Category: Uncategorized

Rude People.

~ maryjunebrown

I spoke with a very rude person on the phone today…soooo rude that I burst into angry tears after hanging up.  Why I didn’t just hang up on the person is a long story…you don’t want to know.

The thing I’ve been thinking about today is why, on the telephone, some people feel they have permission to be rude in a way I don’t imagine they’d be in person.  The autonomy, the facelessness…I suppose it allows a freedom for folks to vent, feel “assertive,” and let it all hang out.  I wonder what will happen to this phenomenon in the new millineum, when phones that show live video of the callers faces to each other are the telephonic way to reach out and touch someone.  I hope it’ll have the effect of keeping people polite.

Rude people!  Ugh.

November Ramp Up.

~ maryjunebrown

We all know by now that next Tuesday, November 7, is election day.  Whether you fall in the Red or the Blue…right or left, I’ve just got to ask, aren’t you tired of the campaigning?  The signs, the mailers–THE GAZILLION PHONE CALLS!

We received three recorded phone calls yesterday–automated voices urging us to vote one way or the other.  I’m perfectly capable of reading my information packet that arrives in October, I don’t need the President of the Nurses Association of California or the Chair of California’s Tax Board calling me to tell me who and what to vote for.  I’d like, instead, to be left to my own devices…to figure it out for myself…and more importantly, to make and eat dinner with my family without the phone ringing and irritating me.

Could it be that these phone calls are meant to discourage voter turn out?  I mean, they are so off-putting that I have to wonder if the campaigns of the opponents are calling on behalf of the other guy.  I mean, the perverse part of my nature responds to these calls as follows:

Recorded voice:  On November 7th, remember that Prop whatever is a TAX TRAP!  The Firemen’s Association of California calls this Proposition a REAL DISASTER FOR OUR STATE!!!  Vote NO on Prop  whatever!

Me:  Shut up.  STOP CALLING ME!  Just for annoying me–I might vote YES!

I know–very immature reaction on my part.  What can I say? It just brings out the worst in me.

Close Call.

~ maryjunebrown ~ 2 Comments

At about 4:45 a.m. today, we were rudely awaken by a very loud robotic voice saying, “ATTENTION! EVACUATE! CARBON MONOXIDE BPS 55” and then “ATTENTION! EVACUATE! CARBON MONOXIDE BPS 58.”

It took Tim and I a few beats to wake up, and to determine that it was our fire/carbon monoxide alarm that was going off.  Half asleep, I thought it was our security alarm telling an intruder to evacuate, and I picked up our phone to make sure I’d be able to call 9-1-1 if need be.

Tim yelled upstairs to tell me to open windows…our carbon monoxide reader BPS was now in the 70’s.  The BPS is the reading of how much carbon monoxide is in your air.  A high reading can cause brain damage and is often fatal.

Amid my eldest son’s sleepy questions of “what we doing? are we up now?,” we called the local fire department.  I assured the operator that this was not an emergency, but she begged to differ.  In a matter of minutes, three firefighters, including a fire chief, arrived at our home with their carbon readers in tow.

Sure enough, our carbon monoxide levels were way too high and climbing.  We’d kicked on our gas heater for the first time this season, and it had been building carbon monoxide in our home for the last three days.  The fire chief told us that this was the first time in his fifteen years that he’d seen a carbon monoxide warning alarm be right: usually, it’s just dying batteries that set off an alarm.  But in this case, our alarm was right on the money.

Carbon monoxide has no distinguishable odor and you may not know it’s a problem.  Please make sure you have an alarm in your home that works and has good batteries.  Fire and monoxide alarms can keep your family alive.

If it weren’t for that alarm, our family would have kept sleeping…possibly permanently.  Thank God for that alarm!

About carbon monoxide poisoning: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/carbon_monoxide_poisoning/article_em.htm

Skin deep.

~ maryjunebrown

As I brushed over my lashes this morning with a mascara wand, I saw–really saw–the creases at the corners of my eyes.  It’s not vanity that stopped me and made me stare, but the darker sensation of seeing oneself a certain way and realizing that in fact, one has aged far past that image.  Aging.  It was a shock to see my skin giving up to anyone who cares to look the fact that I’m getting older and maybe not doing it so valiently.  Suddenly I have memories of my mom slathering her face with creams and serums.  I feel the pressure of having to make the decision: start stocking up on the lotions and remedies in earnest…or get used to a face that looks it’s age.  I’ll think about it tomorrow.

Boys and empty hours.

~ maryjunebrown ~ 1 Comment

I dread Mondays, because they are the one day that I have nothin’ goin’ with my two boys.  On every other day of the week, there is some planned activity: speech therapy, preschool, meeting up with a friend, gymnastics lesson, something.  And let me tell you, having a three year old, and an eigth month old boy…sitting around in the house all day is simply not an option.  These are BOYS.  They need to do stuff, need to get the energy burnt in some way or it all comes back on me in the form of monster tantrums (well, the baby doesn’t know yet what a real tantrum is, but he’s watching his older brother with something that looks a lot like awe…he’s going to learn to mimic it pretty soon). 

Coloring at the kitchen table, playing together on the floor, reading a book–these occupy my eldest for all of 10 minutes.  So, there’s the park.  Can you be a good mom even if you really can’t take going to the park once a week?  It’s not that I dislike parks and playgrounds per se…well, actually, maybe I do.  I’m not particularly a park type of person, I guess.  I’m not an outdoor person at all, so it’s no surprise to me that trekking to the park with two kids in tow, dealing with sunscreen and sand and packed snacks and possible injuries from the monkey bars…it’s not my bag.  But, on a day like today, the clock is ticking.  My oldest has had enough PBS for the day and has started his morning refrain, “Mommy, what we doing?” 

We’re going to the park.