New Year's Eve...

Hhhhappy new yearsh baby! Gimme  kish!

New Years is one of the holidays that I get with the kids. It's one of "my" holidays. Bigger deal in Japan. It's like the "Christmas" of Japanese people without the Christ thing, or the tree, or the Santa thing... Okay, so it's not the same, but it's a big friggin' deal, okay?
This is all fine and well. So, because I have the kids with me, I don't go out. Lucky and Mitchie end up hangin' with me and we whoop it up and have a grand ol' time. Of course, we weighed the ins and outs about it. At the house, we are warm, safe, don't need to go anywhere, don't need to do anything, no drunken people to deal with and none of the strangers trying to hug on you and paw at you and trying to kiss you at midnight. We sometimes have surprise guests that'll stop by and say hello, which is always great, but generally it's just the three of us chillin' out and hanging and enjoying doing just that. All good. The next day is all about the food as it is a big food holiday for the Japanese and more festivities take place. Again, all good.
So, here we are again this year, waiting for "next year". Me, Lucky and Mitchie, we'll be sittin' and chillin' and doin' our thing and we'll be wishing you all a safe New Years eve from on the "couch of doom". Be safe, drive carefully and we hope not to hear about any drunk driving incidents... Because eventually, we do find out about them... Happy New Years Eve one and all!

That's right! I'm grumpy!

You can't stop me either! I don't have the kids since this is "their dad's holiday" and they spend the time with him and his family, so there really isn't too much stopping me from gettin' my grump on and staying that way. A perfectly terrible mood that can't be spoiled. I am free to be all grumpy and frumpy and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!!!! MWA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!

And then my Lucky calls to tell me that he loves me. He tells me that he needs me. He tells me that he's so glad that I'm his girl. He tells me that he misses me and that he can't wait to just give me a big hug. He tells me that he is the luckiest man in the universe for having me in his life....
Great... Nix the whole "Having my grump on" plans for the day... I'm gonna go sit and giggle like a bubble-headed teenager in the corner for a while...

Elbow gremlins and other such ailments...

As I type this now, I am being harassed by the elbow gremlin... Sure, it's just a joint pain and all, but sometimes I like to think (way too much) about what causes the pain. I know that it's just years of abuse on the body over the course of my younger days (sports, falling, fights, tripping and falling, running, tripping, falling and being an all around general spaz... And there was that one time when I walked right into a wall...)  that led to the aches and pains that I get from time to time, especially when the weather changes. (Humidity and high pressure are the worst... ) Not amusing. Call it Mia's quirk # 316. I like to think more along the lines of "elbow gremlins", "shoulder trolls", "wrist gnomes", the ever annoying "knee goblin", and the chronic, migraine inducing "brain leprechaun"... I imagine them doing a little jig with spiked shoes or using rusty hammers and drills to cause the pain, maybe chewing and biting with gnarled teeth... Yeah, I know... Shut up! I know!

My pre-teen....

Being the oldest of four HAS to be tough... You're basically the "parental science experiment" for any and all siblings who follow. Parents don't get the instruction manuals and decoder rings.  They "wing it", go by instinct, and do the best they can. Being a little more aware of what to expect on the next rounds, makes it easier... (Although once you think you have it figured out, nature throws you a COMPLETE curve ball and the next child is something COMPLETELY different in every way possible. I'm not talking about a little. I am talking "Are you sure you two are even related?" different, but that is a different post all together...)
Then to top it off, there are examples to be set, expectations of being "the leader", the responsibility of helping to care for the younger siblings, and having gone from only child to not... The subsequent children don't know what it's like to be a lone child. They come into the world having to share time and, well, everything, whereas, the eldest... Maybe not so much.
I try to keep this in mind when dealing with my pre-teen. He has not one, not two, but THREE younger siblings to contend with, and since they all have such strong and dominant personalities... Well, it gets interesting.
I'm the baby of the family, so I can't necessarily relate. Lucky helps out quite a bit in that arena being the eldest of three brothers and he is constantly trying to remind me of the position that my oldest is in when he is being "difficult". In looking at the situation, I guess I can honestly say that maybe perhaps there are times when I do expect a lot from him. Not because I am demanding that he do more than his share or make him do something well above what he's capable of, but in trying to look at it from his point of view, in comparison, it can seem like I ask him to do more than his brothers and sister.
Then there is the fact that there are four of them.... It's not always quiet, it's not always, civil, it's not always peaceful and in the grand scheme, it's not always fair. And what makes it "not fair" is having to hear, "because you're the oldest" or "because he/ she's younger than you".  It's the blanket response to "Why is it okay for HIM/ HER to   eat cookies on the floor/ play with my stuff without asking/ hit me, but I can't hit back... The list can go on. And in all honesty, he does put up with quite a bit. He does have a very high threshold and tolerance for putting up with his younger siblings (especially his sister whom he has a soft spot for) and as far as the role of big brother, he is awesome at it. Better than most.

