Mid-year grievances (2025)

 1. When people you know in person are using that skinny filter on social media. 

2. I don't think anyone under a certain age should be in a two piece bathing suit. I don't know what that age is, really, but I feel like there should be an age requirement.

3. I think tattoos are almost never a good idea. Not never. Almost never. Okay, 99.9% of the time. 

4. There are few first-world problems worse than wanting to eat homemade cookies and realizing the recipe you found says "chill overnight". 

5. It's that time of year when the teachers are making their Amazon wishlists and, with no shame in sight, school districts are posting them online and asking the community to "help out". I made one last year because they asked me to so they could advertise it. Guess how much I received? Nothing. Ended up buying what I wanted myself. Schools should be run more like a business and less like a charity. 

6. I have previously stated that Blue Bunny is trash ice cream. Here's why: It's considered a frozen dairy dessert. They can't even label it as "ice cream". My favorite ice creams come from Walmart, but I was looking around at the commissary the other day. 

7. My former school is banning cell phones during the school day. Parents, per usual, are having a normal one. 

This is after a teacher from Bentonville, Arkansas commented on how good banning phones has been for their district:

John seems special.

8. Lastly: people who have aggressive dog breeds. I don't get the point. Don't be talking about your "rotty" and your "pitty". 

What's your biggest MOY (middle of year, in teacher language) complaint? 

Grievances and wins: Customer Service

1. You know how Biden was supposed to write some sort of edict about being able to cancel subscription services with one click? I have been fighting with Chewy for yearsss. You can't actually cancel things altogether (and that account has come in handy before when we needed prescription meds mid-move), so I just keep delaying orders by 6 months. Along with that, we began using Pet Flow a few years ago for dog food because it's cheaper and they don't put rainbow bandanas all over the pets on their site a month or two out of the year. However, they will not let you cancel. There is no way to do it on the site. You have to call. No one answers the phone. Scott has been trying to cancel our account for over a year. We started buying our food locally to support smaller businesses and have no need for Pet Flow. Finally, Scott just  canceled the credit card and they're emailing him every day saying they need an updated number. He literally canceled the card and got a new one so they would stop hassling him. That is the state of customer service in this country. 

So, if Biden could actually do something about that, he'll go out a-okay in my book. I mean, maybe.

2. Speaking of annoying...this company sent me 22 emails in 5 days. I signed up for a webinar or something. 22 emails in 5 days. It's an education company. 

3. Arbonne initially did me wrong. Twice in 4 months, I've gotten the wrong free gift with my Replenish Me order. I, like many others, plan the free gift into the purchase of my recurring order and, without notification, my gift has been replaced with something I don't actually need or want. I guess they update the list of "free gifts" regularly and if your selection gets the ax, they just stuff something else in the box instead of telling you to go in and change it. This is why MLMs are hard.

So anyway, I asked if I could return the free gift I'd received and they were like no and wrote all about what I said up there ^. My consultant was apparently supposed to notify me and she definitely didn't, either time. The first time I thought it was user error on my part so I let it go. 

But I'd had a rough day and wasn't in the mood, so I wrote them back saying I understood the changes and thanked them for clarifying. But it seemed unfair to customers and I know if it happened to me twice, it happened to others. They immediately wrote back saying they were putting my original free gift in the mail to me, at no charge. This is a $110 product so that's an A+ for their customer service department. I mean, the response time, the fact that they made it right, and the fact that they seemed to care about retaining repeat business. The product is the icing on the cake. 

4. My Shark air purifier just up and died at the beginning of December. Just shot straight to 0%, wouldn't function, made me think there was some kind of gas leak in the house. Luckily, I have another air purifier with an air quality measurement on it (despite what Scott would classify as "lucky") and I could see that it wasn't the air, it was the device. 

So I spent an enormous amount of time on the phone with Shark and they said they'd put a new one in the mail, free of charge, replacing it because it was a faulty unit. It was only 7 months old and had a two year warranty. The new one would be arriving in "10 or less business days". I was kind of concerned it'd show up while we were in Pennsylvania for Christmas. While I'd put a hold on USPS, that doesn't apply to other carriers. I didn't really want a $300 air purifier sitting on our porch for a week. 

Never fear, though. They never sent it. 

I emailed them January 6th, one month later, and said "hey, I never got it" and they were like "OH right. We never sent it." 

Currently, as of January 19th, it's at a Fed Ex facility 40 minutes away. Fingers crossed, guys. 

This is my own fault. I buy things and just assume they won't break or assume I'll get what I paid for and it never quite works out. I got a crazy deal on an EdenPure plug-in the other day and I used birthday money for it. EdenPure has definitely disappointed me in the past but they make the best products when it comes to actual function. 

4. I sent a Stitchfix box to Colorado by mistake. They actually solved my problem immediately when I contacted them (they do have a useful chat feature for customer service issues) and sent me a new box. Unfortunately, the clothes from the first box were not the clothes in the second box and I really liked some of the clothes in the first box. :/ 

5. I wrote a whole post about it that I'll get around to publishing, but Scott had to take Jett to an animal hospital in Springfield to have him put to sleep last month. We couldn't get him into our regular vet soon enough. It was an immediate need, sadly. We had an appointment here, ready, but he wasn't going to make it to the appointment. But, we'd never even heard of this animal hospital before, and I made an appointment for same-day at 7am and Scott took him by himself. Scott said it was the best customer service experience he'd encountered, maybe ever. We got very lucky. Scott was so impressed that he took them a Panera gift card for the office staff when he went to pick up Jett's remains a few weeks later. We also received a sympathy card from their office and one from our regular vet. So, veterinarians "win" the customer service era right now for us.  

6. Lastly, I wanted some kind of anniversary ring/band for my birthday and I ended up picking one out on Kay's website. I have a ring for 10 years and I wanted this last spring for 15 years of marriage but we were busy paying for lots of dog treatments and it wasn't a priority. Scott ordered this ring at the end of December and it showed up a week later and it wasn't at all what I had seen on the site. I sent that back too. While it was a "want", not a "need", I'm back to square one. I think I'm going to go look in-store. The problem is that a lot of their rings, and especially the ones with the deals, are online.

7. Okay, never mind. LASTLY, Little Poppy Co. bows. I started this subscription for Sutton a year and a half ago and it's the only way I get bows. I don't buy hair things. Three bows just show up every month. It's definitely superfluous and fun (for me, she doesn't care yet) but I do skip months often because it's not like it's free and we do have a lot of bows that don't get worn. They don't send you a warning email that a shipment is coming. You just get the receipt saying "Thank you for spending $18 on bows!" The only way to skip is to remember to go in and skip in advance. The only way to cancel altogether is to write them an email saying you want to cancel. I can't be bothered to do that yet. And they are high-quality hair accessories. Every other brand I've ever used for her (that were gifts and whatnot) has had at least one bow break (unravel, come off the clip, etc). The Little Poppy ones are good. Just...annoying. 

