The Whine thread.

[evcake]

I'm told it takes an average of 2-3 years to get disability. I recently lost a very dear friend. She commited suicide while waiting. Two weeks after she died, her sister was informed that my friend was finally accepted.

Grrrr.

[Distracted]

That's tragic, but typical. The ones that really need it don't get it.

[Emberchyld]

This is the way it really works. Benefits are not so easy to obtain as a lot of people think they are.

Sad, but true. I used to help out at a soup kitchen while I was in college (in a notoriously, uhm, not-so-good city), and the stories that I heard just broke my heart.

When I first started I used to get upset about the people I saw in business suits in the soup kitchen line, thinking that they were just mooching. Then, one of the people who ran the soup kitchen told us a little bit about them:

One was a college professor who, because the university was trying to "save money", was not given enough classes to be able to receive benefits. He had to choose: having a place to live and basic healthcare or eating.

We had others with similar stories, especially with our economy in the state that it's been. People who busted their butts off, either in college or through labor, being laid off or given reduced hours, no benefits, and no support because they had jobs. Veterans who were kicked to the side, who couldn't hold down real jobs because of PTSD or illness. People who just never had a chance with the state of inner-city schools and a minimum wage that hasn't kept up with inflation.

I was on unemployment for a short while a few years back and marvelled at the mess-- the unemployment office really didn't know how to deal with the large influx of professionals hitting their system. My sister said the same when she had to go on it as well. Used to be that a degree could take you anywhere. Not anymore. (and the max that you can receive is fairly low. I can't imagine trying to support a family on that)

Okay, so I do get peeved about the lazy people who do nothing and get everything-- when I was cashiering though college, I used to see some people on public assistance buying the most ridiculous, overpriced clothes (like a leather jacket for a baby). And I hated a lot of the educational opportunity kids at college because they were being given everything and they wasted it-- the college tried to force a girl on me as a roommate because, as an honors student, I'd be "a good influence"-- the girl was getting everything for free (even room and board, even though she lived in the same city!), failing all of her classes, taking drugs, and making life miserable for every roommate blessed with her. Meanwhile, I knew a single mother who worked 3 jobs to be able to afford classes. Not fair at all.

But I refuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And while it hurts you and me to get all of that money taken out of our taxes, it hurts the poor and lower middle class more, because it means even less money to bolster their already strained lives.

[TPoptarts]

Sigh. Some people just aren't worth being helped

[TPoptarts]

Whine: I so wanna be at the Vegas Trek con right now

[evcake]

Maybe next year.

[TPoptarts]

GAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

[Bether6074]

Well, I am here to whine. I got home from work this AM and went to bed at 1:30 only to be awakened by the sound of my husband calling 911 at 3:30. There's someone outside the house pounding on the walls, screaming, "Let me in!" Now, mind you, both of our daughters' rooms are right next to where this guy is wailing. Thankfully, they are still in their beds! The locks in this old house suck! Half don't even work and it takes the police 15 minutes to get here. Turns out the guy is extremely drunk, doesn't even know his name and thinks he is at a different house. Have I mentioned lately that I HATE drinking? I'm glad he wasn't out there when I came home from work . I'm guessing that sleep is out for the rest of today. Just a little bit stressed out right now...

[Linda]

The toll that people who are able to and don't carry their 'weight' in or society is incredible. Too bad that drunk will not have to pay some kind of restitution for your lost sleep and fright, Bether. Addiction of all kinds really puts a huge strain on the rest of us who have to keep the country going with our work and our taxes. There are those who could work and don't, because of some very weak reasons, adding a further burden - like those my husband sees through his job at the state department of corrections. And THEN, those who really deserve help through SSI, have to practically die before they get the benefits they deserve, like people have been describing in this thread.

There are people who have more kids then they can support (like my daugther) who lean more than they should on aging parents and community resources. On the other side, there are people like my husband's friend who at age 37 has decided he can't afford to get married and have that house and wife and 2.4 children he was expecting as his share of the 'American Dream'. He is single, without a significant other to live with even though he gave 5 years of his life to the Marines and has a BA degree and no addictions and no criminal record and has had a full time job for most of his adult life. Talk about quiet desperation! All of this gives the trite phrase 'life is not fair' a new depth of meaning.

