Wicked Attitude

You know it amazes me about the whole social networking phenomenon is people’s incessant need to have as many “friends” as possible to prove to others that they’re “popular.”  Like I have a family member who has over 1500 friends.   Could she really pick these people out of a lineup?  I mean if they’re supposed to be friends, then she should know each and every one of their faces in detail, right?  What amuses me the most is the whole high school social acceptance thing.  People who have been out of school for a decade or more that add people that they genuinely did not like in high school or didn’t hang out with.  I know several people on both Facebook and Myspace who add anyone and everyone in high school because they asked.  I saw a friend add someone who I distinctly remember she called a “skanky, lying bitch” but now they’re buddies after having not seen nor spoken to each other since high school.  How does this make sense??  I mean these people have access to your pictures, your private thoughts, your likes and dislikes and you’re essentially opening yourself up to be judged by these people all over again.  Would I want a skanky, lying bitch having access to that stuff?  NO!  I can’t count how many times I’ve seen people added as friends and then those people never write a word on the person’s wall/page.  Yeah, because they don’t KNOW you and they don’t care enough about you to do so!  Get the hint.  They added you because they were too nice to say no or ignore you.

Maybe the man and I take the whole thing too seriously but we add people that we actually consider friends…gasp!  The concept!?  I may sound like some uber dweeb that was rejected by all of the social groups and is bitter or something but I’m not.  I was a “neutral.”  I knew people in every social clique- cheerleaders, jocks, nerds, hoods, drama, goth and of course the neutrals I hung out with.  But honestly, I could count on one hand how many people I actually would care to know anything about from high school to catch up with in an email but add them as a friend, no thanks.  I just don’t see the point in reconnecting with people who never sought me out up to that point so that they can add to their friend count.  So my friend count will remain just under 30 and I’m fine with that.  I don’t need to add the cashier from the grocery store, a dude I met at a party, a friend of a friend of a guy I had a crush on in 5th grade or the security guard at the front gate to make myself feel more important.  My circle of true friends has always been intimate and my friend count will reflect that on my social networking pages.  If that makes me unpopular, so be it but I’d rather be real than trying to fool myself into thinking all 1000 people on my page actually gave a squirt of wee about me.  Think about it and if need be, weed your social networking garden.

It’s amazing that friendships can be forged in this crazy world.  What’s even more amazing is finding out the boundaries that these friendships have.  There are different circumstances in which I’ve met people in my life from school to work and even online.  As you get to talking to people and they let you in a little more, you can begin to see what it is you 1) get out of the relationship and 2) what you can and can’t say with certain friends.  Example:  I have a friend I met online who is a great lady.  Caring, supportive and we have a lot of great stories we swap.  I also happen to know she is on the complete opposite political spectrum than I am and therefore, I don’t make political references or anything that I know would offend her because I respect her opinion.  (I wish others had the same respect for me because I’m a little sick of all of the political emails I get.  If I don’t know someone’s political affiliation, I don’t forward emails of that or religious nature because why ruffle feathers and get in some big unresolvable to do?)

I recently had a friend who took a massive leap over the line where the man and I were concerned.  It was essentially her going behind my back to tell him that she didn’t agree with the way I handled one of our arguments.  This argument was not presented as a bone of contention, it was presented during one of our gatherings as a funny story that my husband and I laughed about and it wasn’t an issue.  She took it upon herself to disagree with how I handled it  and assumed he was having some kind of self esteem issue.  He assured me he wasn’t and is tired of being pitied by people and it was insulting.  Perhaps she thought by me telling the story I was emasculating him because he has a very good guy image and people hold him to almost cherubic standards.  I assure you he’s no cherub.  Who among us are??  We have a marriage that is very open and communicative, when I say we have no secrets I mean we both feel comfortable leaving our emails open and don’t care if the other sees it because there’s nothing to hide.  We don’t go through each others email but we knew if we had to go in there for something, we could and there’d be no issue.  We even thank each other after sex.  I know, we’re probably the only people in the world who do that and I don’t know why I felt compelled to share that but it was more to make the point that we have a deep mutual respect and appreciation for each other.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, boundaries.

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I have to say I was really rooting for Dwayne Johnson’s marriage to succeed.  She’d been with him since college, loved him when he had nothing and loved him when he had everything.  They share a beautiful daughter Simone together whom it is very obvious he adores because his face lights up when he talks about her in interviews.  But the pressures of Hollywood, a hectic schedule and the like I’m sure finally took their toll.

Dwayne and Dany are still on good terms and I thought I read still in business together.  (She’s a financial advisor)  He said he calls her his “sexy exey.”  LOL  What impressed me the most is that Dany is not requesting alimony from Dwayne.  Given his income and investments, she could’ve easily asked for it which disputes any “gold digger” claims jealous Dwayne fans may have had.  What is quite evident from reading the divorce papers is that Dwayne and Dany have the best interest of their daughter at heart. Included is a clause that encourages love and affection and will not allow the other parent or anyone else to make a negative comment about the other parent in the presence of their daughter.  Each parent is also paying $5,000/mo into a trust for her to cover her college expenses. 