Annual Airing of Grievances

Disney adults. I'll start here with the opinion that'll make me really popular: I think that being an adult who is ride-or-die for the Disney parks is odd. I could think of a million other things to do with money and time off. I have kids and have no intention of going to Disney! Maybe we will someday but that's not in the plans right now; my kids don't even like Disney that much (it seems). So I can't imagine being a grown person and navigating the park just for kicks. Crowds? Heat? Money swirling the drain? Check, check, check. Any trip you have to plan in advance so carefully stresses me out. I hate planning travel and planning for a week at a park like that would probably give me hives. Fast passes, entrance times, discount codes, bracelets, Genie something or other...I cannot. If you have to have a strategy to the day, count me out.

Trampoline parks. I feel like they're really dangerous. How do I know? Because orthopedic surgeons say they're dangerous. And because we didn't grow up bouncing on trampolines or going to bounce parks in the way kids do today. So saying "we all turned out fine" isn't an argument. Stress fractures are super common and I'm totally okay with not ever taking my kids to one of them. I don't know why they're still a thing to be honest. What's the point? I cringe when I see/hear of kids at trampoline parks. 

Public school (as a concept). I know. Your school is great. Your school isn't the problem. The problem is that in every single school: the individual potential of any given kid isn't reachable in a school where the lowest common denominator is the way the system functions. Just think about it: I can do what I want in my classroom. I cannot teach to the highest achieving learners, though. It's not possible. We teach to the middle, on a good day. It's the only way to attempt to reach everyone.

Aside from the obvious problems of how to teach, many schools are starting to function as community centers in the sense that parents rely on them for everything: food, basic healthcare, handouts if necessary, childcare, free entertainment, free sports...you get the idea. And then they don't hold up the end of the bargain of being "the parents". 

I'm not saying school is bad. I'm saying there's only one logical conclusion to the way things are going here: covid exposed it all. Schools are not about education. They're about having a place for kids to go. 

Leading to...

Crapbag parents. I'm really tired of parents not meeting the basic needs of their children. Like, I'm exhausted. I won't list the details but last week about did me in. I should not have to focus on my own needs, my own kids, my own problems...and also realize that the kids I'm supposed to be educating don't have their basic needs met and that's why I can't even do my job. I'm tired of supposed institutions of learning being treated like the local YMCA. It is still your job to take care of your kids. Advocate for them too. Don't depend on the local school to fill the gaps. Even when it comes to their abilities, I know that if my kid is struggling, that's my problem to take care of for them, not the school's. Please do not depend on a school to teach your child everything. It's your job to make sure your child is learning.

(calm down. if you, for a second, think i'm talking about you, i'm not talking about you)

Taylor Swift. I don't understand the appeal with her. I don't think I ever will. I had her first album in 2006 and I followed her up until about 2013 and then got bored. Generally I keep my TS opinions to myself unless asked (I'm generally not asked anyway) but I let it all out in front of my students a few weeks ago. They were arguing over her...something about Travis Kelce? I believe they were saying he's too old for her and they didn't understand why Taylor was with an old guy. I just know that I was like "Guys, stop. She's old. She's almost my age. I know she acts like she's in high school but she's not. And he's the same age as her."

I don't think they believed me.

File TS fans under the same category as Disney adults for all intents and purposes. 

People who say you should give babies raw milk instead of formula. First, I am incredibly pro-formula for many reasons and, honestly, I don't care what anyone says: my formula babies have always been healthier as babies, toddlers, and kids than any exclusively breast-fed child I've known. This is obviously anecdotal but it makes me actually chuckle when someone says but it makes them healthier! when you mention nursing. Oh, you mean my kids who have never had more than a cold?* These formula kids are less healthy than the breastfed babies with chronic ear infections? It makes no sense! 

*Wells had strep throat last year. It was our one and only antibiotic experience in 5 1/2 years of playgroups, daycare, preschool, and kindergarten. 

But anyway, there is a small contingent of crunchies out there who say you need to buy a "kit" of raw milk + whatever else they have you add to it when you're ready to give birth in case you hAvE tO use formula. No. Do not give your baby raw milk. 

People who name their cars.

Alright, air a grievance:

Summertime airing of grievances.

This is Jett with the dachshund we're dogsitting this summer. 

It was 101 degrees on this day and I was thinking what is wrong with them? but whatever

+We had a stray dog hanging around outside. He was very nice. Some sort of fluffy lab-ish mix. Clearly had been on his own forever. Which means he was dumped. Which means the people who dumped him should probably just be run over with their own car. People who dump animals are the worst kind of people. 

Neighbors mentioned him in the neighborhood facebook page and someone said the stray was having problems with *his* dog so the stray needed to go away. No, neighbor. Your dog is just hard to get along with generally because he has problems with every dog. No need to blame an unhoused dog for your dog's poor temperament. 

Obviously, we fed this stray multiple times and left out water. I called the shelter and they said they couldn't take him because they already had 12 dogs and that's their limit.  I offered a large donation. Apparently they don't accept bribes because they still wouldn't take him. I haven't seen him again so I'm hoping he found a place to go. 

+Walking into the locker room at the pool in bare feet. It is the literal equivalent of a port-a-potty. But moister. The number of women who walk into the bathrooms at the public pool barefoot, and allow their children to do the same, baffle me. 

+I may have mentioned this before: when people use "that" instead of "who" when referring to people in writing. An example: I saw the Formula Mom post [Thankful for] family members that are doctors that don't mind me peppering them with medical questions via text.

Who. Doctors and family members are both people. Not things.

This drives me insane because it's the grammatical issue that is easiest to spot AND easiest to fix, in my opinion.

+ Finding a table of contents when you click on a recipe and are taken to a food blog. This baked spaghetti looked good. This is what I was met with when I went to the site:

+Sometimes I think that people who post on Facebook stories don't understand Instagram. It would never occur to me to post on a Facebook story. Ever. 

+ This. It's from the info about soccer this past spring. Have I shared this? It's real. How can this be real? 

(I may have shared that one already.)

Happy mid-July, almost August, almost #fall!

Springtime Airing of Grievances.

 I used to do these posts like once a month but, as of late, I have some things I've been trying not to complain about in my effort to be a decent person. Oh well. 

1. Velveeta Mac and Cheese is terrible. I could barely choke it down. I let both kids eat some, Scott ate some, then I threw away the leftovers. Usually I'll stretch a box for lunch leftovers the next day. Not this time. 

I always have a box of mac and cheese around just in case. I prefer the taste of Annie's but Walmart was completely out of the "dinner-sized" boxes the other day. 

This is not the same. Do not buy it. It is awful. 

