Archive for the 'sand people' Category

i’m no princess nor do i want to be one

Published on 1 year ago in married life and sand people. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I’ve always believed in being self-sufficient. Sure, my parents were super-overprotective when I was young. I was never allowed to go out with my friends or school dances, even the prom. My parents pretty much took care of everything for me. My mom picked out my clothes for me until I was in seventh grade, something that is unheard of today when we have kids wearing one outfit when they walk out of the house only to change into something sluttier and cake their faces with horrid makeup the instant they get to school. But even so, I never thought I was a princess nor did I want to be treated as such.

Maybe it’s because I lost my mom when I was so young and had no choice but to take care of myself (though I suppose I could have been like others I know who just became serial monogamists because they always needed someone to take care of them instead of learning how to be independent). Or maybe it’s because my dad used to always fill up my mom’s gas tank for her…until one day he didn’t and she had to try to get gas herself and didn’t know how and felt absolutely humiliated. I have never wanted to be dependent on another person for anything. To that end, I made it my mission back in college to learn how to take care of my car on my own–I learned how to change my own tire, I learned how to change my own oil, and I Iearned how to drive stickshift so that I would never be limited in what I could drive. I’m handy around the house and I mow my own lawn and trim my own bushes. I’m not afraid to get dirty. I fight my own battles.

Even now that I’m married, I still do plenty of the dirty work. I don’t do much with cars because otherwise, what would my husband be good for? But I still mow the lawn and trim the bushes if he doesn’t have time. I’m not afraid to take out the trash. I do the laundry. And I cook. When we bring home groceries, I’m not a princess who prances inside leaving my husband to bring everything in just because he’s a foot taller than me and way stronger. I insist on helping. Even with heavy things I’m pretty incapable of lifting, like 52″ lcd tvs, bathtubs, and furniture, I still have to help. I just can’t help it. If I am capable, why not help?

Well, apparently what I think is normal for me is not how other girls women behave. There are women out there who think that their significant others exist only to be their servants/slaves. It makes me sick when I see these poor men so castrated by their women. It makes me hope that these women are giving them damn good reason to give up their manhood so. I’ve seen guys cook for their girlfriends while she does not ever lift a finger for him, even when he is sick. I’ve seen guys loaded down with 15 bags of their girlfriends’ stuff while the girl prances into the house with not a care in the world. I’ve seen guys who escort their girlfriends to places like the bathroom and wait for them to come out. I’ve seen guys who drive their girlfriends (who are damn well capable of driving themselves and have the means to do so) to school even though it significantly disrupts their schedules to do so just because these girls want to look like princesses being chauffeured around by their awesome boyfriends slaves. I would go on, but I think I just vomited a little in my mouth. And I think you get the idea.

Is this really what it means to be in a relationship? If that’s the case, then why do men bother? If I were a guy, I would rather just hire myself some love when I feel the urge. Nothing could possibly be worth the level of humiliation these guys suffer. Nothing. And yet I see it all the time now. Hello, men!? Here’s your wakeup call! You do NOT have to be treated like slaves! In fact, if you are being treated like a slave, then your girlfriend doesn’t love you and is just using you as a slave. Love does not equal servitude. You deserve better. And there is better for you out there. Ditch your ball-and-chain and put yourself out there and find someone who who deserves you! Please! Someone’s got to teach these women that there is no such thing as being a princess in this modern world! It starts with you!

i think my sister-in-law is an alcoholic

Published on 1 year ago in married life and sand people. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

So my husband and I vacationed awhile ago in the vicinity of Sister-in-law and was promised that she would make the 1.5-hour drive to eat lunch with us before we departed. Well, she decided to not show her face that morning at 8am as promised, which I could have cared less about if I wasn’t anxious to get started on our 8-hour drive back home that very same day. Not only did she not show up, but she also did not even bother calling to let us know nor did she (or Miniman) answer repeated phone calls that were made to them.

