Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Complaints Department, Please take a number

So I'm in the mood to complain tonight. You've been warned.

Complaint #1: It is January and it has been actively snowing for several days in a row; there is probably over a foot of snow in our backyard, and seeing as it will still be winter for several more months, I can't imagine we should expect the snow to disappear anytime soon. I don't mind snow, but here is my question: Why do all the department stores, shoe stores, and kids stores have spring rain boots out already and consider snow boots out of season?

Complaint #2: So after trying at least 5 stores at the mall (I even set foot in Baby Gap!), I tried Kmart. Sure enough they had snow boots in one toddler size, and of course they were on clearance. But they were annoyingly pink and have Dora on them. Usually I don't mind pink, but they are so flashy--don't they know there are other colors that girls can wear and still be girly? And Dora? I can't stand Dora. And somehow, even though I've never let Dora grace our television set, my daughter knows who she is. How is that? Seriously people, we don't make adults walk around wearing flashy bright shoes with cartoon Keifer Sutherland on them, so why do we do this to our children? And for that matter, why is there only one option for kids snow boots (pink and cartooned) when adults get entire stores full of options?

I think I'm done complaining for now. I could probably think of more things to complain about, but I'll rest my keyboard instead. You can expect that tomorrow I'll be back to my same old witty self. In the meantime, let me know what you need to complain about--something you have absolutely no control over. Make it anonymous if you want, but come on, just get it off your chest.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I could spend an hour on an intense cardio work out and burn 800 calories, but then undo it in 20 minutes by pigging out. Blast the efficiency of the human body!

Jenny said...

I realize I said I was done complaining, but I thought of another one: It is impossible to add formatting to Blogger! You can't even put a picture where you want it! This drives me crazy on a regular basis!

Anonymous said...

I've been extremely frustrated for years by the same two issues. What is "seasonal" is really for the season that starts months later. In the middle of July, so there are at least 6 weeks left of the extra hot stuff, Frank went to Home Depot for a part we needed on the swamp cooler. Sorry. They don't carry that in July. It is a seasonal item. Uhhh... And especially for babies, you don't know in September what size they will be at the end of winter, so you guess. And if you guess wrong and they grow out of it while it is still cold, you can go to the store and buy them... shorts! You can't buy a Christmas dress the week before Christmas, they are all out before Thanksgiving. This rant could go on, and on, and on.

And turning our children into walking advertisements, sure. Some things our family enjoyed so much we don't mind advertising them, but not nearly as much as the stores sell. And there is seldom much else to choose from. Let me add an angle on the beef: for boys, it is predominately PG-13 movies. Buying a backpack for kindergarten, Daniel's choices were Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, and something else based on a PG-13 movie. Now, I enjoyed the cartoons of Hulk and Spiderman (and Transformers). But the only incarnation for my kid now isn't that level. Why would I buy him advertisements for a movie I won't let him see?

david and michal said...

i was promised nutrition 2020 was going to be the biological/chemical side of nutrition, you know--what exactly happens chemically with vitamin c that boosts the immune system, for example. i hate that i go to an hour and 15min class every tuesday and thursday and it's the SAME EXACT MATERIAL as nutrition 1020. i didn't learn anything new in 1020! i already knew everything the teacher taught! (i grew up with a very health conscious mother and learned it all from her)
and who are these "adjunct" professors, anyway?! both my nutrition teachers have been from the county health department and DO NOT have the teaching gene. my current teacher speaks like dolores umbrige from harry potter--you know, sickly honey sweet--but rather than being vindictive and punishing she's just plain spacey and dumb--i'm paying good money for this!

Anonymous said...

OK. I have made my students write letters every Friday all year. I demand well-developed paragraphs with main ideas and supporting details. They must have the date, a greeting, a closing, and a signature.
Today I administered the standardized "end of year" test that NCLB uses to evaluate not them, but me. (You don't want to get me started on that.) I just glanced through my students' responses to the prompt that said write a letter to your principal ... Only about two kids wrote in the proper letter format. Almost no one wrote in paragraphs. They wrote like text messages. No punctuation, no apostrophes in contractions, bullets for each idea. I think I'll retire from teaching and design kids' boots.