2. I got blocked on Twitter by someone who believes that everyone should wear a mask to keep her safe. That's a Tuesday well spent. 

3. The snacks at soccer. I can't handle it. These children do not need to eat mid soccer practice. Or mid-game. The games are only 20 minutes long! 

4. I made this chicken soup/stew the other day. Terrible. I followed the recipe. But I got the feeling toward the end that it just wasn't going to work. 

Alright that was the warm-up to the big grievance...

5. I signed Sutton up for swimming lessons at the local indoor pool in February. For babies, they only did private lessons. Okay. I paid for 4 lessons in advance. Went to the first lesson. The instructor was a high school kid and he was actually really good at it. He was personable and friendly. He told me I could bring Wells, even, to the next lesson so he could try out the pool too. Great. I opted, over the next week, not to bother with adding in Wells because it seemed like a lot to put on myself (we'll just try again at the regular pool this summer :). I showed up for the next week's lesson and the instructor was a high school girl. I never did learn her name. She spoke only when spoken to, she gave no instruction or information, and I basically just carried a screaming Sutton around the pool for 30 minutes by myself. 

The next week, I went to the lesson and no one was there. No one. No instructor. 

I called the number posted on the office door. Voicemail box was full. I called the number listed on the website. It rang and rang in the locked office (I could hear it). I left a dutiful message explaining who I was and why I was there and to please call me back. 

For the next FIVE days, I stopped at the pool office after dropping Wells off at preschool. No one was ever there. The office, according to their own signage was supposed to be open from 8:30am-12pm on MWF at the least. 

Finally, I caught someone there 6 days after the missed lesson. She apologized. Said she'd been sick and her instructors must not have shown up last week. She rescheduled me for the very next day. Showed up with Sutton the very next day. 

No instructor. 

I called. I left the same message again. 

For the next FOUR days, I stopped in after dropping Wells at preschool. Eventually, I caught her again. She apologized. Said "those high school kids don't want to work" and rescheduled me for the next day and would do the lesson herself. 

I showed up at the appointed time. No one was there. 

I called. I left the same message again. 

Then, I drove over to City Hall. The indoor pool is managed by City Hall so I spoke to the women there at the desk. They called someone who called someone who said "she's on her way". 

This woman then showed up at the pool and I met her there and we did Sutton's 3rd (out of 4) swimming lesson. Her 4th lesson was going to be the very next day, just to get it out of the way since we were like 6 1/2 weeks into a 4 week commitment here. 

I got a text the next morning saying there was an event this woman had to attend/work at the community center and could we do it next Friday? (Good Friday). 

SURE. 

Fine. 

Whatever. 

At least now I knew she had my number and was able to use a phone. 

So on Good Friday, I showed up. With Sutton. With Wells and his bag of Legos to keep him busy. At a 9:40am swimming lesson. 

No instructor. 

This time, I texted her. 

Nothing. 

Maybe she doesn't know how to use a phone after all?

Then, I packed everyone up and drove back to City Hall. 

This time I was able to talk to the guy in charge ("Mark") and I explained and he had me write down my address and what they owed me and said he'd write the check to mail me as a refund. 

And that was the end of that. 

Still waiting to see if I get the check in the mail. 

I seriously thought the experience with Wells (who takes to water like a cat might) at The Goldfish Swim School in Peters Township, Pennsylvania had taken me to the brink of sanity. 

This was worse. 

What about you? Any grievances to share lately? 

More Difficult Than Necessary

Much like shower curtains, this is a list of things most people never need to think about twice. 

1. Medical records

I was actually optimistic that this issue would be solved by the time I got around to this post. It's not. That I know of. 

Wells has parts of his Pittsburgh medical records that have not transferred to the DoD system. Just a few basics: a lead test that I know he had done and an anemia test that I'm assuming he had done. Who knows?!

All I can say is that the records department at the hospital here said they would check and "follow up". That was a week and a half ago. 

That was my third visit there, I think, since December. I can't even remember. All I know is that it's a good thing we don't have much in our medical history because the amount of effort it takes to transfer records from civilian care to DoD is just as much work as DoD to civilian. (The reason why this must be done is because Wells was born in civilian care and only ever saw civilian pediatricians..the DoD had no record of him.)

It's also worth noting that the records they DO have...: I brought with me. It was a paper copy of his vaccines that they inputted into the database during his appointment. So...

2. Vet meds

Our dogs are out of heartworm and flea/tick meds. One would normally just call the vet and pick up a refill. Since their vet is in Pittsburgh, I figured out pretty quickly that they will not physically refill the prescriptions because they won't send medicine through the mail. I tried to fill through Chewy and have the vet fax the prescriptions to them; the vet called me and said they "don't do that". (You may say I brought this on myself. I may think that too. But I would encourage any of you to think about if you'd want to spent the $$$ on year's supply of these preventative meds for two dogs vs. a 6 month supply.)

So I called the vet and arranged to have them MAIL me the prescriptions so I could MAIL them to Chewy. It's like 1989, I guess. 

The vet, first, got my address wrong. The vet, second, only sent me Scout's prescriptions and not Jett's.

They are truly Pittsburgh's finest. 

So I had to call back and ask them to send Jett's. They seemed to think this was the most confusing circumstances that were ever to be encountered.

Another reason why I had such trouble living there; non-military-affiliated towns are hard when it comes to adversity. 

Currently, I'm awaiting Jett's paper prescriptions and Scout's prescriptions are en route to Chewy headquarters in Kentucky. 

I think there's a 50/50 chance I'll end up taking them to a vet here for this problem before the month is over. 

You might ask why I don't just find another vet...I'm not taking them to the vet right now for an "office visit" just to get med refills. They always do a blood test before they prescribe heartworm meds and their current prescriptions are good until June. So, I won't do it. That's one hundred extra dollars, at least, that I refuse to spend right now. Plus they will have to go in June ANYWAY to get their yearly shots (I'm hoping against all hope that we will be en route to our next location and I can get out of KS without a $$$ vet visit.)

3. Orders

Yes. We are moving in May/June and, no, we don't know where we're going. I mean, we know where we're going but we can't look for houses, apply for jobs, or plan anything farther out than like April 2021 because, until it's set in stone, it means literally nothing. 

Literally. Nothing. 

If orders can change, presumed orders and job offers can disappear like that. 

4.  Prescriptions. 

Much like #1 up there ^, this just makes my head swim. Any time you get a prescription from a military doctor, they put it into the military hospital pharmacy. I've never been to the one here but, if it's anything like anywhere else in the world, military hospital pharmacies are like cattle chutes and they only serve you in terms of payoff if you're already in the building for something; it's a lot of sitting and waiting and things are "free" but..it's a you-get-what-you-pay-for situation. 

