An Answer Years In The Making

“Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.”~ Samuel Johnson

And there it is, ladies and gentlemen… boys and girls.

Management staff have finally fired BACK against the revolting, whining residence of this place with regards to Food Pantry and how it its distributed.

Throughout this entire blog, if you searched for the words “food pantry” you will find a number of blog posts through time in which I have written about the avarice of the residents of this place.

For as long as I have been living here, there has always been a handful of people who have complained about the current system and how it works. If you’ve read all the posts I am referring to above, then you know I once was involved in the selection of people. But that was taken away from me because people were bitching that I was cheating. The TRUTH was that they didn’t like how things were going — which was not “their way” and so they complained. Since then, I’ve been forbidden to “help” out.

And now this notice from management comes today. Several years in the making. It should have been handed out so many years ago, and written just like this!!! If you don’t like it, then get out!

Its basic human nature one would think: If you don’t like something, you don’t do it. If you don’t like drinking alcohol, you’re not going to drink. Same thing should have been applied here. If you don’t like how things are being ran for Food Pantry, then don’t come to the Food Pantry.

I honestly feel that this should take care of many of the current problems that we have with it. At least for a short period of time. I don’t think that this will be a final fix though. There’s always going to be someone who is going to bitch and moan and complain. For those who do, they need to be shown this notice. I think that this notice needs to be hung up in the hallway by the door of the food pantry as a constant, ever-present reminder to those who wanna complain.

This particular notice has come about because last month, one of the residents sat there in the building crying like a 5 year old having a tantrum for not getting his way. I love the fact that its added that you will be turned away if you are exhibiting poor behavior. So this basically has given other members of staff the power to remove or kick out anyone being stupid or acting like a child. Over something that is never promised to us and is, in a sense, a bonus to this community. The NEED for Food Pantry is cut and dry. What these people do, do not show a NEED. They will be cut off and pushed away.

And what makes this even funnier to me was that the manager asked me to look at this notice and asked if it was too harsh or not. I laughed and said that the only thing that it was missing was a few crucial F bombs. Which, he would not be able to include to begin with but he got the point.

So I finally applaud management for doing something RIGHT for once. This should have happened years ago, and management does acknowledge that. Let’s hope it sticks longer than any other plan that has been put in place.

But then what was done by management that was NOT right was that only a few apartment buildings had been delivered this notice, then management had to go retrieve food FROM the Food Pantry and left the distribution of these notices to the REST of the complex to someone who hasn’t done it yet. So at this hour, some people know about this notice, others have no idea. People are going to collide into one another. Those who know will run into and bump heads with those who have no clue and more BS and drama will appear. Way to go there!!!

Eventually though, those notices will appear, to everyone.

Let’s also hope that this is the last time I write about Food Pantry problems in this blog.

 

 

Rubber And Glue

“All men’s misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone.”~ Jean de la Bruyere

So you wanna talk about how much life stinks, eh? Vent a little bit about how it has been mistreating you and that it hasn’t been fair?

The world seems to hate your every move and decision and now you are being sorely punished for it and you don’t deserve it.

And it has been going on for months. Even a few years. Nothing is going right for you.

Worst of all, you’re wondering if there’s anything left to have faith in.

You are feeling a bit down in the dumps because women are hitting on you and they don’t seem to be interested in who you are, but rather what you have in your wallet and/or bank account. And it’s not fair.

You are feeling overwhelmed because men are wanting you so much and all they truly want is to get you in bed. And you are feeling like they are doing nothing but treating you like a piece of dirty meat. And it’s not fair.

And many, many other things that frustrate you and you don’t understand why you are continuing to feel so miserable.

Who can you blame? I mean, life wasn’t supposed to be like this. Or was it??

I have the answer to your blaming question:

The person in your mirror.

Ouch!! That had to hurt now didn’t it??

Don’t you remember the saying about when you point a finger at someone, you have other fingers pointing back at you? Remember that one? You probably didn’t think that it would ever apply to you.

Perhaps women wouldn’t be so into you and your bank account had you not taken a week and a half of bragging that you won the lottery or how you came into a bunch of money. And perhaps men wouldn’t be so into finding what you got going on in bed had you not screamed for over sixteen months that you were single and finally “free” from a relationship that you determined was bad for you,  and could now do whatever you wanted and you decided that it was time to live your life the way you wanted.

