It all went BOOM today. Been stirring since about Tuesday, after the tour, in which I found out I'm not eligible to apply to university until at least 2011. And if I do apply and get in, it's going to take me an extra year or two to complete the course. Joy. Don't have that kinda time, or the cash. Sooo here's hoping I didn't completely shoot down my chances for getting back into the local college.
That may sound good - but it's not. Not really. Mainly because I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I can't imagine doing any one career/job for my whole life.
I thought I was getting better, but the hacking cough is still hanging around, as is the runny nose, and the sore throat has returned, and it seems to be toying with the idea of going after my ear too. Fuuuuck. I don't think bawling my eyes out is helping either, but who knows.
Fuck, at the rate I've been going this week, I fucked up pretty much every aspect of my life. I have no life really. I'm alive, but that's not a life. Thought I was managing to work through shit, but nope. Still there, rearing it's ugly head and causing everything to go BOOM, and crumble and collapse.
Everything I touch turns to shit.
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Hat Knitting Update
In the 11 (now 12, technically) days I've been knitting to make hats for my mom's ladies luncheon, I have 10 teen/adult hats, 3 child's hats, we scrounged up a scarf I knitted a while back. This brings the day count to 11 and the hat/scarves to 14. We also found an infant/young child sized pair of mitts we'd bought that don't fit my neices, so the total items to go so far is 15.
Let's see how this turns to shit now...
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Amendment: Okay, so, right now, even my pillow is betraying me or telling me to cheer up - I bawled my eyes out and the tear stains made a smiley face. A.J. is inhabiting my pillow... EEK! lol.
Hopefully, I am done crying. I'm hoping I am - this is wreaking havoc on my throat *sigh* I'm kind of letting myself cry if I want to though - getting it out of my system and then hopefully think rationally soon. I need some better form of catharsis/or outlet in general. I cry and everyone calls me emo. Yeah, that's right, I make a comment ebout my crying kind of being like bleeding out the poison, and I get called emo. I'm never using a metaphor or a simile again! (which will be horribly boring, and won't last long, but oh well!) Besides, if I was emo, it wouldn't be bleeding out the poison, it'd be CRYING BIG TEARS OF BLOOD AND THAT IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!! And there'd be lots of messy eyeliner and cutting! (And yes, I'm aware I made wishing for death comments at one point today, but we all know if I wanted to kill myself I wouldn't sit around talking about it!) And yes Darien, I know this doesn't help my not being emo argument. But I'm not trying to blame any of this on anyone. It happens. It kind of feels like being bucked off a horse and trampled on at the moment, but it happens. Therefore, I am not emo!
And this wasn't meant to turn into a rant about emo-ness... but it does make me seem horribly bi-polar... but anyways. Here's hoping that I'm done and moving on at any rate... And I really need to stop randomly attacking Trystn during these fits. It's not nice, and he doesn't like it... and it really doesn't make me happy either. Sorry Trystn. Of course I apologize to him on the blog...which he never reads... brillliant... Anyways, I'm going to bed now.
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Stress Stress Stress and More Stress
It's that time of year again. Or still. Something like that. Although most of my Christmas shopping is done, so it doesn't matter there lol.
My hat goal is changing, as mom's luncheon is about 10-15 days earlier than I expected it to be - it's on Dec. 1st. I'm still going to knit as much as I can, and we've also raided some of my older knitting for scarves and unfinished pieces to be taken apart for yarn because I plenty of those from when I was starting to knit. So far though, since my last post on Wednesday the 18th, I've knitted 5.5 hats (the .5 is the one I'm working on right now) and we've got one scarf (haven't raided the other finished projects, and I knitted a lot of scarves to be given away, or they didn't get finished so we disassembled them.) My yarn collection is shrinking, and in some cases I wonder about actually using the yarn for this project because I don't know how men (since the items are going to a men's mission) would react to the colour of the yarn - i.e. dark purple, or more "girlie" colours. That could just be me being a worrywort, but just because they are in need of the items doesn't mean they will enjoy wearing an item, and I mean, I don't want the icky nasty people-who-are-the-scum-of-the-earth-and-don't-deserve-to-be-called-people to beat someone up because they're wearing some girly hat I knitted because it was all the shelter had and they needed it. I would hope that wouldn't happen, but recently there's been a bit of a jump in hate crimes, and my brain thinks too much and I would hate to be part of the reason someone got beat up or something. But as I said, not that that will happen.
I got a university tour confirmed for Tuesday. Hopefully I get over this cold by then, or else it could suck a lot. I've been rethinking thanatology, but until I get in there and find out who I can talk to (which means most of my questions won't be answered Tuesday, but that's okay because they use student tour guides, and they may at least be able to point me in the right direction) and find out what my career options are afterwards, or if I need to do like... psychology AND thanatology or what.
