I could so use a good rant...
Telephones in general have me REALLY annoyed right now. The damn thing rings, so I have to race up the stairs to answer it, only to find it is another automated call, telling me I've won such-and-such and to blah, blah, blah to get my prize. Now, being pregnant and tired as haven't been sleeping well at ALL, I stand here out of breath and swearing up a blue streak. My number is unlisted, so I believe that should extend to stupid sales calls and automated rubbish as well!
My biggest annoyance at the moment is, I'm sad to admit it, charities. It isn't that they ask for help, and it isn't that they show you the most heartbreaking of images to get you to give them money... no, it is the persistance of them. For months, I have given £8.50 a month to one of the bigger charities, and while it doesn't seem like much, for us it is. It felt nice to help people with even less than we've got. So I get this phone call. It is a woman from this charity, who thanks me for the money I've given them so far, and then asks me to increase my dontation to twice as much per month.
I told her I really couldn't, explaining that I am pregnant and we are having to scrimp and save every penny to get everything we will need for the baby. The woman informs me that she understand this completely, and then begins again about these people who still need help, and how more money means they get more help. I told her, 'I already said I can't possibly afford any more, what I've already giving you is stretching it for our budget as it is.' For the third time she brings out the tales of woe.
I felt bad, but I finally had to tell her flat out, 'look, I have explained to you three times now that I do not have any more money to give you. I appreciate what your group does for people, but I can not give you what I do not have. I've got to think of my own family, and I can't let them go hungry to feed another person's family. I will NOT be guilted and bullied into giving you more money. Continue to harrass me, and I will pull my donations entirely. Good day.' Then I hung up. They haven't called back.
My final rant... my neighbor drives me MENTAL. She screams and shouts at her kids several times EVERY day, beginning as early as 7am, and her dog barks as us when we are in our own back yard. It can't see us over the fence, but it hears us, and won't stop barking until we give up and go back inside. It barks at my Bailey Dawg as well, but my dog has manners and ignores the other dog. Never once barked back.
I'm so proud of him. Anyway, her dog runs loose between their house and the parking lot, while mine is always appropriately restrained, and her kids have the cheek to look all disgusted when they see him with us, and last time one of them even called back into her house, 'Mum, THAT dog is out!' HOW rude!! He's never even looked at them, and they call him THAT dog like he's the terror of the South East. I just glare and tell the dog, 'I'd let you eat one, but I'm sure they'd give you indigestion.' The mother even has the audacity to glare at ME when we pass, and I certainly don't know why. We are polite and certainly make FAR less noise than her clan does. She, her daughters and her dog get to make noise at all hours and cheese me off, but we make a little noise once in awhile (Jonah's tantrums can get pretty loud, but don't last long) and we're evil incarnate; hypocrites... got no time for 'em!
Huh... I feel a bit better now!