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Hello. Since I created the things I love thread I thought it should have an opposing thread of things that are bothering you right now. I do not want the thread to get overly critical so try to keep it light! I try to stay positive generally but sometimes there are just things that do not rock I would like to talk about :)

I will start. Things that do not rock for me today are people who ask personal questions and get all judgey when your life decision is different that theirs. Since I am old and wise (hahaha kind of) I have learned to let people tell you personal information themselves and never ask personal questions unless it is your family or BFF (sometimes not even then!). I think this is a good rule of thumb. Thoughts??

I agree with you, Heidi! I allow the person to bring up the personal topic without me asking ;-)

Hmm, waking up really early does not rock with me. I'm not exactly a morning person. XD Today I got about 3 hours & 30 minutes of sleep and felt like a zombie :-P

That I only have a few hours left of weekend does not rock with me. I just got back last week from a two week non-stop fabulous vacation in Turkey and I need more weekend to recuperate from my vacation! ;-D

Charmaine I agree 100% I tell people at work all the time NOT to talk to me until 10:00 a.m. I am soooooooooooooooo not into mornings.

Karen I will be kind of in the same out next week (except I am not leaving the country!) I will be traveling home to MN for the weekend and returning Sunday and then right back to work Monday plus I am on call that week - boo! I already know I am going to be a bear that Monday! I usually take a day off now between when I get home and when I get to work but since I am on call that is now working for me this time.

Heidi, I had the same thing. My flight was due back at 10 pm, but got in at 4 am due to being snowed in at JFK. I was meant to be at work at 9 am. Apparently that didn't happen. Ha. I spent all last week playing catch up at work and still not there yet! I've been a bear all week and it's not over yet. BUT the good news is.... IT'S ALL WORTH IT! Enjoy your vacation!! Be a bear when you get back! Everyone is so understanding!

I HATE getting up in the morning!! NOT a morning person at all. And more than that I HATE computer problems at work...which I had all last week. GRRRR!! Ended up having to work 52 hours to get everything done because of it! I HATE that!!

Karen wrote: "Heidi, I had the same thing. My flight was due back at 10 pm, but got in at 4 am due to being snowed in at JFK. I was meant to be at work at 9 am. Apparently that didn't happen. Ha. I spent all l..."

Wow! 4 am??? Yuck! That is horrible!

Melodie before my office relocated last year we had the WORST old computers that took like 15 minutes to warm up in the morning and froze all day long. I don't like our new office but I do not like those old computers!

The catch-up at work after vacation is always the worst. I only work three days this week (yay!) and am on vacation but then I will be back to work the day after vacation (next Friday). Blech. I usually have a day or weekend off before I go back. At least it's only a day.

I had the worst afternoon at work on Friday. I was so mean to a guy who called late in the afternoon to reschedule his appointment (after he missed it because he hadn't checked his post office box in two weeks). We have two cases with this guy and he has been a major pain but I should have been nicer. My late Friday attitude got the best of me. I was ready for my week to be done and lost my cool with the PITA.

I only have three days of work this week too! Woohoo! Then I get to go be in my best friends wedding this weekend!
But what does NOT rock is that I caught some kind of bronchial infection and it feels like a fat guy is sitting on my chest. Also, I have no voice! Also, my friends wedding is in Houston and I don't wanna travel when I'm sick and have to work Monday!!! BOO!

P.S. - Heidi I don't like critical lifestyle judging people either! Just had to put that out there ;)

Kourtni - Bronchial infections are the worst. Hope you feel better quickly!

Heidi - Screw the judgy people!

Melodie - Computer problems must be going around because we have had problems over the last two months. They have new computers for us but aren't installing them until all the virus issues settle down.

Shannen remember last week when I said I was a bear -- I feel you pain! I was rude to more people than I can remember but I did warn them first! hahaha I am going to be even worse next week after this short week!

Kourtni I am so sorry you are feeling yucky :( Hope you get better before your friends wedding.

