Another Run In

We had another run in with our 16 year old this morning just after 2 am.  He believes as a 16 year old senior he is entitled to be out as late as he wants and we have no right to say anything about that.  I did not grow up with parents so lenient.  As arguments with teenagers often do it turned ugly quick.  We live in a small town where "bad things don't happen."  He claims he wants to be a statistic so that people will say something happens here.  His words were hurtful and offensive to me.  He is defensive about where he goes, what he does, and how long he's there.  I'm getting tired of being a punching bag.  I started to cry and he stood there and said nothing.  Earlier he said he wasn't going to stay past graduation.  It's an emotional threat made on the heels of the traumatic way his sister moved out last summer.  He said I changed.  Of course I changed.  I was in the middle of Wyoming when I got the call about an empty room and a note left behind.  I don't know what it is about me as a mom but my kids can't wait to leave the home we provide for them.  I've heard stories about other kids who won't leave and mine, with no plans whatsoever, can't hit the door fast enough.  I don't know what I did to deserve this level of disrespect from them.  I tried my very best but somewhere along the way they've decided that they can do it on their own and are hellbent to prove it even if it hurts me.  How am I supposed to deal with that?

Rethinking Things

Since I got back home from a recent trip to Colorado I've been rethinking some important things in my life.  While I was there I had a relationship go south in a pretty major way.  Where I once thought I was on solid ground it turns out I may just have been on quicksand the whole time.  Now, it's given me time to pause and reflect on some things that were said.  In consideration of this I am moving on from a strained, painful past.  It's time for me to put down the ugly bag of garbage that I still seem to want to carry.  I've tried, in my own way, to move on.  Seems when I least expect it something can happen and all those old feelings come back to the surface.  Time to let it go.  I realize now that some people will never change, including me it seems, and some people will carry the water of other people.  There's no sugar coating this fact.  My grandfather used to say "spots on a leopard don't change."  While I can't change completely I can lessen the spots until they fade.  Maybe if I set down the bag I can move past it and be able to survive intact when people want to drag me into conversations that are better left alone.  It's time...past time for me to let this go.  Enough already...

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day.  In the past it's always meant barbecues and a day off.  However, this year I have been thinking a lot about my father in law and his brother.  My father in law went to Vietnam and his brother passed away in World War II while serving in the Navy when the ship he was on sank while at sea.  He was very young and while I obviously didn't know him I appreciate his sacrifice while serving his nation.  I thank all our veterans for their service.  Memorial Day means so much more than barbecues and the start of summer.  May each of us take a moment to be thankful for the wonderful men and women who have sacrificed so much for so many.  Thank God for those who believe in America and her freedom and liberty whom have made the ultimate sacrifice.  Happy Memorial Day!

Check Writers

So I'm at work and this elderly woman comes to the counter.  I ring her purchases and ask the appropriate questions, i.e. Did she find everything she was looking for, and would she like a bag, etc. I total her transaction and she starts to write out her check.  First, most people never have a pen and naturally assume it's something that I should provide them because they came into our store.  She was such a person. Then I noticed she was writing on the front of her check the information I needed to put into the register.  This creates an additional step as I try to explain that the check is put upside and I am unable to see what's written on it.  I asked for indentification only to have her make a catty comment which I didn't hear.  I quickly put in the information from the ID she presented, thanked her, and moved on to the next transaction.  However, I believe that if you write out a check it is ypur responsibility to cooperate with the cashier and not be rude or snippy.  There is no call for that.  Unfortunately I have taken many comments from some pretty ignorant people and since they come into our store daily they realize the procedures and are only trying to tick me off.  If you're gonna write a check don't be an ass about it.  Blame the company and not the cashier...

Have a good night!

Old School

I am old school.  As a perk of my employment this weekend, Memorial Day, I am able to dress down and wear capris or blue jeans and a red, white, or blue polo.  I wore blue jeans and my usual black polo.  As I was leaving work, my replacement, a pretty nice younger gal came walking up to the store in shorts that were pretty high up on her legs.  They were shorty shorts.  I remarked to my husband how inappropriate I felt they were for work.  I am not a prude but I feel that I know the small community I work in pretty well and I feel for sure that there are going to be a great number of older people who, upon seeing this young person bending to put freight away, may feel the same way I did upon seeing her in these shorts.  It seems that in having the freedom to dress down judgement never seemed to enter this young person's mind.  She was dressing for comfort and not the business climate to which she found herself in.  I am old school in my thought that this kind of attention is not appropriate for a business climate.  I believe that dressing for success in a retail situation applies to dressing down as it does in standard dress.  I'm not sure this current crop of young people really understands that but if they want to get ahead they might want to consider that...just saying it out loud.

Have a happy day out there!

Feeling Better

I recently visited my daughter, 20 years old, last weekend.  I have to say that in the short amount of time I was able to spend with her I feel better about how we left things this time versus how we left things in August 2013.  It would appear that in that small amount of time she has grown up a lot.  I believe that she sees things from the point of view that I tried to instill in her when we were together and she was growing up.  We have a better relationship for her living on her own in a state that she wanted to be in then her and I constantly butting heads in my effort to insist I knew what was right for her.  Of course, as a parent I never wanted to believe that I was as stubborn as I was, believing my way was the only way, but given the time and space I realize maybe, to a certain extent I was overprotective.  While I don't agree with how she left I understand a little better my role in her exodus from our home.  I love her very much and hope that since she has wind under her wings now she'll fly to the heights she wants to go.  She is still my Songbird and that fact will never change or be lost on me again.

I'm going to try this blogging thing again.  I'm not sure yet what brilliance will come to my mind that I will share or that anyone will care but I have an active mind that wants to find a voice.  We'll see what happens next.   Good day and happy reading.