When we finally contact them, we find out that they have not even left yet and they have the audacity to try to get us to change our plans to work around the fact that they couldn’t get their horny lazy asses out of bed. My husband is far too nice about the whole thing (as usual), so I just grabbed the phone from him and proceeded to chew Sister-in-law out, about how she’s such a hypocrite for not respecting her elders (us) when she continually tries to make it seem like we don’t respect our elders enough (not true), about how she thinks that the world revolves around her, and how we’re supposed to follow her schedule even if it’s extremely inconvenient for us to do so. Suffice it to say, I made her cry, which is no big accomplishment because she cries at the drop of a hat. Well, my silly husband still wanted to meet up for lunch even after all of this drama, so we wait for them to show up. When they finally do, we meet at a restaurant, where we walk in to find Sister-in-law wearing sunglasses. Inside. Who the hell does that besides Hollywood celebrities? Seriously. Who does she think she is? When probed about her reasons for being so pretentious, she continually claims that her eyes are sensitive to light because she stayed out too long in the sun the other day. What kind of bullshit excuse is that?

Not only that, but she’s ordered a glass of wine to go with her lunch. Who the hell drinks wine at lunch with their family when no one else is drinking? And at a pizza place? It’s not like we were having $100-steaks or something. Bad enough she ordered one glass, she ended up ordering another. Maybe one is to be snobby to go with the shades inside thing. But two at lunch? That’s alcoholic territory. It really wouldn’t surprise me if she’s turned into an alcoholic. She’s a super narcissist with an extremely fragile ego underneath it all who’s with a short guy who might be a pedophile just because she’s desperate to get married. I’ve seen less narcissistic people become alcoholics.

Funny thing is…I mentioned my theory to my husband because no matter how much I can’t stand her, I don’t want to see his family go through the pain of dealing with an alcoholic family member and he summararily dismissed it. I hate how I get nowhere with them. They are the kings of deny, deny, deny. If we pretend there’s nothing wrong, then maybe everything will be okay even though everything is not. Well, when this all eventually blows up, he can’t say that I didn’t try to help.

our prayers have been answered

Published on 1 year, 11 months ago in married life and sand people. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Or not. I’m ever the cynic, so although I’m hoping against hope that what I hear is true, I’m prepared for it to all be a sham. “So, stop stalling and give us the news already!” you say?

Well…

*drum roll*

Not-so-dear brother-in-law finally broke up with his super-psycho-super-fugly girlfriend!

Yep, your eyes are not deceiving you. Against all odds, it has finally happened. So why am I still so pessismistic about the whole thing? Well, for many reasons.

1. Not-so-dear brother-in-law claims they broke up in December. Yet we only hear about it now. Even though he got into a big fight with my husband over her and not-so-dear brother-in-law could have easily ended it by telling my husband that she was out of the picture. But since I have no idea when exactly they broke up, it could have very well happened after that fight (though not likely based on the double entendres that were coming out of sister-in-law’s mouth during another visit around Christmas). Now, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he broke up with her after the fight. Then why didn’t he tell my husband sometime before now knowing that it was mainly her being such a pervasive negative part of his life that led to the destruction of my husband’s and his once quite close relationship?

2. They are still living together. Not in the same room, but in the same condo, in rooms that are right next to each other. Not to mention that it took them breaking up before he finally admitted that they were living together even though it was more obvious than global warming. And we all know that continuing to see and talk to each other everyday doesn’t really constitute a break-up, does it?

3. They’re still doing stuff together. Albeit it seems that it’s because they have so many mutual friends since she didn’t allow him to make any friends of his own. But still, in that situation, I’d make new friends. Again, just like reason #2, doing stuff together after breaking up doesn’t really constitute a break-up.

4. She seems to still be pining away for him (thank you, Facebook). Which makes the fact that they still live together and do stuff together extra scary.