When given the choice, like over the past 3 years, I usually just opt for the nearest Walmart (in Laramie, in Pittsburgh, and now in Leavenworth) because Walmart refills/scripts are good anywhere in the country. It's one database. And you can usually just pay a few dollars if you have Tricare and be on your way. It's just so much easier. 

Here, I was given a referral to dermatology and a referral to OB/GYN and neither of those are housed in the hospital on base. Therefore, it was a whole other month-long debacle trying to just get appointments set up. 

And those doctors have their own pharmacies that they use, so I have spent the last few weeks navigating the greater KCK area, in search of the places they've sent my prescriptions (a face cream and metformin, if you're wondering, so not even anything that out of the box.) I still only paid $12 for both, total, but the super fun part was when I asked the dermatologist about a concern and she said "Oh your PCP has to take care of that. I can't do that."

So it's back to the army hospital for another appointment and the circle of confusion is complete. 

I'll stop at medical records while I'm there. 

Extremely gruntled + Funnies

Because no one likes a complainer, these are the things I'm definitely not disgruntled about.

1. I tried to order diapers from Target's website two weeks ago. They were sold out of all Target brand diapers and then I had to buy Luvs. Luvs are diapers for people who don't expect anything from their diaper purchase. They don't work. I don't trust them for more than 2 hours. So I had to add a box of Huggies Overnight diapers to the order. I would never even attempt to use a Luv diaper overnight. I've learned that the hard way. Luvs also run small. I've tried every brand of diapers on this kid. I'm not even that picky and I certainly don't look to buy expensive diapers. The ranking is as follows, best to worst:

1. Huggies Overnight
2. Most types of Huggies
3. Up & Up (Target)
4. Parents' Choice (Walmart)
....
9. Pampers

....
83. Luvs

2. I feel like there's a difference between the phrases "quarantining" and "social distancing". Isn't the first meaning you're exposed or sick and must be kept apart? Whereas social distancing is just purposely keeping distance but you haven't been exposed? We're using them interchangeably and that's bothering me.

3. I cannot understand why the store is still sold out of toilet paper. I think Walmart is doing the literal best they can to keep everything on the shelves. I wasn't even looking to buy any; the point here is that, usually, I'm anti-People of Walmart and don't like the memes that make fun of people in grocery stores and whatnot. But if you are stockpiling toilet paper, you need to be internet-shamed. Some people can only buy week to week. I don't know why this is so hard to understand.

4. Wells' Stride Rite shoes started to fall apart about a month ago. The decorative thread started falling off. My mom noticed. I didn't. He'd had them since the beginning of February. We went to SR. They didn't have the shoes in stock so they ordered a new pair for him. They called me a few days later to say they didn't have the blue that he had, but could get him brown. I said sure. They called a few days later to say the brown were ready to pick up. I went to pick them up. They asked, after I got there, where the blue ones were because I needed to send them back to the company. I didn't have them with me. No one ever explicitly said "You need to bring these back to get the new shoes". Obviously, it makes sense, but no one actually told me that. So I left SR without new shoes and said I'd come back. That was on a Friday. Then, coronavirus hit. They called on Monday and said they were closing down on Wednesday so I could pick them up on Tuesday. I said, "Great, I'll be in tomorrow morning". I got there on Tuesday morning. They were already closed down with a sign on the door saying they were closed until further notice.
Wells is still wearing his blue shoes and I expect it to stay that way until further notice.

Is it Friday? (Does it matter?)

Random things that annoy me.

1. I follow The Balanced Life and have for years. Each month, they put out new recipes. Without fail, each recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. I can't figure out why, other than maybe orthorexia and the false assumption that it's healthier? Or more natural? Healthy food and gluten-free/dairy-free are not synonymous. They're just not. If you need to eat that way, you know the substitutions you can make. I *think* what bothers me the most here is that it's not even "1 cup dry pasta", it's:

Every recipe is like that. It just presumes that you're eating GF-DF if you're following this website.

Like, you know what kind of pasta you can eat if you need to eat GF. GF-DF should not be the default way of eating, especially for hundreds of recipes that are posted on a healthy-living website that did not strike out to be GF-DF and is not advertised to be that way.

This is a hill I'm prepared to die on.


2. There's nowhere to put a Christmas tree in this house. So...I'm going to get a 4 ft. tree (pre-lit, $25) and put it on this table. Needs must.

Wells can have it in his room next year.

3. Target. I went to buy Wells snowboots because the ones I ordered from Nordstrom Rack were not the right size, so I mailed those back and stopped at Target on the way back from the post office. Target did not have any size 6 boots in five of their six styles for toddlers (and I'm not buying him boots with a monster face for $30, unless they're free and then I would take them). 7s fell off him. I'm afraid 5s will be too small. And the boots are tied together, so I can't actually have him "walk" in them in the store. I had to ORDER THE SIZE 6 BOOTS on my phone, on the Target app, while standing in the shoe aisle at Target. Ugh. That is both the most ridiculous thing and the most millenial thing I think I've ever done.

They should be here tomorrow.

Then, he also needed snow pants. Target had no snow pants.

He'll need a new coat by Christmas. I bought his 18 month one on super sale last February because I just needed a placeholder between the too-small snowsuit and any cold days we'd have left.

Any coat recommendations for toddler boys?

4. The baby monitor. Ugh. It's so annoying. We had registered for a cheaper video monitor and I'm very grateful someone bought it for us, but it's more of a hinderance than a help at this point. It doesn't hold battery life for more than 30 minutes at this point. I often let Wells play with it when I fold/put away laundry because it's a "screen" he can't really get anything out of, but he's fascinated by it.
It's not user-friendly in the least and, because I keep it on the nightstand, I have to turn it completely off at night or there's some light, somewhere, coming out of it.

5. Scott told me he missed Colorado. I....do not. I told him that sometimes I miss Alaska. I miss being the biggest wimp I knew, when it came to weather, the outdoors, etc. Because, then, I knew exactly how to gauge the reactions of others and what my expected level of activity was in a given situation. E.g. Kristin is not going to go on the boat. Kristin will go clamming but will sit in the car for half of it and read a book. Kristin does not go out on the snow machine because she'd rather bake cookies in the warm house on a Saturday.

Here, it's different. I'm the adventurous one when it comes to the general population.

Any particular grievances to get out there this week?

Why wouldn't you take someone's thoughts and prayers?

I saw this on Twitter and I had to share it:

When Scott was going to the University of Wyoming, many of the students he worked with were from India. He was in a masters program but it overlapped with the PhD program so he was doing work in an engineering program that recruited primarily PhD candidates. Most ended up in WY after coming from the eastern part of Asia, not just India.

This is how we ended up at a Diwali celebration a few years ago.

Completely unbeknownst to us, I was already pregnant, but that is not the point of this story. And if you read the blog post I linked to there ^, you can t.o.t.a.l.l.y tell that I was pregnant because of the crying in Panera thing. Hindsight. 