Of course with my second guessing myself - which happens even more when I'm sick and feeling crappy - comes people's true opinions. Like I really shouldn't go into it because my mood won't improve because my brain hasn't had enough time. To be honest, I've kind of always been like this. Although having 45 people die in 4 years is rather rough, but sometimes that's just how it goes. It takes time to get through, but unfortunately, it doesn't "go away." And when you have a lot of people dropping dead at once, everything kind of gets supressed. The reason I chose thanatology was half as therapy, and half because people come to me for advice and for help. Often times this is related to death. My mom thinks it's a good idea because I am pretty much already doing it. I say I'm doing it because I'm tired of all the whining grieving idiots who get stuck in the "I refuse to let go!" and "I must be a selfish brat for the rest of my life!" stages. And I should know. I was there/am there. I have dealt with family members who are/were there. I think the main reason I don't want to go through with it is because I'm just doubting myself and my own abilities to do it, and there's so little information on it that I can find that I don't know exactly what will be required of me. I don't want to spend $30,000 getting a degree I can't use because I have to do another degree first/after. I can't afford that. Fuck, I can't even afford the $30,000 to get a thanatology degree. I'm going to sell my soul for it pretty much. But I shall wait and see who I can talk to about it etc. I will look into and apply for scholarships...at least that doesn't have to be done within a month or less, that can be done later, once I've applied and been accepted.
Anyways, my sick muddled brain has lost train of thought so I'm going to watch more horsie movies on Youtube and knit while I blow through forest after forest of kleenexes.
My hat goal is changing, as mom's luncheon is about 10-15 days earlier than I expected it to be - it's on Dec. 1st. I'm still going to knit as much as I can, and we've also raided some of my older knitting for scarves and unfinished pieces to be taken apart for yarn because I plenty of those from when I was starting to knit. So far though, since my last post on Wednesday the 18th, I've knitted 5.5 hats (the .5 is the one I'm working on right now) and we've got one scarf (haven't raided the other finished projects, and I knitted a lot of scarves to be given away, or they didn't get finished so we disassembled them.) My yarn collection is shrinking, and in some cases I wonder about actually using the yarn for this project because I don't know how men (since the items are going to a men's mission) would react to the colour of the yarn - i.e. dark purple, or more "girlie" colours. That could just be me being a worrywort, but just because they are in need of the items doesn't mean they will enjoy wearing an item, and I mean, I don't want the icky nasty people-who-are-the-scum-of-the-earth-and-don't-deserve-to-be-called-people to beat someone up because they're wearing some girly hat I knitted because it was all the shelter had and they needed it. I would hope that wouldn't happen, but recently there's been a bit of a jump in hate crimes, and my brain thinks too much and I would hate to be part of the reason someone got beat up or something. But as I said, not that that will happen.
I got a university tour confirmed for Tuesday. Hopefully I get over this cold by then, or else it could suck a lot. I've been rethinking thanatology, but until I get in there and find out who I can talk to (which means most of my questions won't be answered Tuesday, but that's okay because they use student tour guides, and they may at least be able to point me in the right direction) and find out what my career options are afterwards, or if I need to do like... psychology AND thanatology or what.
Of course with my second guessing myself - which happens even more when I'm sick and feeling crappy - comes people's true opinions. Like I really shouldn't go into it because my mood won't improve because my brain hasn't had enough time. To be honest, I've kind of always been like this. Although having 45 people die in 4 years is rather rough, but sometimes that's just how it goes. It takes time to get through, but unfortunately, it doesn't "go away." And when you have a lot of people dropping dead at once, everything kind of gets supressed. The reason I chose thanatology was half as therapy, and half because people come to me for advice and for help. Often times this is related to death. My mom thinks it's a good idea because I am pretty much already doing it. I say I'm doing it because I'm tired of all the whining grieving idiots who get stuck in the "I refuse to let go!" and "I must be a selfish brat for the rest of my life!" stages. And I should know. I was there/am there. I have dealt with family members who are/were there. I think the main reason I don't want to go through with it is because I'm just doubting myself and my own abilities to do it, and there's so little information on it that I can find that I don't know exactly what will be required of me. I don't want to spend $30,000 getting a degree I can't use because I have to do another degree first/after. I can't afford that. Fuck, I can't even afford the $30,000 to get a thanatology degree. I'm going to sell my soul for it pretty much. But I shall wait and see who I can talk to about it etc. I will look into and apply for scholarships...at least that doesn't have to be done within a month or less, that can be done later, once I've applied and been accepted.
