Maybe I'm just Pissy

I saw this sticker on the way home yesterday and it made me mad.

"Silly Boy's Truck's are for Girl's."

Does everyone see what's wrong with that? Here's my main issue. Someone was probably relying on Word to proofread for them (that's how I generally proofread my blog entries - so I'm not really finding fault with the idea of using it as a proofreader) and Word is fine with it. This means 2 things. 1) Clearly the person who wrote it out doesn't get the difference between plurals and possessives. Is that not something that's being taught? Or have we taught the younger generation to rely so heavily on computers that they don't even know when something is wrong? 2) It went by at least 2 or 3 more people before becoming a sticker and no one noticed or corrected it, which just makes me sad - and I'm not even an English major or anything. (Clearly, because this blog is chock full of run-on sentences and sentence fragments.) [ It should be noted that it looked like a custom sticker, the girl driving or whoever gave it to her probably had it made - it did not appear to be a mass produced sticker - I've seen the saying before on stickers where everything is properly un-punctuated.]


Yesterday, since we were child free for the evening, we decided to go out for a nice dinner and a movie. We saw 21 for those who care - it's a pretty good movie. I stayed awake the whole time, and we didn't get out until almost 11:30pm - so that REALLY says something when I'm normally asleep by 9:00 or so. Anyway, they have the normal preview stuff about turning off your cell phones and seriously, at least 3 people in the theater spent the entire movie texting. WHY?!?!? Why did you pay $9.50 to see a movie if you're just going to text people the whole time? Not to mention the stupid glow from the phone. I guess at least the texting crap is silent. GAHHH I hate cell phones, I hate blue tooth and the people who think they're so important that they have to wear it 100% of the time. You're not THAT important that you couldn't keep it in your pocket and pull it out when someone calls. Which brings me to: maybe you should spend the time with the person you're with instead of talking to other people. It's just rude. And don't even get me started on the stupidity of people who talk on the phone in public restrooms.


Clearly I was born 30 or 40 or 100 years too late.

Wonder Killer strikes again, Fighting

Did you know that 83% of arguments are actually the result of miscommunication? (And that 100% of the statistics on this post are completely fabricated?)

How many times have you gotten into an argument and found out at the end of it all, that you both were nearly on the same side all along? Or been in one where one side or the other (OR BOTH) took something the "wrong way" and then it spiraled out of control.

Communicating clearly is probably the easiest way to avoid arguments. But even when you think you are communicating clearly, you may not be.

Something, oddly enough, that I learned in my inspection classes. Did you know that when 2 people are talking there are 6 sides to the conversation? It only gets more confused after another person joins in – it doubles – 3 people talking 12 sides. 4 people talking? 20 sides. (Note to self, only ever talk to one person at a time.) For you math junkies:
n=number of people in conversation
n*(n+1)=number of sides to the conversation



No wonder people have such a hard time communicating. Let’s break it down in the simplest form: 2 people are talking. (You and Me)



6 sides:

1) What I said

2) What I think I said

3) What You think I said

4) What You said

5) What I think You said

6) What You think You Said



In some cases 1, 2, & 3 are the same, and 4, 5, & 6 are the same. Sometimes. Probably not as often as you’d think.



Take a simple actual conversation like this:

Billy Joe - “Sure is cold out today.”

Bobbie Sue - “The weather man said it would warm up later on.”



Sounds reasonable, let’s work through it though:

1) Billy Joe said “Sure is cold out today.”

2) Billy Joe thinks he said “I’m really cold, I had to put on an extra layer of clothes”

3) Bobbie Sue thinks BillyJoe said “Why aren’t you wearing your jacket, you moron?”

4) Bobbie Sue said “The weather man said it would warm up later on.”

5) Billy Joe thinks Bobbie Sue said “I’m not a sissy like you, so I don’t need extra clothes.”

6) Bobbie Sue thinks she said “I’m not wearing a jacket, because I didn’t want to be hot later.”



It’s probably not that charged a conversation in real life, but it’s possible. And it’s just an example, get off my back people. (See what I did there? And you’re not even actually saying anything, but I’m thinking you said something and I responded to what I thought you said and you probably didn’t mean it that way.)

That's probably why therapists say things like "What I hear you saying is _______." It gives the other side a chance to clarify. It might be worth putting into practice, when someone says something to you and you think they're attacking you, just repeating back to them what you heard, to make sure you got it right. Once you know what they mean, you can rear back and ball your fist only when necessary, and retreat if they didn't mean it like that.