Scott had told me about the one professor he knew who was a woman with a young toddler. She had brought him to the celebration that night and Scott had mentioned to me how she couldn't wait to meet me because she had a "cure" for our infertility. I *think* she was from Turkey, but I really can't remember. She had told Scott how she and her husband had struggled to have a baby, because she asked him once if we had kids and Scott told her our story.

She told us how there was a method in which you boiled an onion and ate the onion and then drank the water. I remember it was a specific kind of onion and Scott was ready to go out and buy that the next day so we could try it just to, I suppose, prove that we were willing to try anything and why the heck not?  LOL, right? I didn't want to eat/drink an onion.

But what I remember is this woman giving me her 17 month old baby boy to hold (he was wearing a bow tie and suspenders and had floppy dark hair) and saying how he would rub off on me and how it was good luck to hold him. And she told me she was praying for us and how I would have a baby some day and that was that. Her husband backed all of this up. They were so certain.

I had never met this woman before in my life. I don't remember her name. I don't remember what she taught at the university. I don't even know what religion she practiced. I'm assuming Hindu since it was a Diwali celebration but Diwali is like Christmas; you don't necessarily practice the religion to celebrate it as a cultural holiday.

Anyway.

The point is that me accepting her thoughts and prayers took nothing from me. It gave me hope and confidence if anything! It felt GOOD to know that someone cared! I cannot imagine that someone would be offended by the idea that someone cares about them.

CNN posted this article weeks ago, and the tweet is still up, no matter how many people begged to argue with it. All the eyerolls, right? I don't know why people are so afraid of believing in something. 

Please just let me walk my dogs.

I know people thought I was weird for walking my dogs around our field every day in Colorado. I didn't really care what they thought, especially given that I was wearing rubber boots and carrying a rifle with me most days.

Trampling through tall grass at high altitude is great exercise so I don't regret any of that walking.

I would walk the dogs on the trails in Laramie as well. Great exercise at altitude, kept me in shape for labor and delivery last summer, and helped me to lose baby weight when I put Wells in the Ergo and took him along. I didn't get quite as many weird looks there, because there were always a ton of people on the trails. I got a lot of questions about the baby though.

I did some of my very best thinking while walking. I listened to so many audiobooks. I listened to podcasts. I got blog post ideas. I would refresh my mind after a day of teaching and feel like yes, I can tackle all of those papers to grade and data to input that I had to bring home with me. Fresh air as a cure for restlessness and stress is not an overrated idea. It helped me a tremendous amount in those uncertain post-partum months, dealing with sleep-deprivation and whatnot. Plus, the stress of moving across the country, trying to sell a house, of not knowing what a new place will look like/be like, etc. Taking the dogs on a two mile walk each day was most likely what kept me sane last fall.

Flash forward to present day, in Pittsburgh.

My biggest struggle has been walking the dogs. Where, how, and when specifically.

Where: It's Pittsburgh.

How: Off-leash is preferred and I don't do dog parks if they're not on an army base (where they're closely monitored). Otherwise, they're gross.

When: What time of day that Wells and I can both work with and is okay weather-wise.

My solution has been, more or less...

Drive 15 minutes to a park in the morning. It's usually not crowded during the day. Use the stroller to push Wells and let the dogs run the trails off-leash while I walk. They're on electronic collars so I have decent control and they follow my "rules" pretty well.

In the evening, after dinner, I load up the stroller again and leash-walk the dogs with one hand, while pushing the stroller with the other for about a mile around the neighborhood. Up and down the hills, winding through the streets. I usually listen to Matt Walsh's daily podcast while we walk, with my phone just sitting in the stroller.

#1 The dogs expect this second walk now so I can't not do it.

#2 The outside time/fresh air helps calm Wells down for bedtime. So, I could leave Wells with Scott, but that would ruin half the purpose for the walk. Sometimes Scott comes with us, but sometimes he stops at the gym during this time (he has like an hour commute...that's 7 Pittsburgh miles in traffic = 1 hour...so I don't like to obligate him to an evening activity) and I do not deviate from our schedule because #bedtime. But sometimes I leave Wells with Scott because it's just easier and sometimes I walk just Wells, like on the weekends if Scott has taken the dogs out for the day to hunt or hike.

But back to the general point of this post:

I don't walk the dogs grudgingly. This is how I get my exercise. Plus, they need as much exercise as possible.  Wells has been walking dogs since he was 3 days old when we took a family walk to the park in Laramie last summer. It just is what it is. Hopefully we'll have a few acres again in a year or two and it won't be so hard. People have always kind of left me alone while I do this daily task, and I need this pseudo-alone time to get on with the rest of my day. I am very much an introvert and need to be alone to get my energy.

But not in Pittsburgh.

Generally, 2-5 people or sets of people will stop me to talk. To comment. To ask questions. This is in a span of about 20-30 minutes.

It's like it's so incredibly odd to see someone walking two dogs at once and then when you add in the stroller, they can't help it.

"You have your hands full!" I hear this comment at least once a day, but usually more. Usually from the same person more than once because I see the same neighbors day in and day out (yes, it's awful).

"Sorry!" As their dogs run off their porch to come sniff and see Jett and Scout. I don't care, but good Lord. What is the point of those collars and that invisible fence if you have to chase your Bernese Mountain dogs (plural) onto the street every time we walk by?

"What kind of dogs are they?" I thought Brittanys were more popular here or, at least, people 'round PA knew what they were.

"I admire you!" Literally, I don't know what to say to this, so I just say thank you.

"You need some help!". Yes. I do. Or I need a 35 acre field. Either would solve the problem.

A lot of the time, I put my headphones in because then I don't actually have to stop, I can just wave (which is really hard to do with no hands free). And sometimes I put my headphones in and call my mom so I look like a crazy person (to the technology-uninformed) and like I'm talking to myself but I look busy and people generally don't have anything to say then.

Because honest to goodness, I just want to be left alone.

We live in a neighborhood with a lot of retirees/near retired people and I don't have the energy to strike up the same conversation again and again. It's not that I don't like talking to people, it's that I have to turn off my podcast, I have to make sure the stroller isn't going to roll away, I have to make sure the dogs aren't going to jump or sniff or get tangled. And then I have to form the coherent sentences to make the person know that, even though we have Alaska and Colorado license plates, I can carry on a conversation. Our neighborhood is not super kind to newcomers and I've kind of given up on explaining our story: My husband's in the army. He's stationed in Pittsburgh for a year or so. ...yes, we're just renting that house. ...Wells, he's a year. ....Brittany spaniels. ....oh, someone has to walk them, so it might as well be me!