Anyways, my sick muddled brain has lost train of thought so I'm going to watch more horsie movies on Youtube and knit while I blow through forest after forest of kleenexes.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Bit of a rant
Okay, so this is something that pretty much just grinds my gears. It's been doing it for a while now, really. Something I probably really shouldn't care about, but I do. So here goes.
Tights are NOT pants. First we had that whole "I must wear jeans under a skirt/dress!" and then we went into "I must wear tights with every outfit!" and now we have "Tights can be worn as pants!"
Sorry, but no. I am not the only one to feel this way, either! Look here, at the blog I found when I was looking for examples of tights being worn as pants.
The only times I would EVER say it is okay to wear tights "as pants" would be if you are a dancer/gymnist and are wearing them as a body suit for dancing or dance rehersal - this applies to a few other sports as well, like skating etc, but again, that really only applies to the men, as most female skaters would have the skirty thing going on. It is also only okay to wear them "as pants" if you are wearing a very long top - so long that it's like a dress.
Why should people not wear tights as pants? Well, most people really don't want to see everyone else's undies. Also, a lot of people really don't look that good in tights. The 80's need to die and stay dead. Also... CAMEL TOE IS NASTY. Just... uuugh. NO. Okay? NO.
I saw a girl at the mall handing out resumes - I'm guessing she was hoping her looks would get her a job (she was cute, and had a nice butt), however... tights as pants is nooot overly professional. I possibly would have hired her, but I would have asked if she had pants or skirts to wear. Another time, I was in the fabric store and this girl came in wearing tights and I actually cringed and had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "Oh, you came here to buy fabric to make pants! Seeing as how someone appears to have stolen yours and left you with only you tights! Which are *not* pants, and all..."
So really the only thing to say here is - TIGHTS ARE NOT PANTS. DO NOT WEAR TIGHTS AS PANTS. Or flying monkies will kill you.
Tights are NOT pants. First we had that whole "I must wear jeans under a skirt/dress!" and then we went into "I must wear tights with every outfit!" and now we have "Tights can be worn as pants!"
Sorry, but no. I am not the only one to feel this way, either! Look here, at the blog I found when I was looking for examples of tights being worn as pants.
The only times I would EVER say it is okay to wear tights "as pants" would be if you are a dancer/gymnist and are wearing them as a body suit for dancing or dance rehersal - this applies to a few other sports as well, like skating etc, but again, that really only applies to the men, as most female skaters would have the skirty thing going on. It is also only okay to wear them "as pants" if you are wearing a very long top - so long that it's like a dress.
Why should people not wear tights as pants? Well, most people really don't want to see everyone else's undies. Also, a lot of people really don't look that good in tights. The 80's need to die and stay dead. Also... CAMEL TOE IS NASTY. Just... uuugh. NO. Okay? NO.
I saw a girl at the mall handing out resumes - I'm guessing she was hoping her looks would get her a job (she was cute, and had a nice butt), however... tights as pants is nooot overly professional. I possibly would have hired her, but I would have asked if she had pants or skirts to wear. Another time, I was in the fabric store and this girl came in wearing tights and I actually cringed and had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "Oh, you came here to buy fabric to make pants! Seeing as how someone appears to have stolen yours and left you with only you tights! Which are *not* pants, and all..."
So really the only thing to say here is - TIGHTS ARE NOT PANTS. DO NOT WEAR TIGHTS AS PANTS. Or flying monkies will kill you.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Toddlers & Tiaras - Ramblings
Today I watched a TV series called "Toddlers & Tiaras" on TLC. It was kind of like watching a train wreck. Horrifying, but at the same time, fascinating. The show is about children (mostly ages 12 and under) that compete in children's beauty pageants. I would love to say we don't have these things in Canada, but I'm fairly certain we probably do (the show is based in the U.S..)
Most of the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, some, not so much, and others, well... not at all. For me, it's just strange - and slightly uncomprehensible - to see kids wearing more make up than most badly/overly made up women I know; being spray tanned (or in one case having it rolled on with something akin to a paint roller); wearing fake nails, fake eyelashes, fake hair, and then parading around in elaborate, garish outfits that cost more than a lot of things I wish I owned - as my one friend said when she heard what one mother commented about outfits costing "That's a lot of rent..." (We're talking this mother has invested between 65-70 THOUSAND dollars in going to pageants. Oh, and her daughter was about 5 years old.) I can understand the make up and the hairspray - my neices go through those for skating. I've done the "You've got so much hairspray/product in your hair, stay away from open flames" myself for a couple formal events (remember, the trick is that if your hair still feels like hair, you don't have enough hairspray.)
