Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Things that keep me awake at night

Somehow when I got my new iphone, my digits were likely sold and now I get calls from all over the country. Utah, Washington, New York, Maine...You name it, the calls are coming in and I don't answer them. The callers, likely machines, don't leave a message, either. As irritating as these calls are, they can't compare to what I encountered yesterday. Last night, I sat in an ICU taking care of a patient for four very long hours. Every two minutes, the unit's phone rang and the caller on the other end was a fax machine. Talk about disruptive! It's not like a busy neuro ICU staff has anything better to do, right? Since I was the only one sitting at the desk for a bit, I took to answering the phone line and hanging up on the computerized fax machine. I have to apologize to the cat scan department though because after the 90th call from the phantom fax machine, I hung up on them once, too.

Why don't Stub Hub and Art Fire get the message that I've unsubscribed to their daily emails more than once? They're still emailing me every day. I abhor junk email. I used to have a wowway email, but got so annoyed by junk--and by junk I mean viagra ads--that I started using gmail to escape, but that's become an issue, too. Yesterday I went into that long ignored wowway account and deleted 891 junk mails. My mac.com email doesn't ever get junk, but then I don't give that email address out to anyone but family and friends. I used to have to pay for the mobile me (mac) account, but realized that they weren't billing me anymore and sometime over the last year, mobile me became a free service. Even though it's free, I still don't get junk. Thanks, Steve!

Can holiday advertising be any more frantic? Talk about annoying! The Target and Kohls commercials are beyond obnoxious. And another thing, I think it's shameful that these stores are opening at midnight, and some even 10PM on Thursday night. I feel sorry for their employees who can't even enjoy the holiday before they descend into retail hell on Friday. I recall the days when you got what you needed before a big holiday because everyone was at home celebrating and spending time with their families. If you forgot an ingredient, you were out of luck. You couldn't even get gasoline on a holiday (or even a Sunday). Now it seems every single store or big chain is open. Nothing is sacred. Even the local CVS is open 7AM to 10 PM Thursday. I think that's sad. What's even sadder is the amount of people who've been camping outside some stores since Saturday. Really? Maybe we can see a picture of them in the dictionary under the definition of insanity. I hope they enjoyed the nearly 2 inches of rain we got yesterday.

Why so bitchy, Nurse Rudee? After all, it's warm(er) today and the sun is shining in the glorious blue sky. I think I must be missing Mr. Larger Than Life and his drama this holiday and it all feels weird. It'll be our first peaceful holiday without the stick in the mud spoiling the day him. To commemorate the occasion, I bought two lovely bottles of pinot noir and even got the wine glasses out so the wine doesn't have to be served in disguise. There will be no fight over the television and Rachel can watch Winnie the Pooh to her heart's delight. What's to miss? To make me feel more myself at this holiday, my son is insisting on buying a ham. And day old vegetable trays. I hope he doesn't expect me to fawn over his offerings.

That is all. Perhaps I should open the wine early.

15 comments:

SkippyMom said...

I don't find it bitchy at all, but if it makes you feel better than by all means pop the cork! And relax.

I hope your Thanksgiving is quiet and when you finally go to your shift that it is quiet too. :) [No more fax machines!]

Happy Thanksgiving my friend. :) Wish you were here.

Brenda said...

I hear ya! Sometimes people are way too obsessed with all the THINGS they can buy than just sitting around playing cards with the family. Those are memories that last forever.
Also....the stupid automated phone calls are the most annoying things ever. Right up there with everything that is sealed with super glue and packaged so ridiculously dangerous I can not believe they are still doing it! When will it end???
I bet you miss MLTL somewhat.....

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

i know it's time to stick my head in the sand when i hear the first "every kiss begins with kay" commercial. bugger!

smiles, bee
xoxoxooxox

Stephanie V said...

No matter how annoying someone was or how they ruined every family occasion, you will feel like something is missing. Enjoy your ham! I think a glass of wine ahead of time sounds like a very good idea. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Knitty said...

I wish we could block callers the way we can block emails. I understand that many more phone numbers are now in service than what we knew growing up, but the numbers are re-used so quickly now, it isn't surprising that we all get calls for people and businesses that have nothing to do with us.

My cell phone number is the same except for the area code of a driving school quite a ways north of me. I would politely explain the new area code (a number of years ago) and most people would apologize or thank me. No problem. One jerk insisted I give him an appointment for a driving test. Fine. I did. I wonder how the driving school handled him when he showed up unannounced on their book?

Thanksgiving used to be the one non-commercial holiday and truly meant family time. This black Friday crap is attempting to ruin it now. When I rule the world, I will eliminate Black Friday and a few other things. Actually, many things, but I don't want to take up more room here. ;-)

Rose said...

I agree about the stores; I was at a Starbucks today and they are opening at 3:00 a.m. tomorrow. Me, I'm not shopping for anything this weekend. Just knitting, napping, and MI-5. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

NCmountainwoman said...

It's the political robocalls that disgust me. For whatever reason these calls are exempt from the "do not call" listings.

Enjoy your peaceful Thanksgiving!

Alice said...

New Cell phone, new number . . .
I'm getting the previous (number) owner's Creditors calls. Recordings of course.

Celia said...

I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving or black Friday. That day (when I don't have to work) should be spent hanging out with the family. Camping out in front of the store is just plain materialistic.

Mimi said...

Happy Thanksgiving Rudee!
I agree with almost all of what you said here, so I don't think it's bitching at all, maybe a bit of a rant, but we're all entitled to that!

The Bug said...

When we changed our home # we started getting all these creditor calls for the previous owner - VERY annoying! I take great delight in hanging up on them.

We're home from our big feast (at my dad's house, not HOME home) & ready for bed at 7:45 p.m. Hope you had a great day!

Unknown said...

You sound rather like me.

Our land line, which we've had for over two years, still gets collection calls from the previous people. I'm going to put coins in a medicine bottle and shake it in the phone when they call.

I can't imagine calls like that coming into the desk when Duane was in the ICU. I think the nurses would have ripped it off the wall.

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

Rositta said...

By now the wine will be all gone and you will have had a splendid day with your family. I too miss the days when stores were closed on Sundays, except when I'm in Greece. Then I bitch about it. Of course there stores also close Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:00
Pm for good. All stores close at 5 on Saturdays except pharmacies which close at 2. I'm never happy, sigh...ciao

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of companies are totally ignoring the unsubscribe options and just going ahead with junk emails anyway. I receive loads everyday and am sick of unsubscribing. I also get a lot of cold callers even though I've registered the Telephone Preference Service. Very irritating.

CJ xx

Joanna said...

Go ahead Rudee, open the wine. I know what you mean about spam and automated calls.