Poop, friends, maturity...pretty much a Rant-fest!

If you didn’t know it, I’m here to tell you, your poop doesn’t smell like roses. No one’s does. And when you do “take care of business”, it’s kind of appropriate to flush and, hopefully, spray some air freshener or open a window. When you don’t flush or when you don’t spray air freshener then a whole bunch of other people get to deal with your crap. And that ain’t right. Just sayin’. When you’ve done stunk up a place, that’s when you need your friends. (And, case you don’t speak Tracy, while it applies literally, the “poop” I’m referring to is when you screw up.)

Now, let’s get something straight. A friend isn’t someone who tells you that your poop don’t stink. A real friend is someone who reminds you to flush and suggests that some Lysol would cover over a multitude of sins. (And a best friend goes and gets the Lysol for you!) There are way too many people who think that if someone holds you accountable for your slip-ups, that they aren’t a “real” friend. Honey, I’m here to tell you, we got enough people willing to blow smoke up your butt about your dumb decisions. A real friend? Tells you when you are about to do something stupid (or that you DID do something stupid), loves you just the same and then supports you as you dig yourself out of the hole you dug for yourself. Just sayin'. They DON’T tell you that what you did smells like roses. I see too many people standing around in stinkiness pretending it smells GREAT and talking about how everyone else is mean.

If you want someone who is only going to tell you how wonderful you are, how funny you are, how everyone else just doesn’t “understand you”, how everything you do and say is fine and everyone else should just “get over it”…well, that’s not a friend. That’s a fan. And you’ll be headed to hell in a handbasket with your fan club. And they’ll probably still be telling you what an awesome person you are. Just sayin.'

Good heavens. Do I like it when someone comes and tells me that I screwed up? Heck, no!  But I’d rather learn from my mistakes and actually, ya know, GROW so I don’t end up as a 45-50-60-70 year old woman with an 11-year old maturity level! Just sayin'.

Sure there are people who love nothing more than to tear you down just because it makes them feel good. But remember that there are also people who think that you are an actual adult and willing to take responsibility for your actions. So, maybe when you are hearing people talk negatively something you do or say, instead of gathering up your fans (remember, they AIN’T your friends!) and letting them smooth over your ruffled feathers, find some real friends, people that can stand up to your annoyance with them when they tell you that you’ve gotten off kilter. If THEY say there’s nothing there…let it go. But if they say, “yep, you screwed up” or “I’ve noticed you have a problem with this”, then it’s time for a little reflection, prayer, and time in the Word while you let God grow you up a bit.

Listen, if the only mistakes you own up to are the ones that YOU acknowledge, you are probably missing 90% of the crap you are throwing out at people. Just sayin'.

I’m not a teenager so surrounding myself with people who make my ego feel good is pretty stupid. (And seeing so many other adults who only surround themselves with fans...it's confirmed that it is VERY stupid.) I want friends who make me laugh, who I can talk to about the good, the bad, and the ugly, and who will keep me pointed to Him by letting me know when I’ve gotten off track. In other words, I need to know that when my poop stinks…someone who's gonna point it out AND expect me to do something about it. If you don’t have anyone in your life that holds you accountable for the stinky stuff you do and say, you need to get some. You need to take a good hard look at who you are surrounding yourself with and realize that you aren’t doing yourself any favors by keeping your fans entertained with your antics.

Just sayin’…

Rainy Saturday

This day had such possibilities! Even though it's rainy and gray and kinda dismal. Hubby took the dogs on out their early morning walk so I got to stay snuggly and toasty warm in the bed. Then there was some morning cuddles with the fur-babies. Barring the doggy breath and doggy stink, it's a sweet time. I tried to roll over and go back to sleep but all I could do was think of all the things I needed to do. So ya know what I did? I actually got up, took a shower and got ready for the day! I put some cinnamon rolls in the oven, did some laundry and started working on some of the multitude I needed to get done today. I was getting nice and organized when it was time to get Jo and Claire and head out for their All-State Band Auditions. Claire had an 11:04 audition and Jo an 11:10 so I had suggested that Claire spend the night last night and I take them both. I'm known for being tardy so I really wanted to get there on time. We were actually way early so we stopped at Subway for breakfast (highly recommend their breakfast wraps, by the way) and then we were off. Unfortunately, this ran just like every other musical venture I've had to deal with (with the exception of the school's Prism concert which runs like clockwork every year) and everything was running late. Jo didn't get into the audition room until 12:50! By the time we got out of there we were exhausted and not really up to taking care of all the things that needed to be done. I'm not in my "zone" any longer and am taking up way too much time whining about people who have no time management skills always in charge of my time.