The younger kids really didn't seem to understand what was going on, they just did it, and probably had fun (though there were a lot of sad faces when they didn't get prizes.) The older kids did get it, and some were INSANE about it. The one 10 year old even had (what appeared to be a rather bitchy) alter ego named Tootie. I kid you not - they called the child by her real name, and she snapped back "I'm not *name*!! I'M TOOTIE!!!" And her bad mood lasted until she stepped on stage, and then came back as soon as she was off stage. A few of these kids seem to have "I'm better than you" attitudes. Already. Like little Miss Tootie. She constantly had this look like someone around her was smelly - the disgust, the sneer, all of it. She also didn't seem to give a damn about anything. What she won was not good enough.
A lot of the mothers were also pageant contestants when they were younger. They were more excited than the kids when they won *grimace* Seriously, your child is standing on stage with this "I have no idea what's going on, but I'll stand here and smile" look on their face, and you're standing in the audience squealing, jumping up and down for joy, waving your arms, hollering, yelling, and hugging your friends/family... meanwhile your child's expression has now become "My mother is acting insane, and I'm not sure why, or what I should be doing, but okay..."
One family had all 5 of their daughters competing. I WILL SAY THIS NOW - I'm not going to say this woman is a bad mother, or anything like that. I do not know these people, I am aware this whole thing has been edited by other people than her (or at least I would assume it has been), and all that. What I am about to say is my own observations and opinions formed by what I saw.
Anyways, continuing, this family has 5 daughters competing, two of whom are twins. Now in the beginning, it seems as though the mother is showing favouritism (and it does kind of seem that way, but at the same time, she could be just being very truthful/realistic, as one twin won more pageants than the other twin.) I will call the twin that wins more Twin #1 and the other twin Twin #2. I will say how things originally came across, and then my later thoughts on them. So, first off, Twin #2 doesn't really seem to enjoy pageants. Twin #2 also looks emotionally injured when talking about pageants. She knows her sister wins more than she does etc. She said so herself, and when speaking about pageants, looked unhappy, looked down from everyone else, or away from everyone else. Originally I was rather shocked at how the mother came across when the dress Twin #2 chose had a rip in it. It appeared a ruffle had come off a layer of the skirt, and would actually be a fairly easy fix. The mother however goes "It's RIPPED. You ripped it at the last pageant!! Do you remember how you ripped it?! You lose points for things like this!!" The child started to cry, asking if it could be fixed, or if they could get a new one. The mother replied she'd fix it if she had time, and that while there was a new dress coming, it would probably only fit Twin #1. Now this originally came off as rather cold - however, thinking on it more, 5 girls to get ready for the pageant would be a lot of work, and if the twins differed in size from when the dress was ordered, it would make sense that it would only really fit one of them. Other than this, for the most part, the mother seemed to be a very good parent. The father eventually had to make the desicion to remove Twin #1 from the pageant because of her horrible behaviour, and the mother respected this and did not fight him on it at all. The thing that stunned me most was Twin #1's behaviour at/after the pageant. Twin #1 ended up being removed before the final portion before crowning - due to her behaviour (we're talking kicking, screaming, crying, ignoring parental directions, insulting her sisters etc.) Twin #2 ended up being crowned 3rd Alternate, and Director's Choice. Twin #1 - while not participating in the talent portion, and being removed - was awarded 2nd Alternate. Both twins were then being interviewed by the camera crew, and when Twin #2 was asked what she won, Twin #1 butted in with "YOU didn't win. I did! I got 2nd Alternate!Twin #2 replied with "How would you know?! You weren't there! You were asleep!" Twin #1 continued with "I won. Ask mommy!" Twin #2 then simply sat there, staring down and away from everyone, looking at the floor, no expression on her face. Twin #1 then put her arm around her sister in a comforting/patronizing gesture, only to be shoved off by Twin #2. WAY TO GO #2!! One child has an ego issue, and the other has emotional damage issues. I hope Twin #1 smartens the fuck up, and Twin #2 grows up to be strong, and not hating and distrusting people.
Before and After photos can be seen here, (Tootie is #4) along with other stuff on the site (like lists of what they take to pageants, etc etc.) Some of them still look like children when they're all made up. Others look like Barbie dolls.
Oh, and the cost of the one girl's dresses from above? Least expensive was either $1200 or $2100. Most expensive was $3600. I think I need to be making poufy, frou frou pageant dresses that look like glitter vomit.
Now then, not sure why I'm rambling on this much... probably because this whole thing kind of disturbs me (in about the same sense as purity balls...)