5. I really cannot believe that this crazy psycho bitch actually let him break up with her without forcing him to stay by threatening suicide or some other crazy thing. So, really, it could all just be a big fat lie.

I think I have some valid concerns here, don’t you? I believe that when you break up with a person, you should always cut all contact for a period of time so that both of you can process the break-up and move on before resuming a friendship if such a thing is so desired. Somehow magically flipping a switch between doing the nasty every night to being just mere friends doesn’t seem too realistic at all and is just asking for failure and more drama. Not to mention the fact that no new love interest is going to be willing to date you with your ex looming so close, which then makes you think you’re undesirable, leading you to fall back into the arms of your ex.

Despite all these reasons, I try to remain cautiously optimistic because not-so-dear brother-in-law’s bout with this batshit crazy girl has taken him down a notch…or five. Two summers ago when he was here with passive aggressive cousin-in-law, not-so-dear brother-in-law acted like he was the shit and that he was better than me (we all know that he’s not even close to being in the same league). But now, he’s actually having to take an extra year to finish school because he needs to raise his GPA to be competitive for optometry school and because he needs more time to study for the OAT. Seriously?  Not to be a total snob, but optometry school is nowhere near as competitive as med school and his GPA is too shitty even for that?! And we all remember how he claimed many times over that he needed to go back to school during summers and breaks early to study for the OAT, what, TWO years ago?! And after more than two years of “studying,” he still hasn’t taken the damn test?! Again, the OAT is nothing compared to the MCAT. I know plenty of people who sucked at the MCAT but aced the OAT. What does that tell you? Of course, that super-fugly-super-psycho girlfriend totally dragged his ass down. The kicker here is she did just fine and is graduating on time and has gotten accepted to professional school. Gotta love that, right? Anyway, my point is that hopefully, if I am right, the reason he finally dumped her ass was because he finally, now that all of his peers are moving on and he’s not, has realized that she fucked him over badly and realizes that if he doesn’t want to become a complete loser, he has to get rid of her. If this is, in fact, his reasoning, then I have hope yet that he won’t end up back with her because there’s nothing this guy hates more than failure. That and the prospect of mother-in-law finding out her golden child is a failure must scare him more than anything. But do these things scare him enough to counteract all of the things he has going against him listed above?

What do you think? Will this break-up stick?

an open letter to the latest idiot who scraped my prius bumper

Published on 2 years ago in sand people. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Dear Mr./Ms. Idiot,

Who exactly taught you how to drive? Oh, that’s right. Probably no one. Because that’s the only explanation for why you backed your vehicle into my innocent little Prius, not only leaving your nasty beige paint on my car but also taking a little souvenir paint chip with you. More importantly, were you raised by wolves? Because what decent human being damages another human’s property and then runs away without admitting the wrong that they’ve done? Do you feel good about what you did? Ha! I hit your car and I got away with it! I’m so proud. Is this what you teach your kids too? Maybe that’s why this nation is going down the drain. People like you who think you are above everyone else. People like you who expect to be treated like kings, but refuse to treat other people with common decency. Well, just you wait until someone treats you the way you deserve to be treated. It’s not so fun, is it?

Signed,
Angry Prius owner

ipod nation

Published on 2 years, 4 months ago in sand people. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

I like listening to music. I used to like it quite a bit. Not so much anymore because I don’t spend as much time in my car as I used to. But I still really enjoy listening to my favorite music. Which means I think iPods are cool. Even though I never really got into them. I never even managed to fill my 4 GB iPod mini. I have yet to put any music on my iPhone (out of pure laziness and unwillingness to organize my music collection). So, iPods are great, but at the same time, really annoying. Sure, they’re great when you’re waiting around at the airport or trying to survive a transatlantic flight. But there really is no need to perpetually have those damn headphones in your ears listening to your particular brand of emo music. I love music, but not that much. I don’t need to be listening to it 24/7. And I hate it when people are so busy listening to their iPods that they don’t notice their turn being called while in line at the bank. Or when they’re listening to them during class so loud that everyone can hear. Or when I’m trying to talk to them. Unfortunately, iPods have turned our nation into mindless music zombies, too busy listening to our music to notice anything else going on around us. That’s why there’s legislation in some state or another attempting to ban listening to iPods while crossing the street since it’s dangerous to not pay attention to all those cars zooming around you. As iPods continue to permeate our society, I’m sure that we’ll be ripe for the taking in a couple of years.

who said that science isn’t for women?

