Rants
Where is the line?
Oct 27th
I just did something I NEVER thought I would do. I reply-alled to an email from my grandma, disputing something she had forwarded on and chastising people for believing it and forwarding it. It was a hateful email – one deliberately made to look like you are “doing God’s work” by educating others about the evil of a certain group by spreading misinformation about them. And it was easily disproven.
I was raised to ALWAYS respect my elders, but especially my grandparents. I LOVE my grandparents. I think they are terrific people who would never hurt anyone intentionally. And I have never talked back to them. Even over an erroneous email. I usually just reply directly to my grandma and let her know that Snopes says whatever it is is false. But that’s when it’s something fairly harmless, like some weird story about…I don’t even know, but I’m sure you all know the type of emails I mean. I figure that I don’t really care whether or not she sends that kind of stuff on – people can just as easily delete it, and if they believe it without looking into it, oh well. But this was…different. For me, at least. So I replied to all. And now I’m sitting at my desk crying over it because I hate that I might have embarrassed her. Or that she might be mad at me.
And yet, I don’t regret doing it. I couldn’t let that email sit out there, possibly getting forwarded on by all those other people who probably wouldn’t go do the 5 seconds of work it took to research it and confirm what I thought – that it was a fear-mongering exaggeration of a real event. And that it took a situation that could have happened to anyone and turned it into something “evil” about this other group.
Ugh. I don’t want to reprint the email here because that’s not really what this is about, and I don’t want an argument about it. I guess I just wanted to put out there that sometimes, doing what you think is right totally sucks. And I’m sure all of you know that, and it totally sounds like a cliche (because it is). But yah. Where is the line with family? When do you say something, and when do you keep quiet? And is it different with different family members?
Dude, you aren’t funny
Oct 22nd
I attended continuing education all day yesterday, which, if you’ve never been to insurance continuing education classes, let me tell you; they are brain draining enough on their own. The one yesterday included 2 hours of being lectured to by a weird looking guy about how we should be using social media to advertise our agency. I agree with this in principal, but first of all he said he doesn’t know how to use it, and that the solution is not to learn – it’s to hire a young person to do it for you. Because that’s going to happen. I can just see insurance agency owners running out to hire someone right out of college solely because they know how to use Facebook. Jeebus. He then allowed (and fostered) a discussion about how “young people don’t work hard.” Can I tell you how much I hate this generalization? Today’s young people work just as hard as any other generation of young people. They may work differently, and they may be in their first jobs at 22 instead of having 8 years of working under their belts, so they might need a little direction and help, but they aren’t inherently lazier than anyone else. And the implication in that statement is that people who aren’t “young” work hard all the time. Um, I’m sorry – no they don’t. I know just as many slackers over the age of 35 as I do under it. Of course I was one of 2 people in the room under 30, so that was fun awkward.
The rest of the actual class was fine – we talked about Equipment Breakdown coverage and Workers Compensation coverage (lesson of the day; don’t get hurt in California or Mississippi, or at least if you do make sure you are from another state).
However, over the lunch period they had a “box lunch” with a session on the new rules about Certificates of Insurance that the state has passed. Basically, the state passed a statute that says you can’t change the policy by writing anything on the certificate (proof of insurance), which was already technically the law, but it wasn’t spelled out very clearly. But companies requesting certificates don’t care what the law is or what the policy says; they only know that their lawyers told them they should get all this extra stuff on the certificate (long notices before the policy cancels, for instance). So they are asking for things that we can’t legally give them.
As you can imagine, this has caused a lot of questions from insurance agents. So they brought in this guy that helped get the bill passed to come talk about it. And he spent 15-20 minutes explaining EXACTLY how they went about getting the bill passed. Before he talked at all about what it meant (in fact, now that I think about it, he didn’t talk at ALL about what it meant). We have all see the School House Rock “I’m Just a Bill” thing, ok? We don’t need you to retell us. And then he finished up by telling a few jokes. Political jokes. The first one made fun of liberals (they all take other people’s money and just hand it to poor people instead of helping them help themselves). The second one was supposed to make fun of Republicans, but it didn’t really. I mean, on the surface maybe a little, but really it just said more bad things about Liberals (they teach their children to be biased against Republicans, they are stubborn and in the minority, they are only liberal because our parents are, etc). Of course he laughed and thought they were hysterical, but I wanted to raise my hand and remind him that not all insurance people are Republican, and I didn’t find either joke very funny. Also, maybe you should not tell a room full of people you do not know political jokes. Just a suggestion.