^that's usually how it goes and then I continue on my way, actively avoiding people if I can. I don't even tell people we're from Pennsylvania anymore. I used to think that would make them like us more, but it's so much work to explain. I just let them assume whatever they want now. The other day, someone asked and I said I'm from "near State College" because generally people know where that is because of Penn State. She asked if that was in Pennsylvania. ......

Also, I'm grateful to live in a settled and safe neighborhood (most houses built in the 70s and I'm sure the original owners still live in most of them), because that's not always the case. However, it has indeed taken 7+ months for people to warm up to us and seem to care that we live here. They're generally more receptive when they see we have a baby.

And don't @ me on this: people here are not nearly as nice and kind as they are out west (Alaska and Wyoming...Colorado was okay but the cartel is taking over that state so...).

There's a lot of immigrants in the neighborhood as well and they're all terrified of the dogs and Idon'tknowwhy because they don't so much as bark. There is one little girl who loves to look at them so I often stop when I see her in her driveway so she can decide if this is the day she wants to try and pet Jett (sometimes she does). She likes to look at Wells too because she has a baby sister.

My point, I suppose, is that walking the dogs used to be my alone time. Even taking Wells along, it's time when I can just think and relax.

Now, it's turned into social hour and I'm kind of looking forward to winter when all of the people will retreat into their houses for 4-5 months and maybe then I can walk the dogs in peace. Wells can come if he wants.

Dear anti-vaxxers.

You're doing it wrong.

Source is somewhere on Facebook

Measles is entirely preventable. It wasn't until people started believing that they and their Facebook-derived knowledge and their essential oils knew better that this all got out of control.

A few weeks ago, Pittsburgh news outlets put out a list of places where you may or may not have been exposed to measles. Obviously, we had been to a place on that list on the same day of the potential exposure.

The first measles case noted in Pittsburgh was an adult, traveling outside of the country, and since they were unvaccinated, they brought it back with them. This exposure was a foreign family, traveling here, visiting relatives.

This was incredibly unsettling as you can imagine it would be.

Wells was over 2 months away from his MMR vaccine and infants under 1 are the most susceptible, along with the immunosuppressed. Apparently, babies wait for a year to get the MMR shot because mothers are given it during pregnancy in the U.S. and the antibodies carry over to the baby and those antibodies stick around for months and months. Therefore, babies do have a limited amount of protection and can't get the vaccine until those antibodies fully wear off.

I would assume that a foreign family with the means to travel to the U.S. to visit family members on a vacation would have the means to procure a vaccine. People in the other parts of the world just don't think about vaccinations the same way we do (i.e. we supposedly are supposed to know better), so it was likely never on their radar. So, I mean, they kind of suck too but we are supposed to know better.

Let me be clear: in the United States we vaccinate our dogs. Our dogs. It's usually illegal if you don't. To think that people who have no notice/care/investment in vaccinations in their own countries can easily bring communicable diseases here is pretty outrageous.

For example, one of the locations for risk to exposure in this case: The Pittsburgh International Airport. Just that. If you were at the airport before a certain time on a certain day, you could've been exposed. Great, right?

All of that to say...if you are in the west and you are actively choosing not to get vaccinated because you prefer essential oils to antibiotics or because "my kids never get sick!" or something like that, I'm betting that you yourself are vaccinated because your parents were thinking human beings and you had the privilege of being born in the U.S. and you took that for granted. This also goes back to what I said weeks ago: if you think it's so great to not be vaccinated, move to a country where vaccinations aren't offered.

The anti-vaxxers in the U.S. weren't actually a part of my problem in this instance but they are a contributing part to an ongoing mentality. If this idea that we don't need vaccinations keeps up, everyone who is not vaccinated will get sick.

When we found out of the potential exposure, we were already on, what would be, day 8 of the incubation period. I will say that we became experts in measles overnight: Scott reading everything he could find and me checking on the baby for signs of a fever every 30 minutes.

If he had picked up the virus, a fever would show on days 10-12 and a rash would appear a few days after that. But, before the fever, white spots would show up in his mouth and he'd lose his appetite.

We were kind of banking on the fact that, because he's a baby, the symptoms would present quickly. He had no symptoms and nothing wrong at all so I never would've worried if I hadn't seen the story of the exposure risk.

To go along with all of this, we had a weekend trip, a trip to Chicago, and a new baby joining my brother's family to think about. We'd have had to not see our families for Mother's Day weekend, cancel a work trip to Chicago for Scott (a BIG DEAL, plus we'd lose my plane fare), and our baby/pet sitters would've had to reconfigure their schedule because they'd had been planning to stay at our house for a week. Plus, there would be no meeting of my new niece for the foreseeable future, until we knew none of us were carrying the virus.

Not to mention the fact that they often admit babies into the hospital for measles. I didn't even know what hospital to call or go to. It's not like you can just pick up an antibiotic at Walgreens after a phone call to the doctor.

So, it was a very long week. In the end, he was fine. The point is that these are problems and concerns that scientists and doctors worked very hard for us not to have to worry about anymore.

Think about all the benefits afforded to us by modern society.

"I'm not going to use a phone. I'll mail you a letter instead."
"I'm not going to use running water. I'll haul buckets from the river."
"I'm not going to use electricity. Candles!"

That is the comparison.

"I'm not going to prevent my family from contracting a serious communicable disease by giving them a vaccine."

Imagine if people 200 years ago had had the option of being able to remain healthy in the event of a disease outbreak? They'd think we were fools for sure if we turned that down.

April Gripes and Grievances

I can't lie: I had two things on this list as of a week ago and then a lot more things started to bother in the last few days. So here we are.

1. The company we use in Wyoming to rent out our house is at it again. I wanttttttt to like them. I wantttttt this to be easy. They are just terrible at communicating in a timely manner. I had to spend a whole afternoon trying to figure out a washer/dryer situation by being on the phone with an appliance repair company who was trying to replace parts that didn't need to be replaced. It was a billion times easier to go through the repair company than to try and use the rental company as a middle man, though.
I'm especially annoyed when I send an email, get no reply, and then Gmail "helpfully" asks me if I want to follow up. No, Gmail. I want these people to do their actual job, as I don't understand how I can do my part so flawlessly (in comparison), and they can do nothing.

It's now been at least 20 days and no response. 

2. L.A. Fitness.
A few months ago, when Scott signed us up for the gym here, he signed us up to be able to use any location in the city, except for the Signature club, which is the uber-expensive location. When he tried to go to another location near his work, they said he couldn't be he was a single-club member. He told them he wasn't and they were nice about it at that location and said to just talk to the home-club.
So, he called. They told him they would fix it.
Then he asked me to go in and talk to them. I did and they promised they would "fix it" and they'd call Scott to straighten it out.
Lo and behold, two weeks later, it wasn't fixed and they'd never called Scott. So Scott, doing what he very, very rarely does, really let loose on the guy who said he would fix it. I seriously wish I could've seen it. I think he was probably transported back to his command days and thought he was talking to a soldier because he said something about saying I need you to stop making excuses because all I'm hearing is reasons why you're a failure. Again, I wish I would've been there. Legitimately though, the guy is a failure because he had assured us both at different times that he would oversee it and fix it and he just didn't.
(Also, I haven't been there in like 2 months ...other than that random trip in to check on the membership... but that's a story for another day. Scott goes at least 3 times a week.)