I’m not going to write again about how people just have their bad times and good times. Its ridiculous and boring by now to be coming from this blog. But when you refuse to take a look at yourself and find out just how you became so miserable and fail to accept that the things you have done in the past led you to it and only want to blame others, then that’s where the road ends.

Its about as juvenile of an action as quitting your job because your vehicle is out of gas. And about as sad as starving yourself to death because you’re house is empty of food.

Things break. Fix them!

I’m there for you. I will listen to you when you have bad days, and I will listen to you when you have awesome days. But when your misery multiplies because of your own actions and deeds… then there’s something called “reached a limit” with me. And that means that there’s nothing else that I can do but listen. And listening isn’t going to fix whatever issue you are having.

I literally closed the door on someone today because for the past ten days, I have been listening to them rant and vent about the  same problem that they are having in life. Ten straight days. And even though they have said that they felt better to get it off their chest, they didn’t go and fix the issue. So we’re right back where we started.

And for that person, all I can do is hope that they wake up and snap out of it and fix their issue in life. Once they do that, then they can move on in life happier. But I cannot do it for them. Only they can. And its sad to watch this crap going on through the window. But until then, I am rubber and they are glue.

If misery loves company, then I would much rather be alone.

Find the issue that is bothering you. Find out what exactly it is that is keeping you so miserable. Then fix it. Even if that means you have to fix yourself by changing yourself. Don’t play the blame game. Nobody wins at that!!

 

 

 

Suck It Up, Cupcake!

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. ” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I guess that this post is going to be one “in review”.

I am not going to fill this blog with a lengthy sob story or how it relates, because I’m not going to waste my time about it.

But it appears a bit necessary to repeat that life is not perfect.

Life is not ever going to be all peaches and cream. If it was, then everyone would have pie and there would be no one left to eat cake.

Disappointment strikes us all at some point in our lives. Some more often than others. But what I am going to focus on is the fact that sometimes when we want to know something, we don’t always get the answers that we were actually looking for. Or we get the responses that we were not expecting.

So then what? What are you going to do?

Most people would actually dust themselves off and press on to find an answer, if they have received none. Others would take up the understanding that they were not meant to have the answers that they really wanted deep down. And of course, they are crushed. But they also move on.

Sitting around and pouting actually gets people NOWHERE. Being rude and acting like a child doesn’t either. That is assuming that you are not still a child. I can honestly say that I am simply astonished on the amount of people out there who are adults that still cry and whine like children whenever they do not get their way.

Either find the answer another way or just move on and forget about it and maybe hope for the day that the answer will come your way.

But for those who get answers to their burning questions, and it ends up being something that they do not like or care for? SUCK IT UP!

Dwelling on the fact that you got shut down won’t get you what you wanted in the first place. In fact, it will only separate you even further from succeeding in your path of knowledge.

Treating others poorly who give you answers you don’t want to hear makes you look like such an undesirable person. And what you will probably end up doing is make yourself look like you don’t deserve what you want. And it will not matter what your worth is or isn’t, you will have destroyed that by your own selfish and immature actions.

Get over it. Life will sometimes tell you NO!

Pick yourself up and find another way or learn to accept the things that you honestly cannot change as stated in the common and popular “Serenity Prayer” that many of us know by heart.

GROW UP because others around you already have. Time to live your life like responsible and sensible adults.

Brainless Warriors

Some elderly can kick ass, others suck it

“Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.”~ Golda Meir

What a day, what a day!!

Today was the first time that my complex had a resident council meeting under the “new leadership”, and I was so full of hope for a new day.

If you read the blog post about the Scrabble game I was involved with, the husband and wife were elected as President and Vice President, respectively.

But the meeting turned into a verbal brawl of sorts. And the leadership was totally less than admirable as our newly elected President never took order of those residents who were causing a stir.

I was rather disappointed personally as the new President was not able to hold a meeting as he was when he was in the same office back in 2005. Clearly, his health has been fading and he just didn’t seem to have it together.

For whatever reason, his wife decided to speak up just about as much as he did. And I became totally confused, who’s running this outfit?? She took over nearly half of the meeting, and I couldn’t understand it. Neither could I believe my own ears.

When the floor was open for comments under new business, a resident got up and started to talk about a “beautification committee”. In other words, she wanted to make a group of residents responsible for trash clean up. Because in her mind, the property was in bad shape.

Well of course it is, the drought has really done a lot of damage to our lawns. It doesn’t look as lush and green because we’ve had no rain. But she wanted to single out a number of people who live here to be responsible for picking up random trash, as well as be a helping hand with those who are unable to bend over and spruce up the front parts of their personal patios.

