Is it acceptable etiquette in this day and age to return missed calls from unknown numbers asking if someone called them from that number?

In my not very humble opinion, I consider it rude and class-less. I am always appalled at the Retirement Home when I answer the phone to hear “Did you just call me?” I always tell them that if someone wants to get a hold of them they will call back thankyouverymuch and hang up on them. I mean, I’m always kind and nice and all that jazz, but what I really want to do is tell that person to get over and bleepity-bleep themselves. 

If you feel the absolute NEED to find out who just called you, try doing it with a little bit of class: “Hello, this is ______ ________ at (555) 555-5555, I recently missed a call from this number and was wondering if someone needed to get a hold of me.”

Perhaps it won’t make the person on the other end of the conversation wanting to shout expletives at you.  Trust me, if someone wants to get a hold of you, they will.

/end rant.

(But on the other hand, maybe this is actually acceptable behaviour and I am just old and crotchety. Thoughts?)

Ever

When people say “ever”, as in “I had the best time ever.” Because really? You had the best time EVER? Never, ever in your life have you had a better than the that time you had the best time EVER? I am all for exaggeration and blowing things out of proportion to get your point across, but this one irks me. Let’s be a bit more imaginative next time. How about “I had so much fun that I accidentally punched my friend in the face.” (True story, by the way. Last week at the airport. I witnessed an proposal and … let’s just say it was messy and there were tears involved.)

Just

When people describe themselves as “just” something (especially bloggers). I don’t know why, I think it’s a feminist/women empowerment  thing that I have, but when I see a blogger describe themselves as “just” this/that in their “about” section I don’t believe them. Obviously they think they are something special or they wouldn’t have started a blog. I would never describe us as just five sisters because we aren’t. We are five fabulous, wonderful, interesting women who write  this blog for each other. As soon as I see the word just in an about page, my eyes immediately glaze over.

Money

I just want to do it all, is that so hard to ask? How is it that I budget so hard and have a good income and a partner with a good income but somehow it isn’t enough. Ugh. I even stopped drinking to support my dedicated budget. Who is this person that has replaced me? I wore a pencil skirt and tights to work today. Really. Who IS this person that has replaced me? (I looked really good by the way).

Wheels

I have a beef with wheels. As in, I wish everything had wheels. I would pack my Calgary life into one long convoy and truck it across Canada so I could be closer to my family. Especially my condo – I never want to live anywhere else. But Mr. Leah pointed out that if it had wheels, then it would be a trailer. You know what? I lived in a trailer for the first few years of my life. And my Dad maintains that those were the best years of his life. Simple. Uncomplicated. Six people, one trailer, the front yard of my grandparent’s house. I could handle it again.

Now I almost feel better. Thanks for listening, blog.

What are you ranting about right now? It feels good to get it out, so rant away in the comments. Really, I want to know.

Until tonight.

It wasn’t the music – that was fine. The plot? That’s ok too.

Do you remember the scene where Glee member/Cheerio Brittany demonstrated her ‘hairography’ skills to the club? First she compared her body movements to being tased. Then came the line “it’s like cool epilepsy“.

Now, wait just a hair-tossing moment!

Having a seizure is like being tased? Epilepsy is uncool?

Maybe I’m reaching, but what is a young kid with epilepsy supposed to think about this? Epilepsy is not just shaking your head and hair around. Epilepsy can suck. I speak from experience. But nobody should be sending the message that a disability is uncool. I am not uncool because I have seizures, just as Artie is not uncool because he is in a wheelchair, and the students from the glee club from the school for the deaf are not uncool because they are hearing impaired.

I’ve had epilepsy for nearly 10 years and although it is not an easy thing to deal with psychologically, only one person ever made me feel as though I was less of a person because of it. I’m comfortable enough with my disability that I can joke around about it with friends, but it is really disappointing when it is joked about on a top primetime television show.

That is definitely NOT a seizure.

Last week I realized just how far-reaching the effects of the auto industry collapsing would be.  I used to work at a call center where we represented all kinds of companies – one call I would take a donation for a cancer research foundation, the next I would be processing an after-hours claim for an insurance corporation.  But by far, most of the calls we got were from Chrysler employees all across North America calling in sick.

The call center received hundreds of thousands of these calls a year.  We spoke to employees who were running late, on sick leave, or just taking a single sick day.  Call volume increased when there was a snowstorm and the freeways were slow. Although our target was to keep the calls under 60 seconds (quite easy when all you do is get their employee number and plant location), hundreds and thousands of calls a day really added up fast.

I crunched the numbers (even though math isn’t a strong point for me) and based on 200,000 calls a year, they would potentially be in a position to lay off 2 employees.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but let’s keep going.

Mr X finds himself at CAMI (local GM plant) from time to time.  He supports some office equipment they have.  I guess he wouldn’t need to go there anymore.  Nor would any of his co-workers need to go to any auto plants, if they’re not running. Potentially less work for them.

Of course you’ve heard about the parts plants that would be affected if auto plants close.  What about the companies that support them, too?  Again, Mr X finds himself in these plants from time to time. It’s a huge domino effect.

I’m not impressed with the obvious irresponsibility of the ‘big three’ in handling finances and their businesses in general, so it’s really hard for me to advocate a bailout. I think CEOs taking multi-million dollar salaries are disgusting.  I can’t even begin to imagine how they arrived in the positions that they are in!  Unfortunately I think that without a bailout, the effects would be bigger than you might imagine.

 ”Should Alberta consider separation from Canada in the wake of the parliamentary crisis?”

The response? A whopping 66% voted yes.The funny part is, Alberta is a very conservative province, so they voted Harper into the Prime Ministerial position and now want to separate from their country because of him (and the Opposition of course). I’m sure there are other reasons, such as oil and gas, that are pushing this willingness to separate, but my lord seeing that was a shocker to me this morning! Wasn’t Quebec like 0.5% away from separation during their big French Sovereignty Movement? Don’t quote me on that, but I do remember it being scarily close. I would really like to see the statistics on the people who took part in this poll; which kind of Calgarians are the ones who wish to separate. If Alberta did separate, I would not only be three provinces away from the rest of the blondes, but two provinces and a country away. I like it when politics goes crazy, it does get people impassioned and starting to think in new ways, but I think this is taking things a step too far. 

Watch out, Parti Quebecois, looks like the Alberta Party will be pushing for independence and we got waaay more money than you. And oil. And a lot of rednecks. With guns. Sound familiar?