3. Ceiling fan conundrum. In our bedroom here, we have a ceiling fan. When I was shown the house, the rental agent told me the fan had a remote; there's no cords to pull, just a remote. I used the remote. It worked just fine. I put it in a drawer because it was January and that room is barely insulated anyway. About a month ago, I tried to use the remote to turn on the ceiling fan since it was getting to be warmer. It didn't work. I assumed it was a dead battery but Walmart didn't sell that type of battery so I ordered one on Amazon for a couple of dollars and tried it when it got here. It still didn't work. Then I told Scott. He looked it for a few minutes and, since this is a rental, just more or less said whatever. I wrote it down that the ceiling fan doesn't work and we replaced the battery. I don't want some dummy (because they're all dummies) coming in to look at it because, I kid you not, it's in the lease that if you call the repair line for something that's deemed unnecessary, they charge you $50.
I am 100% sure this is the only house in this neighborhood that is a rental because everyone else is very settled and very into taking care of their property. Therefore, I'm just gathering my evidence for why this rental agency sucks because I can guarantee they'll never find another person to rent here. They made us jump through too many hoops. This is not a military town with high turnover. Our plan is to renew our lease next winter for a few more months and if they don't allow that...well...I would definitely have to take that as a discrimination against the military kind of thing. But I'm getting ahead of myself with all of that.

4. Barr Trail. 
I mentioned last year that the Barr Trail/Incline was trying out a $40 parking fee. Apparently that was given up on and now they've just increased the price from $5 to $10, for the same reason.

5. Measles.  Since there have been confirmed cases of measles in Pittsburgh, I have a proposal: If you are a consenting adult, and refuse to get vaccinated, there should be a special holding cell for you and all of your like-minded friends. Kids not getting vaccinated is something that falls on the parents, whereas adults who refuse to get vaccinated should be locked up. I hatehatehate the way the word "privilege" is being thrown around these days, but I think "vaccine privilege" should be considered a thing. Kind of like socialism. If you think it's so great to live in a socialist country, then go find one and live there. If you think being vaccinated is bad, go live in a country where vaccines aren't common. See what happens.

6. This is vague because I don't feel like throwing out citations, but:  reviews that don't offer differing opinions or independent thoughts. I won't give specific examples, but I've seen, more than once lately, people touting reviews of books, pop culture, etc and all of those reviews are saying essentially the same thing. Newsflash: if you all love something and that's all you're going to say about it, there's no sense in more than one person writing a review. Hive-mind is a real thing, apparently.

Whew. That feels good. What's bothering you lately?

Gripes and Grievances--February and March.

I don't actually have as many grievances in February as I had in January, so I'll combine it with March. But I think it's good to get some of this out in the open. Clear the air and all.

+Valentine's Day. It's going to seem petty, I'm sure, but that's what this post is for: petty grievances I need to get off my chest.

I don't get Valentine's Day. I think it's a perfect and fun holiday for kids, much like Halloween. There comes a point where you just have to let it go, though. I don't expect anything for Valentine's Day. We've definitely celebrated with gifts, fancy dinners, etc in the past and we even got engaged on February 14th. It's just not something I insist on celebrating. And then, when you have a baby...am I supposed to dress him (yes, him) up in hearts or whatever? I mean, maybe if I had a girl. But I've noticed that in school, boys just love giving their superhero and Lego Valentine's cards to each other. It's not about the frills. Especially because I don't think we even left the house on V-Day. To buy a heart onesie for one day at home seemed like a waste of effort and money.
So I was very confused with what I was supposed to do with a baby boy. Scott and I only tend to celebrate when we're apart for deployments, by sending gifts and care packages.

+The people who bought our house paid for a well inspection. They paid $600+ because it was something they wanted. That's fine and within their rights. However, the company did the inspection wrong, were completely negligent, and gave them the wrong information. They tried to say it would be a $1,700 fix. It cost Scott $14 to fix it.
These people paid $600+ for the incorrect information.
It's a gripe, to me, that the housing market is maintained by crooked inspectors and unlicensed "professionals" and you don't know who you can trust. Colorado Springs has grown so quickly that everything falls through the cracks and no one asks questions. You don't even need to be licensed in Colorado to be a home inspector.
The upside was that Scott spotted their incompetence right away and he said They have no idea they're inspecting the well of someone who just got a masters degree in hydrology. That's not even to brag; it's just fact and happenstance that that's what happened here. I can't even imagine how many people they rip off a week.

+Also, our real estate agent isn't anyone we'd brag about or recommend. It took us a long time to find him and he wasn't even that great.

+Car dealerships. From promising military rebates, to refusing to budge on a price and letting us walk away over $200, I'm so annoyed by them. We even set up an appointment and said we would buy the car that night (they offered us a deal and we communicated through email) and they weren't ready when we got there. We had to leave because they couldn't promise to get us into finance until after 8pm that night. Then we went back another night and they almost still weren't ready, even though we set up an appointment. We kept at it because they were offering a considerably better deal than we'd seen at any of the other dealerships. (Side note: I love car shopping with Scott. He's not afraid to walk away and I appreciate that. There will always be a near identical car at another dealership. There is no shortage of vehicles to buy or people trying to sell them to you. It's especially fun when they keep calling back and asking what else they can do and you just tell them they had their chance already. They never know what to say.)

+Twitter battles. I don't know why I comment but sometimes I can't help myself. Anyway. I gave up Twitter for two weeks and then felt better.  I don't have over-indulgence issues with Facebook because it's lame. I don't get that way with Instagram. But I can get lost in a Twitter thread for 30 minutes. It's pointless.

+Winter is something I'm pretty much over at this point but I know the heat and humidity will bring about a whole new world of complaints from everyone on social media and in real life. So I don't quite wish for summer yet. However, due to winter weather, the gym closed early one day. This was their notification system:

In the world of emails and texts and whatnot, that's what L.A. Fitness decided to do. Morons.

+I'd forgotten how many people in this part of the country smoke cigarettes. It's disgusting. Like, every other person you meet smells like smoke. And they're always smoking in their cars and throwing the butts out the window. You'd get a fine for that in Colorado or Wyoming because you'd be starting a fire. People have no idea. I heard a podcaster say months ago about how It's 2018, and if you still smoke cigarettes, I don't even know what we can say to you anymore. I concur.