Ummm…. in other words, make other people work in other people’s gardens who may no longer be able to, or no longer care. Just because SHE wants the property to “look beautiful”.

There’s so many things wrong with this. Although I would agree with her that people should pick up their trash. But having people go intrude on their neighbors? Nah, I don’t agree with that at all. Pick up your trash and we’ll be just fine.

I’m not sure if that’s going to go anywhere. This is a resident who rarely shows up for any activities and/or meetings that we may have. But when she does arrive, you can be sure she’s about to bitch and moan about something. If she has nothing to complain about, she’s going to be sitting at home… inside, and not come out for anything but to check her mail.

And that was the first round.

The second round came about when another resident who also stays at home and doesn’t participate and always gives the excuse of poor health, had brought up the idea of celebrating “Octoberfest”.

Last year, there was a gathering in the evening where we were celebrating it. It was a nice social event with the rest of the residence. And it even had included alcohol. Well, beer.

The consumption of alcohol at specific activities and events here have been more or less “forbidden”. It is not quite “banned” necessarily, but the fact of the matter is that there are some people who live here that have had religious convictions against the consumption of alcohol. They have been the residents who have spoken louder than the ones who have no opinion about whether or not alcohol is being offered, so they’ve said “no alcohol”. But last year’s Octoberfest celebration was a rare test-drive of an exception. “Near beer” was also offered. A limit of real beer was given to those who actually were drinking.

Anywho…. this second round- the resident who rarely comes out offered the suggestion to have yet another Octoberfest celebration this year as well, because she so much enjoyed the year before. So when our social worker said that it was a possible event to place on the calendar, she was happy as a peach.

And then it turned ugly. The social worker left her in charge to plan this event. And she had also mentioned that the event would have to take place during the week some time and could not happen in the evening or over the weekend. (Last year was held in the evening.)

There are only two members of staff that works here. They have made their personal decision that they are not willing to stay longer into the evening or over the weekend. They have their own lives.

If this resident would’ve just accepted the deal then the snowball of bitterness would’ve never started to roll.

Round three- the issue of having our community room open over the weekends and/or week nights. First off, let me share with you the back story of this “dead horse”.

In 2006, and year prior, certain residents had the keys to the community room and these residents were more than willing to get up in the mornings and open the community room for usage by the residents. But in 2006, the people who run this complex decided to remodel it. It was closed for many months while work was being done to it.

The community room is an open room with chairs, nice furniture, a great collection of books, and even a television. Several computers are also connected to the Internet for the residents to use to check their e-mail if they do not have a personal computer or an Internet connection at their home. The remodel came with a lot of newer and fresher things. Including one big-assed television set. Yep, big screen.

But the Board who oversees things had made the decision to collect all of the keys that were handed out to residents and no longer allow the community room to be open during the nights or weekends. It was an issue of protection for both the residents and the items that were held within. It also was an issue of insurance that nothing would be broken or stolen.

So since then, all of the residents who lived here then, and those who have moved in afterwards have basically adapted to the new policy. But many of them do not like it. They honestly would prefer to have access to the community room, just like it was before. Several times residents have gone to the Board to ask them to change their minds, but so far they have not.

I personally wouldn’t mind if it was open, but I’ve gotten so used to it being closed. And also consider the fact that members of staff have changed since 2006 as well. The newer members of staff that work here today, mainly the social worker and the apartment manager are simply not that willing to give up their personal lives to come over here and make sure things run smoothly. The residents who are stubborn not to see it as a risk factor, call it “babysitting”.

That came up today by little Miss “I wanna Octoberfest”. The war then began.

She cried and cried and cried and complained about how it was not fair that the community room was not open any more to the residents. It was not fair that the two main members of staff were “being snooty” for not wanting to come in over the weekends, and it was not fair that the members of staff would have to agree to “babysit” the residents.

The two members of staff have personal lives. I can see why they wouldn’t want to come in. But at the same time, I could also wish that they would every once in a while come in and allow us some off-site activities. It doesn’t have to be every night though.

The social worker had decided to interject and stop the childish whining. She was trying to explain that #1- the two members of staff are NOT the ones that the residents should take their frustrations out on because the residents do not have an open community room any more like it used to be. #2- There are specific reasons why the Board decided to keep things closed.

But the woman would not listen to the social worker. She wouldn’t budge a single half an inch to hear the side of the social worker. She went on and on about how she and her husband HATE being “stuck in their caves” during the weekends.