Oh, and after all that he sat and contradicted himself on what we are supposed to do about certificates. “Keep doing what you’ve been doing.” “Those people [that keep doing it the way we've been doing it] will get hung [the penalties for altering coverage on a cert include possibly losing your license and getting fined by the state].” “The state doesn’t really care right now about enforcing this law – they probably won’t worry about it for at least 6 months to a year.” Um…that was less than helpful. I was better off not listening to it at all. And I don’t think I was in the minority in that thought.
Anyway, that was the story of my day of continuing education. I did get my halloween shirt in the mail yesterday, though, and I got my haircut and I like it, so it wasn’t all bad.
Do you have to attend educational classes of some sort? Are they usually helpful or do you feel like you are wasting your time?
Pistachio commercials
Oct 10th
Do you guys get those commercials? I’m watching Good Eats right now (Alton Brown is my tv boyfriend), and they show these commercials at each break. They mostly play off of sexual innuendo (the last one I saw had a couple cracking open and feeding eachother pistachios and it said “Newlyweds do it 5 times a day). But earlier I saw one with 4 kids on bouncy balls jumping around and it said “Quadruplets do it with bounce”. Anyway, that is the ONLY one I’ve seen that isn’t some sort of sexual innuendo. And it just seems wrong to me. You need to either do a bunch of them that aren’t innuendos, or leave the kids out of it. Also, I think it’s funny how much advertising I see these days for particular foods. Pistachios, avocados, etc. Weird.
Anyway, the brownies I made are done, and Good Eats is still on. Ryan’s down at a friend’s place playing video games all night with a bunch of people (a LAN party, for you nerds out there), and so it’s just Zoa and I (we are dogsitting for Sam this weekend while he’s at a wedding). Time to get back to being lazy.
Another thing to add to the list of things I fail at:
Oct 9th
Sleep. I have been awake since 3:30. I laid in bed for an hour and a half willing myself to go back to sleep. And yet I’m still awake. I decided to come out to the living room and at least post the ultrasound photos I thought Ryan had put online, but apparently didn’t (he has the scanner attached to his computer and the edited files on there). So no ultrasound photos yet. You can yell at him later. When he wakes up like a normal person, at a decent time in the morning.
On another note, even though I have seen the new Star Trek movie (and I saw the one before that) I still for some reason thought Ryan made up the name Tiberius. Totally did not connect that at all. Way to go, me. I am so observant.
So yah…I don’t have any photos to post, and I don’t have anything good to say (does anyone have anything good to say at quarter after 5 in the morning? I think no). Obviously I should just stop now. Right after I ask if anyone has any suggestions for getting back to sleep when you wake up in the middle of the night?
Please?
PS
Oct 3rd
Those American Tax Relief commercials annoy me. Basically those people are advertising that they only paid back a portion of what they owe the government. While the rest of us pay our taxes like we should. People that do not follow the rules annoy me. Just pay your taxes, people! Set aside money if you come into a large chunk of it. It’s not like it’s a big surprise that there are taxes on money you earned (or won, or whatever). Gah.
Can you tell I’m a rule follower?
What the f, hollywood?
Oct 1st
So I’m sure some of you have heard that Roman Polanski (Polansky? Am too lazy to look it up) finally got arrested in Europe for his 30 something year old arrest warrant in California. And apparently a majority of the people in the movie business (at least the ones that are speaking out) are of the opinion that because it was “consensual” sex with a 13 year old girl that he was arrested for, that people should just let it go and he shouldn’t have to serve any time or get in trouble.
What. The. Fuck. And please excuse my language, but seriously, this pisses me off. The entire POINT of statutory rape laws is that CHILDREN under a certain age are not capable of consenting to this kind of behavior. They aren’t finished developing emotionally or physically. They rely on the adults in their lives to help them head in the right direction. Yes, they can technically make decisions. And some of them may seem more mature than they are. Some may even try to “seduce” someone else. But he was the ADULT in the situation, and he is expected to know better.
