Today, my mom came home looking extremely tired and sweaty, declaring that she needed ice cream at that instant. A freezer check reminded her that unfortunately, she had eaten up all of the Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream last night.

"Regina, we are going to get ice cream."


Okay. I'm cool with that.

So we went to the grocery store, and everything was great! We got ice cream, and went to pay for it. In front of us, was an old lady who was trying to open her grocery bag (but couldn't because it had no grip).  After about 30 seconds, I decided that maybe she needed help.

"Would you like me to help you?"



Silence.


"Ma'am, would you like me to help you?"


Then she gave me the steeliest glare with her foggy eyes and said: "Not. At. All."

So I left her alone and proceeded to bag my own groceries, saying to myself, "don't take it personally," but I kind of felt like I was slapped in the face.

However, my point is that we're sometimes too proud to let others help us. I wasn't suggesting that she was old and feeble, although she may have taken it that way; I was merely offering my assistance if she needed it. I was, to be honest, a little stunned to receive that kind of reaction, but I digress. I sometimes have this problem of not letting others help me as well, and I've started to realize over the past 6 months or so that it's okay to admit that sometimes teamwork is better than working on projects alone.

So, was I a little miffed that I was treated so rudely?

Yes.

Will I stop offering my assistance?

Not. At. All.

Have you ever had this kind of experience? How did/would you deal with it?

My house has become an obstacle course. When I wake up in the morning, I ninja myself out of my room by crouching and jumping over a pile of wood... only to trip on a wooden block on the way to the bathroom because I'm chuckling at how stealthy I was.

When I come home from school, I need to literally dance around all the pieces of wood that are in between the front entrance and the snack cupboard. (One day there was a huge stack of wood in front of it, and I nearly had a fit. It was the bag of chips left out on the counter that saved me.)

I should probably explain why there's so much wood in the house. My parents decided that we were going to remove all the carpet in the house and replace it with either hardwood or cork flooring. So that means.. THE ENTIRE SECOND FLOOR, THE STAIRS, AND HALF OF THE MAIN FLOOR. There have been workers here every single day for the past week, and it's still not done.

And don't even talk to me about sawdust.

Having OCD tendencies, I HATE it when things are messy... so you can only imagine what I look like everyday when I come home from school. If you can't, here's an image:

SAWDUST. EVERYWHERE. EVERYTHING SMELLING LIKE SAWDUST.  *brain explodes*

I used to LOVE the smell of sawdust, whenever I walked past the woodshop in school, I'd linger there a bit to smell the wood. But now... my relationship with sawdust is like the relationship between a sandwich and a locker.

It has become moldy.

Have home renovations ever given you this much grief?

Yesterday I was at home with a stomach bug of some sort and not at school, where I should have been. I'm pretty sure it was from the Brie cheese I had the night before, which makes me very sad because I love Brie cheese... and it betrayed me. But anyways, after reading Clem's post about things that bugged her, I remembered that I have wanted to do a post like this for a long time! So since I had some free time...

Chewing in circular motion:

For some reason I absolutely cannot stand this. Most of you probably don't know what I'm talking about, so I'll provide this picture as a reference:

Yes, that is a goat giraffe. But imagine a person chewing like that... opening their mouth every few seconds, making an occasional smacking sound. AUGH. I can't understand why chewing, which involves moving your jaw up and down VERTICALLY, would result in a circular motion. (I'm weird, okay?) Keep your mouth shut, I don't want to see your food.

Condescension: 

Now, I sometimes take advice the wrong way and think that the other person is being condescending due to my sensitive nature, and that's entirely my fault. However, when someone is condescending on purpose, it's a reflection of their bad character. Aaaaand, I really don't like it (though I'm sure no one does).

Ripped leggings/tights:

I don't care what anyone says, you will never see me in ripped tights. Ever. I think it's tacky and makes you look not very put together. Maybe it's because I'm one of those people who loves order and cleanliness... I get an urge to mend holes any time I see them.

People who think they're "profound" when they're not:

Actually, you can pretty much replace "profound" with any description... funny, cute, Asian, a giraffe...  But really, when all your pictures are of you playing a guitar with your face cut out of the picture, or if you start every response while stroking the non-existent hairs on your chin, you need to have a sit down with your ego. Of course, I'm speaking from experience and I'm definitely not saying that everyone who does this is faking/delusional about their talents. Though, I think this is advice that we can all live by: before you say something, ask yourself "does what I'm about to say actually make sense?" If you don't, you might end up sounding as deep as a puddle.

Do any of these things annoy you (or am I just strange)?  Is there anything in particular that annoys you that's not on this list?

Especially when the decision involved will plan out the next 4 - 5 years of my life. Right now my thoughts are all jumbled and I'm probably going to sound like an ungrateful brat, but I need to write this down, so here goes:

My parents (more so my mother) have always been there for me, maybe not for much emotional support (they don't seem to be the touchy-feely type), but for school, finances, etc. More often than not, they were the ones that made my decisions for me, because, duh, I was too young to decide to switch schools and stuff. But with a subject like university, MY future is on the line, and MY life should ultimately be MY decision.

