Things to Gripe About

I understand that there are many on the planet whose lives are more difficult than mine. I see many of them at work, read about many more in the news. But sometimes I just gotta vent.

Here are some things that have so bogged me down of late that it makes it hard to get out of bed some days...

1. Work. Much has happened in the past couple of months. I'll expand upon it all later, when more things are resolved. But for now I'll say this. I'm tired of some of the petty people I work with who have so little going on in their lives that they feel the need to create drama in the workplace. Being two faced and backstabbing generally is frowned upon by higher thinkers, so advice to you (and I'm sure you know who you are) get a life outside of work. Stop believing that you are the only one who does anything around there and let people do their jobs in peace. And in the name of all that is holy, please find a nice member of the opposite gender and spend some quality intimate time with them, for I think that's where most of your frustration lies. Stop taking it out on the rest of us.

2. Stupid People. You would think that living in the Northern states for extended periods of time would condition people to the fact that winter happens, snow falls, and roads might be bad. Unfortunately it seems that every winter season there are those who somehow forget the twenty or thirty previous winter driving experiences they have had and manage to freak out when it snows. Here's a hint. If you are too scared to drive in it. DON"T DRIVE IN IT! Oh, and no matter how slowly or erratically you are driving, the street signs should still be followed. "Stop" still means STOP. Don't pull out in front of me going twelve MPH and expect me to be happy about having to swerve on ice. "Left Turn Only" means get in that lane to turn left, don't do it from the middle of the road. Most importantly, when the road divides and the little arrow on the sign indicates that you should stay to the right of the road island, for the love of Mike, VEER TO THE RIGHT! I'm sure that eighty ton semi truck was more than happy to hit the shoulder because you were headed down the wrong side of the street, but one day you might not have such a friendly trucker approaching you.

3. Time. I know. I know. Time doesn't really exist, just our perception of it. But it seems like the only time that Time crawls is when I am at work and the chores are done and the patients are gone and the only thing left to do is watch my co-workers nap. (We'll get to this in future posts too. Don't worry.) Otherwise the sun seems to race across the sky, intent on shortening the Time I want to do the things I want to do. I've tried some time management things, but you know, those are ideal on paper, but don't seem to pan out well in the real world.

4. Injustices of the world that I can do nothing about. I get to see some real whiners in my line of work, and not just my patients. I would love to have flash cards with pictures of people with real life threatening problems on them. Sort of like a soccer yellow card. When I hear whining like (use your best nasally voice here) "I'm so hungry! I haven't eaten since lunch!" I could whip out the picture of the little four year old African orphan crawling to an aid station for food, being followed by a vulture, and knowing that the aid station was another several miles away. (That photographer won a Pulitzer for the picture, but ended up killing himself) Or "Oh that hurts so bad! This is the worst pain ever!" when their injury is nearly non existent. Then I could pull the picture of the family hit by the drunk driver. Only the Mom survived and from the ambulance cot she's looking at and reaching for her bloody, expired family. Sometimes life stinks a bit. Get over it, it could be worse.

And with that in mind, my gripes don't really seem like all that much. Sure I'd love to have more time, more money, some better co-workers and managers. But in general, I do have time to do some fun things. I do have enough money for food, clothing, shelter and to help out others, and I do work with a great majority of really fine people who do their jobs great and are fun to work with. So I'll get over it, and I am over it! It could be worse!

In the course of this blog, I went from frustrated and angry, to rather chipper and relaxed! Amazing what a little venting can do. A little perspective and insight, even if it comes from myself. Nice.

OK, now that I'm relaxed, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'll tell you about a dream I had last night. The one wherein I solved a problem that has been bothering me for twenty years!

More Later