Arg. This makes me so angry. Especially because of what it is saying to everyone out there who is already thinking about having this kind of “relationship” with someone that is WAY TOO YOUNG to make that kind of decision. And how it must make these girls or boys feel who have come to realize later on how damaging that can be. Like it is their fault, or that they should feel badly about it because it was just as much their fault (which is what calling it consensual sex essentially does). These are KIDS for God’s sake.
I have to go to work, but I am just so sick of hearing about this because every media report I see includes this stupid “well, it wasn’t RAPE rape. It wasn’t that bad,” logic. I call BS, people.
Things that annoy me.
Sep 22nd
I told my coworker today that I need a sign I can hang on my neck that says “I’m in a pissy mood, so don’t be dumb today. Or talk to me at all.” Except apparently I need one people can see over email and the phone too. So far today I’m annoyed by:
- Customer who, when I called to tell him that a driver was unacceptable on a Commercial Auto policy because of a DUI within the past 3 years proceeded to lecture me about how the cops are basically luring people into getting a DUI, and almost everyone has them, and how it’s one thing if you’ve been convicted a bunch of times, but they are nailing people who were just out with the girls or guys at bowling, or at a christmas party or whatever and how that’s not fair. Um. First of all, this guy blew over a .20. That’s not a beer or two at bowling. Also, are you SERIOUSLY expecting me to agree with you that the cops are “mean” for ticketing people who knowingly drink and then get in a vehicle and drive somewhere? As my friend Sam said (very sarcastically) “They made them drink and drive Becky… they made them.” Right. And because it was a customer I cannot argue with him. I just sat there on the phone like “Well, that sucks that he can’t drive. Sorry.”
- Someone had a claim for hail damage. The claim is a year old (due to a delay in inspecting the roof because of winter last year, which was requested by the insured). They have taken their time getting back to the insurance company whenever the insurance company requests information, but now that they want to get it repaired they are all over me about how fast they think things should go. I sent some information about a different estimate to the insurance adjuster on Friday of last week, and I got an email from the insured today saying “I called [construction company with rival estimate] and they haven’t heard from anyone since you called last week.” Well, duh! Maybe because it’s been only 2 days? Maybe because the insurance adjuster will probably not call that company back unless they have questions about their estimate, and instead will call you or our office with any information about changes? Maybe you aren’t the only claim they are handling at the moment?
- Myself. Why am I complaining so much? People don’t understand insurance. I should give them a break. Also, take a chill pill. Jeeze. And yet, I can’t help it. They are just getting on my nerves today.
Who or what is getting on your nerves? Let it out, people!
Remember the time our apartment revolted against us and it ruined Monday?
Aug 25th
I have more pictures to upload of camping with my family and the awesome and beautiful and super-fun wedding we went to last weekend. But in the meantime…
Holy crap! Week 15 already. Apparently the baby is the size of an apple (are we talking big granny smith or little red delicious? Because there’s a difference, you know). And if we shine a flashlight on my belly, supposedly the baby will move away from it (which would seem like a mean thing to do, if the baby doesn’t like it, so we’ll probably skip that one). Our next appointment is next week, and should just be a basic one, but the one after that is the BIG REVEAL. Well, hopefully it will be the big reveal. Babies are known to be stubborn creatures, and we might have a shy one. Who knows? But it’s exciting to look forward to anyway. Unfortunately, I don’t think the appointment will be before we head up north for Oktoberfest, so we won’t be able to tell people that weekend. But shortly after that, hopefully!
“Morning sickness” has mostly gone away. I can eat food, and there are more and more things that sound appetizing, so that’s a plus. Of course that means that I’ve started to gain some weight too. That was a little frightening when I stepped on the scale (I only check every couple weeks or so), but acording to BabyCenter I’m about on track, so that made me feel better.
So, you are probably wondering about the blog post title, huh? We’ve had quite the interesting last couple days in regards to our apartment. First, let me say right out front that I like where we live, and these are the first real issues we’ve had there. So I’m not complaining about the building or anything – it just seemed to all pounce on us at once.
