What Now

10 THINGS I KINDA HATE RIGHT NOW!
-A subsidiary of Random Acts of Blogging

Don't worry, this isn't because I'm mad or in a bad mood. Sometimes I just have to talk about things I don't like. I reserve the right not to hate these things at another time, but right now I hate them.

1) I hate my new BiPAP machine. I had to get a new breathing machine on Friday, because HAL, the one I used before, was apparently too strong to allow me to exhale. Or something. I don't know, really, because it wasn't explained in a way I understood. Anyway, the new one is roughly about the size of a Mini Cooper, and it is stronger than my old one. It also doesn't start right away. Last night, I put on my mask and started the machine. I waited, and waited....then POP! It started so suddenly that the cabin pressure inside my head changed and my ears popped. Ouch. It has variable pressures, which wouldn't be so bad if I could just get into the rhythm of the thing. I'm having to learn to breathe in 4/4 time. Oh, and I'm allowed 10 breaths a minute, with a bonus breath shoved in in case I do that "No Breathing" thing I do, so if I want more, I'm screwed. OK, maybe not completely screwed since I can still actually breathe, but still...

If I wasn't so strongly against dying of heart failure in my sleep, I'd chuck it out the window.

2) I hate that there are parents out in the world who believe their kids are so much more important than other kids that they get upset when their children are inconvenienced for the safety of another child. Did that make sense?

I don't have kids, and I know that to some people, that means I have no right to judge. However, in this case, I'm going to judge all I want, because these parents are HORRIBLE. It all goes back to a news clip (which I'd link to if I could find it) I saw last week about a group of parents who were picketing outside an elementary school in protest because their kids weren't allowed to have peanut butter due to the fact that a 6 year old girl in the class has a deadly (as in, she doen't have to even eat them to be affected, all out anaphylactic shock and everything) allergy to peanuts.

Ostensibly, they were angry because they said their kids had to wash their hands and rinse out their mouths before class and after lunch, and the teacher had to wipe down the desks with Clorox wipes. They may have even said the kids had to wipe their faces with Clorox wipes, and I'll agree, that seems dangerous. However, when the parents were interviewed, the wipes were not what they mentioned. One woman said something to the affect of, 'It's a waste of my kids time, to wash their hands and faces so often, since it takes time out of their school day. Also, my son can't have his peanut butter and jelly sandwich! I don't think they should be able to tell my son he can't have his peanut butter, or anything else!' Also, some of the parents were saying on camera, that the little girl shouldn't be allowed in school if she was going to cause that much trouble for the rest of the kids.

To be fair, I'd usually be on the side of the non peanut-kids parents. Being a former employee of the Sprocket (ptooey), I know what a pain in the ass it is to completely scrub all traces of peanuts from a place where children congregate. Also, like any normal person, I don't like to be inconvenienced. However, if it will keep someone from choking to death on their own rapidly-swelling tongue, I'd do it. This situation, though, infuriates me. Here is a little girl with a serious health problem- she didn't ask for it, she can't control it, and honestly, she just wants to be as normal a kid as she can be. Her parents don't want her to be ostracized or sealed in a bubble, so they send her to public school, and her fellow students are told they have to be careful and take steps not to make her sick. That doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Then you have these parents who freak the hell out because their own kids have to take these steps. What kind of buttheads picket against the rights of a child to not die from an easily preventable cause?

I'd completely understand their feelings, if they were just about wiping the kids off with Clorox wipes, but that wasn't it. They are ticked off because their kids can't have peanut butter! Seriously, not one child anywhere in the world NEEDS peanut butter. They may like peanut butter, they may even love peanut butter, but they won't die without it. This little girl, however, could possibly die because of it. These parents don't think their kids should have to show consideration to this child, or at least, that is the impression I got from the people interviewed. I bet you anything, that if the tables were turned, they'd want their own children to be protected from whatever allergen could kill them without having to pull them from school.

Children NEED to be taught that they sometimes have to show consideration to others, even at the expense of things they want, because that is the way the world is. Sometimes we have to suffer, if not eating peanut butter and having to wash their hands more than once a day can be called suffering, for the rights of others. It sucks, but it's reality. This seems like a great way to teach that lesson. But there are parents who don't want their precious snowflakes to have to give anything up, not even for the safety of a classmate. The poor little girl probably already has to deal with kids making fun of her because of her health issues, but now she has grown-ups saying that she needs to leave school because of them. What 6 year old child is going to understand the reasons behind their thinking? All she's going to think is "No one likes me and something is wrong with me and that makes me bad." No little kid should have to think that.

Sometimes parents* are the worst bullies. And by bullies, I mean complete asshats.

*Not all parents are like this, so don't get your knickers in a twist if you think I'm talking to you. Unless you already know you are secretly an asshat. :)

3) I hate that I repeat myself so much. My memory is so bad that I can never remember if I've told a joke or a story before. I've probably also blogged or twitted about the same things over and over, while being under the impression that whatever I'm talking about has just occurred to me, because I don't remember I've talked about it before. It's embarrassing! However, I'm grateful that everyone has enough class not to make fun of me for it. Well, almost everyone! :)

4) I hate that losing weight is so difficult for me. Excluding the sleeping issue that can make losing weight hard, I'm not an athlete, and exercising goes against my natural instincts. I can honestly say it is nature, not nurture, that causes me to be this way because I wasn't kept inside as a child. I played outside all of the time when I was younger, but I've always hated getting hot and I've never been graceful or athletic. Not even a little bit. I wish I wanted to run a marathon or something like that, so that I'd want to train and get in shape for it. All I want to do is fit into normal clothes and not be embarrassed to leave the house. I hate that I enjoy eating so much. Delicious food is a pleasure. Not eating it makes me stabby. I mean that honestly, because a hungry Kelly is an evil, angry Kelly. I also hate that the texture of most vegetables makes me gag.

5) I hate the Friday song, and the fact that it's catchy and sticks in my head. There is nothing good about that song. It is ear cancer. I also hate Auto-Tune and the fact that all pop music sounds the same to me now.

6) I hate that Russel Brand looks like he'd be sticky if you touched him.

7) I hate that I can't find my sheets. Seriously, who loses sheets in a house as small as ours and can't find them?

8) I hate when I trip over shoes. I'm not a shoe freak, but I have a lot of shoes. For some reason, they migrate out of my closet and into my path, which causes me to trip over them. I don't even have to wear them for them to move into my way. You'd think shoes that you haven't worn in months would stay where you put them, but mine creep out of my closet and lie in wait. I should get rid of them, but since I generally buy shoes because I need them to match something specific, it would be counter-productive.

9) I hate tomatoes. I like things made from tomatoes, but I hate raw, unadulterated tomatoes. They make me sick to look, smell, or touch them. When people eat raw tomatoes in front of me, I want to set them on fire. (Set the people on fire, not the tomatoes.)

10) I hate forgetting I've got wet clothes in the washer during warm weather. If you leave them in there too long, they start smelling funny and then you have to wash them again. Over the past week, I've had to wash the same load of clothes 3 times because I keep getting side-tracked.