I hate EVERYTHING!

I feel this way at least once a day. Whether it was because I caught a little snippet in the news about yet ANOTHER atrocity committed by one human being on another, maybe I saw something while being out and about that made me shake my head and realize how shitty people are, maybe I burnt my toast... It really depends on the time of day it occurs, the time of month it occurs and whether something hasn't already pissed me off BEFORE the feeling came about. I wallow in it for about ten minutes or so, but because there is usually someone who needs something, I can't "enjoy" the wallowing for too long. Besides, it makes it kind of difficult to wallow in the dark universal hate of everything when there are four little monkeys who are my rays of sunshine and smiling and being all cute and happy and stuff... Gosh darn it! They ALWAYS have to ruin a perfectly rotten mood. If you met them, you'd understand. It's kinda cool.

Merry !*%#&$*!&%#$ Christmas...

Yeah... Whatever. Pass the leftover noms...

Christmas eve AGAIN?

Well, I survived this far... It's almost over. The end of the year is fast approaching and we'll be done with all the Christmas stuff soon... In the meantime, can someone please pass the mushy taters... And the nog... And some pie... Ooh! And is that stuffing? Turkey? Yes, please. Ham too! Nom, nom, nom, nom... :(   Om, nom, nom, nom...    :/     Nom, nom, nom, nom...  Mmm...Mmmm.... Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom...   :)   Om, nom, nom... OM, nom, nom, nom....   :D     NO! That was not a smile... I still hate the holidays... A little... Pass the bread?

For Pete's sake! That's NOT what I SAID!

So, the pre-teen still insists that it is NOT his girlfriend, they  are just friends. They don't go on dates, they just hang out. And it's not a kiss, it's a peck on the lips... What??!??
"Alright-y there chicken little, peck what and who the what the heck now?If lips are meetin' lips, it's a kiss. I'm just sayin'... "
I'm not saying that I make sense all the time, but this pre-teen logic? Umm.... Yeah, I'm still waiting for my super secret special pre-teen decoder ring... He responds by throwing his hands up in the air and while stomping away, he shouts out, "For Pete's sake! That's NOT what I SAID!"
Not surprisingly, I'm the super dorks of all dorks, the ruler and ultimate undisputed heavyweight champion of all things dork and now, apparently, I'm a jerk too.
What brought the most recent episode on, you ask... I had asked him whether he got a gift for his friend, the girl (I never said girlfriend) and what he wanted for supper...I don't know how we go from, "Did you get her a gift? Oh and by the way, what do you want for supper?" To, "We're friends, we hang out, I give her a PECK on the lips..." Then all of a sudden, it's drama and brooding...
I went upstairs to talk to him a few minutes later and asked him what the deal was... Get this. I forgot to buy the little packets of he Lorna Doone cookies when I went grocery shopping. Apparently, THAT'S what he wanted for snack, but they weren't there and a cow because a vest has no sleeves...
Any day now... I know the "Living with a Pre-teen" manual and instruction guide will be in the mail...

People...

