LeeAnne34's Blog

I can't think of anything original to say so I am going to leave you a letter (I didn't write) on what it's like to be female and PMS'ing.

This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company
Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She
really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It's PC Magazine's 2007
editors' choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.

========================= ========================= ===========

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your 'Always' maxi pads for over 20 years
and I appreciate many of their features.

Why, without the Leak Guard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I'd probably
never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I'd certainly steer
clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts.

But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos
on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is
that
maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can't tell you how safe and secure I feel
each month knowing there's a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from
the curse?

I'm guessing you haven't. Well, my time of the month is starting right
now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging
through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and
I'll be transformed into what my husband likes to
call 'an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.' Isn't the human body
amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you've no doubt seen
quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers
monthly visits from 'Aunt Flo'.

Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we
endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying jags, and
out-of-control behavior.

You surely realize it's a tough time for most women. In fact, only last
week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her
boyfriend's testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told
her he thought Grey's Anatomy was written by drunken chimps. Crazy!

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just
crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants... Which brings
me to the reason for my letter.

Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to
reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always
maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words:
'Have a Happy Period.'

Are you f****** kidding me?!

What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really
think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness is possible during
a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit
pleasurable? Well, did it, James?

FYI, unless you're some kind of sick S&M freak, there will never be
anything 'happy' about a day in which you have t o jack yourself up on
Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don't
march down to the local Walgreen's armed with a hunting rifle and a
sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap
a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn't it make more sense to say
something that's actually pertinent, like 'Put down the Hammer' or
'Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong', or are you just picking on
us?

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective
immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have
chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will
certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your
brand of condescending bull s***.


And that's a promise I will keep. Always.

Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX

So I kinda annoyed a customer today.

I love it when people make things a crisis when they aren't. Or when you've explained clearly what you could do for them, and they still want "answers" for things you know nothing about.

I can understand their frustration but hey it's an imperfect world.

woman: When are the tennis nets going up?

me: I don't know, I've been called in on emergency and I am not sure when, or who is putting them up.

woman: How will I be able to find out when they are coming up?

Me: come back on Monday when regular staff are here, or check with the management office.

woman: This is so frustrating, the office never answers their phone, and I've come here too (probably only this time too- but she wants an answer now!).

me: I am sorry I just don't know what else to tell you.

woman: Well you do know something... what should I do?

(woman is getting snarky with me at this point- i can sense that she is one of those people seems to indulge in "not getting an answer" as a justification for snarkiness).

me: come back on monday then and talk to staff then.

(she storms off)

(I giggle with malicious glee)

 

Got screwed by a transit strike. My boss wanted me to travel to work by cab. *He says I would be paid monday*

The cost of transit would've cost more than I made at my shift. My company is big on saying they will reimburse you properly, but then never pay you back.

I told my boss no. I said I would rather work at a site that was walking distance and he could find someone closer to where I usually work.

I didn't answer my phone when he called back, so he flipped and threatened to fire me. I returned his call promptly though and said I was on my way.

He's pissed. wanted me to do useless duties, and then fire me if I didn't do them. Wants me to work 10 hours because I owe it to him for this. Um no. I don't.

They still owe me money for overtime and for purchases. They refuse to give me a float for purchases. I have had to go to our site manager for a float.

Time for a new career. Don't know what but I'm working on that. I feel bored, could care less about a lot of things. I don't have a blazing skill in anything, and any hidden talents I refuse to pimp myself out for. 

I wish I was hustling career type but I'm not, I wish I could start my own business but I don't want to. I don't give a damn, just leave me the fuck alone, let me work, and I will work, if you treat me like a person. Reward me for the work I do, don't make it a stupid bottom line "points system." Being happy in my job doesn't translate into never goes home and works 18 hours a day. it was never in my contract to work that much.

The other day I had developed a weird headache after my vision went all funny in my left eye. My boyfriend said it sounds like a migraine, or an aura before a migraine. The headache wasn't serious. The vision stuff was weird. I am off to the doctors check it out tomorrow. I may be back to post again if I feel like it.

I was talking to someone at work today about the woman who is jailed in Mexico.

The person felt "she was looking for adventure and deserves to be there." I said, well isn't she seen as innocent, and is suffering like hell probably while other people get away with it? She said, "what did she think would happen to her." So do millions of vacationers, or people who work in Cancun, who are looking for adventure deserve a Mexican prison?

I sounded somewhat annoyed by that, when I voiced my opinion. I don't care if she's a client because if she has a right to an opinion, well so do I.

I am sure everything happening behind that case is crooked to a state level, and she was just an easy target, and a diversion while the real crooks got away. Isn't that how it often happens?

I went to see my psychiatrist. She has a purple highlight now in her greying hair. It looks good. We talked about bipolar disorder. She thinks I may have it, but doesn't see it. Then I thought it was funny that I could probably convince anyone I have a disorder, if I really think I have it. I still don't know. She hasn't seen it in me, but is unsure. She hasn't seen mania in me. She sees depression and anxiety. Some hyperactivity but not the trademark mania stuff. Just probably due to anxiety, and a sense of inner restlessness. Now to get a prescription of Lorazepam for that wedding.....

stalker material... ?

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Sorry, Peace, not interested. I've got a reasonably sane, and intelligent boyfriend and I am sticking with him....