But I've made myself revise and edit the schedule and get my mind back in the game. I'm back on track and ready to rumble. At least I was until I realized that it was after 6 p.m. and I hadn't even thought about dinner. Dang it.

Proud of my last name!

Let me just go ahead and put this out there. My father-in-law is the senior pastor of the church my family attends. My husband is the associate pastor. And, yes, I can see how that looks bad. Like there’s some kind of familial power play going on. So, yes, again, I can understand how it looks that I’m being voted on to be the children’s director. But here’s the thing. Should my being related to the pastor(s) really have any bearing on whether or not I get the job? I understand the whole nepotism thing in business. However, in a church setting don’t you want people in positions that they are gifted for and for which they are called? For some people, the answer is “no.” They want to accuse my family of trying to control everything. So my question is, when I stepped up to fill the position as interim children’s director giving the leadership six months to pray over the situation and receive resumes of interested people, why didn’t these people step up? Why didn’t they go to friends and make sure anyone they knew who might fit the bill knew about it and applied? If it’s such a big deal, why did they do nothing but sit back and gossip? How does that fix anything?

I was very upfront with the leadership when I interviewed for the interim position and have been upfront with anyone who talked to me about it, if someone came along whom the leadership felt God had placed here, I would willingly step aside. I did not want to get in the way of the Lord’s plans for Bethel. I still don’t. But in the six months I’ve been interim children’s director, there have been no resumes submitted for the position. (In full disclosure, there was one resume and one interest letter submitted when the position was opened and the first children’s director was hired, the one I replaced, but those parties weren’t qualified then and they aren’t any more qualified a year later now that the church is looking for a children’s director again.)

On top of that, I don’t particularly like feeling like a pawn in someone’s vendetta to get back at Leadership. Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t make them a bad leader. On the same thought, just because you are friends with someone doesn’t automatically make them a good leader…which is why I understand how bad it looks to have so many same last names lined up under staff.

I don’t know. I guess I wish we could all just sit down and talk like adults. But that’s not as much fun as sitting in a pew muttering snide comments to your audience, is it?!

Good heavens... 10 minutes...REALLY?!

Okay, so I made an appointment for the girls to get their second Gardisil shot over Fall Break but then something happened that is going to make it really hard to get the girls there (not gonna tell, it's a secret. Okay so I know no one actually reads this, but on the really, really small chance that someone should stumble across it, or remember that I have a blog and come over and read it, it would spoil everything and then I would feel BAD). Anyhow, so I've been putting off calling the doctor. Well, no, that's not true. I did call early last week but managed to get in the last 5 minutes of their hour and half lunch time. And then for the next few times I remembered that I needed to call, it was either 7:30 in the morning (too early) or that in that same hour and a half lunch time. I'm home today feeling yucky (again...stayed home yesterday and slept most of the day. Hate that I still feel like I need tons of sleep) and thought, Self! Made the stupid call already. So I traipsed out to the car to get my calendar and came back inside and made the call. As soon as the receptionist heard I wanted to change an appointment, I got put on hold. For 10 Minutes! Yes, I should have hung up after 5, well, maybe 3, but I'm that kind of person. I'd rather hang on for a freakishly long time and gripe about it then do the sensible thing. Gah. Anyhow, after 10 minutes I finally hung up and immediately called back. This time when I said I wanted to change an appointment, they changed it right then. I felt like asking if they needed to get to the person that was on hold waiting to change their appointment. But I didn't. Because that would have been petty. And stupid.

10 minutes...I'm still a little stunned about waiting that long. See what Marching Band practice going late Every Single Day does to a person? It makes waiting on the phone for 10 minutes seem like nothing! I'm scarred for life! Okay, no, I'm not. I just a weinie who whines. Great. I'm a whiney weinie. That's not happy. Shoot. I'd like to say I need to change that, but that would just be a lie. And being a lying whiney weinie? That would just about take the cake. Oooo, cake. I could go for a piece of cake.