I don't like most strangers. I would sooner tell them to go away and not come back, EVER. Think about the world we live in for a second..... It's hard for me to grasp the concept of truly evil people. I'm not talking stealing candy from babies evil. I am talking baby touchers, murderers, rapists, Hitler, Kim Jung Il friggin' evil. I mean, are they born that way? Do they grow up that way? Are they made? Or is it when the mommy and the daddy do the hokey pokey and make babies something happens in the chemical make up when the cells meet... There are so many horrific things that people do to one another. Constant news reports about someone doing something to someone else that makes your skin crawl.
Some say it's in the astrological make up and the stars' and planets' alignments, other will claim it's genetics... Chemical imbalance, abuse, witness to something horrific, psychological disorder... Whatever. Whatever the case is, it's terrifying. When you look down into the face of a tiny squishy little baby, do you think to yourself, "That's the face of a serial killer right there!" or "Yeah, I can see this little one committing genocide! It'll be awesome!"  No. You think sunshine and rainbows and happy little unicorns prancing in the woods. But at some point in their lives, ALL of these sick psychopaths were tiny squishy little babies.
What if you were told, "We've seen this child's future and he/ she grows up to be the sickest kind of sociopathic, dog kicking, child abusing, mass murdering, baby touching, panda raping mother fucker on the face of the planet!" What happens then? I bring this up because at the rate things are going right now, many years from now, the government may well do the "baby screenings" to see whether a child is fit to be allowed to grow up. Improbable you say?
Just think about what's been going on over the last couple of decades, even over the last couple of years and how many things are being overrun with "bad politics" and being covered by amended laws to blanket and "protect" everyone. See where I'm going with this?
Is it because the people are getting worse that's why the world is changing or is the world changing the people... Hell in a hand basket... I'm just sayin'...

Kids and boredom....

Kids and boredom is not always a good combination. Depending on HOW bored they are and cranky, tired, or whatever, it could go from boring day to hell on Earth within a matter of minutes. A volatile situation can occur from the combination of kids and boredom.
But then there are times when kids and boredom can make for something great. That's when they come up with the best "stories".
It usually starts off with, "Mooooooooom! We're bored, we can't go outside 'cause it's gross out and there's nothing to do!"
My usual response is to suggest a list of things... The usual suspects, a game? No. Arts and crafts? No. A movie? No. Book? No. Nap? No. Snack? N.... Maybe... Okay, then what?
"Can we build a fort/ tent/ castle/ town in one of our rooms?"
What I hear is "We're gonna make a friggin' mess in our rooms and it'll spill out and mess up the whole house and the whole house will require being cleaned up! It'll be awesome!"
But, after a pause, "Fine..."  and a sigh.
"Yay!"
The mess that gets created is far better than the insanity that could ensue should they be left together, bored with nothing to do or thinking of something to do. So, I let them have at it. After an hour or so of "prep work and building" he fun begins and they never fail to deliver some great story lines...
Yeah, my kids rock... It's okay to be jealous. I would be too.

Pre-Holiday Hurrah!

I know that sometimes, even I have to say that my kids can be a pain in the ass. The screaming, the whining, the bitching, the complaining, the not listening, the not doing as they are asked, the fighting, the run around like animals, the... Well, you get the idea. It's all good. They are "spirited" individuals and they are healthy. It's what I keep chanting through grit teeth.
This weekend was something a little different. We started with a dinner out with Lucky and I and all six kids along with my mom and dad. Back to the folks' house for some present opening, finish the night off with just sitting back, relaxing and chillin' with the kids... The next morning brought "Christmas" for my kids. Randy, our magical Christmas L.P. did his best and hid all the presents around the house like they were Easter eggs. (Apparently, he's not only vertically challenged, but he lacks intelligence too... ) He comes in Santa's stead because the big fat slave driver of L.P.'s, touch-er of babies, molester of reindeer and king of overindulgence is busy cracking the whip getting all the presents ready for the following week.
Then we spent two days filled with cocoa and Christmas movies and snuggling in on the bed and giggling and laughing and playing... No issues, no problems, no fighting, no insanity. Hanging out all together and having a good ol' time. Now THAT'S how holiday is done!

Stupid puzzle games....

I am all for buying those puzzle type games for the kids. It helps them to develop patience and uses the gray lumps in their skulls for something other than processing commercials for more crappy plastic toys that they want or remembering stats and data of all the Pokemons or Bakugans ever created... (But I still don't get WHY they can't remember to put the toilet seat down!!!!!!!)
With that being said, we have a few of the puzzle games lying around. The metal ones where you have to take the linked pieces and take them apart, the Rubik's cube, the plastic doojie things that you have to get all the balls to go somewhere or do something, the other plastic doojie things that you have to figure out how to make the things do what the instructions tell you to do... You've seen them. They've either already been mastered by the boys or rendered as something that they'll conquer later and they lay in the community toy box down stairs... I made the mistake of picking one of them up and giving it a try...
After about 20 minutes, I think I may have ruptured something... Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad..... My mom walked into the room with me yelling at the toy asking if I was alright. I gave her the thing and stormed upstairs.
I went back downstairs to make myself a cup of tea about 30 minutes later. Lo and behold, woman was on the couch, frazzled and on the verge of having an eye pop out of her head, trying to figure out the stupid puzzle thing. I shook my head and went back upstairs...
When the kids got back from their weekend with their dad, the puzzle had been left out on the counter... Unsolved. Oldest boy child looks at it and says, "Oh!" and within a few seconds, the one thingy became two thingies. I looked at my mom, who looked at me. Double sigh.
It was time for dessert, then bath and bed anyway... Stupid puzzles...

