You’re sitting in your office trying to make peace with your inner pout. You’re trying to remember where you put the last of the Christmas cards. You’ve got to jam just one or two more holiday errands into the lunch hour.
OHMYGOD will you remember to tip the mail carrier and the mechanic and the babysitter and anyone else who expects to be tipped at this time of year for exemplary service – or just showing up?
Do people still do that? Have I been watching too many old movies?
It’s down to the wire on hasty holiday last-minute lists. You’re winding down. Wearing out. But don’t panic! You still have a few more days.
If only you weren’t supposed to feel chipper and grateful when what you really feel is beat and cranky. Well crank up the cranky and pour it out here. Get it out of your system. Ferociously frazzled? Hopelessly harried? Worried about trees and candles, parties and baking, overtired kids and overstretched budgets?
Not to worry! End of the year clearance on Complaint Monday!
Please pass (on) the W(h)ine
I know, I know. Yesterday I said I had no complaints. But it’s Monday morning! And I’ve got just a few to share.
- I always get my boys chocolate oranges and I can’t find them anywhere. They aren’t oranges. They’re chocolate that look like oranges. It’s tradition in our family. Help!
- My house is still not clean. How many months have I been trying? And where did my kitchen table top disappear to?
- The stack of bills is as tall as I am high. Okay. Not quite. Half as tall. And today is B-Day. Bills, bills, bills.
- My kid is sleeping, but the list of things I have to do on his behalf is almost as long as the bill stack is high. Where’s the justice in that?
- OMG there’s no food in the house again. Must I really go grocery shopping already??
- I have a zit. How is this possible? I’ve been off chocolate since our marathon of all-nighters came to an end a few days ago. In what universe does this make sense?
Positivity, positivity… Pearls of positivity…
I really don’t have a thing to complain about! I do have a crazy busy week ahead, but my sons are well, and we’ll all be together soon, just hanging out. And that sounds wonderful to me. What else?
- I will find substitute chocolate in the shape of… something, for my boy-o’s. Or maybe, real oranges?
- What’s a little mess as long as the house is filled with laughter?
- I’ll navigate the stack of bills as best I can, and I actually have stamps!
- I’m glad my son is sleeping. He needs those zzzzs badly. And the rest? It’s my job, as CEO of Infrastructure.
- Grocery shopping. Well, I have to find that replacement chocolate anyway, right? Or maybe we could go for pizza, one more night?
- I’ll Photoshop out the zit, after we take our holiday pictures. (Thank you Technology Triumphs of the Twenty-First Century.)
Your Turn
Last chance. It really is a crazy, wearying, high expectation time of year. We often set ourselves up to be disappointed with our own attitudes. We try so hard to make things “perfect” for our families that we forget “perfect” doesn’t exist – and it doesn’t need to. But go for it. End of the year clearance on complaints!
No complaint too small.
And Happy Monday!
I could complain, but I’m not going to because the list is so long it would take too much room. How about dipping an orange in chocolate??
Good idea! (Adding that to the (grrrrrr) supermarket list.)
I haven’t opened this floodgate yet today – I’m ignoring my complaints until lunchtime, which I will be spending at Toys R Us. And the grocery (it’s cold enough that I can just leave them in the car until I go home for the day, right?).
I like the traditional end-of-year tipping. But we don’t have a babysitter, our mechanic died recently, and our mailman is also the mayor.
On an almost unrelated note, during my last class this semester I told the students that the “80 percent of success is showing up” rule is bull – that showing up is a mere expectation. Uhoh, I’m getting dangerously close to complaining about a lot of things now, and lunch is two hours away!
Your mailman is the mayor??? 😉
Just when I was picking myself up by the funny, proverbial bootstraps…oh, but what the hell I’ll partake. Here’s my complaint list:
1. It’s going to rain for three days in Southern California and people (of course everyone else) don’t know how to drive in this kind of weather. AND I have to finish up my Christmas shopping or start it.
