Staying Strong

With some of the house in order and the lawn picked up and no dog cookies made or cards organized, I thought it would be a good idea pre-holiday to get myself tidied up. I mean, it was getting down to the wire and really, how many years worth of pictures of yourself do you really need to be haunted by where you look like Bozo and Brook Shields love child? In my case? Too many.

Since I had been there last there has been a change in management. I liked the last management. I never had to wait and all conversations were conducted in pantomime as they didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Korean. I walked in the door, fluttered by fingers around my eyes and they took to the back to do their thing. It was fast, easy and convenient to work. I would pop in there at 11:30 and could be sitting down eating lunch before noon. I liked that. This time, under new management I walked in at 4:30 and did my fluttering and they asked me to sit down and sign in, in English! I was aghast. My first thought was They are totally going to charge more! . I pay very little for very little and part of that is no conversations and no reading the magazines, this time I read an entire Glamour and half a Self before I got called back and then I sat there too. I was not happy. I’ve been the victim of too much poor customer service lately and this was making me feel picked on.

Finally, a woman came back and my wallet relaxed. She spoke a grand total of four words of English and they were gibberish! She did her thing and I went to pay where I discovered she knows another word of English: Tip .

I have been trying to DIY the brow waxing because they make tweezers for a reason and it is not to fix glasses frames or pull pennies out from air-conditioning grates. I have been trying spend as little on “want” items as I can. It’s about Need v. Want and I’m trying to remember what is and is not important and to concentrate on keeping my Needs filled. Wanting something is natural, but its not a Need for a reason. No one “needs” another plastic plate, not even a really heavy one with a neat image on it. Also, no one needs black noodles, even if they are really, really, really cool and you want them right now... But you must keep in mind that for the same price you could get toothpaste and butter and tea you need those.

Right now for instance, Dogger is helping out the home team by eating a catalogue. This is a good thing for her to do, the downside is that I don’t really want her to eat my catalogues but I need her to eat as many as possible as quickly as possible. so I can’t find more things I need. To drive my point home and in the spirit of being consistent , I separated Dogger from her catalogue toy and now she is sad. She won’t even speak to Ninja Hamster and she has completely forgotten about Bone! She’s known both of them for months and now she doesn’t love them anymore.. It’s very sad to see old friends grow apart.

I wish I could explain to her that while eating unwanted catalogs is Okay, eating the similar papery utility bills is not. It is very hard to make that distinction with her.

Now Dogger, this envelope comes from AT&T, this is not to eat, but this envelope comes from Publishers Clearing House and it is okay to eat. Mommy’s explanation of Benefits from her Insurance Company is not okay to eat but this booklet from Hover-Round is. This catalogue from Thomas Kincaid is okay to eat but this Signals catalogue is not. Can you see the differences? Good Girl.

Right now Dogger is crying at the door so that I will re-unite her with her catalogue. It is her best friend and she misses it very much.