So

I rented the documentary "No End in Sight" about how Rumsfeld, Bush and his cronies really fucked up the Iraq war.

I got to be honest, I don't usually give a shit about politics, especially on the American side, but this doc really showed how the US of A is being run by a bunch 4th grade level idiots. No offence to the idiots out there though. Just THOSE idiots in Washington.

When they got to the part in the doc where they decided to disband the Iraq military, when, hello, they should've used them in the first place, as they have in many more successful occupations, I was banging my head against the coffee table.

Disbanding the Iraq Military put the Iraq unemployment rate at about 50% and started the insurgency.

I was grabbing fistfulls of hair when Bush brought is cronies in to rebuild Iraq, which they are doing very slowly, to the tune of 1.2 billion, when the military themselves can rebuild much faster, and have for much cheaper, to the tune of 200k.

Not to mention that Rumsfeld refused to send troops, and wouldn't allow the troops to do anything as Iraq lost it's Artifacts and all it's wonderful history to looters.

My boyfriend who is politically charged couldn't sleep after watching it. After watching that I made a mental note that I will never travel to the states ever again.

I often like journaling when I am on the subway.

I hate the subway and writing is about the only activity that makes me calm and puts me in my happy place.

The other day someone touched upon the subject of reverse racism.

Now the guy who brought it up I find a tad flakey, but I think he had a point.

So I decided to write about it. My writing seemed much more poignant than what I am about to write here. Sorry I just don't have the time to copy everything I wrote

I remember being accused of being racist, and promoting the "white establishment."

It was a customer at a store I worked for.

And what did I do?

When the customer first entered the store, I heard the door chime, but I could not see them. They were behind a rack and it was actually very difficult to see the door at all, or if the person was male, female, white, black etc.

It was busy in the store and I was alone. Two people were standing near the book section, and I asked them if they needed help. I wasn't sure if they were together (our book section was about 2 feet wide, and they seemed interested in their own things) so I asked, just so I didn't ask them if they needed help twice and sound redundant.

Finally, the person who set off the door chime, came to the back of the store. I asked her how she was and if she had any questions about anything. She seemed skittish, smiled and wandered around the store.

I went back to helping customers who wanted to try things on.

I then saw the same person again and she seemed to be looking for something so I asked her politely if she was curious about anything. She smiled said no and left.

The next day the same woman was standing outside the store front talking with another woman. I was outside on break. She commented loud enough for me to hear, that I gave her a dirty look because she was black. She felt the way I looked at her was "racist" because it was a "hard stare." I tend to squint when I can't see.

I didn't know what to say. I could've chimed in that I didn't see her at all because of the clothing racks, which is why I was staring hard. But oh well I let her talk. I don't think they would've liked my interjecting.

She also said I was being rude to the couple I was helping because they were a mixed couple. She said I seemed "uncomfortable" with them being together as a mixed couple. I thought, ok so the woman's acquaintance happened to be standing closest to me at the time when I asked them if they needed help, and I asked if they were together. That's evidently racist? Is that even subtle racism?

Rather than calling this reverse racism I call this practising the politics of weakness. It's called splitting in psychological terms where a person sees everything as black and white, and so they never have to doubt their perceptions as wrong.

Even if she did experience systemic racism, every "hard" look she gets is not because of her skin tone, just as every perceived action from a white person isn't racist.

This is why I quit working service jobs because customers are always supposedly right.

So my friend is becoming a lifestyle coach.

She used me as a guinea pig today

It was interesting. I have so many thoughts on my motivations, and experiences. Do you ever feel like you are so many things going on at once?

I find it interesting when I walk away from such a meeting, and I find more things, and realize I have old tapes playing over and over again in my head, and I find this funny way of tossing them out.

And it's never just what the doctor ordered either.

It's never come in pill form; it's never been a label that defined me in an aha moment.

She's bipolar, uh, no wait, ADHD. Uh that's not it. Anxiety disorder. No wait....That's a label with a pill basically that puts a bandaid on it momentarily.

I can remember being inpatient, and the doctors were assholes. I mean real assholes. I was talking about sexual coercion with one doctor whose response to everything was, "you were drunk, you don't remember" just to make an excuse not to listen to me. As much as I think we are advancing as humans, and drifting away from a patriarchal society, I occasionally run into experiences that indicate it is alive and well.

I was sent to a detox without being drunk or on drugs, and given a prescription that was the harshest thing I have ever done to my body.

I remember a doctor accusing me of "getting high." At this point in life I had maybe tried pot twice. Of course the doctor had given me a good course of Navane, that probably got me higher than anything. He would then go into this bad cop interrogation of my drug history while I am stoned out of my gourd on a typical antipsychotic. Of course my reaction was of a person who was completely stoned- and I would talk a blue streak back to this doctor. The doctor recorded that as verbatim of my drug history as if it were truth.

I remember just lying to the doctor because telling the truth made them close their ears. So anything I said was used against me, anything said with an ounce of truth was quickly ignored and not allowed to be talked about.

I was told it cost a pretty penny each night to stay there. My week long stay cost $1000's of dollars. It did little for me.

I then went to see a doctor after that; I refused to see a drug counsellor- who was supposed to help me stay "sober" when I hadn't been drinking.

I refused and paid a counsellor $5 for an hour, and got more out of that then I did a state of the art facility. Go figure.