Anyway, it’s just a small nugget of information that has helped me avoid some conflicts (note I said some, not all) since I learned it, maybe it can do the same for you.

LBSCBDO

Clinton felt the need to correct me on today’s post. (and after this one, he may never do it again.) He claims that I not only require waking up on my own, but I require food before I can be a morning person. The short version – he’s wrong.

The long version – his reasoning is that on weekends I lose my temper with him in the mornings prior to eating. What he leaves out is that when we get up on a weekend and I say I’m hungry, he moseys out of bed, takes a leisurely shower, hangs around the bedroom with out a shirt on, falls under the spell of the TV a few times, and even possibly starts doing something entirely different from getting ready, like sorting laundry because he has some NEED to be the very last person to be ready to go anywhere (unless it’s for him, which is another post for another time.)

So at this point, I’m tapping my foot and huffing and puffing and shaking keys and yelling, because when I said I was hungry I had envisioned him jumping out of bed, getting dressed fireman style and walking out to the car, right then, not taking a shower and lounging around for 45 minutes watching TV. And yes, I get mad because when I said I was hungry, I did not mean – I will be hungry in 45 minutes. I meant I’m hungry now! And if I make my own breakfast and not bother him with it? I’m mean because he wanted to have that too, and why didn’t I wait for him. I can’t win for losing.

That does not disqualify me from being a morning person. It has nothing to do with the time of day – it has everything to do with telling someone an immediate need of yours and then having them completely ignore it for 45 minutes. I think it should qualify me for a tax deduction.

The fact that I get so frustrated and angry, I attribute to LBSCBDO (Low Blood Sugar Cranky Butt DisOrder). As stolen from The Pioneer Woman.

He has it too, only his generally manifests itself at 2 or 3 pm after he “forgets” to eat lunch.

Landon will probably be inflicted as well. I’m almost positive it’s genetic.

Change it Back!!!!

I hate driving home from work in the dark. HATE. IT.

People turn stupid when the sun goes down. And even though now my morning commute is in daylight, there are less people on the road, and therefore less stupid people - that's the one I prefer to do in the dark.

Landon is also having some problems adjusting to the time change. It's almost enough to make me want to move to Phoenix.

Explanation

The last post was a favor to a friend.

There’s a special place in our hearts for gnomes. She may very well have a painted cement garden gnome in her parents’ attic, and we may or may not have spent several days out in her backyard creating homes for gnomes…actually that might have been the fairies, but whatever, we liked the gnomes.

In Scotland there’s a loch, Loch Fyne to be exact where scuba divers have dropped gnomes in a certain area, creating an underground gnome garden. The main dropper of gnomes says he encourages others to drop their gnomes as well.

The idea behind the post is that “I dropped my gnome in it” could conceivably replace “I put my two cents in.”

I also believe is could replace other sayings, it’s a smurf of a saying:

“Shut Up!” “Oh, drop a gnome in it.”
“It’s not rocket science.” “It’s not gnome dropping.”

So, go forth and gnome it up.

Getting it out there

I do not normally post my views on politics or religion or parenting decisions on my blog. As such I will probably never get the “you have arrived” hate mail that the big bloggers seem to get. As it is, either you know me or Clint, or you came here looking for a recipe for tomato soup from scratch, and a select few of you may have followed a link when I commented on your site. As a matter of fact I’m having a lot of trouble trying to make a controversial post just to get a 6 word sentence on the end out into the world.

Why? There are 2 categories really:

Category 1: I don’t care about the decisions in your life that have no bearing on mine.
Category 2: I think you're a person capable of making informed decisions and do not need my opinion unless you ask for it.

But mainly, I don't care.

I don’t care if you’re gay or straight or married or civil unioned. I don’t care if you bottle feed or breastfeed your baby. I don’t care if you’re Buddhist or Christian. Or Muslim, or Atheist, or Wiccan. I don’t care if you co-sleep or crib sleep. I don’t care if you use cloth or disposable diapers. I also don’t care what kind of toilet paper you use, so there! I don’t care if you work or stay home. I don’t care if you make $1,000,000 and I don’t care if you don’t even make $10. I don’t care if you have 17 children, or 7 children, or maybe none. I don't care if you potty train at 2 or 3 or 4 or beyond. I don't care if you homeschool or send your kids to public school. I don't care if you're a democrat or republican. I don't care what kind of car you drive. I don't care if you have an abortion or not. I don't care if you circumcise or not, I don't care if you vaccinate or not.

It's not my business.

So there, "I dropped my gnome in it."