BEWARE: This post contains complaints. None of them are in the heat of the moment. Instead, I remained silent all week so that I could write in this post my thoughts out of the framework of something resembling rage, but not quite there yet. It's just better for my blood pressure this way!
It bothers me when people suggest that every tiny ding, dent and scrape on my car is due to the fact that I'm a suburban, stay-at-home mom. Then I enter a parking lot, midday, mid-week and realize that there's a reason for this! Case in point: I made a "quick" mall stop this week to exchange a pair of flip flops. As I drove down an aisle in the parking lot, I stopped where a woman was getting into her car clearly to leave. There was no one I could see around me, until I stopped! As I waited for what seemed like an unnecessarily long amount of time for this spot, someone decided to wail on their horn at me. 60 seconds was just way beyond their patience limit and actually going around me was not an option! I didn't budge - because I didn't really need to!
My even exchange was the easy part of my errand. Upon returning to my car, once again the coast was clear. I carefully maneuvered my car out of it's spot. As I was about half way out of my spot, a car began careening towards me, slowed down as it near in what was appearing to be a bid (against no one!) to claim my spot. The odd thing was that this car refused to stop to let me out! She just kept rolling towards me to the point where in order for me to complete my exit from the spot, I had to swing tight just barely slithering by her, all while she was wailing on her horn at me. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the common courtesy of stopping and waiting might have saved this woman a bit of stress, as she must know that both our cars will not fit in that space together and in order for me to make room for her, I must actually leave! She then took her time easing her own car into that spot.
In the recent present, I've heard more car horns in parking lots of suburbia than I hear when I go downtown to Baltimore or DC. What is with these people?? We supposedly move to suburban areas to get away from the stress and pace of city life, but from where I'm standing (or driving!), I'm completely stressed out by these uptight, impatient suburbanites. Yikes!
Now, onto my next rant. Martin O'Malley. Maryland's new governor, who only months ago ran on a platform that claimed that Bob Ehrlich was doing nothing whatsoever to keep energy prices down. Ehrlich, who fought tooth and nail against a democratic run legislature, did everything in his power to try to stop our energy bills from bursting through this roof. And what has Martin O'Malley done to keep HIS promise to do better than Ehrlich? Absolutely nothing. A Democrat who could not even work with his own legislative body to do anything about it. Now he'll go and raise our taxes so that we will not only be paying 50% more on our own energy bills, but we'll be paying for all those people who can't afford to pay their own energy bills, all while they just keep going up, and up, and up.... Thanks for nothing, O'Malley!
Finally, Girl Scouts. I'm finally done with this organization. I won't go into all the craziness that I just went through where GS is concerned, but will just say this: too much red tape really detracts from the essence of what is supposed to be a fun, character building experience for young girls. When we lose sight of the purpose or mission of something because political or personal agendas block our view, I'd say that's a sign that we need to return to the basics.
So, stop honking your horn in the parking lot and turn off your lights! And remember: our actions really do affect our children, in the here and now and well into the future. When I think of all these things in terms of my children, my perspective changes. I'm glad I have children!
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