with each other. I did not expect one written by or for my daughter, and there was none. On the very last page, there was a group photo of the Kindergarten class. It took me a minute, but I finally found my daughter in the picture, sitting under a table. (Comfort zone!) Beneath the photo was a list of every kids name, EXCEPT hers. There was the name of a child who wasn't in the picture. But not my daughter's. Huh? I emailed the head of school to ask why she wasn't mentioned. She wrote back immediately (to her credit) and apologized. Her excuses? 1) She didn't see her in the photo (so??) 2) She had counted the correct number of kids in the photo because she had accidentally counted an adult in the photo. 3) And I'm quoting here! Additionally,(DD) was not yet participating in the poem presentation when the program was printed a few days before. Had I known that she would decided to stand up with the group, I would have included her name there as well." Uh.....had she not participated, in her capacity, in every single part of the program from the start??


These are the top 3 b.s. contenders for the moment.