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago in lab/graduate school, medical school and sand people. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I keep reading and hearing all this crap about how women lag behind in math and science. They try to point the finger at our education system and/or attitudes at home, etc. I’m sure some of it is true to some extent, but I just don’t really see what they’re freaking out about. Maybe I’m spoiled, but everyday, I see plenty of women around me engaged in scientific research. In fact, 61% of our current MD/PhD students are female. Yes, that’s right, women outnumber men in our program. Of course that’s just our program, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other programs have similar compositions.

Maybe I’m too unsympathetic, but I just don’t believe in this whole women don’t pursue careers in math and science because people-made-girls-think-they-weren’t-good-at-it-and-they-believed-it crap. I never encountered any of that at all during my formative years. I had nothing but support from my teachers and my parents and I didn’t attend fancy-shmancy private schools either. Besides, if someone tried to feed that crap to me, I would never have believed it in the first place and would have set out to prove them wrong. Nor do I believe in the whole women-are-intimidated-by-the-male-predominance-in- the-science-world crap. It’s 2007, people. There are plenty of women in high places. Look at Hillary Clinton. What about all those doctors on TV? There are plenty of “strong women” on Grey’s Anatomy and House. It is more accepted than ever for women to pursue once-typically-male-dominated professions. I won’t lie to you and tell you that we’re given the same respect as men in these fields because we’re not. And certain fields, such as surgery, are still very much male-dominated and hard for a woman to break into. But you’re not going to hear someone respond to your interest in surgery by telling you that you’re never going to make it because you’re a woman (not unless they want to get sued, of course). Sure, they’ll try to dissuade you by warning you about how you won’t have a family life to speak of and how hard it’s going to be, but these things ring true for men as well.

So why does it appear that fewer women pursue careers in math and science? Well, maybe it’s just because they don’t want to. Maybe it’s cooler to pretend to be an airhead cheerleader than to admit to being good at science and math. Maybe it’s because of the misconceptions that keep getting passed along about how women can’t have careers and be good wives and mothers too. Sure, it’s harder for women to juggle both, especially in academia when any kind of extended leave would also lead to a dearth in publications and productivity that may threaten their careers, but maybe the rules of academia need to be changed a bit instead of blaming the situation on the environment that women grew up in. I’m sure the fault lies a little bit in everyone, so why not spread the blame a little so that everything can change, not just our K-12 school system? Because if academics requires too much sacrifice without enough reward, it’s not going to matter how much our teachers and parents support young girls in math and science, they’re just not going to find these fields attractive career options.

iphone antics

Published on 2 years, 5 months ago in sand people. 2 Comments Tags: , .

So I bought an iPhone last week.  It was awesome.  Until I noticed a stuck pixel at the very bottom of my screen.  I also have a stuck pixel on my DS Lite that’s been there since day 1, so I’m beginning to think that I’m just unlucky with things with LCD screens.  And, of course, once I was such a defect on my brand new $400 toy, I became obsessed with it and couldn’t stop noticing it.  So my husband told me that I should exchange it.  I debated it for awhile because knowing my luck, I was going to end up with one that had more stuck/dead pixels in more annoying places.  But it bothered me to no end, so I took the plunge.