Most of the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, some, not so much, and others, well... not at all. For me, it's just strange - and slightly uncomprehensible - to see kids wearing more make up than most badly/overly made up women I know; being spray tanned (or in one case having it rolled on with something akin to a paint roller); wearing fake nails, fake eyelashes, fake hair, and then parading around in elaborate, garish outfits that cost more than a lot of things I wish I owned - as my one friend said when she heard what one mother commented about outfits costing "That's a lot of rent..." (We're talking this mother has invested between 65-70 THOUSAND dollars in going to pageants. Oh, and her daughter was about 5 years old.) I can understand the make up and the hairspray - my neices go through those for skating. I've done the "You've got so much hairspray/product in your hair, stay away from open flames" myself for a couple formal events (remember, the trick is that if your hair still feels like hair, you don't have enough hairspray.)
The younger kids really didn't seem to understand what was going on, they just did it, and probably had fun (though there were a lot of sad faces when they didn't get prizes.) The older kids did get it, and some were INSANE about it. The one 10 year old even had (what appeared to be a rather bitchy) alter ego named Tootie. I kid you not - they called the child by her real name, and she snapped back "I'm not *name*!! I'M TOOTIE!!!" And her bad mood lasted until she stepped on stage, and then came back as soon as she was off stage. A few of these kids seem to have "I'm better than you" attitudes. Already. Like little Miss Tootie. She constantly had this look like someone around her was smelly - the disgust, the sneer, all of it. She also didn't seem to give a damn about anything. What she won was not good enough.
A lot of the mothers were also pageant contestants when they were younger. They were more excited than the kids when they won *grimace* Seriously, your child is standing on stage with this "I have no idea what's going on, but I'll stand here and smile" look on their face, and you're standing in the audience squealing, jumping up and down for joy, waving your arms, hollering, yelling, and hugging your friends/family... meanwhile your child's expression has now become "My mother is acting insane, and I'm not sure why, or what I should be doing, but okay..."
One family had all 5 of their daughters competing. I WILL SAY THIS NOW - I'm not going to say this woman is a bad mother, or anything like that. I do not know these people, I am aware this whole thing has been edited by other people than her (or at least I would assume it has been), and all that. What I am about to say is my own observations and opinions formed by what I saw.
Anyways, continuing, this family has 5 daughters competing, two of whom are twins. Now in the beginning, it seems as though the mother is showing favouritism (and it does kind of seem that way, but at the same time, she could be just being very truthful/realistic, as one twin won more pageants than the other twin.) I will call the twin that wins more Twin #1 and the other twin Twin #2. I will say how things originally came across, and then my later thoughts on them. So, first off, Twin #2 doesn't really seem to enjoy pageants. Twin #2 also looks emotionally injured when talking about pageants. She knows her sister wins more than she does etc. She said so herself, and when speaking about pageants, looked unhappy, looked down from everyone else, or away from everyone else. Originally I was rather shocked at how the mother came across when the dress Twin #2 chose had a rip in it. It appeared a ruffle had come off a layer of the skirt, and would actually be a fairly easy fix. The mother however goes "It's RIPPED. You ripped it at the last pageant!! Do you remember how you ripped it?! You lose points for things like this!!" The child started to cry, asking if it could be fixed, or if they could get a new one. The mother replied she'd fix it if she had time, and that while there was a new dress coming, it would probably only fit Twin #1. Now this originally came off as rather cold - however, thinking on it more, 5 girls to get ready for the pageant would be a lot of work, and if the twins differed in size from when the dress was ordered, it would make sense that it would only really fit one of them. Other than this, for the most part, the mother seemed to be a very good parent. The father eventually had to make the desicion to remove Twin #1 from the pageant because of her horrible behaviour, and the mother respected this and did not fight him on it at all. The thing that stunned me most was Twin #1's behaviour at/after the pageant. Twin #1 ended up being removed before the final portion before crowning - due to her behaviour (we're talking kicking, screaming, crying, ignoring parental directions, insulting her sisters etc.) Twin #2 ended up being crowned 3rd Alternate, and Director's Choice. Twin #1 - while not participating in the talent portion, and being removed - was awarded 2nd Alternate. Both twins were then being interviewed by the camera crew, and when Twin #2 was asked what she won, Twin #1 butted in with "YOU didn't win. I did! I got 2nd Alternate!Twin #2 replied with "How would you know?! You weren't there! You were asleep!" Twin #1 continued with "I won. Ask mommy!" Twin #2 then simply sat there, staring down and away from everyone, looking at the floor, no expression on her face. Twin #1 then put her arm around her sister in a comforting/patronizing gesture, only to be shoved off by Twin #2. WAY TO GO #2!! One child has an ego issue, and the other has emotional damage issues. I hope Twin #1 smartens the fuck up, and Twin #2 grows up to be strong, and not hating and distrusting people.
Before and After photos can be seen here, (Tootie is #4) along with other stuff on the site (like lists of what they take to pageants, etc etc.) Some of them still look like children when they're all made up. Others look like Barbie dolls.