Thanks ladies! :)

Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right now. I also have to write a poem probably by tomorrow––it's kind of hard to explain, but it's this group project where each group member has to create something in response to what the last group member made. So, I have to pass on my part before Wednesday because two other group members still have to do their own pieces and I don't want to hold up the line. I also have to come up with an outline/draft for my final paper in one class and I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to construct it ... I'm actually writing a paper on the importance of YA literature; maybe you guys can help me out. XD

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right now. I also have to write a poem proba..."

Ahhh Brigid! I feel your pain, because I have so much studying/preparation to do before finals, too. I just submitted a big paper before 5 pm that took all day. XD Good luck with your paper and everything else! A paper on YA literature sounds interesting :-)

Haha, thanks. :) Good luck to you too!

Sorry gals! You are reminding me why I never went back to get my masters degree! I hate homework and papers and am a horrible procrastinator so everything gets done in a rush!

Good luck on your paper Brigid. I would say for me the importance of YA Literature is for young adults to have have an outlet and/or a place for them to identify with other young adults going through similar problems so that they feel heard or less misunderstood. I also think it is great for escapism since so many young adult books make the reader buy into a fantasy world/life.

As an adult YA reader I would say the importance for me is less in identifying myself with the main characters but more with with remembering how it felt to be that age. I also read YA as a form of escapism as I think most readers do :)

Thanks Heidi! That does help me, especially in regards to why YA literature is important to adults as well as teenagers. :)

I feel evrybody's college pains! Just turned in a 15 page paper and have a 10 page paper due next week. BLAH! THEN finals to study for and theeeeeeen winter break!! WOOP!!!! Colorado here I come!

Ahhh good luck Kourtni! I still have to start a 15-page paper and a 7-page paper plus do a bunch of other more minor assignments ... all of this within the next two weeks or so. I can do it, but it'll be stressful. :P

Yes, you can do it! Then you're one semester closer to being finished :)... at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I do not love returning to work after 4 days off!

Ladies who are in school enjoy it while it lasts! There are no winter breaks when you work full time!

Unfortunately I still have to work Heidi. I've had a full time job the whole time I've been in school so I don't think I've had an actual winter break since high school :'( But I did take a week of vacation during my break to get some snowboarding in! ;)

Kourtni wrote: "Unfortunately I still have to work Heidi. I've had a full time job the whole time I've been in school so I don't think I've had an actual winter break since high school :'( But I did take a week of..."

Yeah I knew you had a full time job -- I worked full time during college and agree that it sucks! I always envied those other students who could just enjoyed their two weeks off with no work or school! *sigh*

Kourtni wrote: "I feel evrybody's college pains! Just turned in a 15 page paper and have a 10 page paper due next week. BLAH! THEN finals to study for and theeeeeeen winter break!! WOOP!!!! Colorado here I come!"

I figure you're coming out here for skiing or boarding. Will keep my fingers crossed for you that conditions improve. We're getting no snow here in the flatlands and the mountains aren't faring a whole lot better! Supposed to be 65 here in Denver this weekend....the first weekend of December!

You college gals are so ambitious. I never went to college (had my first son one month after high school graduation) and am slightly envious. I could go back to school now but would have to work full time and I just don't have it in me. College is hard work! Keep it up, ladies!

I agree with Heidi about YA books. A means to escape and to remember what life felt like at that age.

Heidi: Oh man I hear ya. I am so jealous of my friends who had those nice winter and spring and summer breaks! Oh well. This is the path I chose and I am lucky to be able to get a higher education!

Shannen: I commend you for doing the whole kid thing!! The idea of having kids scares the crap out of me LoL! I don't have any experience but I gather its pretty hard work too ;).

Melodie: I have hope the weather is going to cool down in the next few weeks. It is supposed to be 79 in Tulsa,OK today and that is unheard of around here in December! I am usually not one to complain about warm weather but this is killing my alleriges and I am getting sick every other week. SO bring on the cold weather already!!!