Oh, SHIT!

Now, I get the whole "I'm having a bad day" thing. Really, I do. I mean, who hasn't had a bad day? But when it has to bleed into EVERYONE ELSE'S days and YOU become the reason for someone else's bad day... Well, that's just plain wrong.
That's where karma steps in. (At least that's what I keep telling myself.) If you're going to be the reason why my day went from alright to rotten, I'd like to believe that karma will drop a cinder block on your head or karma will hit you with a 18 wheeler truck or maybe karma brings you face to face with a taliban terrorist  who couldn't find anyone else to take out with the bomb he has strapped to his chest so you're it and the two of you end up intermingled for eternity. Then, because of the cosmic screw up because of the explosion, you and that diaper headed menace are meshed together forever. Him constantly tormenting you and being your undoing through all of your lifetimes for eternity.... And all because you were a schmuck. I'm just sayin'...

Reality SUCKS!

There's  the run down of the thing or things that you would like to see, but the reality.... Well, if you stop and think about it a little bit... Well a good portion of the time, the reality sucks huge donkey balls. Sweaty, huge donkey balls. Hairy, sweaty, huge donkey balls....

"Only half the calories!"        But in scarfing down two whole half gallon tubs of ice cream, it's still gonna go straight to your already ample ass...

"You may already be a winner!"    Along with a gajillion other people. And none of them are the winners either.

"You can't win if you don't play!"    But if you don't play, think of the hundreds of dollars you'd be saving from NOT buying losing lotto tickets.

"I can't believe it's not butter!"     EEEEYEW! I can...

"Of course I'm going to!"        No... No you're not....

"Well, that's the PLAN, anyway..."       Really? How's that workin' out for ya?

"I'm in the process of getting that taken care of..."    You're a lying, worthless sack of shit.

"Like new!"           By who's definition? Do you know what the definition of "new" is? 

"25% off!"           25% off of way overpriced is still way overpriced. No thanks.

"Get into the spirit of the holidays!"          No thanks. I don't want to be a materialistic, overindulgent, shop-a-holic spender buying a whole lot of shit that has no use except to fill landfills or a pushy, shove-y bitch with grabby grabberton issues, or a rude piece of shit with self indulgence problems.... You get the idea. People suck even more during the holidays.

There are so many things that get such a spin that makes it sound so great, but if you stop and think about it, is it really that great? Yeah, no. Go sell your bullshit elsewhere. I've got enough to deal with at the moment.

Yippee!

<CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!>
The shopping for the holidays are done, the food thingy is all planned out and stuff is sitting in the freezer, the Santa pic is taken, the kids are sorted, the plans are made, the schedule is done, the presents are wrapped and labeled, the holiday greeting cards are written, stamped and ready to go... I don't want to know nothing of the holidays no more. I hate the holidays...

Uh... Never mind...

When you ask a stupid question, the answer might very well be fuckin' stupid... But what if you ask a reasonably intelligent question, you get an answer that merits the person doing the answering the dead pan "are you fuckin' retarded?" look. It's even better when not only is the answer about as intelligent as my dog, but is an out and out lie as well. What makes it REALLY fun is when the person doing the answering thinks that it's an intelligent answer AND believes that the fuckin' obvious lie is being bought by the ask-er of said question... Is it worth pursuing any further at this point? Wouldn't trying to argue with an obvious idiot in turn make you an idiot too? But on the other side of that, wouldn't the idiot take it as s sign of victory if you didn't pursue it. I mean it would be a very hollow and shallow victory. Where's the glory in winning an argument there? But then it wouldn't really matter to an idiot. <Sigh!> There really is no winning in that situation is there... Never mind. Forget I asked...

Help? Stuck!