Get the facts, people!

Okay, pet peeve time! Again. Why, why, why do people let themselves get all het up about something when they don't have all the facts? And why, why, why when they find out the facts do they not apologize and move on? When did being wrong about something become the worst thing in the world? Being wrong doesn't make you a bad person. Clinging to wrong beliefs doesn't either...but it kinda makes you an idiot.

Case in point. Today on the news they are showing the story of a public school bus driver who got information from a student that they didn't eat lunch. The reason was because the school wouldn't let him eat as he didn't have any money in his lunch account. So the bus driver decides, for whatever reason, to blast his employer. On Facebook. Now me, myself, and I? I don't take anything a child tells me as fact. I'm sorry. Children are immature and tend to make things bigger than they really are. And middle school students (the child in question was in middle school) are really bad about this. But, this gentleman decided to take as fact what this child said. The school system, of course, saw and investigated. Videos show that the child didn't even go through the lunch line! So how in the world could he have been denied lunch?! Hellooooooo! But the story goes that the school system spoke to the employee about what the video showed and asked him to take down the Facebook post. And he refused. So he was fired.

So now this man's story is all over Facebook and the news media and, of course, people are listening to the part about this poor child who didn't get lunch. But what about the fact that the child lied? What about the fact that the parents didn't put money in the child's lunch account? What about the fact that after the employee knew the real truth, he didn't act in an appropriate manner? He's on the news saying he'd do the same thing again. Really? You'll lose your job over a lie a child told you...AGAIN?

Seriously, I don't understand people. And I am the world's WORST at backing myself in a corner. But if even I can see the stupidity in this? That's saying something!

Pet peeve # 143

Okay so I really don't have that many pet peeves (well, at least I think I don't) but this one just irritates and totally grosses me out.

Ladies who have small male children, please listen up. If they aren't old enough to go to the bathroom in the men's room themselves and you bring them to the ladies' room. Please, please, PLEASE, clean up after them! Why should I have to clean up urine sprinkles all over the seat. And lest something claim that it's from women "hovering," the sprinkles are all on the back side of the seat. Women who hover back that far have bigger issues than leaving sprinkles.

BUT, speaking of hovering. If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweety, wipe the seatie. I thought that was basic human hygeine, kindness and common sense!

Gack!

Victim or bad choice maker?

So I'm going to rant. Because I can. I'm tired. I'm overweight and I have a stye-booger (okay, that's a little dramatic, it's a scab from all the stye-mess. But it feels like a booger and it's my blog.).  I'm also waiting on a laptop to finish a diagnostic test so I can't really walk away from my desk.

I admit it...I love to play the victim. I have been a frequent guest on the Why Me? show in this game of life. I have blamed other people for my own mistakes and I have talked badly about people who piss me off. But I realize when I'm doing it that I am in the wrong. In my heart of hearts, I know I'm being a complete idiot with major immature tendancies. But this is about those who habitually make poor decisions and then when the consequences arise...whine, fuss, fume and blame others for how "hurt" they are and how "bad" their life is and how they "don't deserve it."

Here's some tough love. When you choose to hang out with selfish people who only care about you for what you will supply for them. When you choose to do drugs and drink alcohol and walk around in a drunken/high stupor. When you choose to have reckless sex. When you choose to spend money on drugs and stupid things instead of your bills. When you choose to talk badly about people who have gone out of their way to support you emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. When you lie, cheat and steal? You don't get to play the victim card when life happens. Sorry. Also, when you make all the above choices? You don't get to wallow in the "I always get hurt" pond. You get hurt because you make stupid decisions.

Don't like the consequences? Don't make that choice! Don't like what I'm saying? Tough! I don't always like having to deal with the consequences of my decisions, either. But if you are gonna decide you are old enough to make the kind of choices that you are making? You better man up (or woman up) and deal with your life instead of blaming it on everyone else.

Listen. I know life is hard. It isn't always fair. Sometimes it downright sucks. Sometimes even if you make every perfect decision there is, life bites. Those people that say, "attitude is everything" are right (dang it). It really all boils down to that.