They've always been incredibly protective, and they've always been concerned about giving me the best life possible. They've given up so much for me by moving to a whole new country and leaving behind their steady jobs, and I honestly appreciate everything they've done. Honestly. But what I need now more than ever is to think for myself without someone to constantly tell me that I'm wrong and that THEY know what's right for me.

I need this chance to be my own person.

To live life how I want to live it. To make mistakes, and then to learn how to fix them. I don't want security, and as stress-relieving as it is to know how your life will turn out (because that's what they're trying to do; plan out an idiot-proof career for me), I don't want it.

Yes, I do sound like a whiny teenager when I say I wish they'd just back off and let me make my own decisions sometimes, and I know I'll sound like even more of one when I say that my reasons are entirely justified. In the university choosing process, they picked the majority of my choices for me. Before that, they gave me two options: to either go into business or become a doctor (not engineering because "I'm a girl").

They think I'm naive and don't trust me. Today, I told my mom that I was among the first people admitted to Richard Ivey School of Business, and she said, "Oh, are you considering that?" I told her maybe, and she immediately frowned and said "no you're not".

Oh really? I'm not? Then why did I just say that I was?!

My mother first and foremost wants me to become a doctor. (I'm not saying this is the only reason, but her mother stopped her from going to medical school, and she's always regretted listening to her.) Ivey would give me an alternative - business administration, since there is a HIGH chance I won't get into medical school.

However, her problem is that she doesn't think I'll be able to concentrate on school to get the extremely high marks needed for medical school since Nick would be at the same school. She also thinks that the only reason I want to go to that school is because of him. Of course, I realize it's entirely reasonable for her to doubt me, but my problem with her is that after all these years, she still doesn't trust me. 

I honestly don't know what I can do to convince her that I want to go to school because of the SCHOOL. Yes, my average did drop from grade 11 to 12, but that's because I felt there was a significant leap in curriculum and the quantity of projects.

I know that I can defy them and go my own way, but I guess what I'm trying to say here is that for ONCE, I'd like to do something for myself without disappointing them.

I'm afraid to disappoint people, and right now I'm so lost that I wish I could just curl into a ball and disappear. Anything to not face this decision right now.


TL; DR: I'm angry because my parents won't let me make my own decisions about university. 

How good are you at remembering names? Do you instantly connect a name with a face, or do you have to think really hard just to come up with the first letter? A lot of people apparently have trouble with this... or maybe it's just MY name that's hard to remember (/I'm forgettable). Here are just some of the things that happened to me (all on the same day) that leads me to believe so:

1. At lunch, someone sat down at the same table where I was sitting and asked, "Sorry, but who ARE you?" even though I told him last week when he asked the same question. I don't think he has short term memory loss, so I guess I must be a forgettable person.



2. At work, a kid came up to me and said, "Hey Natalie, I'm done my classwork." (I work at Kumon and I have to mark their classwork.) Natalie?! That's not even CLOSE to my name, and that boy has been coming to Kumon for at least two months.



3. Again, at work, I got called "Georgina" (which is I guess closer to my name than Natalie...) by my boss. It's one thing to be called by another name by a student, but it's an entirely different situation when the woman who gives me my pay cheques gets my name wrong. *Crawls back under rock*

So, how often do people mess up YOUR name?

I don't know if anyone's ever told you this, but it's NOT a good idea to set up your nets in the middle of the street because, you know, there are these dangerous moving things called CARS that can run you over. Yeah, trust me, those things can go really fast and they might just kill you if the driver wants to screws up.

Let's ignore that for a minute though, and concentrate on what is perhaps a more pressing issue: do you have the faintest clue what manners are? C'mon, I'm sure your parents must have mentioned that word a few times before. It means NOT shouting at the person driving in a car marked "DRIVING SCHOOL" while they're trying to manoeuvre through the freaking obstacle course you set up with your nets and piles of jackets.

Of course, a bunch of 10-year-old boys are also challenging targets obstacles for an inexperienced driver during her first driving lesson. And contrary to your beliefs, yelling "GO ALREADY!", "GTFO", and other more inappropriate things are not going to make me drive any faster. What someone with an actual brain would have done was walk over to the curb and wait until the car has passed. But instead, you all continued to stand there and yell.

The next time you decide to yell profanities at a stranger, make sure they're not operating a vehicle that can run over your pathetic little bodies.

I was just walking down my street to go get the mail, you know, everyday ordinary stuff. It doesn't take very long, but it took me 5 minutes today just to get to the mailbox. Why? Because my idiotic neighbours didn't shovel their part of the sidewalk, hence why it turned into a long strip of ice. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if the snow hadn't melted and then froze again, but it's Canada.