Kudos to the Johnson/Garcia’s for showing that not all divorces have to be painful and ugly and for thinking of the most important thing you two ever created…your child.

We’re in a condo and have people on either side of us.  On one side, a bachelor who we rarely hear and has never really been inconsiderate except when he was going through a techno music phase that thankfully, quickly passed.  Then you’ve got the other neighbor, a woman who bought in the same time we did and has lived there 12 years.  She’s approaching middle age maybe 43 if I remember correctly.  She used to be fine except for the fact she was a busy body and always tried to get in your business if she could.  Well she had neighbors on the other side of her that were just the worst.  They were owners of a local bar and they brought the party home often including smoking pot on their patio, loud music, walking/running like they were wearing cement shoes, etc.  Yet because the guy was good looking to her and she liked his name…Dante…she made a point of kissing their asses and being nice to their faces while making us suffer in her “retaliation” efforts against them when they were loud.  She would pound on walls, slam around and clop up and down the stairs like she was really letting them have it.  Well the problem is when you’re blasting your music on 100, you don’t hear trivial things like people pounding on your walls.  When she was bitching about them one day, we asked if she ever talked to them about turning it down and she said no that she would “hint” to them about how rude they were by saying “boy, you guys sure sounded like you were having fun last night” and when they’d say “yeah sorry about that” she’d bat her eyes and say “oh no, that’s okay!”  (insert gagging noise here)  Lady, he’s married and I think he goes for skinny girls.  I’m not being mean, I’m not a skinny girl so I can say that.  So as a result of this love/hate relationship she had with these neighbors, her retaliation tactics turned into a way of life.  The occasional rudeness turned into walking around the house like a clod, slamming her microwave and cabinet doors, stomping up her stairs, slamming around bedroom past midnight, etc.  For 10 of those years, she had a beautiful beagle that was quiet and sweet.  When she died, a month later she got a Sheltie puppy.  Let me preface this by saying you’d be hard pressed to find a bigger animal lover than I am.  I’m talking I’ve fed trapped skunks waiting to be hauled away by critter control because they are cute.  I especially love dogs.  Now of course we know we make noise and before our dog died, I know she barked a bit and we would come out and ask her if she disturbed her and she ALWAYS said she could never hear her.

This Sheltie…Zoey…is a demon seed.  No, I shouldn’t say that, it’s not the dog’s fault her owner is an irresponsible mook who doesn’t exercise her except for bouncing what sounds like a bowling ball on the floor starting between 9-11pm at night, leaves her in a cage all day long while she works overtime at her new job, leaves her door open knowing the dog barks at everything including dust settling and has attacked the front door so many times that it feels as though our whole house is shaking to the core.  (Award for longest run on sentence?)  The dog barks the second upon being released outside to go to the bathroom regardless of what time it is and she makes no real effort to correct her.  I’m talking she barks as though she sees a cat prancing around taunting her to chase it and she wants to kill it kind of bark.  We’ve even outright said how much she barks (in a nice tone) and she just does not care.

Why am I griping about this?  Because when I started typing this, it was 7am and she was stomping around the house and the dog has already gone ballistic twice.  I work from home so I am somewhat used to it but I admit it grates on my patience.  Now my husband who comes home and just wants to unwind in his home, he’s another story.  When that beast starts its uncorrected tirade, I see his teeth clench, his body tense and his blood pressure spike.  (Yes, I see through his skin)  He’s already having some physical stress issues and when you come home, you ‘re in your refuge and should be able to leave it all behind.  Yesterday as we were digging out, we had to go on the back patio and dig a spot for my mom’s dog that we will be watching this week while she’s out of town.  Well nosey Nelly and her hound were out there and of course upon us opening the door, she went insane.  (Note she couldn’t even see us, we have a fenced in lanai)  She was barking and barking and would NOT stop and the woman actually had the nerve to say “come on honey, we’ll try this again later” in this snippy voice like WE were disrupting HER.  HELLOOOOOOOO!?!?!!  Control your friggin dog, teach it some damn manners and have some consideration and respect for your neighbors you idiot!  What, now we’re not allowed to be on OUR patio because YOU’RE a horrible dog owner!?!  WE’RE supposed to suffer because you refused to socialize the dog with other dogs and humans and now it sees everything as prey/a threat!?!  I know it’s not the dog’s fault but we’re at wits end.  I would love to say I’m looking forward to Spring and relaxing on our lanai but I know it will be ruined by the sounds of Zoey the Hell Hound and her owner, Clueless McGee.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.