Category: Rants & Observations

Visa – Everywhere you don’t want to be

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Joe’s on the phone with Capital One Visa right now … and he is pissed! I certainly don’t blame him. What have they done for him lately? Well, besides flat-out lying to him, absolutely nothing! These people told him that they’d credit his annual membership fee, but didn’t, and now even the manager is giving him a hard time.

Looks to me like Capital One Visa doesn’t want business … is it any surprise that Discover and American Express are far superior? I think not. I told him to just cancel the card and tell them to kiss his ass. We don’t pay annual fees to Discover or American Express and they give us cash back, yet Visa thinks they are justified in charging $60 a year? Bye bye!

City life is not for the faint of heart

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Our trip into the city on Friday just served as a further reminder as to why I’m really happy I live in the suburbs. The city itself is gorgeous, but the people in it scare me. I lost count of how many crazy people (quite literally) we passed on the street in the few hours we were there.

When we were crossing the river after the boat tour, some guy started walking next to me and asked, “May I ask you a question Miss?” I kept on walking, refusing to look at him as I responded, “No, you may not.” I never stop to talk to people on the streets because they are usually looking for a handout. I worked in the city for many years and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been dealt the “I just lost my wallet and need bus/train fare to get home” card. People honestly think I’m stupid.

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Chicago is not. Everything in the Loop area shuts down by 10 pm so our walk back to the L was a bit stressful. The only people left on the streets were of a questionable nature. Of all the time I’ve been in the city, I never saw so many shady people in such a short span of time. We even saw some guy pissing against a building in plain view, right on Michigan Avenue no less. I honestly didn’t feel safe walking through the area after dark even though Joe was with me. To think I used to walk alone through the same area nightly in order to catch the train home from work. I must have been out of my mind. I’m lucky I didn’t get mugged, raped, or killed.

So the moral of this story for anyone thinking of visiting Chicago is to a) enjoy the city during daylight hours and/or b) head up to the Lincoln Park area if you’re looking for somewhere to hang after dark.

Tennis anyone?

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Man, my right arm is sooo sore from playing tennis the past few days. It’s good exercise, though.

While we were playing today, I lopped a ball over the fence. It landed about 25 feet from a picnic table that was being occupied by a family and their little brats. I say brats for a reason, so read on.

Well, we decided to leave the ball there until we were done using them all, then we’d gather them up. In the meantime, I happened to notice one of the boys that had been sitting at the table run over to the general vicinity of where the ball landed, and figured he was going to be nice and throw it back over the fence. Except he didn’t. So then I thought maybe his baseball had landed there too (he was in uniform). Joe didn’t notice this because his back was to that side of the court.

So a little bit later, Joe went to get the ball and even though I was on the other side of the court, I could tell he couldn’t find it. I walked over to that side and motioned for him to come up against the fence. I told him I thought I saw one of the boys take it. So he went over to the people and asked if anyone saw a tennis ball and they all said no. So he said, “It looked like one of the boys ran over and picked it up.” Then all of a sudden the boy pulls the tennis ball out of his bag. Joe said to him, “Next time don’t lie” and walked away. The kid’s dad just laughed. Yea, I’m sure it’s funny that you’re not teaching your kid to be honest. I would have never thought to take someone’s tennis ball when I was that kid’s age (10-12 years old).

This, my friends, is the kind of children that are being raised. It starts off small like this, but it’s situations like these that shape what type of adult you become. And I’d be very afraid if I were you. People are rude and inconsiderate enough, we don’t need people like that father clouding the gene pool.

Ignorance should be a punishable crime

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See these? Yes, those would be bananas. A yummy fruit that is good for you. See this? Uh-huh, that would be a garbage can. So what do you think these two have in common? Come on, think about it. What do you do with a banana peel when you’re done eating the banana? Come on, I know you know this!

Unfortunately, the stupid ass we were driving behind near the mall this weekend clearly did not. I was shocked when I saw him throw a banana peel from his car window. This is not a cartoon!

After seeing that, we happened to pull next to him at the stop light; us wanting to turn left, and him wanting to go straight. At that moment, we both turned to glare at him (we are sooo good at doing that), and watched as his girlfriend handed him her peel, and he started rolling down his window. But before he could do so, Joe started yelling “don’t do that!” (our window was up, idiot’s was down) and waving his arms. I’m surprised the guy even noticed him as we were on his left and Joe was driving, but he did. But he just sat there, with this totally dumb look on his face. I could just hear what was going on in his head (not much – haha). You could just tell that he had no clue why Joe was pissed off at him.

Well, by that time the light turned green, so we had to get going. And I’m sure he threw the banana peel out the window the second we pulled out of sight anyway, considering the fact that he probably still didn’t get why we were pissed off.

The thing that gets me is that dumbass and his equally bright girlfriend were going to the mall where there are at least two garbage cans outside the doors. Would it have killed them to throw out those peels then? I have never ever thrown garbage out my car window. It’s ignorant, disgusting, and dangerous.