+People who refuse to go outside in the winter or in general with a baby. I can't with that. I've noticed that just in the last two weeks, people have started to voluntarily leave their houses in Pennsylvania. "Poor" Wells has been outside almost every day of his young life. We started walking the dogs together when he was 3 or 4 days old. Someone told me they were stuck in their house all last summer with a newborn (kid was born in April). How? Why? Do you hate yourself? Who chained you to your couch? You did that to yourself. The only days last summer and fall when I didn't take Wells out for a walk were the days when the wildfire smoke would blow into town. In fact, I remember when he was 5 or 6 days old and I wanted to take the dogs out and it was going to start raining. By the time we drove to the trail, it was pouring. We waited ten minutes and it got worse. Finally, I stayed in the truck with the baby while Scott took the dogs with an umbrella. It was very disappointing.
Most days in winter, embarrassingly, my biggest decision is Do I take him? or Do I wait for Scott to get home? On the really bad days in Wyoming, I would wait for Scott to get home. Here, if it's really windy, miserable, blowing snow, absolutely freezing (below 20 degrees F), etc, we'll skip a walk but I never feel good about it. On days when it's questionable, I put on his snowsuit and put him in the Ergo with a blanket over him. On days when it's warmer, he goes in the stroller.
We came across a couple on a walk a month ago (a 50 degree day in February) and they said something about telling him some day that it was once warm enough to take a walk in February when you were a baby!!!!! 

I also feel bad for the dogs of Pennsylvania who want to be outside running around (not all dogs do) and their owners won't take them out. I don't understand how they live with the guilt, to be honest.
I can't remember if I mentioned it here before, but I say to Wells You're tougher than this because you're a Wyoming baby pretty often. He's going to grow up with me brandishing his Wyoming birth certificate any time he whines about the weather.

Alright, that's enough for today. Apparently I feel pretty strongly about that last one.

Gripes and Grievances---January

*We're renting out our Laramie house. We went with a company that a coworker of Scott's recommended because they use it. That's fine and all. This company, however, didn't give me the impression of being on their game. The house was available for rent on January 1st. They listed it on their website on January 2nd. We met with them to fill out all of the paperwork around December 15th. Then they took a week off for Christmas (literally, they closed down), so they house wasn't listed in a timely manner. They spelled "fourth" wrong, in regards to a "forth" bedroom. It was also written up as a paragraph with no punctuation. They told us, originally, that it likely wouldn't rent until May.

Also, we initially were going to go with "no pets" but then we thought better of it and I asked 3 times over 2 weeks if they could please change the listing to "pets on approval".

But they did show the house many times and vetted all the potential tenants and found us some people, so we'll call this a half-grievance.

*I spent a lot of December trying to get rid of things we didn't want or need anymore, including some old furniture. I had dozens of people email me about free end tables. You'd be shocked how many weren't interested in driving 30 minutes for something free though (Cheyenne to Laramie, as Wyoming only has a statewide Craigslist). And then, when I finally nailed someone down, she emailed me 8 hours before pickup time to ask if she could get them the next day instead. Scott had to be in Laramie for a few things on this day and was not going to be there the day after. I was in Pennsylvania so I couldn't be there myself. My response back to this lady was something like No. You can get them at 9am or my husband is throwing them away. I'm so tired of people not caring about expectations and not holding up their ends of any sort of bargain. SHE had suggested Friday. SHE had said before 11am would be best for her. I set up Scott's plans for the day to fit HER plans because I really wanted this stuff to go to someone who wanted it, not to the landfill or the Goodwill. My first thought, after this exchange, was that I need to get back into a professional environment where things are expected of people and standards are held. I usually had more luck dealing with children than I did with all of these people I talked to through Craigslist. I expected things of kids and parents, they expected things of me. I would like to think that I possess some follow-through. Dealing with the general population, I've learned that follow-through isn't commonplace.

She went to pick up the furniture. When Scott told me she showed up, I said Yeah, she probably did after I "yelled" at her.

*Being back in Pennsylvania, I got myself a Sheetz card again. I stopped to get gas a few weeks ago and, while I'm used to a Starbucks on every corner in Colorado, it's not like that here. I decided I'd try an MTO latte instead. It was awful. So, so terrible. Therefore, Sheetz is 110% overrated. Every time we'd come back to PA over the last 10 years, we would get less and less impressed with them. Disappointing.

*I've spent the last few years living out west. Actually, 9 of the last 10 years. And I could never understand why people on the east coast, in the cities, were constantly complaining on Twitter or whatnot about "prejudice" or "unacceptance" and that ridiculous word "woke". The west is NOT perfect, but people out there are generally really accepting. You're from somewhere else? Cool. Everyone else is too. "Wokeness" is kind of built into the culture of military towns anyway. And if people are native to the area, they're used to being around people from other places because everyone who moves to Alaska or Colorado or Wyoming is generally going there for a reason. It's absolutely commonplace to see license plates from all 50 states, and some foreign countries, around military bases. I've had the chance to work with parents and kids and colleagues from all over the world, and definitely from all over the country. I could easily name someone I know in every state of the U.S. at this point.
However, before coming to Pittsburgh, I've never experienced the prejudice of being from somewhere else. I mean, thank goodness that I'm originally from this state or I might really assume there was something wrong with me: it's not a place full of open minds.
Our out-of-state license plates got us ticketed in our own neighborhood while we were moving into our house, because they thought we weren't residents. They didn't even ask. And there was a giant moving trailer in the driveway and someone had just taken the "for lease" sign down. Yet, one of the neighbors felt the need to call the police.

*I had to unfollow a teacher blogger/podcaster I had liked for a couple of years. She sent out an email with this in it:

Politics aside, I thought we could just continue to talk about teaching, for goodness sakes, and how we can encourage kids to be life-long learners. When you irresponsibly send off factually inaccurate information to thousands and thousands of followers, we can't talk about teaching anymore. You not doing your research makes my head hurt, Cult of Pedagogy. (And then she referred to Trevor Noah as an example of knowledge on the event...whatever he said on his show...so I can't trust her sourcing either. She might as well have linked to Jimmy Kimmel.)
And she ponders what she would've done as a teacher. She says she would've reprimanded her students.
I, as a teacher, know that my students' safety was always priority number one. I would've herded as many of them away as possible.

Your responsibility is to your students, Cult of Pedagogy. If you would have reprimanded them instead of moving them away from or apologizing to them for the racial slurs being hurled their way and having a conversation about that, I wouldn't want my kid in your class.

Let's end there.

January was a long month.

And another Patriots' SuperBowl was just the grievance on top of the grievance cake (or the aluminum pole). I mean, I'm ready to admit that Tom Brady is a GOAT because no one accidentally wins 6 Superbowls. It's just getting to be annoying.