Category: Rants & Observations

Vomiting Negativity

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In an effort to try to rid myself of negative emotions this morning, so they don’t eat at me the entire day, I present to you, my current list of dislikes, in no particular order:

Anti-maskers

COVID deniers

Anti-vaxxers

People who use the term sheeple

Friends who abandoned you when they knew you were going through a health crisis

People who use their mental health issues as justification for their poor treatment of others

Culver’s online ordering and curdside pickup system which doesn’t let you select what ice cream you want with the kids meal

Sneaky Pete

Bridgerton

Governors who abandon their state to vacation in Mexico while people are without electricity and heat

The not-so-great state of Texas which has been crossed off our short list of possible places to move

People who shit on other people’s likes and interests on social media

Autocorrect, which should be lightyears better than it is, and should not be replacing and with Andy and the with three all the time

Facebook Marketplace posts of furniture, such as cabinets, that don’t include an interior photo

How difficult it is to find organizations that will take new and gently used socks so I’m not adding useable clothing to a landfill

Snow, ice, and winter in general

People acting like we’re not longer in a pandemic

YouTube “influencers” who took PPP loans so they could continue to take multiple vacations IN A PANDEMIC

Narcissists

The lack of support the government has given people during this pandemic

The fact that I’ve lost respect for many people during this time & want to just move away from everyone and start anew

The so-called white comforter that I ordered from Home Depot is actually cream colored and now needs to be returned

Just Say No (To Starbucks)

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Yesterday I was browsing deal sites and saw Starbucks was having a BOGO deal from 2-7 pm if you ordered via the app. Now, you have to know something – we rarely go to Starbucks these days. And by rarely, I mean the last time we went was in January to get my free birthday drink which I let Joe have because I was too sick to give a crap. I’ve spent more time in the local Starbucks’ parking lot meeting up with buyers from Offer Up over the past two years than actually buying any drinks.

But seeing that deal made me think it would be a nice treat, which was cemented by the fact that they now have a peach green tea lemonade. Chick-fil-a got rid of their delicious peach lemonade so I’ve been trying to get my hands on a good peach drink ever since (side note: Lipton peach iced tea drink mix is great. I call it tea kool-aid). Joe wanted to try their Chai Creme Frappuccino, so we decided to place an order.

Starbucks Order

I was perplexed why our local store wasn’t listed in the app, so I had to pick one a little further away. The app claimed our drinks would take 15-18 minutes to prepare and that it would take 13 minutes to get there, so I placed the order as we pulled out of the driveway. Mistake #1.

We arrived at Starbucks to see a huge line in the drive-thru, so we decided I would run in to get our drinks, but there were a bunch of people in line inside too, and we had brought Wookie, so we opted to get in the drive-thru line so we could be together (and also because I didn’t feel comfortable standing in line for god knows how long). Mistake #2.

Starbucks DriveThru

Wookie Waiting

We watched as people pulled into the parking lot and left five minutes later with their drinks while we slowly made it to the window 45 minutes after we got in line. My drink was watered down (although not too bad since I had requested light ice) and Joe’s was melted/liquid which we didn’t notice until pulling away.

I ran inside with his drink to ask if they could re-make it since it had clearly been sitting out for awhile and they said yes but it would be a long wait because there were other people ahead of me. Say what? I dunno, I think I should have gotten priority, but I wasn’t about to cause a scene – everyone was stressed out enough. I asked them to explain to me how mobile ordering works so I don’t get an old drink again and according to the barista they usually wait until you get to the order board to start your drink but when it’s busy they just crank out the drinks. That seems like a recipe for shitty drinks and angry customers to me, but what do I know?

I didn’t want to wait any longer (our little adventure took over an hour as it was), which I explained to the barista, so she gave me a gift card for $4. Not quite enough to cover Joe’s drink, but good enough. We took it home and stuck it in the freezer and it eventually firmed up enough to enjoy a little. Also, Wookie got a puppuccino which was nice.

When I placed the order, Joe was concerned our drinks would end up sitting out, but I really believed Starbucks would have a way to prevent that. Silly me. Lesson learned! I also found out that our local Starbucks, which is on a extremely busy major road, closes at 3 pm even though all the other stores in the area don’t close until 8 pm or later. WTF?

As for the drinks – the frapp was pretty good, but chai flavored drinks taste like Christmas to me, so it seemed out of place for this time of year. My drink was ok, even though I could taste more of the mint green tea than any peach or lemonade.

Peach Tea Lemonade

To add insult to injury, even though I only drank half of my venti around 4:30 pm last night, I could not sleep for the life of me. I didn’t fall asleep until after 2 am and only after taking a Midnite, which I haven’t had to do in four months. Then today I got bad stomach issues, if you get my drift, probably from trying Joe’s milk-laden drink. Ugh! I curse thee, Starbucks!

