Kids today (aka I am so old, aka don’t they got no fetching up, aka get off my lawn)

So as an academic librarian I am constantly exposed to TODAY’S YOUTH. And let me just say, what the hell? Do these kids parents no raise them to have any manners at all? So here is a list of things that because I am clearly so so old, make me absolutely crazy.

-          Wearing your headphones or earbuds or whatever you want to call them while talking to people, or trying to get away with only taking one out during class.  If you are talking to someone, please give them your full and total attention. If you don’t want to listen to what I have to say bad enough to take those things off, why should I listen to you, or waste my breath trying to talk to you?

-          Take your hats off inside.  That is so rude.  Do they not teach that that is rude anymore? And that includes your hoods, y’all. It is not raining inside, you do not need your hood up like that and you look like a moron/jerk. HOODS DOWN.

-          Does no one actually say “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me” anymore? I mean, seriously? Standing in the door of my office staring at me until I happen to look up my work and notice you doesn’t do anything but scare the pee out of me. A polite “excuse me, I need some help” goes a lot farther. Do not stick papers in my face and go “is this right” or interrupt me while I’m helping someone else to say “I need copies”. Ask politely!  It will make me actually care about what you need!

-          And on the subject of copies, there is such a thing as copyright! I understand that you don’t want to have to buy your own copy of a book. School books are expensive! But I am only allowed to copy 50 pages from any one document and that’s it! If we break those rules and we get caught they will take away our copier and then no one gets any copies! You are not so much more important than everyone else that you should be the reason that on one else gets any copies ever because you “REALLY NEEDED” those extra pages. Don’t whine!

-          Dress like a grown up. No. Not even that. Dress like a five year old if you want, but dress like a five year old whose parents actually care enough about them to dress them in clean clothes without holes in them. And while we’re at it, hygiene is good, and that includes showers, brushing your teeth and PLEASE GOD  washing your hands after you use the bathroom.

-          Show some respect. For yourself. For your classmates. For your professors. For the library equipment, for the other people using the sidewalks. For whatever poor soul you happen to encounter during the day.

-           If you think everyone on campus is rude or unfriendly, consider this, if you are walking along with your hood up, earbuds in, looking at your phone, you’ll never notice if someone says hello or smiles at you as you pass by.

TAKE A MEMO

If you insist on doing things you know are stupid, don't be surprised when they turn out badly. You don't get to act like a moron and then throw your hands up into the air and say you don't understand what happened. What happened is, YOU DID SOMETHING STUPID.

Those pants are not pants!

Leggings are not pants. They are not a pants alternative. You must wear something other than leggings with your leggings. I don't care if you are a cute lil 8 year old or a 200 pound lady leggings are not a solo vehicle. Please bear this in mind when you dress yourself in the morning. PLEASE.

Inconsistent Crankiness

Well, the truth is, I have been pretty consistently cranky for the past couple of months, but in ways not suited for a public forum, or rather about things I can't really discuss here.

However, one of the things that has made me cranky recently is basically just a fount of irrational rage. Actually, I'm basically just a fount of irrational rage in general recently, as I recently started taking Depo shots and I am having a truly lovely reaction to that massive influx of hormones.

I have also made the decision, after 7 glorious years wearing the same glasses, to break down and get new ones, because while my prescription remains at a near constant, I have finally managed to put a scratch in the lense I can't avoid looking through, because it's right down the middle.

Shopping for new frames FLAT. OUT. SUCKED. I went to  six different stores and tried on at LEAST 100 pairs of glasses. I do not enjoy this! It is not fun for me!

Y'all, the current styles are not working for me. I have one tiny complication that makes them extra inconvenient. That big thick ear piece that everyone is so into right now? Pushes my hearing aids right off my ears and that sucks. That alone really eliminated a lot of frames for me. Plus, some of the cutest ones didn't have spring hinges. Now, if you are a glasses noob, you might not know this, but spring hinges are ESSENTIAL. You might let yourself get faked into believing otherwise, even if you are an old hand at wearing glasses, but you would be wrong. DO NOT BE DECEIVED.