Ummm.... Stuck! A LOT! HELP... CALL 9-1-1...
Playing hide and seek with the children is the duty of all parents. Some are very NOT clever and will just "hide" by sitting behind the newspaper they're reading. Then there are those of us who are smarter... More clever... Or so we like to think...
I was playing hide and seek with the little one while her brothers were at school a while back. I had her count to ten, which is more like "Won, toooooo, feeeeee, fie, fie, sits, TEN! HURRAY!" and she'll come and find me. I usually hide behind a door and jump out and "Boo!" or hide behind a corner and jump out and "Boo!" or hide under something like a blanket and jump up and "Boo!" It would result in a giggle fit and her running around the house with me chasing her, catching her and thus would start the next round.
This time, I decided  to be clever and hide in the dryer. I squished in there and left the door ajar. She came around the first corner and did her standard "I fown you!", again around the next corner, and again around the third, into the kitchen, where the dryer sat with me in it. I scratched at the dryer door a little to get her attention. after a few seconds, she "I FOWN YOU!!!!! MAMA! I FOWN YOU!!!!!" and she giggled and ran away. In trying to climb back out of the dryer... I found that I couldn't.
"MAMA ARE YOU COMING? I FOWN YOU!" she said to me as I was struggling to unsquish myself and climb out of the dryer... Rolling around and trying to find the proper configuration to arrange myself in order to extricate myself from the dryer was proving rather difficult.
"MAMA! I FOWN YOU! YOU HAFTA GET ME!!!" she says, trying to remind me of the rules of the game...
Desperation is setting in and I'm actually starting to sweat... My mom hears the ruckus and decides to come downstairs from her martyr perch and she nearly fell over laughing. Thanks mom. Being the ever sadistic witch that she is, instead of helping me, she called my dad down to see too. My dad mumbled something about "stupid animal" and trudged back upstairs. It took me about ten minutes to get myself out of there and by the time I did, my daughter had gotten bored and had fallen asleep and was taking a nap.
The moral? I guess I shouldn't be trying to hide in the dryer no more and DON'T ever expect my mom to help me out of a tight spot EVER and playing hide and seek with a two year old can be quite dangerous.

"Are you ALWAYS this stupid or is today just special..."

Seriously. I just want to know...
You've had the moment where you were talking to someone and three seconds into the conversation, you make the awful discovery that they are about as intelligent as glue, right? Then, if THAT wasn't bad enough, they say something so far beyond intellectually deficient, your involuntary physical reaction is the head tilt... Yeah... Yeah, you have.
So, in a situation like this, is it appropriate to ask, "Are you ALWAYS this stupid or is today just special..." The answer? Apparently not.
Okay. Here's what happened. My daughter and I were out at the supermarket. Nothing unusual, right? I had a woman walk up to me and tell me that my daughter was beautiful. Nothing weird. It happens from time to time. She asked if she was half Asian, and I told her that she was. She then asked, "So you're....?"
I told her, "Japanese..." There was a pause. And THEN she came back with, "All the time?"
How was I supposed to respond to that... Seriously? I came back with the involuntary head tilt... I gave her a few moments to back pedal and correct herself, but it was not happening... Now, I would have given her a little slack if she was a foreigner and the English was only so-so. But this was not the case. So, out came, "Are you ALWAYS this stupid or is today just special..." I even said it with a pleasant smile. It didn't go over too well... Just figured I'd let you all know... 

What was I THINKING!

