The Whine thread.

[WarpGirl]

Fight the ticket! And I used to pay for my sister's speeding tickets so I don't say that lightly. I am sorry you had a bad day. But Dinah has a new chapter up and it cheered me up wonderfully.

[Aquarius]

One of the clients I had today is a lawyer and she gave me some good advice. She said take it to court, explain to the judge that I understand what I did wrong, but that I don't feel that I should share the blame alone. She said that I should say that since it's a congested street, I did what pretty much everybody else does, even though I know that doesn't make it right, and that I should also say that the bus had plenty of time to see me, and that my turn signal had been on so my intent should've been clear. She said that generally what will happen is that I'll still have to pay the fine, but they'll reduce it to a violation that won't put points on my license.

[WarpGirl]

Sounds reasonable. Although my sister was able to skate out of a few tickets, and she deserved them! The girl has a lead foot and she was usually caught going to work at the hair salon at our JCPennies. Still free advice from a lawyer should always be appreciated. It's funny in Canada they don't care if you speed or violate any other traffic laws. At least not in PEI, so now my sister never gets a ticket.

[Aquarius]

In Michigan, you only get out of the ticket if the cop doesn't show up to court. Since this was a cop from a smaller suburban town, I'm pretty sure he'll have nothing better to do that day.

[Alelou]

You wouldn't think there's ANYTHING to do in our town (other than the once-in-a-millenium Enterprise convention featuring only three people), but people do get out of it for just that reason.

So it might be worth trying if only for insurance reasons.

I don't know about MI, but in NY the county buses operate with impunity because they're legally protected from liability -- as a result, you see some pretty freaky driving. I mean, I know the people trying to get around them do some pretty freaky things too, but when you're driving something as large as a bus, you really shouldn't drive like you don't want to take any prisoners.

[WarpGirl]

On LI you can't do that, the cops are nasty and they will get you. And once they get you they will badger you until you're screaming and crying, begging for a little courtesy. I am so glad my CP makes it impossible for me to drive, I couldn't handle the pressure.

[JadziaKathryn]

I don't like city driving, and there's one city I just don't drive in. It's not a very big one, at least by the standards of people who live where there are actual big cities, but it is one of the state's bigger cities and it's a driving nightmare. And it's not just the size, 'cause I've done bigger cities. This is just hideous.

Actually I went there this winter with my best friend and on the way back she said, "Why don't you drive to see that you can do it?" I didn't want to, but she thought I should, so fine, I started driving. Whereupon, a few minutes later, I went to make a left-hand turn, into the right lane of course. Only to discover I was facing (thankfully slowing and stopping!) cars head-on. See, there were two lanes, but they both went the same way, which was not my way. I needed one of the other two on the other side of a median, which of course I didn't know. Thankfully no collisions occurred and I was able to back up and continue on. Moreover, my friend promised to never make me drive in that city again.

Anyway, Aquarius, if the bus had no turn signal on, then it seems like blame is at least equal. At least you weren't hurt. That's the main thing.

[Alelou]

My husband did that once, in Nanuet NY, which he knew extremely well but he still got distracted and turned before the median. I think it was after the Great Vigil of Easter or something and we had a visiting Episcopal monk in full regalia in the backseat and some church friends and we'd all wanted to go splurge on whatever we'd given up for Lent.

Fortunately it was not that busy and we were able to change course before we deprived us or any of our passengers of their Earthbound lives.

By the way ... you want to get some weird looks, go into a diner in suburban New York with a monk.

[Aquarius]

I don't know about MI, but in NY the county buses operate with impunity because they're legally protected from liability -- as a result, you see some pretty freaky driving. I mean, I know the people trying to get around them do some pretty freaky things too, but when you're driving something as large as a bus, you really shouldn't drive like you don't want to take any prisoners.

I think that's pretty much what happened here. As busy of a road as this is, you often have to rely on people's courtesy vs. what's "legal". Most of the time this sort of thing gets treated like an expressway onramp--if you see someone with their signal on trying to reenter traffic, most of the time people are nice and let you in, even though in this case they don't have to.

[Distracted]

By the way ... you want to get some weird looks, go into a diner in suburban New York with a monk.

Trying going to a Golden Corral in full medieval garb. That's always fun.

Ummm....this is the whine thread, so I suppose I should find something to whine about. Hmmm.