Oh, and the cost of the one girl's dresses from above? Least expensive was either $1200 or $2100. Most expensive was $3600. I think I need to be making poufy, frou frou pageant dresses that look like glitter vomit.
Now then, not sure why I'm rambling on this much... probably because this whole thing kind of disturbs me (in about the same sense as purity balls...)
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Country Living and City Dwellers
It's that time of year again - the rains have tapered off to typical summer thunder showers, but they're not the cold drizzly downpours of spring. House hunting weather. Living in a rural area, it's not horribly often that I see houses for sale. And oddly enough, the ones usually for sale are the ones that the owners have lived in for decades, and now live alone and are too old to do the upkeep of a large house by themselves, OR they're the city people that moved out here, but can't hack the country life. As someone who has spent all of the almost 21 years of her life living in the same house in a rural area, I hate it when city people move out here. Some I don't mind, but those are the ones who learn quickly. It's the ones that learn and adapt slowly I have issues with. Some days you really just want to take bets on how long before they move back into the city. Now then, what spawned this thought process turned blog entry? Another house a few concessions over on our road has also been sold. This just caused some reminiscing of other times houses were bought in the area. I'm not saying city dwellers are bad people, or overly stupid, just sometimes they need to get a clue. Here's a list of advice, grievances, and random things that I have for when city dwellers move to the country.
- Talk to your neighbours/people on the road. We're not going to kill you, and in some cases it could save your life, keep you from getting robbed, or just be good if you have any general questions about things and how they work. Introduce yourself, talk a bit. Out here, if anything happens, it's going to take a bit of time before an emergency service arrives in response. When our neighbours started renting the house to the west of us, they introduced themselves, chatted a bit, and eventually, after a couple months we had all agreed to keep our eyes open for suspicious activities, strange vehicles, etc at each other's houses.
- DO NOT act like you are better than your neighbours because they're JUST farmers, so they must be country bumpkins, and dirt poor. Why would you act like that with anyone? (Unless they REALLY deserve it, but usually, most people don't.) Also, without farmers, what would you eat? I once had a substitute teacher when I was in high school, it was still kind of early in the year, probably end of October, beginning of November. She usually taught at a city school, she was a city girl, she really didn't know anything about farm area (to the extent of "It took me FOREVER to get here from ____!! I thought the drive would never end!" Um, okay, that's a 15 minute drive. 15 minutes. If THAT is a long drive I hope you never have to drive all the way across the city from here.) Now then, add the time of year together with a school in a farming community and the fact this is Ontario, Canada. Yes almost a third to half the class is missing. To us students, the answer was simple. Harvesting. To the teacher, it made no sense. "Don't their parents care about their education?! Why would they keep them home?! Don't they want their children to have an education?! To succeed?!" Um... because once they're done here the majority of them will be earning their livings as a farmer...? As for how long they'll be out of school, if the weather holds, 3 or 4 days. A week tops. If it rains, they'll be back until the weather's good again. Also... why would you assume they lack an education? Why would being a farmer not be succeeding? She didn't have any answers to that, and she very quickly got back on track with the work our teacher had left.
- If you don't like the rural area, why did you move here? If you didn't like the city, maybe you should have tried one of the suburbs between the north edge of the city, and here. Still out of the main city (you can't take a bus from there unless you walk the 5-10 minutes down the hill to the mall to catch one) yet not quite into the country to require you to drive everywhere.
- No matter how much literature your real estate agent gives you, it will NEVER cover everything you need to know about living out here.
- Yes, you pay a small fee for (basically unlimited - the city has a limit of 4 bags per week) garbage and recycling pick up in your land taxes. Apparently you thought this was a great deal, and didn't bother to read the rest of the pamphlet. They will not take your garbage unless you put a garbage tag on it. These can be bought at the convenience store in Ballymote for something like $1.75 each. Also, you smell smoke, you see everyone burning their leaves, no one else has leaves in bags down at the road that haven't been picked up on garbage day... mainly because we don't have yard waste disposal, for rather obvious reasons - You now live on an acre or more of land, covered with trees that lose their leaves... you getting the picture yet? Compost it, burn it, or leave it alone. Those are your choices.
- If anything is left at your driveway on garbage day, it could be that you put your stuff out too late, or something is wrong with it. This usually happens with recycling. DO NOT leave it at the road to get blown into the road, hit by cars, spread everywhere by animals etc etc. Take it back to your house, fix it, put it out next week.
- On this road, your garbage goes on the SOUTH side. If you look around, yours is the only garbage on the north side. The problem as to why your garbage is not getting picked up is rather obvious, isn't it?
