Yesterday I dropped off the kidlets at daycare. It was Cody’s first day.
Exciting and sad all at once. He is getting so big that it’s almost ridiculous. I can’t believe he’ll be three months old on Tuesday. I feel like I must be tripping over the days because they’ve gone by so quickly.
Monday is March 1. I can’t believe it rushed up so fast.
Ah, March. You are going to be a weird month. I can already tell.
I’ve long thought that the best way to incite change in the world is to start in your city. If every one of us who was upset about the way the world works started making changes locally, this whole world would improve drastically. Or become even more fucked up because we’re all lunatics. Yahtzee!
It’s for this reason that I subscribe to the local news outlet’s RSS feeds, as well as most of the prominent local bloggers. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned and I’m afraid most of the information makes me want to start skinning our city council. Not that I would, mind you, because I imagine it’d be messy and they’d probably slip through my freakishly long fingers like the greasy little eels that they are.
Currently the big to-do is dropping several million dollars of tax payer money into upgrading a private hotel and building a skywalk to the civic center. Also on the council table is an attempt to build a second museum with underground parking even though every year without fail, that entire section of the city floods… You know, minor detail. It’s just water, yeah? They only have to close a bunch of streets…
Normally I’d be less likely to criticize except that just a few months ago when they were looking at the budget, they decided to butcher our police department so they could pay to hang baskets on streetlamps up by the university. So they could give money to hotel developers to spruce up our downtown, even though there is nothing to actually do at our downtown unless you want a lapdance. But hey, at least the club where you can get them done is world famous!
This is ridiculous. And the funny thing is that they are doing this to draw people back to our city.
The catchpa, as it were, is that the school districts are shit and we have rampant crime so all the middle class families are fleeing. I really don’t blame them. If we could afford a house in a nice school district, we would too.
It would help if they could read the writing on the wall. And if the developers weren’t giving them blow jobs under the table. Leave that to the ladies at the club downtown!
*herds cats*
It made sense to me.
Anyway.
I’ve decided that I’m going to start going to these city council meetings, seeing as how they are open to the public and give you microphone time, and pucker up the courage to speak. Because the walls of my kitchen sure have heard what I have to say and they really can’t make any changes. But these people can. And do, every week.
One major caveat is that my walls don’t chuckle about how when I get enraged, my already tinkery voice vaults up to audible levels that only really irritate dogs. Also my face gets really hot and I have this thing against public speeches.
But these are my fucking tax dollars! I pay the bill. I have a say. I just need to actually get up there and actually say it. I can apologize to the dogs with damaged ear drums after I leave since they’ll all be on the streets seeing as how our city can’t find it in the budget to finance our city animal shelter either. Yay rabies!
This would have been more impressive if I had more money. Alas.
Yesterday Andy and I got a chance to take care of something that has been bothering me for the better half of last year. I’m so very pleased that we were able to handle things in a proper and respectable manner. I must admit that I was a bit concerned.
But one thing that amazed me about the conversation was that all of the problems stemmed from stereotypes being applied whilly nilly and no conversation being made to the people it surrounded.
So my thing for today is this: if you have a problem with someone or suspect that there is a problem with someone and you want to help them, TALK TO THEM. Don’t make assumptions. And certainly don’t gossip with others and create assumptions. Ugh.
Life is so short, so finite, and to be spending it mucking about with silly drama when you can just confront those people is just ridiculous. As it turns out, we have a person we have to confront now that I didn’t anticipate. But this really just needs to stop, so I plan on doing it because it just needs to be done.
All these relationships have been wrecked because no one had the gall to ask me pointed questions, fears I would have happily dispelled in just a short amount of time. Ridiculous.
And I wish relatives would stop assuming that I’m a loser with no friends because that really is complete bull. Just because I don’t talk about them with you doesn’t mean I don’t have any! I keep most information about my life close to the vest unless there are questions asked. That’s how I’ve always been.
There are few things that aggravate me more than having to repeat myself, which is why I generally only tell a story once or twice. So just because I don’t tell you about something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. For fucks sake. You’d think that’d be obvious, right?
LEAVE ME ALONE. I’m fine. And if I want something, I know damned well how to get it. Quit worrying and gossiping about me. Especially when all you do is fuck shit up that I have to go and fix anyway.