2. Stop tempting me with chocolate and wine. I have no willpower. Where has it gone?
3. Just when I clear one pile, another one miraculously pops up. I’m about to throw all of them away. This could mean throwing away bills. Yes, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll throw it all away.
This was hard for me to write because the good news is that these are so minor to all the blessings I have in my life. And I think I’ve rounded that poor pitiful corner I’ve been squatting on for a long time.
What are bootstraps, anyway?
Well rain sucks. Tempted by chocolate and wine sucks. (Especially when you resist and get zits anyway.) Finishing Xmas shopping in the crowds sucks.
See? All legit.
As for those piles and the way they spring up – I think it’s a plot, no doubt supernatural, and has something to do with all those missing socks. Or kids. Or both.
Funny but I don’t think I have any complaints today. I’m as unprepared for Christmas as I’ve ever been, but I know it’ll all come together. Why stress?
I think this should be the mantra for the week: It’ll all come together. Why stress? I think you’re right! (And I just found some chocolate oranges. How cool is that?)
I refuse to open it this year. That well that is holiday stress. And surprisingly, or maybe not, I don’t feel it. It’s a welcome gift, particularly since I have a cold and should be rather cranky. So instead I’ll well up my current happiness inside me and blow a little your way, and hope that 2011 brings you much happiness because you deserve it.
Here’s to growing friends into the New Year!
The complaint involves family and what is most likely going to be an attorney. I am going to be the b*tch in it all but I guess that is what I get for being oldest. Ho Ho Ho!
Remind me to tell you the chocolate orange and Corona story. They are a tradition around here also. I found mine this year at Walgreen’s.
No complaints other than I’m full of piss, vinegar and candy canes and not quite sure what to do with myself.
@ Cathy M and @ Nicki – Cathy, you sound dangerous! (I think maybe you need to give some candy canes to Nicki – not to mention some of that P & V.)
Why oh why must I work this week? Why can’t I be like college kids (or the independently wealthy…) and just veg out for three weeks? Focus is completely impossible right now!
It is a wee bit tough to focus this time of year, yes. But then, we’re supposed to be great role models for our kids, right? (Says the woman surrounded by college app spreadsheets and checklists and research spread out everywhere.)
As complaints go, I’d say that one is probably rippling all across the continent right about now! And yeah – that independently wealthy thing. How do you join that club? 🙂
For today I’ll just send good wishes for your (and commentor) complaints—but I will accept a raincheck as family is soon descending and, despite all good intentions, I suspect I may have something to work with by boxing day in the realm of complaints. As for now, cheers 🙂
Raincheck most graciously extended, Bruce. 😉
I’ve shelved the complaints. Working on some perspective. There is so much to be grateful about.
Alas, perfect does not exist. Thank you for this timely reminder. xo
I CAN’T FIND CHOCOLATE ORANGES ANYWHERE EITHER!! What’s up with that? I’ve looked all over town. No one has them. I think it’s a conspiracy.
December has been a dead run since Thanksgiving. Army Wife/Guy/Peanut are moving day after tomorrow so we scurried around the state so all the grandparents could have Christmas and say good bye. Our turn for Christmas with them was last weekend. I thought I was doing okay emotionally, but *sigh* it’s not the case. I’m a wreck.
I could really use a dark chocolate orange right now.
Lisa – I think you have good reason to be a wrack. Wallow in the wreck-i-tude. (Hot bath? Go on strike for a day and night?)
For those chocolate oranges (they fix everything), I think Cathy M suggested Walgreen’s. (They just showed up at my local supermarket. Just. And they have a third variation now! Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and toffee crunch something-or-other!)
I have no real complaints – at least none that jump right out at me and I think it might be best not to go hunting for some. But I must share a little story my Kat told me – she subbed for a 7th grade class the last day of school before the holiday vacation, and had one girl that wanted to know “why are the teachers all trying to teach us stuff today?” Like, it’s a holiday, I shouldn’t have to learn! There’s a complaint for you!
Now I have a question – why do you need stamps to pay bills? It’s so much easier to do it online.