We went to the Apple store and got attitude as we were told that there was no way to guarantee that we would get any better, blah, blah, blah.  But they obliged anyway.  I couldn’t see any dead/stuck pixels while I was in the store, but sure enough noticed at least three on the way home.  What’s more, the my replacement creaked whenever I squeezed its sides while holding it.  And there was light leaking out of the bezel.  And last but not least, when I loaded up a video into it, I noticed the dreaded negative black effect that has been plaguing the iPod Touch.

Of course, I wasn’t going to keep something that was worse than what I started out with, so I made another appointment at the Apple store and went back the following day.  Unfortunately, it was quite backed up and I ended up waiting forever.  During that time, another guy came in because of some problem with his iPhone touchscreen.  The person who took care of him took forever in the back with his iPhone, which was no good for me since that meant I was stuck waiting.   He finally came back out, but with who I thought was an expert in iPhones.  Instead, this guy turned out to be some sort of manager and informed the guy next to me that they had discovered that his iPhone had been unlocked and that unlocking voided his warranty.  Instead of accepting that he had been caught red-handed, this guy feigns innocence and then becomes all belligerent and demands to have his phone back and to speak with a manager.  Of course, they deny his request for a manager and he refuses to leave, leading them to call security, who does in fact show up and he is escorted to the back where he can no longer disrupt the peace of the Apple store.

I was just amazed at this guy’s audacity.  You did something you weren’t supposed to do to your iPhone and now you’re mad that Apple won’t fix it for you?!  It’s people like you who caused Apple to release this latest update that bricked not only unlocked iPhones but also some innocent non-unlocked iPhones and broke all third party applications.  I don’t like AT&T either, but I swallowed my pride and signed up because I wanted an iPhone.  What makes you think you’re somehow entitled to not follow the rules?  And then when you’re caught, you want to be treated like everyone else who actually followed the rules? Give me a break already.  It’s always the few who ruin it for the many.

Ranting aside, I was eventually seen and got some more attitude about how the screen is supposed to be like that (riiiiiiight), but still got a replacement.  I was planning on not leaving the store until I had a good iPhone, but after belligerent guy, I figured it wasn’t a good idea.  Luckily, the replacement iPhone screen was good and my problems were solved.  So finally, I can add my contacts, music, and videos to it.  Took long enough.  Not that I’m complaining too much since I know that I’m lucky to even have one.

human signs

Published on 2 years, 8 months ago in sand people. 0 Comments

Or sign wavers as I like to call them are everywhere. Especially on weekends. They litter practically every street corner waving their annoyingly colorful signs in your face as you drive by. Some, like this guy here, have arrows that are signs. Others have just plain old rectangular signs. Some are super creative and spin their signs and wave them around wildly, so much so that it kind of defeats the purpose since people can no longer really read them as they drive by or their arrow now doesn’t point at whatever business they’re trying to promote.

I don’t really care about these sign wavers except to think that what they’re doing is absolutely pointless and a health-risk to them. Not to mention humiliating. I wouldn’t want to be caught waving a sign around like a shmuck by anyone I know. The thing that irks me the most is the health risk part. These people are making around $10/hr for dancing around with a huge colorful sign, but that’s eight hours in the sun, with no sun protection (the savvier ones where light-colored clothes that cover as much of their body as possible, but damn, they must get hot, and most aren’t so savvy). I’ve checked out some of the solicitations for this job and there’s no mention of “wear sun protection” or anything even close to it in the descriptions. Shouldn’t these people be warned? How much is your skin and your life worth? Is it worth it to earn $80 in one day when you’re risking skin cancer? I know that there are many other jobs that involve a lot of sun exposure, such as farm workers, construction workers, etc. But these actually serve a purpose. We get food and buildings from these workers. Does having some guy dance around on a street corner waving a colorful sign really get people to buy new houses or cell phones? Both of these things are big purchases and not something that someone would just randomly buy just because they saw somebody dancing around with a colorful sign telling them to check these things out. I would think that the actual return is pretty damn low. So why should people be subjected to such indignity and risk? I think it’s just exploitation of people who are down on their luck and I wish it would stop.