Well honestly and personally, that’s an easy fix. If you don’t wanna stay at home- go visit a neighbor. Go out to eat, go to a movie, something!! But I am sure that I would be met up with “We don’t have the money for that.”

Then just go visit a neighbor.

She continued to say that she and her husband has renter’s insurance. So they’re set and not afraid. But not everyone here has that. And she knew that the Board wouldn’t dare let the community room be uninsured, so she just couldn’t see what the problem was.

And so then the social worker came out with the big heavy question to her: “So if the community room is open to the residents when staff is not here, and something happens, are you willing to be held responsible?”.

I was so glad when I heard that. I thought for sure that would be the nail in the coffin on this woman. It wasn’t.

The response to the question was, “Insurance is insurance“.

Umm… what??

First of all, she never actually answered the question. And secondly, that kind of a response was in a sense more or less a way to say, “I don’t care what happens to the community room as long as it is kept open for the residents to use. You’re covered, why bother worrying?”.

The social worker had then seen that this woman was not going to give it up and so the social worker in better judgement gave it up, saying to her that she needs to present it to the Board.

An issue that has been repeatedly denied over and over and over again for the past five years or better. The horse is DEAD!!

Now I am sure that maybe someone can come up with a solution for this. And maybe in the future things will change. It is the fact that she and her husband have only been living here a few years.

They moved here after the 2006 remodel and the decision to keep the community room locked on evenings and weekends. So they’ve never really known any different. And I can do nothing more but roll my eyes and laugh at this fact. Why are they soooooo much involving themselves to try and obtain something that they’ve never experienced before?

Not only was the community room unlocked on the weekends. But we also were involved in a variety of other off-site activities:

• We went to the movies
• We went out to dinner on a spur of the moment decision
• We went out to breakfast once a month
• We went to the horse races
• We went shopping in the malls for an afternoon
• We went to the baseball games or other local sporting events
• We went to the theater

And many, many more fun things to do, that was away from home. Why did those things suddenly disappear? Because of a change in staff. Those who worked here before were willing to do these kinds of things. Those who work currently, are not.

This woman and her husband (mainly her) were battling the social worker because they were jealous of the fact of what USED to be. And since they’ve moved in, they keep hearing these wonderful stories of all the fun things we used to do around here, and now we don’t do that any more…. and these two are taking it PERSONAL?? Because of their jealousy.

Jealousy sucks. And I know that this woman is going to hold yet another nasty grudge against staff members and have nothing but gossip and back-talk about the members of staff for a long time to come. These grudges that she holds, will commonly go on for several weeks, a couple of months even.

But it makes NO sense because the two of them rarely come out of their apartment. The husband comes out, but the wife does not. And its probably a marital problem between the two of them as to why he comes out and she doesn’t. Which is not the fault of any body else who works or lives here. It is their own.

But why fight until you are almost out of breath for something that you aren’t even going to use?

I would bet that she decided to use this platform to whine because of who was elected. She was pleased with who is now in charge so to speak and decided that was the time to come rushing in and complain as much as she wants, because of the new shift of power and she believed that she could get away with it. And honestly, she did.

Hypothetically estimating, maybe a total of five or six residents would actually use the community room during either the evenings or weekends. Another five might use it for other personal reasons (personal gatherings, family parties, etc.), and when you add all of that up, you MIGHT get a total of fifteen random residents using the community room during these hours… out of almost 70 who live here.

I just don’t see it as a convincing case. If they do open it up, they’ll monitor the situation as to who and how many use it. Just like they monitored the beer from last year’s Octoberfest celebration. Nobody got stupid, nobody got drunk, nobody got into a fight so they may be a little less strict on further parties and social gatherings to include alcohol.

This however, is probably going to go down in flames with the low numbers of people actually using it during times in which we have been accustomed to it being closed after having the situation watched closely to see exactly who is using it.

All the while, our newly elected President allowed this snowball of ill-feelings to rattle on and on and on. Basically the President and Vice President also think that the community room should be open. But they’ve got their own problems too as to what their excuses are. (No cable, and they live in a mess and they are lucky not to yet be evicted for it.)

But he sat there and let it drag on, until he finally suggested to her to make another motion to do something about it and present it to the Board. In which I really don’t think is going to do them much good at all.

The elderly, and the absurd things that they fight over. Some are just that stubborn, others are just that dumb.

