Enough of me bitching, tell me what makes you bitter. Are you pissed about the holidays? Too much to do with not enough time? I'll sympathize, baby.

-- Emily (mildew@dork.com), December 19, 2000

Answers

Ooooh, I know, I know! I am annoyed when I find out that someone from one of my classes who I don't know has an online journal, and while looking through entries, I discover that she refers to me as "the annoying boy" and says I don't have many friends, even though she doesn't know me and has never spoken to me. wheeeee.

Actually, it's more funny than it is anything else. And I think she's annoying, too, so it's all good, I suppose. :)

-- Josh Burnett (BurnJ451@newschool.edu), December 19, 2000.

Who on earth was that, Josh, and how did you figure out that it was you she was talking about?

Links, baby, gimme links!

-- Emily (em@emilyweise.com), December 19, 2000.

well, yes, the holidays piss me off. i have my concert tomorrow - which is freaking band, chorus and handbells and is going to suck and is going to be very stressful.

and this recent snowstorm made me bitter too.....were it not for the snow, my boyfriend could have picked me up afterschool and then i would have had jazz band practice and then we could go out after. i still got to see him, but only for a few hours, and i got in a lot of trouble (school dismissed early and the roads were terrible and instead of going home, i got a ride to his house.) (i'm not really that bitter because i'm happy i got to see him at all, but still. the snow storm did suck for me too. the lack of jazz band practice is bad too because we perform in front of the whole school friday and we suck and it's goign to be humiliating. but ah well.)

-- kate (parsley@dork.com), December 19, 2000.

How about...when the only picture of me on this website makes it appear that I have a double chin and look almost, but not quite, completely and utterly retarded?

-- J-O-N (jdessaules@yahoo.com), December 19, 2000.

I think it wise for me to not post a link to the offending journal, sorry. I so do not want to create some big spat between myself and this other person. Especially since the person in question listed her schedule in her journal, and I'm going to have a class with her again next semester. I just wanna bitch about it, really. ;)

It's not an especially interesting journal, anyway. (No, I'm not just bitter, I found it rather dull before I discovered her dissing me. I read through some of her archives mainly because she had asked students at our school not to do so, and I've always found it hypocritical to put a journal online for public consumption and then try to dictate who can read it and who can't. So I decided to read her archives just to be contrary.)

As far as how I know it's me, though....well, she referred to "the annoying boy" in one of her classes, and I'm one of two guys in the class. She also said she saw the annoying boy at the Neil Gaiman reading in NYC, and I was there and recall seeing her. So it's not such a mystery.

Tell me: am I nuts to be annoyed by this? I sort of suspect I am being nuts.

I am rambling far too long, sorry.

-- Josh Burnett (BurnJ451@newschool.edu), December 20, 2000.

Jeez, Jonathan, I'd almost feel sorry for you.. if I ever SAW YOU to take PICTURES OF YOU. I'll be sure to get some great shots in Rhode Island so that I can impress all of my young barely legal friends.

Teehee.

Josh - you saw Neil Gaiman read. Don't complain. *grin* Now I'm bitter about that all over again.. ARGH!

-- Emily (me@emilyweise.com), December 20, 2000.

Work. Work makes me very bitter right now. Especially when the nasty manager expects me to work extra shifts when I'm already working two nine hour shifts this weekend AND the day after Christmas. Working in the manchester section of a department store also makes me bitter. What is it about customers that compels them to through the towels (that I just folded) on to the floor?

-- Jen Meadows (jmeadows@alphalink.com.au), December 20, 2000.

Except you won't be seeing me in Rhode Island. Here's one thing that doesn't make me bitter, but annoys the hell out of me: Why does the cashier at Safeway insist on addressing me by my last name (which is printed on the receipt when I use my debit card)? Is it really important for them to say, "Thank you Mr. Dessaules, you saved X dollars and Y cents today with your Safeway Club Card. Have a nice day." (Annoying, isn't it?) Unfortunately, most cannot pronounce my last name, so they end up asking me how to pronounce my last name. Turns what should be a one second exchange (i.e., handing me my receipt) into a several-second-bordering-on-one-minute interview and interrogation. All I want is out of the store; I do not want to have an in-depth discussion with the cashier.

This is not my only gripe with Safeway employees. Oh no, not by a long shot. They have this new "friendly" policy, where they are obnoxiously friendly to the point you want to shoot them. Example: I'm strolling the aisles at Safeway (which, if you didn't know, is a supermarket chain popular on the western half of the United States), going up and down the aisles. In the fifteen minutes it takes me to go from Aisle #1 to Aisle #12, I am accosted by no less than 3 or 4 Safeway employees, each of whom wants to know (a) how I'm doing today, (2) if I'm finding everything okay, and (3) if they can help me find anything. Is this really necessary? Why are they forcing me to carry on a conversation at the stupid supermarket? Like I'm not going to ASK if I actually, truly had difficulty finding where the Entemann's display is (mmmmm, Entemann's)? Call me old-fashioned, but I yearn for the curt, unfriendly and disgruntled supermarket employees of my youth.