Going out shopping this time of year is a clusterfuck at best. Way too many people, parking lot nightmares, crowded everything and everywhere... GAAAAH! Trying to get the simplest of errands done is made difficult. 
I made out a list of shit to get at a couple of different stores with the best of intentions. Just everyday shit... Nothing huge. No big deal... Or so I thought.
I get to the shopping center... There's no fucking parking. I drive around and around and around, Finally I get a lady pulling out of her spot WAY at the end of the parking lot. Whatever. I park. Trying to get my purse and collect my shit to go inside, I had a guy ask me if I was leaving. I said I just got there and pulled into the spot. Apparently, that made me a stupid bitch. I told him I was a "stupid bitch" with a PARKING SPOT and gave him a smile and a wave.
Get into the store and I got the shit I needed, waited in line for a day and a half with a bunch of cranky shove-y, push-y people, waited for the elevator for another half a day, opted for the stairs and got back to the car... One more stop... The grocery store... I didn't think it would be as bad. I was wrong.
The parking lot at the grocery store was much more congested than the other and there were also a couple of "old people buses" blocking a path, letting old people out for an outing to the grocery store...
I was frazzled by the time I got into the grocery store. It took me twenty minutes to find a parking spot. No. I mean LITERALLY twenty minutes! I think everyone and their mother was there at the grocery store. I opted for a basket instead of a cart thinking I would be able to maneuver my way around people better and navigate my way through the crowd to get the rest of the shit I needed. Well, let me tell you. It only works when you have a basket that isn't broken! Whatever... The list had five items... Milk, bread, toothpaste, apples and cheese. Now, normally, this would have been a quick little jaunt, ten minutes, in, out, done. Wrong!
I had to wait in line to GET to the apples... There were MAYBE three decent ones left, I had to wait in line to get away from the apples... I had to wait in line to grab cheese and milk... I did a fly-by bread grabbing because I did NOT want to be involved in the craziness happening there (the ONLY good use for Kali foot work...), elbowed my way through the crowd to grab a tube of toothpaste (which it turned out AFTER I got it back to the house, to be the wrong kind...) and tried to find a register that wasn't swarming with people.
You would think that with the name "Express Lane", things would move along quickly. 12 items or less... Does it EVER happen that way? FUCK NO! Grrr! I guess people don't know how to count or that new math shit is fucking everything up, but there were people in the line with FULL carts... WTF?
The cashier tried to explain to the first idiot that this was the express lane... idiot replies by explaining that she was the customer, and the customer is always right, ring her up NOW! And the cashier does what she's told... (Personally, I would have told the woman to fuck herself, walked away from the register and quit right there on the spot... Oh, wait... I did that once...) We get to idiot number two with another full cart... The cashier goes through the same spiel... Express lane! Well, THIS particular idiot thought she was clever... APPARENTLY, since there were only FOUR different things that she was buying multiples of, it didn't count. There were only four items... (CURSE YOU NEW MATH!!!!!)
My five items... Beep, beep, beep, beep, put apples on scale (apple code) beep... SHOULD have been the way it went. Did it? NO!!! We needed a price check on the toothpaste (the wrong kind, according to the preteen...) because the bar code wasn't registering and she took a solid five minutes to try and find the code for the apples in her produce code cheat book. FIVE ITEMS!!!!
My forehead vein is visibly throbbing at this point, the eye starts twitching, and I developed a tic somewhere along the line, but after having spent a full and solid hour in the grocery store (Five items... Did I mention that I only had FIVE items?) I'm booking out the door. I nearly got run over by a car trying to cross the crosswalk because stopping at a crosswalk apparently didn't apply to THAT guy (Oh, and I'm a stupid bitch again...) I get to my car, throw the groceries into the back, climb up into the seat and start the car. I look behind me to back out of the spot and lo and behold, look who's waiting for my spot! It's the guy who damn well near ran me over. We made eye contact and I smiled. He knew, I knew, he knew I knew, I knew he knew I knew... Yup. I put the car in park and decided it would be a great time to balance the checkbook...  Yup, my penthouse apartment in hell just got upgraded to a townhouse near the torture pits! Happy holidays, asshole!

A fine example of "Holiday Spirit" !