 

 

 

Roller Poster

There is a ‘sickness’ that is spreading across the Internet. Particularly on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

It is called being a “roller poster”.

A roller poster is defined as the following, according to the Dambreaker Dictionary:

roller poster.  noun \rō-lər\ pōs-tər

1. A person who uses social networking websites to express their emotions, feelings, or thoughts for the express purpose to garnish completely unnecessary attention from others to themselves. Especially during times of negative thoughts, feelings, or just simply having a bad day and they make themselves conspicuous on purpose.

Yeah, that! We’ve seen it before. Someone that you know keeps updating their status for the sake of seeing themselves type, and in the meantime they hope that someone else will see it and come rescue them from their keyboards and make “life oh so happy and peachy once again.” So then once they have obtained that attention that they were seeking selfishly, they end up deleting all of their posts and act as if it never happened. They were down, and suddenly now they are up again. But eventually they will go back down again. (The only thing missing is that feeling of how I am about to lose the contents of my stomach while in the middle of the loop!)

It is one thing to be having a bad day and stating that as a fact. Its another to state that you are having a bad day, and you continue to whine about it until someone finally jumps in and tells you that “Everything is going to be okay”, or that they are sorry to know that you did have a bad day.

I’ve said this in many posts before, I’ll say it again. We all have bad days. The difference in what gets us towards a better mental health is how we deal with it. “Roller Posting” isn’t healthy and is definitely not the answer.

I watched one person in the middle of the night change their Facebook status 18 times in the span of 12 minutes or less. Their average post in length was only about seven words. All of it, pertaining to the most awful day that they experienced. It was totally obnoxious and completely inappropriate, not to mention unnecessary.

Personally, for those bad days that I go through? This is a majority reason of why I have this blog! I’ll dump it all in here and let it go. Sometimes I’ll feel better and sometimes I won’t. But at least whatever it was that was bringing me down is now off my back. I will do it all right here in my blog and leave it there. I’d much rather do that than spread it all around over and over again, annoying the pants off everyone.

People write over and over and over again, just spreading it on thick about how miserable they are. All they want is a little attention. Sadly, they’ve got another thing coming if they believe that the attention that they are about to receive is going to actually help them. In reality, its only going to make the issue worse. Instead of giving these people the attention that they are seeking, it is my personal feeling that we who are reading this garbage must offer them something better than “Ohhh I am so sorry to hear that you’re day sucked!”. I am actually leaning towards the feeling that nobody should give them ANY attention at all. Then maybe… just maybe, they’ll realize how foolish they sounded when its all said and done and they just might learn that what the did do, was stupid and they won’t do it again.

But you won’t find me putting my money down on that. Society is messed up already enough as it is.

There’s no magic pill to make everyone happy all at the same time. If there is such a “happy pill”, then I know of several scores of people who need a lifetime prescription. And on a personal note, I will probably have to have a reminder written down some where to tell me to take my own medicine.

I see all of this and witness it from afar. There IS a forest through the trees. Most of the time I roll my eyes and never give a single ounce of attention to people who are being a roller poster. I just don’t feel that it is going to do them any good.

And then again you, the reader, can probably see things that I cannot see whenever I am posting and/or ranting. That’s just the way it is sometimes. Question is: What are you going to do about it? And what SHOULD you do about it, if anything?

So go ahead and tell the world you’re having a bad day. I’m sure that I will start to hope that your day becomes better. But if you are going to clog up the Internet with your mindless short posts, carrying on and on and on about nothing- then I just don’t wish to hear about it any more. Find a friend, or a therapist. Hell, even just come talk to me about it and don’t waste people’s time and Internet space with your totally ridiculous bantering.

In my own personal experiences with Twitter and Facebook, I could say that I went out to eat with my friends for lunch and had a wonderful time. A few people might notice, but they won’t ask about it.

Yet if I say that I lost my keys, people just come crawling out of the walls.

Human nature is seemingly drawn to the negativity of life rather than the positive and uplifting aspects. I do not know why, but I feel like I would be wasting my time and opportunity trying to figure it out rather than trying to experience something that would be beneficial and more positive.

You think my definition is a joke? Read it officially on the Internet. It was composed by a friend of mine who submitted it to Urban Dictionary:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=roller-poster

This was their interpretation of the term, “roller poster”.

This is not the first time I’ve coined a phrase. I don’t know, maybe some people are right. Maybe I SHOULD write a “Dambreaker’s Dictionary”.

What do you think???