Another thing that bothers me is this whole "Club Card" scheme. Sure, you sometimes get great savings with the card (just yesterday, I saved 12 cents when I bought two one-gallon jugs of water), but I know that all this information is being stored somewhere, only to come back and haunt me years from now when I am running for public office, or being appointed to something-or-other. Imagine the horror at my Senate confirmation hearing, when Senator Old-and-Crusty pulls out a sheet and inquires why, at the age of 28, I purchased a 32 ounce box of Kellogg's Fruit Loops, a Tombstone frozen pizza, and a 1 lb bag of celery at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. I'd rather spend the extra 12 cents, pay cash and keep my privacy.

Yes, I have some issues.

Jon Note: The name-brands appearing in the foregoing post and the excessive use of hyphens is purely coincidental. No actual name brands or hyphens were harmed in the composition of this post.

-- JON (yet again) (jdessaules@yahoo.com), December 20, 2000.

Oh my god, I so agree with you about Safeway employees. Did you know that it's store rules that they have to smile at and make eye contact with each customer? Evil. And Safeway is the only place I've ever been called Mr. Burnett in my life.

When I moved east, the supermarket employees were rude to me again. It was such a relief.

-- Josh Burnett (BurnJ451@newschool.edu), December 20, 2000.

I have heard of employees at some retail chains complaining about the store policy that says they must smile and be friendly, etc... Female employees say it leaves them open to customers coming on to them but the store insisted on the policy and would have undercover shoppers checking up on them.

I don't mind people smiling and being friendly; I object to them calling me by my first name as if they knew me. I'm very informal and when, for example, I'm teaching a class I always tell the participants to call me Jim. But if I have some kind of business dealing with someone, like a clerk or receptionist in an office, I really get annoyed at being called "James"... That may be my legal signature, but I use Jim (even my business card says Jim)... and if I am going to have an on-going relationship with this organization I would ask whomever to call me Jim... but remember that I am a customer and my name is "Mr. Lawrence" until I tell them otherwise. Haven't they heard that you are supposed to call adult customers by surname until invited to use a first name? I said adult because a differentiation between children and adults is that children may be addressed by first name. That is why -- not all that many years ago -- whites in the South would address blacks by first name although expecting to be addressed as Mr. plus surname in return.

*grumble*grumble*

-- Jim (jimsjournal@yahoo.com), December 20, 2000.

Actually, there are several lawsuits pending by Safeway employees who claim that the friendly policy subjects them to unwanted advances by customers, and therefore constitutes a hostile work environment. Apparently, several female employees have been asked out by shoppers who were under the mistaken belief that the friendliness of the employees was a come-on. I thought it was funny, until I considered the usual Safeway customer and realized that the horror! Imagine the pathetic little trolls who inferred from a cashier's smile and warm greeting that, "hey, this chick's digs me. She must think I'm WICKED hot" (and yes, I did just use the word "dig"). Frankly, my first reaction is, "hey, she's getting paid to be nice to me." But maybe I'm wrong here--haven't exactly been Date Central lately. And you know, that saleswoman at the Men's Wearhouse was smiling an awful lot at me and DID ask me about my evening...

-- Jon (yet again) (jdessaules@yahoo.com), December 20, 2000.

Alright, J-dawg. I've got issues with that. It sucks to be a female employee when you have to be nice to the customers no matter what, let me tell you.

At Denny's at 2am when the bars closed (I was 17 at the time, fyi), men would come in all drunk and hit on me. Hardcore. Pitifully, and painfully. And I couldn't tell them to go fuck themselves, as much as I'd like to. I stuck to "Well, I'm only 17, and would you like to talk to my boyfriend about that?" The 17 thing usually got them - they didn't realize the age of consent in PA is 16. Regardless, it sucks. So lawsuits like that are not funny.

Done ranting.

Why won't I see you in Rhode Island? That sucks, yo. I will see you on Wednesday, right? We can be big geeks in NYC, oh yes.

-- Emily (em@emilyweise.com), December 20, 2000.

Jon - No complaining about your picture. At least YOU weren't captured on film pretending to be a farmer with a pitchfork stuck up his ass in an american gothic-like pose. Talk about bitter. Damn. -mgp

p.s. Wait, what the hell is an undercover shopper???

-- michael (yes, my middle initial is an underscore) pirrello (michael_pirrello@yahoo.com), December 22, 2000.

Okay, you both can be quiet. You either need to come visit me more and quit complaining, or at least send me good pics of you and quit complaining. I'd even take the 80s boy shot, Mikey.

In better news, Jonathan, go check out this great new picture of you - jonathan.j pg from the first time I met you. Is that better at all? Ladies, he's single.. and he's about to be living in California. And he's a successful (*snort*) lawyer.. c'mon, grab him up before someone else does!

-- Emily (em@emilyweise.com), December 22, 2000.