The swing in temps is killing my allergies Kourtni! It keeps getting cold then warm and my head hurts!!

Thanks, Kourtni. It was tough for the first few years but I wouldn't change a thing. I always tell people that I went to the University of Hard Knocks. Haha! My youngest sister (11 years my junior) learned from my experiences and has her masters degree so I got to live some of the college life vicariously through her. It's a lot of hard work!

Allergies are the pits! Hope you guys feel better! We have been having cold wet weather with some flooding. Washington winters stink!

Things that do not rock...

Getting a photo radar ticket in the mail today. :-( $219 down the drain and right before xmas.

Karen wrote: "Things that do not rock...

Getting a photo radar ticket in the mail today. :-( $219 down the drain and right before xmas."

Boo! Wow $219! That is like the one I got in WI. The tickets here are usually around $75 but tickets suck no matter what!

Boo hiss! We have photo radar in our school zones only. We had red light cameras for a while but we voted them out. They were horrible.

Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right now. I also have to write a poem proba..."

I think writing a paper on the importance of YA literature would be awesome! As soon as I read your post I started thinking of all the academic arguments one could pose on this subject. The one idea that immediately came to mind is that YA literature can provide insight into the daily struggle of growing up. If you consider that most YA books are written by adults, one can argue that there is a "folly of youth; wisdom of age" symbiotic relationship between the author and the reader. At the very least, the struggle of the young protagonist can lend support to the reader by allowing the reader to identify with the main character's struggle as well as provide alternative outcomes to problems.

Can you tell I wish I was the one writing this paper?! LOL! I would love to hear your thesis on this one.

Now back to the topic at hand: Things that do not rock...

A renovation taking way longer than it should have and dealing with a contractor who is an idiot.

S.M. wrote: "Now back to the topic at hand: Things that do not rock...

A renovation taking way longer than it should have and dealing with a contractor who is an idiot."

Ugh! No thanks!

S.M. wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right no..."

S.M. wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right no..."

hahaha :)

S.M. wrote: "Brigid *Flying Kick-a-pow!* wrote: "Things that do not rock...
I have so much homework to do right now. GAHHH. I have a short story due at 8 PM tonight, which I'm only like halfway through right no..."

Haha, thank you. I already handed in the paper, but I did talk a bit about that. :)

Things that do not rock:

Obviously, what happened in Connecticut on Friday is just terrible. I still can't get it off my mind. And on top of that, I'm tired of getting into arguments with people over gun laws. Everything has just been making me angry today. Arrrgh. I need to just read or write and try to think about something else ... >_<

Brigid this is one of those times I am glad not have cable so I can avoid the media taking advantage of something that may never be understood. Facebook is the only place I haven't been able to avoid the talk. Within my group of Facebook friends it has only been the pro gun crowd posting comments/tumbler photos. I am not sure who they are responding to because from what I see no one is attacking them or threatening to come take their guns. IMO their focus could be better spent on the kids/families but that is just my opinion.

I agree ... And I'm rather shocked that people are seeing this as an opportunity to defend the use of guns. And then they say those proposing stricter gun laws are "missing the big picture" or something––and yet, they're the ones justifying the right to have guns rather than thinking about how this tragedy could have been avoided. I just don't get it.

There has been a statement going around Facebook, supposedly made by Morgan Freeman, which turned out to be a hoax; however, there was wisdom in the words he apparently never said. At the crux of the statement was that the killer would live on in infamy as a horrendous monster instead of a sad nobody. The message urged everyone to remember the victims - to sensationalize their story and their heroics - and never give the shooter another thought. By stripping the shooter of any publicity it may just deter others who seek to go out with a bang.

And yes - I do believe in stricter gun laws. It's hard to act in the heat of the moment when you have to go through weeks or months of getting approved for a license to own a gun.