We got home on Sunday from a great weekend in Bemidji, and came into the kitchen to see that the stuff on the table was damp and a couple things sitting on it had standing water on them. And the floor had obviously been wet recently but was mostly dry in the open areas. “Hmm…this is odd,” we thought. So then I walked into the bathroom, and one of the ceiling tiles (we have a dropped ceiling in there) had fallen into the bathtub, and another one is buckling, but still up at the ceiling. And the rug is sopping wet. Um…great. So Ryan called the property manager (who is a friend of ours) and told him, and he told us that apparently the people upstairs from us had some water backup issues over the weekend. The water must have leaked in the floor and then gotten our apartment all wet. So we have that mess to clean up, although I guess it really isn’t that bad. I just whine a lot/am lazy.
So then we came home from work yesterday and the fridge door was open. And MAYBE Ryan didn’t push it closed enough when he grabbed his breakfast out of there, but we both think he did (although we weren’t watching that closely). But combined with the fact that a couple weeks ago we woke up and our freezer door was standing open and we KNOW it was closed when we went to bed it seems suspicious. We felt bad about bugging our friends again, though (did I mention they are due to have a baby TOMORROW? I’m so excited for them, and it definitely makes me feel even worse about saying anything about the apartment. LOL). So, we didn’t call then. I think Ryan’s going to talk to him today at work.
Anyway, after the water mess and then not knowing if we need to throw anything in the fridge out (it all LOOKS ok, but who knows – I told Ryan that’s his job, to go through and check things), I just did not feel up to tackling it all last night. So we went out for dinner instead. And then went home and went to bed. But it’s just waiting for us to tackle it tonight. Ugh.
On the plus side (???), I’m glad we didn’t scrub down the bathroom yet because then the toilet overflowed last night. Yuck. At least we already decided to toss the rug that had been in there, and that didn’t get all toilet watery.
So yah…it’s been a rough few days for our place. Hopefully it will be feeling better/in a better mood towards us after we take everything out of those two rooms and scrub them down. Anyone want to come for a cleaning party? ;-)
Hungry for nothing
Jul 23rd
Everything I read says that pregnant women eat tons of food. That they are hungry a lot and that aside from a couple things that might make them sick they will eat almost anything. This has NOT been my experience.
It is almost lunch time, and I’m dreading it. I’m hungry, but nothing at all sounds good. I’ve been making myself eat breakfast each day, and I’ve been trying to find things that sound good for lunch, but it’s a struggle. First of all, what sounds fine in the morning might not sound fine by lunch time. And if I want to go out for lunch, the immediate choices are pretty limited. There are a couple greek style restaurants, a few sandwhich shops an Indian restaurant and one Chinese place (OK, so now it sounds like there’s a lot to choose from). But none of that sounds good, or if it does I’m not supposed to eat it. For instance, a Narmer from Erberts & Gerberts used to be my favorite “eating lunch out” go-to meal. And it doesn’t sound totally repulsive right now, which is a big plus over most other stuff. But it’s got lunch meat on it. And sprouts. Both of which I’m not supposed to have. And PROBABLY the baby and I would both be fine. But what if we weren’t? What if I got listeriosis or e-coli? The chances are very low, but they are there. And I feel like pregnancy is making me worry a lot more about this kind of stuff, and I don’t know if it’s rational or not (I am not normally a worrier over these kinds of things). My doctor did mention the don’t eat lunch meat thing, but I didn’t ask her if that meant never or only rarely or what.
Ugh. I think I’ll just get the darn sandwich without sprouts (although I LOVE sprouts – or at least I think I do…who knows any more). This is all too stressful. Which is just silly. There are much more important things to stress over if I’m going to be stressed, I know. It’s just that it’s extremely frustrating to go from being someone who likes most foods to being someone who doesn’t want to eat ANYTHING that is available. I don’t like being so picky. And actually, even if it was being “picky” it would be better – at least then there would be stuff that I did want to eat.
Whine, whine, whine. I know. I’m sorry. I’ll try to come back later with a cheerier post. My 10-year reunion is this weekend, and we are going to the demolition derby at the fair on Friday. I’m super-excited for all of that (and at the moment fair food actually sounds kind of good, so maybe I’ll get to eat something this weekend!). I’ll try to get some photos, but I’ll probably be too busy gabbing with people I never see, so no promises!
