Top 10 gender lists prove useless….AGAIN!

The other day I was reading the news and an article caught my eye by promising to reveal the top ten things that women do that are a huge turn off for men. It was filled with all the usual fashion drivel, like blue eye shadow, body glitter (except when the glitter is in a woman’s cleavage of course), and big bouffant hair-do’s (big surprise!). However illuminating these bits of fashion advice are, they don’t really offer anything real. I already know not to paint my face as though I belong to an indigenous tribe of drag queens, and I don’t have 6 inch talons hanging from my fingertips. I wanted to see some insightful information in that article that had nothing to do with women on the outside, as in let’s try for a moment and reflect on personality for a change. Hmm? I mean, do we really have to focus on make-up and hair as the only things about women that are attractive or not? I don’t know many women who do that. We’re mainly happy if a man is clean, takes care of himself, and isn’t a psychopath.

“Parking Wars” doesn’t know their a$$ from their elbow.

I recently learned there was a television show on A&E called parking wars. I find it funny that the Philadelphia Parking Authority gets to make everyday people look like morons on tv, while they come off looking like the hero. A little over a year ago an old roommate called from North Carolina to tell me that I was recieving mail from the PPA. I had no idea what it was about, so I asked her to send me the letters she had. Turns out that I had two tickets from the PPA for different reasons, with the total amount of said tickets being $157.

The really funny thing about this, is that I have never lived anywhere in Pennsylvania, never registered a car in Pennsylvania, or even driven through Pennsylvania. I called the PPA to clear up what should have been a simple misunderstanding. They sent the tickets to the wrong person with the same name, or it was a case of identity theft, right? That’s where it gets even weirder. The vehicle that they ticketed has PA plates, they don’t use social security numbers when registering vehicles in the great state of PA, and the only thing they could verify was my name. So whomever belongs to the car apparently has the same name as me.  I checked to see how common this was and found out there are hundreds of people in the U.S. with the same name as me. So how did they get me listed as the person they ticketed? Did they put all of our addresses in a fishbowl and pick out mine?? Nobody can answer this question.

I called the PPA several times last year, I was told every time that I could not speak to a supervisor, and was treated like a liar. One woman even had the gall to suggest I should just pay the tickets, even though they weren’t mine just to avoid trouble with the PPA. Finally, I spoke to one woman who stated that her supervisor would not speak with me, but would submit the tickets for review. I didn’t recieve another letter, so I stupidly assumed the matter was cleared up.

Three days ago I went online to make sure that my credit report was up to snuff, because I had been turned down for a credit card and couldn’t figure out why. I found a negative report from the Philadelphia Parking Authority stating that I had never paid for my supposed tickets while not visiting their crime infested black hole of a city. Once again, I called the PPA and was rudely refused the right to speak to a supervisor a total of four times. After repeating my story several times, she curtly told me she would submit my tickets for review.

Hmm, sounds familiar. I decided enough is enough, and contacted the news stations in Philadelphia to let them know the first-rate job their city government flunkies were doing. The first station I called told me they couldn’t do anything, because I didn’t live in Philly, which I thought that was one of the main points of the situation, duh. The second one I called asked me to send an e-mail detailing every scrap of information I could find about it. I have a feeling that the man I spoke with had been given a few tickets in the past. Hopefully, this can be resolved without hiring a lawyer just to make them correct their own mistake.

Caffeine, Courses and Cost

When my father first mentioned that I should go back to school and get a college degree, I was so excited. I had always had a job, and knew I could support myself if I wanted, but who wants to work a job you hate? I needed to go to school, get a degree in something, and attempt to broaden my horizons. So I enrolled at the community college, aced the placement exam, got my grants and loans, and started classes. Here I am, almost a year later and nearly done with my third semester. Although I love college, it’s a constant worry. I know that from here, I will need to go on to the University and earn a bachelors degree and this just adds to the pile of worries. College is expensive, work is scarce, and time is always in short supply. I’ve now gone to school for three semesters in a row, summer, fall, spring…without a break. I’ve kept a 4.0 GPA this entire time, because I know that I will need that GPA to qualify for scholarships later on. I’ve probably annoyed the crap out of my teachers, because I’m that student that will do extra credit even if I don’t need it because I have to get that A. I do this because I am not hispanic, african-american, or asian. I am not an athlete or an artist. The only thing I have going for me to earn scholarships is my grades, so I can’t afford to screw up. Too many people seem to think that if you are caucasion, that you automatically have money for college. Sorry to disappoint, but I work part-time to attend full-time classes and can barely afford the gas it takes to get back and forth to school and work, or the few bills that I have to pay. I don’t want to take out numerous loans because I worry about paying them back one day. I’m 31 years old and by the time I’m done with school I’ll be 35. This means I would have loan payments until I’m 60. Who the hell would want to be in debt that much for that long? I think the most frustrating thing is not knowing what my options are. I’ve gone numerous times to talk with the financial aid staff at the University and can’t seem to get a straight answer. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Whatever happened to manners?

This being my first post, I’ll probably have to explain a few things about myself in order for anyone to understand the story. I am a 31 year old college student, trying to finally make it through college and better my life. I also work at my local library. Today our class let out early, so I decided to go to work early and use the public computers to get ahead on some homework. Each of these computers allows you to use them for a limit of one hour. Exactly six minutes after I logged on, I was smacked on the shoulder by a 12 year old girl, and asked, “how long are you going to be here?” Instead of getting annoyed, I politely told the little brat that I had the computer for an hour and only six minutes had gone by. She then gave a big, exasperated sigh, and flopped down in a chair not 2 feet from where I sat. Every ten minutes, she would ask me and the woman at the next computer how much longer we would be. I told her twice, very nicely, that there were computers in other areas of the library that may be available sooner. She stared at me as though I was rude for telling her this, and continued to sit there. I continued to work and tried to ignore the fact that I had a rude 12 year old breathing heavily behind me. I didn’t get short with her until the sixth time she asked if I was done. At this point, I turned and looked at her. “You know what?” I said, “I really don’t know, but if you keep asking, I’ll go to the desk and ask them to give me another hour.” She stared at me for a moment, as if she had never been spoken to like that before, which was probably the case, then got up and complained to her friends that I was so mean to not get off the computer for her.

I wanted to slap her, rip up her library card, and call her mother to let her know she had raised a rude little brat. Of course, I did not do any of those things, as one does not correct other peoples children, or criticize a parent for how that child behaves. Because we might offend that parent, god forbid. What I don’t understand is how that parent can honestly look people in the face, and claim that there child can do no wrong. It doesn’t matter if that child is swinging an ax at their neighbors puppy, the parent will say something stupid, like “they’re just playing…”

Oh well, just had to get that off my chest.