Oy

Pffft.

That's as good a descriptor of my day as you're gonna get.

WARNING: RANT AHEAD. Duck and run if you feel the need.

The husband has vacated the premises. He has meetings this morning and a Microsquash seminar to attend this afternoon, so he'll be gone all day long. This is normally when I am the most productive. Not so today.

First, the husband missed his bus because he was putzing around. I never understand this: we literally live right across the fucking street from the bus stop yet HE CONSISTENTLY MISSES THE BUS because he's too busy with this, that or the other to get out there on time. I can deal with this, but it's becoming something of an annoyance, because it keeps happening over and over again. Anyway, he then calls me and asks me if can I go to the metro transit website and reroute him to see if he can make it over to St. Paul on time? I kept doing it wrong because I wasn't awake yet and he got impatient, I got impatient, I yipped at him. He kept his cool, but I could tell he was annoyed with me. Snipping at your spouse is not a great way to start your day. Trust me on this one. I still feel badly about it.

Then, not five minutes later, I get a call from the real estate people: there's been an offer on the house. The people who had put in the offer hadn't been able to see our apartment on their first shot through the house, could they please come through between noon and one today? Grrrrr.

This is just becoming one big annoyance. The real estate people keep testing our goodwill and it's pissing me off. By the terms of our lease---which are in accordance with Minnesota State Law---we are supposed to have 24 hours notice before our landlord can access our apartment. As the husband and I have to keep explaining to the little receptionist who keeps calling to schedule showings, TWENTY-FOUR HOURS MEANS TWENTY-FOUR HOURS! It does not mean schedule a ten-thirty a.m. showing for Tuesday at six-thirty p.m. Monday night, then call the tenants and ask them if that's ok. Argggh. We've been firm, but they keep doing this. That they have to coordinate with the people downstairs doesn't help either because they don't think they can say 'no'.

Add that to the fact we have not yet received our new lease from the Great White Hunter landlord, and there's been an offer. Just marvelous, eh?

Next up on the list o' whines: I have my opthamologist appointment at one. I don't have an issue with this. This is fine. It needs to happen. But I hate having my eyes dilated. I'm not a big fan of eye drops in the first place, but these sting. Then you have the fun of trying to get home without seeing too much because of all the damn light! Aieeeee.

After that, I have to try and get a hold of the husband's probation officer. He wants to talk to me to confirm that the husband isn't drinking. Great. I just adore being put in this position. It's not like the husband is drinking. He hasn't had a drink for going on two years. He doesn't want one, either. But it's not like the State of Minnesota believes any of that given his record, so where do they go for confirmation of the husband's claims?

Me.

Apparently the fact he's enrolled in a fully licensed and state approved aftercare program isn't good enough for them.

I have to call this guy and be interrogated. And it's not like I've got a choice, either, because if I don't call this guy and subject myself to interrogation, they'll become suspicious of the husband and will insist on greater supervision. While this phone call will last for exactly two minutes, it still bugs me. Undoubtedly I'm blowing it out of proportion, but it's just one more brick added to a huge stack of bricks and it annoys me. The whole thing makes me feel like I'm being used. They put me between the rock and the hard place, because of course I want the husband to be done with all of this, yet I don't have a choice about my cooperation. The husband will pay if I don't cooperate. They're taking advantage of my need to be done with all of this. And I REALLY DON'T LIKE IT.

I'm a firm believer, because I've lived it, that the State will use any means to get drunk drivers to end their wicked ways, and if that means making life difficult for the drunk driver's spouse, they'll do it. Think about it: when a drunk driver loses their license, who winds up driving them around? Their spouse, mostly. When a drunk driver is fined up the wazoo, whose finances are hurt just as badly as the drunk drivers? The spouses. I could go on, but I think you get the gist: they don't give a damn about the havoc they wreak on people who had nothing to do with the original offense. They're just collateral damage, and honestly, if they'd just had the good sense to take the keys away, they wouldn't be going through this in the first place. It's their own damn fault. Well, I was in Montana for this last one: explain to me how, being a thousand miles away, I was supposed to keep the husband, a licensed and insured driver, from getting behind the wheel?

Sorry. I get a little bitter about this shit.

Ah, anyway, I have to go and get my eyes dilated and be subjected to a round of "better one? better two? better one? better two?"

Posted by Kathy at January 27, 2005 12:42 PM