On cell phones and why I’m mad at them today

So today I went to enter an appointment in the calendar on my cell phone.  I would be so lost without it that it’s just plain ridiculous.  Anyway, I was halfway through typing in the appointment when my phone shut off.  Weird.  I’d had to turn it on when I dug it out of my purse because it was off then, too.  Double weird; I hardly ever turn my phone off.  I was in a hurry because I had to eat and run some errands, so I stuffed it in my purse and was on my way.  When I got to where I have lunch, I fiddled with it again and it just kept turning itself off.  Stupid phone.  By now I was super irritated, so I contented myself with ordering lunch and reading the new Catherine Anderson book I got last weekend, annoyed at the thought of having to cut my reading shorter than I wanted so that I could stop at the cell phone store.

After eating a very quick lunch, I headed to the post office to get something in the mail and then I hurried over to the local cell phone store.  Of course, they couldn’t really do anything to help me except suggest that I go back to the store where I bought the phone and see if they could do something with it.  I’ve only had the phone since the end of November; it’s brand new!  Apparently that’s one of its problems.  My phone had just come out in November or right around then and evidently, it had some issues at first, so either it’s that and they may have to exchange my phone, or it’s a software thing and it just needs to be updated.  I’m hoping for the software thing because they can’t switch text messages and I want to keep some of them, so I don’t want to have to turn my phone back in as part of an exchange.  So I guess I get to go to Waterloo tonight with the kids to see if I can get my phone situation taken care of.  It wouldn’t be quite so bad if it wasn’t my only phone…Okay, yes it would, but whatever.  At least if I had a land line I could still call people.  I hate being phoneless.

It’s funny how much cell phone malfunctions bother me.  It proves just exactly how dependant I am on my cell phone and when you really stop to think about it, that’s probably not a good thing.  Without my cell phone, it feels like I’m missing a limb or something, and it never used to be that way.  Then again, that was back before I had a cell phone and it’s getting harder and harder to remember those days.  The really sad thing is how I don’t know anyone’s phone number anymore.  I used to be a walking phone book, as I suspect we all were at one point.  Now, no one knows anyone’s phone number because all phone numbers are stored in our cell phones for easy, one-touch dialing.  It reminds me of what my dad always says about calculators: “That thing’ll make you stupid.”  And it’s true.  I rarely do mental math anymore because I’ve come to depend so much on my calculator’s ability to do it for me.  Any sort of addition or subtraction or anything, really, that involves carrying of numbers or anything with decimals or percents, I just can’t do without my calculator.  My brain has grown weak from lack of use.  It’s the same with phone numbers.  Unless you’re someone I talk to frequently on the phone or someone I’ve known forever and your number doesn’t change, chances are good that I no longer know your phone number.  It’s really quite sad.

But on the bright side, it’s Friday!  Hooray!  And I have a story idea!  Hooray!  And I have a book to read!  Hooray!  And possibly plans for the weekend!  Hooray! Plans that involve shopping!  Hooray!  Is anyone sick of all these exclamation marks and shouts of hooray yet?  Hooray!

🙂

I am so ready for the afternoon to be over.  Only one more hour and forty-five minutes!  Hooray!  I need to lie down…

(c) 2009.  All rights reserved.

Again with the snarkiness…

But this time it wasn’t mine.  Well, okay, it reminded me a lot of mine, but this time it wasn’t me, I swear.  This was an article from Wednesday’s Iowa Falls Times-Citizen, or rather, it was a letter to the editor of that newspaper.  Here is what Jory Rapp of Alden had to say:

It saddens me, as well as angers me, to think that it has become so “politically incorrect” to say, “Merry Christmas.”  We are so afraid of offending someone for one reason or another that stores won’t put Merry Christmas in their ads, school concerts are called “winter concerts,” and such ridiculous rot as that.  It seems like it’s wrong to offend everyone else; everyone, that is, except for the Christians.

If memory serves me right, wasn’t our country founded on Christian beliefs, values, and morals?  We trusted in God to establish, guide, and bless our country, yet now we spit in His face and are outraged at having Him be part of our country and its government.  Then we have the audacity to moan at the shape our country is in and ask why God allows certain things to happen.  If we would look to the Bible and the history of the Israelites, we would see what happens when people turn their backs on God, when they choose to worship other gods and idols.  We are headed down that path and if we continue to kick God out of everything, one day we will be standing in the midst of a disaster asking, “Where are you, God?” and His answer will be, “You didn’t want me around, so I left.”

This Christmas season, I will remind my children that we celebrate because God chose to send His Son to this earth as a baby to one day be the Savior of all mankind and that we are to share that gift with others.  I wish everyone a very blessed and “Merry Christmas.”

 I thought this was very well written and I pretty well agree with it.  If Ben Stein can stick up for “Merry Christmas” even though as a Jew, he doesn’t celebrate it, why can’t the rest of us?  “Season’s Greetings” has got to be about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.  The holiday is Christmas.  If you have a problem with that, go back to wherever you came from.  Or celebrate Festivus.

And now, on to snarkier matters…

It appears that the Idiot Brigade is back in full force.  I swear I got stuck behind every idiot driver in Grundy County Wednesday.  I was nearly hit by someone who decided to switch lanes without making sure there was no oncoming traffic and then again by someone who decided to take his half out of the middle while I was trying to pass him.  If he’d come any further into the left lane, he could have knocked me right off the road.  And then yesterday I was nearly run over by some idiot at a stop sign who was watching around the corner instead of right in front of him, where I happened to be walking.  Jerks.  What is it about winter that brings out the idiot in people?

On a more positive note, thank God it’s Friday!  I am so looking forward to the weekend.  No getting up for work and struggling to make it through the day, no idiots to deal with on the road because I fully intend to stay home and be exceedingly lazy, nothing but chick flicks and romance novels.  Oh, and Christmas present wrapping.  And Christmas card writing.  And maybe a little bit of 4-H paperwork.  Woo!  I love weekends!

Merry Christmas, y’all, and happy Friday!

(c) 2008.  All rights reserved.

Nano

So today marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month and I have no ideas.  Zero.  Zip.  Zilch.  GRRRRRR!

I’ve been looking forward to this since February, but I don’t know if I will make it or not.  So much to write, so little time, you know.

I suppose if I’m gonna try, though, I ought to get into prime writing condition.  Boy band music – check.  Caffeine supply – check.  Warm water for soaking tired arms in – check.  Looks like I’m good to go!  Wait.  Ideas – not so much.  Hmmm…

Maybe if I stop procrastinating, I’ll come up with something.  Or maybe I won’t and I’ll try forcing a story and one will come out and it will be terrible…

Only one way to find out!

(c) 2008.  All rights reserved.

It’s just another manic Monday…

…I wish it was Sunday
‘Cause that’s my fun day
My I-don’t-have-to-run day
It’s just another manic Monday…

That pretty much says it all right there.  Well, except for the manic part.  But the whole mood of the song kind of fits my mood today.  I’m just feeling tired and rather blah today.  I would rather be somewhere cozy, like curled up in bed, but instead, I have to be at stupid work.  *sigh*

Please can’t I go home?

Not much to tell today.  I left my brain at home this morning, so I’m rather non-functional at the moment.  But here’s some random entertainment to brighten your day.

(c) 2008.  All rights reserved.