Yellow Dog/Bleeding Heart

I love bonus days! When a holiday falls on a Monday, therefore you get the weekend plus..."Bonus" day. See, being a single parent, there isn't too much down time. Well, for me, there isn't really ANY down time. Saturdays are for "inside" stuff - house cleaning, laundry, cleaning out the attic type stuffs. Sundays are for "outside" - lawn mowing, garage sweeping, gardening, grocery shopping and errand running. When I get Monday as a bonus it is a day I savour to its fullest. I sleep late, then I get up and marvel at how I don't have anything I have to do. Then I usually watch TV for hours. Regardless, it is wonderful!

This morning my father took my sister, myself and Little Dog out for breakfast. As we finished the meal he leaned over to me an whispered, "See that young lady behind you eating alone?" I surrepticiously glanced around to see a young girl, about 20something, quietly eating her breakfast. I looked back at dad and nodded. "I can't imagine why anyone would be eating alone on Christmas morning," he said. "I want you to pick up her check from the table and tell her I'll take care of it...and tell her I said Merry Christmas." I did as he asked and the girl thanked him profusely as he walked by. He just smiled and wished her a Merry Christmas. It was a shining moment in my dad's usually negative outlook. His spontaneously deciding to do this - his even noticing the girl eating alone was a surprise to me. Perhaps the Christmas spirit is not dead after all.

What the hell is wrong with people?! Where did this sense of entitlement come from?! This Christmas season I have heard people bitch about their Christmas gifts; bitch because they had to buy Christmas gifts, and bitch because they didn't get a particular Christmas gift. Co-workers complained loudly that the food at our firm Christmas party - catered by one of the finest restaurants in this city - was "weird" or, more bluntly, "sucked." At the Lavish children's Christmas party the firm hosts every year I heard kids crying because they didn't get what another kid got. One child even tossed aside his video saying, "I didn't want that stupid thing." Man, if Little Dog ever behaved that way he'd quickly find himself present-less. In department stores people shoved and grabbed and let doors bang shut into the faces of people behind them. In parking lots horns blared as people waited for a spot. I have had the good fortune this year to be abl...

When you repeatedly leave recordings on my voice mail in which you bitch about my call returning habits...Well, let's just say, don't hold you breath waiting for my ring. If I wanted to have a conversation every damn time the phone rang then I probably wouldn't have voice mail in the first place. Just to be clear here: When the answering machine became available to the mass public I was the first in line. I used to record very complicated scripts to entertain my callers, and to make up for the fact that I wasn't answering their call. My number used to get passed around so people could call and listen to these mini programs. One outgoing message was played on the radio and widely enjoyed by the listening audience. My machine had a social life of its own! Then, due to the fact that I hoped to have potential employers calling, I went mainstream with my messages. Not good for the HR department of a company I desperately wanted to work for to call and hear my sarcastic voic...