Oh. Right. My 16 year old is having a party right now. I have over 20 half-dressed teenagers in my pool. I went to get them chicken fingers. I bought 50. They lasted about three minutes. We got a couple of cheese pizzas for the vegetarians. They lasted about 5 minutes. So I put out a cut up watermelon, a tray of cookies, a vegetable tray and some chips about an hour ago. All that's left are some ranch dip leavings, salsa smudges, cookie crumbs, and sticky pink juice on empty trays. And my father, who lives across the drainage ditch behind our house, called a little while ago griping about the noise.

They're having a good time, I guess. And I would hope they're not hungry anymore.

[Aquarius]

By the way ... you want to get some weird looks, go into a diner in suburban New York with a monk.

Probably the same kind of looks my friends and I got going to Rocky Horror in our prom clothes.

[Ezinma88]

My 16 year old is having a party right now. I have over 20 half-dressed teenagers in my pool. I went to get them chicken fingers. I bought 50. They lasted about three minutes. We got a couple of cheese pizzas for the vegetarians. They lasted about 5 minutes. So I put out a cut up watermelon, a tray of cookies, a vegetable tray and some chips about an hour ago. All that's left are some ranch dip leavings, salsa smudges, cookie crumbs, and sticky pink juice on empty trays. And my father, who lives across the drainage ditch behind our house, called a little while ago griping about the noise.

They're having a good time, I guess. And I would hope they're not hungry anymore.

By the sounds of things you should have just thrown in a couple of live goats....and backed out slowly.

My whine: I'm a broadcast journalist but I'm now seriously considering changing careers. I enjoy many aspects of my job....the creativity, the responsibility, the wide variety of people that I get to meet and interview, I love the research side of things too - real investigative work where you feel like you've actually made a big difference.

BUT for me, the negatives have been outweighing the positives for some time. I'm tired of the 12+ hours a day, the short contracts, the constant moving between cities, the friendly co-workers who can't wait to stab you in the back (there's always a liberal sprinkling of such people).

The problem is I'm just not sure what else I'd like to do. I've been thinking about a job in the civil service or perhaps something more corporate....like retraining to be an auditor/accountant.

In an ideal world I want something that's stable, doesn't involve sales, pays me lots of money and offers me the opportunity for occasional international travel !! As you can see I have high *slightly delusional* hopes

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone need an expensive British au pair? Distracted, I can provide my own live goats.

[Alelou]

A lot of people switch from your field into public relations/corporate communications. That tends to be a little more stable, but not entirely protected from the economy, obviously. Or they might try for the government side of that if it can be found, but that can be sensitive to changes in whichever party is in control -- even if your job is civil service, your boss is likely to be a political operative.

In my experience, you can find cutthroat, dishonest people in every career in the universe. Some people just use sneakiness and backstabbing to make up for their own lack of talent or because they are extremely competitive and they think that's how they'll get ahead faster. With experience, you'd think you'd spot them faster, but I've been blindsided a couple of times even after early experiences with bosses or colleagues from hell. It's depressing to have to cope with that crap. The only pleasure is when you get to see it catch up with them. And I like to think it usually does, eventually.

[Distracted]

In an ideal world I want something that's stable, doesn't involve sales, pays me lots of money and offers me the opportunity for occasional international travel !! As you can see I have high *slightly delusional* hopes

Does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone need an expensive British au pair? Distracted, I can provide my own live goats.

I just noticed your avatar Ezinma. Very nice.

You don't ask much from a prospective employment opportunity, do you? Unfortunately, in today's economic climate here in the US I doubt I could even support a Mexican wetback in the style to which she has become accustomed. The goats are tempting, though.

[Ezinma88]

Actually, I've thought about PR. It can be quite lucrative. But, I think I have a natural aversion to any job that involves that much spin and schmoozing. Having said that....I wouldn't mind doing PR for a charity. I think I'll add that to the list and then pray on it.

And, I agree about the universal nature of backstabbers. I'd like to think that I'm a good judge of character....but there's ALWAYS someone who'll surprise me. For example, this one guy at work (who I'd always had a laugh with) managed to get someone fired....just because he wanted to head up a particularly exciting project. I only found out by accident, but decided to ask the backstabber about it, since we were quite close. He just shrugged it off saying "Look, it was nothing personal. It was just business. He didn't like it here anyway."

That memory still gives me shivers. He had no remorse whatsoever. I found out later that he'd sold me down the river a couple of times.