Girls, I desperately have to vent.

Today is my parents 50th wedding anniversary.  We are not having a huge get together, just a rather small close family and friends supper.

My mom has been looking forward to my brother and his family being here this weekend.  They couldn't possibly be here for the family reunion last month because there was something going on in her hometown.   They couldn't possibly be here for mom and dad's 40th when I did have a big do for them.

Let’s face it, this self centered pig has not once in ten years brough this kids home to see their grandparents.  NOT ONCE!  But he told mom he’d be here for this.

and now the gutless wonder backs out at the last minute.  Oh, he didn’t call mom and tell her he couldn’t make it.  Oh no.  The miserable pig e-mailed his mother to tell her he couldn’t make it due to “medical issues“.  So now besides being twenty kinds of disappointed that he’s not coming, she’s a massive ball of worry about who is having medical issues and how bad they are.  He’s not answering his home phone, nor his cell phone.  

I’m beside myself livid.  I was upset that he didn’t come home when dad had a heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery.  I was upset he wouldn’t come help me fix mom and dad’s roof.  I was not surprised when he didn’t come for dad’s 70th birthday.  I was a little surprised when he didn’t come for mom’s 70th birthday party.

I’m beyond sad and hurt and upset.  I’m in a red rage to the point if he set foot in this state I’d shoot on sight.

My patience and understand have hit a wall.  He is now officially dead to me.  I have no siblings and will live the rest of my life as if I never have had.  Thank God I have cousins on my mom’s side of the family.

If you’ve read this far, thanks for listening.

Ok girls, I’ve decided that one of these days I’m going to go on vacation.  LOL!  Not really, but this is my little fantasy.

On this vacation I’m going to do every stupid miserable rude things that our customers do to us.  We built this fantasy at work yesterday.  

For starters, I’m going to wear a stained gray tshirt and jogging short with my fat neon white legs, then I’m not going to shower for my whole vacation.

I’m going to show up 15 minutes before restaurants open for breakfast and rattle the doors and peer in the windows.

Then later in the day, I’ll find 10 friends are even strangers if I have to and two minutes before closing time, we will traipse in and order an extensive meal.

I will let my husband wear gym socks and flip flops together and I will complain loudly if he does not get an AARP discount.

I’m going to go to the south and complain when places don’t have unsweetened tea.

I’m going to drive a big motorhome and take up two traffic lanes and when I park, I will use six parking spaces as near the door as I can possibly get.

And, the thing I most look forward to on this epicurian based vacation is walking into a restaurant and sitting down and ordering four things that aren’t even on the menu.  

Yeah, it’s that time of year where I want to throw knives at customers.

One thing I will say about my job is that it’s rarely ever dull.

On Tuesday’s we have senior citizens day which means the elders can get a whole meal for $3.75.  Boy oh boy did they squeal when we raised the price up from 2.99 to 3.75!!!!   Just listening to the elders is usually about as much entertainment as a person can handle in one day.

Now we have a new waitress who is from Holland.  It’s rather interesting working with her.  I’m amazed at how well she speaks English.  Customers are amazed to find her here in central South Dakota.

So, on Tuesday, Dutch came back to the kitchen and told me the oddest thing had just happened.  She said the man sitting in booth 3 had asked if that table full of people were the local senior citizens.  She said, yes they are. They come out every Tuesday.  Well, this man said to find out who is the oldest and who is the youngest among them and he would buy their lunch.   That meant my next door neighbor lady who lives strictly off her social security check got her luch paid for.  

But we had to wonder, what motivated that man to do that?  It didn’t cost him much, but it meant the world to my neighobr.  He wasn’t far away from that “senior” age group himself.  

It’s fun to work with someone who, like me, likes to find out what makes people tick.  Wish we’d got a chance to ask that man why he did it.

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs this week, but the end of the week, I have to make the observation that there is a lot of good in people.  I’ve seen a couple examples of goodness this week that just brought a lump to my throat.

First of all, on Thursday, I went in to work for a couple hours to help make pies.  I ended up staying considerably longer because we got SO busy.  We had a table full of crabby old people who weren’t happy with anything, especially their “cremated” toast.  But, when those crabby old people left, they paid the bill for the meals of the two young National Guard personel sitting by the door.  That’s the second time this winter I’ve seen older people pay for service men’s meals.  It just warms my heart.

The other kindness that got me all misty eyed was last night at my kid’s prom.  Actually there were several examples of kindness among teenagers that were heart warming.  The first was that someone was willing to be my daughter’s escort.  There aren’t a lot of guys who are comfortable with being seen with the biggest girl in school, but he did it with a smile on his face.

Then there’s a new girl in school.  Poor girl is homely, chunky and had to change schools her senior year and she’s on crutches.  She wasn’t even going to go to prom, but the other girls talked her into it.  Because my daughter and her escort were the third couple thru the grand march, he was able to get in line again and take the new girl thru grand march at the end so she could participate.  I thought that was so sweet.

These kids are so good at including everybody, they even made sure the mentally handicapped boy had a date.  A girl from the town where I live went with him.  she’s got a good looking college boyfriend, but she was kind enough when asked by a friend, to go with this boy.

I also listened to my son’s probation officer give my son a talking to this week.  I was amazed to realize that this man actual cares about his job and wants to help these kids he’s working with.  The last po my son had was just in it because it was a job.

After this week, my faith in my fellow man is a little restored.

Don’t clothing manufacturers and shoe manufacturers have any idea what real women are built like?

Seriously we are all different.  It’s not a one size fits all world, no matter how much these companies would like it to be.

Let me start with shoes.  We all have different widths of feet, would it hurt to make ALL sizes in ALL widths?  And then there’s shoe size.  I’m a 9.5 or 10, don’t have to many problems most of the time.  It’s my girls that are really struggling.  One is a size 10.5 and the other is a size 11.5  Why do shoe people quit making half sizes when you get over a 10?  I’m pretty sure my girls aren’t the only women on eath to have big feet that fall between the whole sizes.

And then there are the folks who make pants.  A 32 is a long inseam???  Really??????  My mother is 5‘5“.  She wears a 32 inseam.  I’m 5‘10“ish, I wear considerably longer pants.  

I’ve been wearing the same brand pants for years and years and years.  Well honeslty, I’ve been wearing the same jeans since jr high because they fit my tiny waist.  They are not cute, in fact I’d say they are the un-cutest jeans around, but they‘re the only things that fit.

But now I’ve gotten fat.  That opens up a whole new fitting mess.  Apparently because I’ve gotten fat I’m supposed to have shrunk by about 6“.  All kinds of companies are making jeans in sizes 18 and up now.  But try finding a pair that comes in a 34 inseam.  Just doesn’t happen.  

And shirt tails.  Do clothing manufacturers really think I want my middle aged gut or butt crack showing.  Why can’t they make shirt tails that cover these things?

Ok, I’m done with my rant now I think.

After thursday’s shopping trip I’m just really really angry with the clothing industry as a whole.

What do you call a woman who has a man in her life but does not get to sleep with him?

What do you call a woman who’s man keeps a roof over her head, but she never has the priveledge of going to public events with him?

What do you call a woman who only gets the crumbs of her man’s time and attention,  but yet is not free to find another?

I used to call a woman like that a mistress.

Now I call her me, and I’m supposedly a wife to this man, so why am I living like this?