- Stop freaking out about power outages. They happen. Espeically in this area. Particularly in bad weather. It will come back on eventually, it takes the hydro crews a little bit of time to locate the problem and get a team out here. If it bothers you that much - buy a generator.
- Stop whining about a lack of cable, and cable based internet. We do not have cable out here. Get satellite or shut the fuck up. No, living here does NOT mean "dial-up only." I should know. We've had high speed/DSL for a while now. The trick is finding a supplier that offers service in our area. There's about 6 that I know of for sure. Ask your neighbours, they would know.
- In the winter, I WILL laugh at you (not to your face though) when I see you out shovelling your very long laneway. Mainly because yours is one of the few laneways not cleared. Why don't you just arrange to have the farmer down the road plow your laneway like he does everyone else's? I know people have told you about him before. It's not all that expensive (he only charges about $10 to $15 per time, if even), and doesn't need to be done all that often unless the weather is horrible.
- Yes our road is only half plowed. This is apparently called a "traffic lane" or some such. It means the road is clear enough for one vehicle to drive on the whole clear area, or for two vehicles to pass on the road, with at least 2 tires in the clear area. And by two tires I do not mean the 2 front tires of your car will be in the clear while you force me into the ditch. Fuck you. Move over.
- The township will plow the road completely when they have time. I remember it wasn't long ago when this road didn't get plowed AT ALL.
- The people parking their cars at the road end of their very long driveways are not stupid. They are not snowed in. However, I notice you are.
- Yes, snow is blowing into your yard from across the road. You live across the road from an open field, what did you expect?
- Keep. YOUR. Goddamn. Dog. OFF. MY. Property. You live like six houses down. That's almost 1/4 of a mile or more. Your dog had to cross both bridges and then some to get to my house. And then he shits all over my yard. My neighbours' dog is better behaved than that! And there's no fence around part of our property between theirs and ours. That dog only comes over if one of his owners comes over. And even then he doesn't shit in our yard. Next time I see your "precious purebred supposedly impressivly pedigreed hunting dog that you don't hunt" with in my yard, I'm calling animal control. Enjoy your fines and expenses for breaking the by-law. Side note: I don't really mind letting your dog run loose, SO LONG AS it will come when called, and doesn't wander too far from home. Even my neighbours' cats only wander around the few houses in our section of the road. They don't cause a lot of problems, and they help control the pest issue. But some people let their animals run wild, causing damage, injuries etc. I don't want to go knocking door to door going "Do you own a dog matching this description? You do? I'm very sorry to tell you I hit it."
- It's farm country, it's going to smell like animal poop occassionally, get used to it. And yes, there will be farm equipment using the road - learn to share the road.
- You live in an area without municipal water or sewage systems. This means you have a well, and you have a septic tank. I suggest you learn about these - where they are, what they do, how they work, and who to call when something goes wrong. Asking your neighbours also helps because they may be able to tell you quite a bit, even about your own property.
Thus ends a semi-pointless to the majority of people that will read it rant. No one said my blog had to have a purpose :p
Above: Random photo looking up my road at sunset Yes, I'm aware there's snow lol.
- Talk to your neighbours/people on the road. We're not going to kill you, and in some cases it could save your life, keep you from getting robbed, or just be good if you have any general questions about things and how they work. Introduce yourself, talk a bit. Out here, if anything happens, it's going to take a bit of time before an emergency service arrives in response. When our neighbours started renting the house to the west of us, they introduced themselves, chatted a bit, and eventually, after a couple months we had all agreed to keep our eyes open for suspicious activities, strange vehicles, etc at each other's houses.
- DO NOT act like you are better than your neighbours because they're JUST farmers, so they must be country bumpkins, and dirt poor. Why would you act like that with anyone? (Unless they REALLY deserve it, but usually, most people don't.) Also, without farmers, what would you eat? I once had a substitute teacher when I was in high school, it was still kind of early in the year, probably end of October, beginning of November. She usually taught at a city school, she was a city girl, she really didn't know anything about farm area (to the extent of "It took me FOREVER to get here from ____!! I thought the drive would never end!" Um, okay, that's a 15 minute drive. 15 minutes. If THAT is a long drive I hope you never have to drive all the way across the city from here.) Now then, add the time of year together with a school in a farming community and the fact this is Ontario, Canada. Yes almost a third to half the class is missing. To us students, the answer was simple. Harvesting. To the teacher, it made no sense. "Don't their parents care about their education?! Why would they keep them home?! Don't they want their children to have an education?! To succeed?!" Um... because once they're done here the majority of them will be earning their livings as a farmer...? As for how long they'll be out of school, if the weather holds, 3 or 4 days. A week tops. If it rains, they'll be back until the weather's good again. Also... why would you assume they lack an education? Why would being a farmer not be succeeding? She didn't have any answers to that, and she very quickly got back on track with the work our teacher had left.
