Letters to the Editor
cim902
Published Letters: 73 Editor's Choice: 13
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I'm only on page 2.....
[Read the article: There's a cougher in the office and it's driving me mad!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]but these are some of the best response letters ever! When I was an undiagnosed asthmatic, I'd cough through every fall until I thought I'd vomit. Now I'm on advair....not so much of a problem.
BUT....when I worked in cubicle-land, I was driven absolutely mad by crinkling plastic, crunching, and the older woman who sucked on her dentures. I got so irritable that I actually brought it up in a therapy session (I had a panic issue), and my therapist told me that people who work in close quarters with others often have problems like that--that it is a result of stress and our powerlessness to control our own work environment. The answer for me was, obviously, headphones, loud music, and sucking it up. It worked. But if you keep telling yourself how much "x behavior" is bothering on you, the more you hear it--people could sound 30 air horns in your ears and all you'd hear would be the coughing, or whatever. Distraction, distraction, distraction. Oh, and try to get more sleep and relaxation at home. When I am rested, that stuff doesn't bother me nearly as much.
Leah
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Just be ready....
[Read the article: I'm so damned judgmental!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Unlike Judgy, I made several really, really baaaaad calls early on in life--I hope not to make too many more, but we'll see. Anyway, I got out of them, and learned from them, and thought, naively, that now I could give those experiences a purpose by using them to help others. "I've been there," I could say, "and this is how you get out," OR "I've been there, and believe me, you don't want to go." Presto! Bad judgment vindicated! Sins atoned for!
Bwahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have tried many times to help friends, relatives, coworkers, online correspondents, whomever. And I have been told many times that: "you really listen;" "you don't judge me," "you understand;" "wow, that makes sense," "I'm sure you're right," and then the friend, sister, brother, mother-in-law (I kid you not), person-from-Iowa-on-message-boards, whoever, goes ahead and does the same stupid thing that I had tried to help them avoid. Apparently my years of idiocy are meaningless, and most people have to learn the very hard way.
I would have to say to Judgy--you can care for someone, and still think they're making a bad choice, or even that they are, truly, morons. There are a couple of people that I really want to thump on the head. They are going to do the same foolish things that they had always planned to do. My job now is to keep in contact, try periodically to help them, as long as my sanity is not endangered, and to be there when their houses of cards eventually collapse--which they will. Then, I can help them clean up and nod when they say things like, "now I understand why there's a commandment about this," and "well, I can at least use my experience to help others." "You do that," I'll tell them, "I'm sure you'll really save someone a lot of pain."
cim902
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Just wait.....
[Read the article: How can I love my Republican parents?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I voted for Tsongas (in a primary), Dukakis, and Clinton. Then, I got old. I voted for Bush in the last election--not because I thought he was great, but because when I pushed the button for Kerry, initially, I got that bad feeling you get when you give a guy your number and then spend the next few weeks praying he doesn't call. So I switched. That was probably a mistake, but at that point, it was hard to know for sure. I voted democrat in the mid-terms, but in Indiana, that's the same as voting Republican.....
But I have noticed that, with age, (I am 40) responsibility, experience, and children, I have become much more conservative, like my parents before me and theirs before them. Obviously this doesn't happen to everyone--otherwise there'd be no Democratic party. But I've heard it said, and I think there's some truth to it, "If you're conservative when you're young, you have no heart; If you're liberal when you're old, you have no head."
cim902
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Please don't leave us alone with the celebrity cellulite pics!
[Read the article: Farewell, Bat Boy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The WWN is the comic relief that makes the horrid WalMart check-out lines bearable. When one son is begging for candy, the other has blown out his diaper, and my daughter suddenly decides she has to go REALLY BAD, I desperately need to see Hilary Clinton with her alien lover.
Writing for the WWN has to have been one of the best jobs in the world--the literary references, the puns, the goofiness! And yes, I can report that, at a high school slumber party in 1982, I heard a girl declare her unquestioning belief in a modern-day 100+ yr old couple finding themselves pregnant . So yeah, at least one person believed
Leah
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The beauty of the hotel room......
[Read the article: I'm a sexually active woman, but my Christian parents treat me like a child]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I love my mother. I love my brothers and sisters. I love my mother-in-law (usually). I love my huband's family. But a little of them goes a vey long way. When we were newlyweds, we didn't have much choice--we were stuck with staying in his mother's guest room, along with his bickering (ok, sometimes brawling) brothers and their wives and a bunch of moody teenage girls for the long holiday weekend. If we weren't there, we were with my family. We were never alone, except for the drive from one house to the other. And sometimes, during the holiday-family season, I really need to be alone. So my head won't explode. So I won't try to beat some sense into whichever in-law is the nuttiest this year.
Then came three kids in rapid succession. Ta-da!!!! No room in the inn for us! At last, I can tell my husband the kids are tired and we can LEAVE! So get a hotel room. For us, it's an escape hatch. For you, it can be a romantic refuge. But I hate to tell you....one day, you may well have 3 toddlers, and you will know all about sleeping in the same bed with your partner and not having sex!
Best wishes,
Leah