So anyway, I went into LensCrafters, on the recommendation of a family member. They basically only carry designer frames now, apparently, and designer and quality are clearly no the same thing, regardless of the price tag. For another, customer service involves listening, folks. If you show me four pairs of glasses, and three of them don't match even my most basic requirements which I explained to you when we were getting started, don't then ditch me to go help someone else who you probably also won't listen to.

I then went to the other LensCrafters in town, hoping they might have some options the other place didn't. They had most of the same stuff, but more helpful people. When I mentioned the woman at the other store, they both knew exactly who I was talking about. So here's my question. If your company has an employee who is so incompetent that she can be recognized purely by that incompetence (and, ok, her affection for oversized jewelry, but still) , why is that person still working for your company? Just curious.

Anyway, I finally found a pair of frames that works for me, but my choices came down to retro librarian and old lady, basically. Retro librarian seems a bit literal seeing as how I am an actual librarian, but it was better than old lady, so there you go. Plus they have polka dots!  But man, that was the most hassle ever to get some glasses. And I still don't have them! I have to wait for my optometrist to get the lenses in.

I am revving up for NaBloPoMo so I am going to try to be posting more regular-like.

Can't keep a good crank down.

Well hello there. Been over a month, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Hope you're not too ...CRANKY with me. :) Please believe me when I tell you my silence does not mean the cranky has died. I have been plenty cranky in the last month. Family. Work. HEALTH ISSUES. All of these things have made me cranky. But I know that's not what you and I are here for. We're here for the petty crap that irritates us all on a daily basis (and by all I mean, I enjoy making sweeping generalizations, and seriously, how can this stuff NOT tick you off?).

First off - It is like a bajillion degrees out and what did I do? CAME FURTHER SOUTH FOR A CONFERENCE. It is two bajillion degrees here. WHAT was I thinking? And I was all excited because my hotel has a pool and I was finally finally finally going to get to go swimming. THE FREAKING POOL IS CLOSED. CLOSED. For CLEANING. It's a pool full of water! Dump in some chlorine and call it good - my hair is natural, it won't hurt the dye. Let's go, splishy splashy! And I have no idea if/when it is going to reopen, but either way, it's too late for swimming tonight! BOOOO.

AND. People, my place of work is searching for an employee this summer. We have had a ton of applicants, we've even made some offers. And yet, do we have a new person? No. Unemployed people are turning down this job. What the heck? WHAT. THE. HECK? I mean seriously. I don't get it. Is someone currently paying you money? No? Are we offering to pay you money? Yes? And yet...you've decided you want to continue with the previous way of life? Is that because you suck? Yes? Good to know! What is the problem wiht people. How do you turn down a job with a salary you can live on, excellent benefits, in a town with low low cost of living...in favor of...food service or unemployment? I do not get it.

And one final cranky thing for tonight. GOOGLE MAPS. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, GOOGLE MAPS? First you try to take me through backroads like I'm in freaking Deliverance and when I'm like "no way, man. I don't even play the banjo" you take me so far out of my way I actually crossed over the same river twice. WHAT IS THAT?

Making myself cranky

Despite all appearances to the contrary, I am rather shy. This is a source of eternal crankiness for me, because I think being shy is stupid (sorry, other shy folk, but it's true). It holds me back, or rather, I hold myself back, by being shy. There are things that I want to do, or to try and I don't. Why? Because it means talking to people (noooooooooooooooooooooo) and putting myself forward, and when I do that, I want to cringe and die.

I hate it. Most of the time I can fake it pretty well, lots of people would think shy me was the one faking it, but they would be wrong! SO. WRONG. It makes me tremendously cranky. Right now, I am looking at an e-mail that a colleague forwarded me, suggesting I would be a suitable presenter for an upcoming conference. And...she's not wrong. I would. I am not unqualified. I have something to offer! I....am not going to write to the originator of the e-mail, because I know when she gets it she'll laugh and say "this idiot? Who does she think she is?" and even though I also know that part is TOTALLY IN MY IMAGINATION (probably. I hope.) little shy me goes "No! Don't talk to strangers, it's a terrible idea!"

And it makes me so mad! SO CRANKY. Little shy me, you better straighten up and fly right, because ...well, because nothing. I got no idea how to banish little shy me to the dungeon, so I guess she just gets to keep jerking me around. Wouldn't that make you cranky, too?

IMHO

Reminder: Having an opinion is not the same thing as being right.