Another PMS Rant

Gosh, it's been a while since I've ranted so you might want to buckle up.

Glenn Beck is an idiot. There is just no nice way to put that. At the gym that I attend most days of the week, the television set in the cardio section is tuned to FOX and since Dallas and I are creatures of habit, we tend to be at the gym at the same time every day. At the end of my weight lifting workout, when adrenaline is high, and the endorphins are flowing, I usually head over to the treadmill or bike for a twenty minute interval session. And EVERY SINGLE DAY, I am there during Glenn Beck's hour of lunacy. I wholeheartedly agree that in a democratic society, the voices of dissent should be heard but Beck takes it to a whole new level of ignorance.

What happened to the time when parents received a piece of mail from their child's school communicating important bits of information? I missed a crucial football meeting for my son because the coaches relied upon thirteen year old boys and their version of the telephone game to get their message across. I appreciate that they have that kind of confidence in the maturity of their team but wouldn't it be smart to have a back up plan? Like an mass email? Instead, besides sharing it with the boys, the meeting date was published on the school website five days before it happened. Like I'm clicking over to the school website on a daily basis to see what's new. Like I'm THAT parent. I'm way too damn selfish to be THAT parent. After calling the school counselor, I learned that my son was one of about thirty boys who seemed to have blanked on the meeting and the ensuing practices. So, Dylan was transferred into regular PE instead of football PE. I've never seen such a relieved kid when I broke the news to him. He hated football; LOATHED it, like any nerdy, braniac, nose-in-a-book boy does. Apparently, I'm not hearing my son very well these days.

Poop. What in the world is up with dog owners who think it is okay for their pets to use our neighbourhood as their own personal toilet? I don't let my cat defecate in your flower beds so why do you think it is okay for your schnauzer to lay a log on my lawn? Or the public walking trails? I understand that when a dog needs to go, he needs to go but for goodness sakes, pick the CRAP up!

So, I've got an iPhone and like lots of other iPhone owners, my battery life is terrible. Rather than fight it, continually worried about where I was going to plug in to charge it up, I waved the white flag and purchased a Mophie. It's a fantastic idea and when it works, it is fabulous but the problem is that the failure rate of this battery pack is absurd. My first one worked for a day. Really. ONE DAY. My second one (that was sent as a replacement) worked for a month. Now, it won't hold a charge, either. At the Apple store, the salesperson told me that they get returns all of the time on the Mophies. Their profit margin has to be massive because there are whacks of reviews on the internet from mostly unsatisfied consumers and yet, the company is still in business. How does that happen? I will admit that their customer service department is pretty good, which is surprising, considering the volume of mail and calls they must receive but wouldn't it be more profitable to just build a bloody quality device in the first place? Hacks me off.

My daughter has been in a day camp sponsored by our local school system for the summer. Included in our weekly fees are meals and snacks. As the first day of school neared, we were informed that the children would be moved from a single collective center to their respective schools. This meant each child would now need a packed lunch from home as school cafeteria facilities would not be operational until Thursday. I was thrilled. I prefer this, actually. The real kicker, the thing that got stuck in my craw was the warning that accompanied this announcement. We were told that our child's lunch must contain a grain, a fruit or vegetable component and some sort of protein. If the school looked and determined that the sack lunch was lacking, they would provide the missing ingredients at $0.60 each.

Bravo, I thought.

Until Olivia woke up one morning and begged me for breakfast at home since she wanted to avoid the POP TARTS they were serving at school. I didn't make a fuss (honestly, I didn't) but I find it offensive to be lectured about nutrition by a system that serves Pop Tarts for breakfast and Hot Pockets for lunch. It makes four letter words dance on the end of my tongue.

Finally, there is the media aimed at my children. We've got television sitcoms that feature wiseass, prepubescent kids who portray every adult as gullible, pedantic and irrelevant or we've got "reality TV", which has made stars of the vapid like Snooki and Sarah Palin. And how about the music scene? Ke$ha's music is fun, absolutely, but hearing my eight year old daughter sing lyrics like," Boys trying to touch my junk, junk
Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk, drunk" makes me wince.
And nostalgic for The Brady Bunch and disco.

Well, maybe not disco.