Hey, I am beginning to sound like a conservative. I am not. I am a liberal. But something is seriously out of balance in our culture, and it scares me.

[Bether6074]

Yes, the world can be difficult at times. It is not like me to be angry like that, but when you feel your children are in danger...That was NOT a good feeling.

Things like this generally do not happen here in this nice little country town, but I suppose it only takes one person and one bad night. There is always the potential for danger in life, so it's time to fix those locks! I did not mean to be hostile and wrote that right after the incident took place. The police took the man away. There are muddy handprints all over the back of our house, but we are all safe and that is what matters.

I'm not ready to give up on people and society yet. We have to keep trying, right?

I've been so unmotivated lately and can't seem to even find the energy to read all of the new fics that are popping up here on the site. Soon though, I promise.

[Linda]

I can't keep up with the fics on this site either, and don't even get to the fics on other sites! Maybe after I retire? I mean to read them all. Honest. Life just gets in the way.

[Reanok]

About Drunk driving I had two relatives killed by drunkdrivers they were my cousin and his young daughter were killed by druken drivers only they happened at different times he was killed first in an accident and a few years later his daughter was killed it was a hit and run accident. It happened a long time ago but still a tragedy happened at all.

[TPoptarts]

I'm sorry Reanok

More whines!! So like today I was working and I come into my room during work and see everyone's taken all their sheets and stuff off the beds. And Hamster tells me I have to take my sheets off too because the bug company is coming to spray the room. Which obviously no one told me.

So like then I go to the manager and she says yeah they're gonna spray our room because Alarm Clock Lady said she saw like sand-fleas on her bed. Because people go to the beach and then instead of washing/shaking the sand off before they come back they bring all that frelling sand with them!! Though can't really take what Alarm Clock Lady says for granted because she sees a lot of things that don't exist and hears a lot of things that don't exist and laughs like hysterically all the time out of nowhere even in her sleep I think she's like schizo or something

So anyway I take everything off my bed stuff it in a plastic bag and go back to work. And well the thing is usually when they call the bug company they show up at like 11am or something, so like when I'm done working plenty time has passed enough for it to be safe to go back to the room. But today it was like unscheduled so it wasn't like organized or something, the room was ready early but they came whenever they could and for some reason it had to be like EXACTLY the moment I finished working. So as soon as I wanted to go back to my room to like change and wash my hands and stuff they wanted to start spraying so I had to get out.

And well I have a slave job so I wear really nasty dirty clothes when I work, and like they come in to do their job like literally as soon as I get off, I mean like they show up like the second I go to the office to get my stuff after I got done and then they and the manager come with me to my room to spray it, and well obviously the manager was there and they're just trying to do their job so I guess I could have asked them to wait like a few minutes for me to dig out my clothes from under all the stuff I had to take off my bed, and dig out my soap to wash my hands etc so I'd feel like a frelling human being again. But of course they were there already and so was the manager, and also they already started spraying like as soon as they got in and they were just doing their job so I just got out of the way because I didn't wanna delay them.

And THEN I was like sitting outside my room because I'm not allowed to go back inside for like at least a couple of hours, then the manager sees me and she goes like, "go to the beach!" and I'm like "I don't like the beach" and she's like "go to the library, you don't have to sit here the whole time" and I go like "I can't go anywhere, I need my clothes" and then she snaps at me like "you know what, I told you! You have to think." As if I'm some stupid idiot. Though she didn't tell me nothing I had to hear it from Hamster. And obviously it's all my fault again right??

[Distracted]

I thought she kicked Hamster out.

[TPoptarts]

Nope she didn't she wanted to move her to another room but Hamster didn't wanna move, for some reason she really likes being where everyone hates her because she likes to piss people off on purpose (she really does... long stories) so she "had to" let her stay until like Tuesday I think when her rent runs out. She didn't actually "have to" though because she could just kick her ass out and give her the portion of her money back like she's done many times before, she wanted to kick her out like Monday but Obi's boyfriend begged her to let Hamster stay another week. Because she frelled him. Duh