Four reasons (good or not) why I am cranky today.

1.  Big M. is in camp this week.  Little M. goes next week.  It's the same camp they attend every year and they love it.  Mr. EM and I love it too.  They learn a lot, they have fun, they explore nature, what's not to love?  Well, there is one thing not to love...the other parents.  Not all of them, just the "desperate housewives" who don't think the rules apply to them. 

Every. Single. Summer. it's the same damn thing.  They absolutely REFUSE to follow the drop-off instructions on the first day of camp.  When you pull into the camp, there is a long driveway that pulls alongside of a lodge on the right.  Campers are to meet at the lodge.  If you were to continue going past the lodge, you'd drive down a short hill to a parking area.  The instructions are VERY clear in the paperwork we receive that if you want to escort your child up to the lodge, you are to park in the designated parking area and walk up to the lodge.  Not a single one of these parents does that, oh no.  They park their gigantic, swanky SUV's along the drive-way, leaving no room for the rest of us to pull in, and they take their sweet time walking their children up to the lodge.  And the thing is, these are 10 and 11 year old kids, most of which have been attending this camp since they were in kindergarten.  Do they really need to be escorted up to the lodge, first day of camp or not?  Of course, some of these parents are turning in last minute paperwork because the rules don't apply to them so they didn't get it sent in 2 weeks before camp started LIKE THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO, and I guess they can't trust their 10-11 year old child to hand the director a few pieces of paper. 

They are no better when they finally get back into their gas-guzzling monstrosity to leave.  As you pull up to the lodge on the right, you can turn to your left and drive around this big tree to exit the camp.  This area was made part of the driveway in order to create a flow of traffic.  Well, the desperate housewives (and, please, no offense to normal stay-at-home moms...I'm talking about a very specific breed of parent here) don't want to create a flow of traffic.  They want the whole damn world to revolve around them, so they choose to make a 17 point turn right smack in the middle of the drop-off area, all while talking on their cell phones and sipping their coffee.  My little Kia was almost hit by an Escalade on Monday morning and Big M. and his friend had to wait an extra five minutes to get up to the lodge because of this whole fiasco. 

This happens on the first day of camp every summer, yet it never ceases to amaze me.  I complain about it on the camp survey every summer, yet nothing ever changes.  And that makes me cranky.

2.  I am a True Blood junkie.  We don't have HBO.  I rented the first season, then someone provided me with a website where I was able to watch the second season.  When I tried that website again to watch the third season, I downloaded a nasty virus onto our computer, so Mr. EM "found" the third season for me.  But then Charter got mad at him for doing that, sent him a mean little postcard about it, so he doesn't "find" things any more.  The fourth season recently started and some dear friends are DVRing it for me to watch at their house.  SWEET!!!  I was supposed to go over there last night to watch the first 2 episodes, but they emailed me and said their air conditioner had died and they were having a new one installed and would have to reschedule our True Blood date for another night.  No one's fault and having no A/C on the hottest day of the year sucks way more than not getting to watch a TV show.  It still makes me cranky.

3.  Anyone out there have Netflix?  Did you get your email from them yesterday about their brilliant idea to separate their plans so you can either have unlimited streaming for a "low" price or you can get unlimited DVD's for a "low" price, but when you lump the 2 together (like you're allowed to do now) it's not such a "low" price any more?  In case you didn't see it...

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $9.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 1 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $7.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $15.98 a month ($7.99 + $7.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

So, in other words...

We've realized that now we have most of the country hooked, so we're going to do our best to suck every cent out of our customers that we can.  It's not like you're going to want to change things up now, right?  Complain if you care to waste the effort, even drop us if you think that'll make a difference, but it won't.  There will always be someone else to take your place. 

Thanks for your business (choking on laughter)!
- The Netflix Team

Cranky.  Cranky.  Cranky.

4.  Because of so many snow days this year, school didn't let out until the beginning of June.  Which wouldn't be such a big deal, if my district hadn't decided that next year they were going to start a week earlier than usual.  My first day to go back was supposed to be August 15th, giving me just over 9 weeks of summer vacation.  Ok, fine.  So, Mr. EM and I had plans for a short road trip to Kansas City on August 10 to see JJ Grey and Mofro in concert...one last summer hurrah before school starts again.  I've been looking forward to it since we planned it back in April.  Yesterday I received a letter from my boss saying that I (and several co-workers) have a "mandatory" training to attend August 8-12.  This makes me cranky for a variety of reasons:

• My summer vacation, the #1 perk of teaching, has been cut short by a week.
• I now have to pay for a full week of day-care for my boys, and that's provided I can find someone to do it. 
• I have to miss the concert.  I am really, really, really, irrationally bothered by that. Mofro concerts are one of my very most favorite things to do.  I feel like my boss just walked up to me, yanked the tickets out of my hand and tore them up right in front of me. 
• This training is being conducted by a guy that my boss seems to think walks on water.  And he is very good at what he does.  However, what he does is not what I do.  He is accustomed to working with severely autistic kids in an institutionalized setting.  His methods do not translate well to a public school setting.  I don't know what he has in store for us with this training, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be muttering, "Bullshit," under my breath a lot that week and wishing I was in Kansas City, shaking my butt to "Orange Blossoms". 

Mr. EM is urging me to call my boss and tell her that I already have plans to be out of town during part of this training.  Part of me thinks he's right and wants to do that.  But another part of me realizes that I'm lucky to have a good job right now and sometimes we have to make sacrifices.  We don't have a hotel room reserved yet and we don't have the tickets for the concert yet.  It's not like we'll be losing money if we don't go, it's just a big disappointment that now we can't go.  I don't know, I guess I can mention these plans to her and see what she says.  The worst that can happen is she'll tell me I have to cancel them.

And, yes, I know I'm being a big ole' whiny brat about all of this stuff.  I'm trying not to dwell on it too much.  I just woke up this morning every bit as cranky as I was when I fell asleep last night and needed to get this junk off my chest.  Thanks for being there, captive audience gentle readers.