Overall, I don’t think Starbucks is worth the price, and definitely isn’t worth the hassle when they’re having what they call Happy Hour (or the baristas on the Starbucks subreddit refer to as Horror Hour). I have about $20 left in my account that we’ll spend on snacks and the occasional vanilla latte for Joe until we run out of funds. Then it’s hasta la vista, baby.

I much prefer Dunkin Donuts anyway.

Thoughts On Death

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I was listening to Pete Holmes interview Conan O’Brien on his podcast today and one of the topics was cemeteries and how in some places in the world there’s so little land that every 70 years the bodies are dug up to make room for new ones. The reasoning, besides lack of space, is that by then their next of kin will have also passed on so no one will even be visiting all these dead people. They also noted that so much beautiful land is being dedicated to those who have passed on and cannot be enjoyed by those who are alive.

It made me realize that in a way it’s really strange to have all theses places where we “store” dead people. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why it’s done, but I think it has changed my mind about how I personally want my body to be handled when I die. I used to want to be buried, but I think now I’d rather be cremated so I am completely gone, instead of waiting centuries for my body to rot while also taking up space. Maybe I can be turned into a tree or something. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, I’m pretty sure we’re not going to need our bodies once we pass on.

Change of Scenery

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Joe and I are edging closer and closer to moving out of this godforsaken state. Between brother B feeling too ill to ever really get together, my parents and other brother acting like driving an hour to my place is like visiting Siberia, and Joe’s kids always being too busy to barely acknowledge texts, let alone get together in person, we’re (sadly) running out of reasons to stay here. Yes, we have some friends, but even they aren’t available as often as we’d prefer.

Plus we’d really like a house and it’s far too expensive here. We could afford it, but a) we like living below our means and b) we don’t really like the idea of paying this state any more money since it’s so corrupt. Also, a change is in order. It feels like time is passing by so quickly with the same old routine & scenery year after year.

The problem is deciding where to go. Right now the #1 city on our list is Fisher’s Indiana which was rated the #1 city to live in according to Money Magazine last year. The city is booming yet home prices (and more importantly, property taxes) are relatively low. We could get a beautiful larger-than-we-need new construction home for around $300k, or an older home, but still built within the past 10 years, for between $200k and $250k, and the annual taxes would only set us back between $2k-$3k instead of $12k here. We could still visit family a few times a year since it’s only a three hour drive from Chicago too. Plus we’d still experience all the seasons which, even though I abhor winter, I would miss spring and fall. While I’d consider living in Arizona part-time when we’re retired, I really don’t want to live in the desert full time. I need green grass and trees to be happy, plus I like cloudy and rainy days which you rarely see out there.

Hair What?

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Last Thursday (9/22) I decided to head to Great Clips to get my hair cut. I called them first from the parking lot when I got off work to see if the girl I like (R) was working that day and the lady who answered said yes. She also said something about checking in so I gave her my name and she kinda laughed and said “I can’t check you in over the phone”. Ok, then speak more clearly next time. She was nice about it, but still. Also, she could have told me I could check in via their app so that when I got there I didn’t have to wait over a half hour behind two other people who had checked in online and requested her as well. Not only that but she was seriously off her game. She usually cuts my hair perfectly but the right side was longer than the left and when I pointed it out she told me that’s because I wear my hair parted to the right. Uh, in that case that side would be shorter, not longer. She supposedly fixed it but when I got home it was still considerably longer and noticeable (although Joe claimed no one would notice but me) and was driving me crazy. Not only that but the left side was cut choppier so the two sides didn’t look the same at all. To add insult to injury it was the first time I’ve ever paid full price ($14 plus $3 tip) because I didn’t have a coupon.

The next morning I blow-dried my hair to see if the unevenness was still noticeable and it was, so I marched over to a different Great Clips with my receipt in hand. I got there before they opened and was standing outside with an older gentleman who was pretty friendly. Once we got inside I explained the situation to the woman (C) and even though she said it didn’t look uneven to her she could understand how it would bother me if it did to me. Then as she started brushing my hair and looking she remarked the back was uneven and basically just gave me a brand new overall cut. Obviously this made it a bit shorter than I was originally going for but it looked so much better once she was done so I didn’t care. I feel bad I didn’t tip her even though the cut was free per their guarantee. I took down her name and will be going to her from now on. It was funny because she asked me why I didn’t go back to the original location and laughed when I said I was afraid I’d run into the girl who screwed up my hair.

Later that weekend we went to Sally Beauty Supply to buy developer, dye, and some accessories like a new applicator bottle since we threw out the old one last time Joe dyed my hair as it was getting pretty nasty. Joe ended up dying my hair cinnamon brown on Sunday. I didn’t like it at first but it’s already lightening up a little and I like it much more now. I really think I’m going to go with a mousier lighter shade of non-red brown next time though since I think it would look more natural on me.