- If you don't like the rural area, why did you move here? If you didn't like the city, maybe you should have tried one of the suburbs between the north edge of the city, and here. Still out of the main city (you can't take a bus from there unless you walk the 5-10 minutes down the hill to the mall to catch one) yet not quite into the country to require you to drive everywhere.
- No matter how much literature your real estate agent gives you, it will NEVER cover everything you need to know about living out here.
- Yes, you pay a small fee for (basically unlimited - the city has a limit of 4 bags per week) garbage and recycling pick up in your land taxes. Apparently you thought this was a great deal, and didn't bother to read the rest of the pamphlet. They will not take your garbage unless you put a garbage tag on it. These can be bought at the convenience store in Ballymote for something like $1.75 each. Also, you smell smoke, you see everyone burning their leaves, no one else has leaves in bags down at the road that haven't been picked up on garbage day... mainly because we don't have yard waste disposal, for rather obvious reasons - You now live on an acre or more of land, covered with trees that lose their leaves... you getting the picture yet? Compost it, burn it, or leave it alone. Those are your choices.
- If anything is left at your driveway on garbage day, it could be that you put your stuff out too late, or something is wrong with it. This usually happens with recycling. DO NOT leave it at the road to get blown into the road, hit by cars, spread everywhere by animals etc etc. Take it back to your house, fix it, put it out next week.
- On this road, your garbage goes on the SOUTH side. If you look around, yours is the only garbage on the north side. The problem as to why your garbage is not getting picked up is rather obvious, isn't it?
- Stop freaking out about power outages. They happen. Espeically in this area. Particularly in bad weather. It will come back on eventually, it takes the hydro crews a little bit of time to locate the problem and get a team out here. If it bothers you that much - buy a generator.
- Stop whining about a lack of cable, and cable based internet. We do not have cable out here. Get satellite or shut the fuck up. No, living here does NOT mean "dial-up only." I should know. We've had high speed/DSL for a while now. The trick is finding a supplier that offers service in our area. There's about 6 that I know of for sure. Ask your neighbours, they would know.
- In the winter, I WILL laugh at you (not to your face though) when I see you out shovelling your very long laneway. Mainly because yours is one of the few laneways not cleared. Why don't you just arrange to have the farmer down the road plow your laneway like he does everyone else's? I know people have told you about him before. It's not all that expensive (he only charges about $10 to $15 per time, if even), and doesn't need to be done all that often unless the weather is horrible.
- Yes our road is only half plowed. This is apparently called a "traffic lane" or some such. It means the road is clear enough for one vehicle to drive on the whole clear area, or for two vehicles to pass on the road, with at least 2 tires in the clear area. And by two tires I do not mean the 2 front tires of your car will be in the clear while you force me into the ditch. Fuck you. Move over.
- The township will plow the road completely when they have time. I remember it wasn't long ago when this road didn't get plowed AT ALL.
- The people parking their cars at the road end of their very long driveways are not stupid. They are not snowed in. However, I notice you are.
- Yes, snow is blowing into your yard from across the road. You live across the road from an open field, what did you expect?
- Keep. YOUR. Goddamn. Dog. OFF. MY. Property. You live like six houses down. That's almost 1/4 of a mile or more. Your dog had to cross both bridges and then some to get to my house. And then he shits all over my yard. My neighbours' dog is better behaved than that! And there's no fence around part of our property between theirs and ours. That dog only comes over if one of his owners comes over. And even then he doesn't shit in our yard. Next time I see your "precious purebred supposedly impressivly pedigreed hunting dog that you don't hunt" with in my yard, I'm calling animal control. Enjoy your fines and expenses for breaking the by-law. Side note: I don't really mind letting your dog run loose, SO LONG AS it will come when called, and doesn't wander too far from home. Even my neighbours' cats only wander around the few houses in our section of the road. They don't cause a lot of problems, and they help control the pest issue. But some people let their animals run wild, causing damage, injuries etc. I don't want to go knocking door to door going "Do you own a dog matching this description? You do? I'm very sorry to tell you I hit it."
- It's farm country, it's going to smell like animal poop occassionally, get used to it. And yes, there will be farm equipment using the road - learn to share the road.
- You live in an area without municipal water or sewage systems. This means you have a well, and you have a septic tank. I suggest you learn about these - where they are, what they do, how they work, and who to call when something goes wrong. Asking your neighbours also helps because they may be able to tell you quite a bit, even about your own property.
Thus ends a semi-pointless to the majority of people that will read it rant. No one said my blog had to have a purpose :p
Above: Random photo looking up my road at sunset Yes, I'm aware there's snow lol.
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