My thoughts this Christmas will be with the families who are suffering a tragic loss.

I don't get it either Brigid. People go crazy when any mention of guns is mentioned. It is like there can't even be a rational discussion. Anywho I agree with you S.M. this is a time to focus on family and all we have not gun laws.

I don't understand how this happens either. I haven't watched any news about it since Friday but it seems like this murderer had no connection to the school except that he went there when he was a child.

Unfortunately, these mass murderers don't normally act on impulse. They are planners. My understanding is that this guy used guns that were legally owned by his mother. If there is going to be any gun reform, maybe semi-automatics should be illegal.

We really need mental health reform and for parents to take care of their children, not just their basic needs but to really nurture them. These two things seem to go hand-in-hand with these tragedies.

Shannen wrote: "I don't understand how this happens either. I haven't watched any news about it since Friday but it seems like this murderer had no connection to the school except that he went there when he was a..."

Exactly ... People seem to be forgetting that the guns the man used were obtained legally––granted, not by him, but by his mother. I keep seeing people say things like, "If gun use is restricted, murderers will just find other way to get guns or find other ways to kill people, and it won't affect anything." But in this case, the mother legally owned those guns which is how the murderer had access to them. And in a vast majority of firearm-related murders, the weapon is obtained legally––which says to me that our gun laws are not nearly strict enough. Not to mention, about 60% of homicides in the U.S. involve firearms, and statistically countries with less gun ownership have less murders. There's just no denying this stuff, and it just baffles me that people think restricting gun ownership won't make a difference. ... Sorry, I'll stop. I could rant about this all day. :P

But yeah, I also agree with you on the mental health issue. It's also time that mentally challenged people had access to the health care they need, and also that society stopped treating them like outcasts.

We are starting a mental health court in my county so I have become a little more educated on this subject recently. The majority of people with mental illness are NON violent. In fact people with mental illness are 4 times more likely to be victims of crime themselves. Too many programs and funds have been cut to help mentally ill people and stories like this where the press and others write the shooter off as a crazed lunitic actually hinder others from seeking the little help that is out there for them. It makes me sad. But wait, I need to go take some peoples imarginary guns away because that is what is most important now. Gee wiz!

We have a mental health court too. The only time they are detained is if they have threatened bodily harm to themselves or others. It's very sad.

Somebody posted something on Facebook this weekend that said the reason previous generations didn't have the problems we are having in our schools is because they beat up the "weird kid" instead of coddling him/her. I couldn't believe people were agreeing with this. Do they really think the boys involved in the Columbine massacre were coddled? I seem to recall they were bullied and never received any help. Am I remembering it incorrectly? I don't have all the answers but I'm pretty sure that beating up the weird kid isn't the answer.

Heidi (up to no good) wrote: "Too many programs and funds have been cut to help mentally ill people and stories like this where the press and others write the shooter off as a crazed lunitic actually hinder others from seeking the little help that is out there for them."

Yes, this. ^^

I think one of the biggest problems when something like this happens is, people dismiss the criminal as just being "crazy"––as if that person was some part of an alien race, so it's not our problem to try to help others with similar mental issues. It's like making this person the "other" so that we don't even try to think of them as a human being, which I think is a damaging mindset to have as a society.

Shannen wrote: "We have a mental health court too. The only time they are detained is if they have threatened bodily harm to themselves or others. It's very sad.

Somebody posted something on Facebook this weeke..."

Are you serious...? O_O Some people ... I just can't ...

And yeah, not only is that horribly offensive, but it's just wrong and illogical. Not to stereotype because it's not always true, but a lot of murderers (like those involved in Columbine, as you said) are partly driven to commit such horrible crimes because they were bullied/harassed in some way.

Shannen wrote: "We have a mental health court too. The only time they are detained is if they have threatened bodily harm to themselves or others. It's very sad.

Somebody posted something on Facebook this weeke..."

OMG! That is beyond horrible!