So, I went to the local Target, which was a big mistake in and of itself, considering the time of year. At that time, I witnessed a great "holiday spirit" moment.
I took the two middle children to the store to pick out a little something for bringing home AWESOME report cards. Maneuvering through the toy aisles was difficult, but we got to where we needed to be. Picking out their toys, I saw that there were a few kids looking through the selection of toys right along side mine. Being the ever vigilant "Mama Duck" and seeing that there wasn't an adult to claim them, they temporarily became "mine". Not a problem. All was going well. Mine were talking to them, they were talking to mine. "This one is better because this", "this one is awesome because that..."  "Nice choice!" "Thanks!"  They were all getting along and helping each other pick out stuff. It was cute.
Enter the epitome of "Holiday Spirit"! I rather large woman pushing around a full cart with toys for (what I am assuming) her spawns for Christmas. That's not what made it bad... So "mine" were still hemming and hawing over what to pick. Epitome of Holiday Spirit, (or E of HS) started huffing and sighing and rolling her eyes while repeatedly looking at her watch, while standing behind the lot of children. Then she started verbally expressing her dismay using language I found to be... Less than appropriate. I glanced over at her, cocked an eyebrow and shook my head. She quieted down for a moment.
The other children's dad came over to where we all were and asked his children if they had picked out what they wanted. Two of them (I'm guessing at about aged 12 and 6) looked like they had decided, were happy with their choices and went over to where he was. The last was still deciding between the two items he held in his tiny little hands. I guessed him to be about four or five. E of HS pushed this little boy out of the way to get to what she wanted. I'm not saying she said "Excuse me..." and moved him a little. She pushed him. Like, "Thankfully I was standing there to kind of catch him or I think this child would have taken a nasty digger to the floor" pushed him.
"Are you out of your MIND?" came out of my mouth as I got the kid's feet back under him and reoriented him, to which she responded, "What? He's fine!" and went about her business. The father was a lot more composed than I, quietly thanked me, checked over his startled boy and asked him if he was okay.  He then asked the woman for an apology. He never got it. She gave the man a look of disgust and disbelief, rolled her eyes and went back about her business. He "quietly" explained to his children that her behavior was rude, uncalled for and absolutely disgusting. The children nodded, gave her a glance and nodded again. With his children in tow, the dad took his three boys, the youngest with both of his picks, each one still grasped tightly in each of his little hands and left. (Had to give the little guy props. Despite being launched by a cow, HE HELD ONTO THE TOYS!)
E of HS was unmoved and unaffected and kept yanking stuff off of the pegboard, tossing stuff that she wanted into her cart, and tossing the stuff she didn't onto the shelf below or onto the floor. I sighed and shook my head again. With my own children in tow, them with their picks, I left E of HS to her business. I needed to be away from her because something bad would have happened. I didn't think I was going to be able to keep my mouth shut for too much longer. I know at the very least "fat cow" was right at the tip of my tongue. Then I'm sure the barrage of not-too-nice things would have followed.
I suppose it was easier for me to walk away this time because it wasn't MY kid she manhandled. It still didn't sit well with me and I still wanted to call her a fat cow, but I was still able to walk away before she decided to stampede (bullfighting in the toy aisle of a crowded store is never a good idea) and the situation reached critical mass. Besides, my children were there with me. She had NO concern for the safety of the child she tossed, why would mine be any different. I was NOT going to risk my kids' safety just to be able to get a little bit of personal satisfaction. Now, had it been one of MINE that she decided was in her way, the situation would have been a bit different. I would have gone Super Saiyan on her ass... Bad... I guess I should be thankful for small favors...
Hurray for the holidays! Hurray for holiday spirit! Hurray for the warm, fuzzy feeling on the inside! Oh, wait, that's indigestion.... I need an antacid.

I AM TALKIN' OVER HERE...

I guess when you're two and small and cute and easily distracted by bandaids, candy and shiny things, it's hard to stay focused on one particular thing for too long... Unless it has something to do with bandaids, candy and shiny things that you want RIGHT NOW! Then it's time to put on the "I'm serious!" face. When it's met with a chuckle and "Awww! How CUTE!" I suppose it can get a little annoying when the initial need isn't being met...
So then the little arms start flapping, the little foot starts stamping, the frown gets a little more down turned and the voice becomes shrill. And when I say "shrill" I mean the kind that bypasses the brain all together and goes straight to the spine and you feel it rather than hear it. NOT cute...
<Sigh!> The terrible two's are almost done... When did THAT happen? She was just a squishy little baby like, yesterday! I guess time flies when you're having fun...

Idiot dog...

Stupid dogs have the life... I own one and I analyzed the ins and outs for him... Sure, he's stupid, but the reality is, he really doesn't know that he's missing out on anything. He gets fed, gets walked, gets attention, sleeps whenever he wants, there's always someone willing to give him a belly rub. He's warm, comfortable, loved and is never really in a want for anything and nothing is really expected from him because everyone knows that he is about as smart as a bag of rocks. His IQ is room temperature at best and it would be pointless to try and expect anything from him or try and change him. I've accepted him for what he is and I deal.
I've been trying to apply this philosophy to other aspects of my life. There are things that are far beyond my control, despite what I'd like to be happening, the opposite is occurring and there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. In trying to change those things, I come up empty handed, frustrated and having wasted a whole bunch of time and energy on something when it could have been invested usefully in something else.
I am still just a work in progress. I've accepted that about myself, but at least I'm doing something and I'm trying. I will continue to do so. In the meantime, there are still plenty of things that piss me off and have to be dealt with, there are plenty of things that piss me off that I can't do anything about. I'm getting better at assessing and determining what needs my attention and what can be ignored. I'm not always successful, but it's a learning process.
At the end of the day, I learned a valuable lesson from a intellectually challenged dog who taught me to let things that can't be changed be... Maybe he's not THAT stupid after all... I take that back... Yes, he is. I am watching him lick the paint off of the wall right now...