The first thing I thought was, "Oh crap, my boots have no grip, how am I supposed to get the mail now?" And so I shuffled across the ice, completely ignoring the people in the cars driving by that were snickering to themselves.

No, I did not fall.

And this brings me to my point: Being a part of any neighbourhood means doing your part to keep this community safe. Elders and children walk up and down these streets everyday, so I think everyone should make sure their part of the sidewalk is easily accessible.

It's not like I was an idiot who was wearing sandals in the winter; I was wearing proper boots and STILL found it hard to walk across the ice... now there's a surprise. If I wanted to slide across a sheet of ice, I'd go to a rink where there would be people to help me when I fall and/or get injured.

It doesn't MATTER if you get driven everywhere; not everyone drives and people need to start being more considerate. The funny thing is, my neighbours have two little girls who play outside all the time. Wouldn't they want their children to be safe and, you know, NOT fall flat on their faces?

And although the sidewalk gets shovelled occasionally by those sidewalk-shoveling cars, it is ultimately YOUR responsibility to make sure your part of the sidewalk is clean enough for others to walk on.

I honestly hope that these people fall on their own sidewalk.

tl;dr - People should shovel their sidewalks so others don't fall and get injured.

Dear Ministry Of Health,

First of all, let me just say that you've been good the past few years (because I haven't had to go to the doctor's much). You provide Canadians with health care, and for that, I thank you.

However, renewing a health card shouldn't take any longer than ten minutes in the capable hands of your staff, right? Apparently not, since I had to wait an hour and a half OUTSIDE in the cold this morning because your stupid services didn't hire enough people to take care of this city. Not to mention that the competent people you did hire were utterly rude. That security lady told me to go stand somewhere else every damn time I finally found a new place to stand(because she told me to). Right, like the people that are here to renew their health cards are going to plot a mass murder.

I don't mind standing since there were a lot of people, but DON'T tell me to go sit somewhere else IF THERE AREN'T SEATS LEFT. About that too, get a room that's bigger than my bedroom, fill it with chairs so that the citizens can wait in THERE instead of freezing their asses off outside.

My feet are completely numb now thanks to you, and I'm pretty sure I got a cold. In any case, please mail me my new card soon in case I have an "emergency".

Because loud and crazy ones are the worst. It all started with my dad inviting one of his university buddies (whom he hasn't talked to in about 20 years) over to our family Christmas dinner.

Dad: ZOMG I went to university with you, we should totally hang out again.

Friend: Hokay! And I'll bring my kids along! My son just came back from Australia, he's studying dentistry so he can talk to your daughter alllll about university! And my other kid's just cute.

Dad: Sweet, even more people to share their university experiences with my daughter! She'll be so thrilled!1!!one
(Of course they didn't use hip words such as "hokay" and "ZOMG")

This wouldn't have happened if they still lived far away, but hey, they just happened to have moved into our area! Why is it that people insist on moving close to their friends? Don't they know that absence makes the heart grow fonder?

So for most of the night, I had to listen to how university "was a blast because, LIKE, we get smashed, LIKE, every single day. And dentistry? Psshh, such a joke blah blah..." while the other kid, who is the exact definition of a tyrant, ordered and punched us around. That little girl is going to grow up to be such a manipulative brat (not that she isn't one already, but she'll have plenty time to master the craft of manipulation). You'd think that any person with common sense would know NOT TO HIT THEIR HOST. But err, no, her parents obviously didn't teach her that.

Sure, honey, you can totally punch the older kids and tug them around like they're your slaves.

I don't give a crap that she's only 8; this might be old-fashioned, but when I was eight, I sat quietly and did what I was TOLD. Sure, I goofed around in my parent's house, but never at anyone else's because that's just plain RUDE.

Oy, and we got invited to their New Year's party...

It took less than 4 minutes for George Stinney to to die after his execution had begun on June 16th, 1944. He was a fourteen-year-old boy, and the youngest to be executed in the United States in the 20th century.

His crime? Being black in a society dominated by white men.

George Stinney was accused of murdering two white girls, Betty June Binnicker and Mary Thames in South Carolina with no real evidence at all. He was interrogated by several white officers for several hours before the deputy announced that he confessed to the murders.

The trial took place on April 24 at the Clarendon County Courthouse. Closing arguments ended at 4:30pm, and the jury deliberated for 10 minutes before returning with a guilty verdict and no recommendation for mercy. There was also no appeal since Stinney's family had no money for a continuation.

There is hardly any evidence to support this verdict; Stinney died an utterly unjust and atrocious death.

Words are not enough to express how I feel right now... it's a mixture of depression, rage, sadness, and every other negative emotion all combined in one big fiery ball.

It took George Stinney less than 4 minutes to die, but how long is it going to take to achieve equality in the world we live in?

This song sums up the current situation perfectly.