The combination of the cold weather, the holidays, being back in the land of sick kitties, and general year-end craziness has forced me into more "encounters" with the outside world than I would normally have, and I have to say, it hasn't been pretty.
I've spent what seems like an incredible amount of time in my car, I've had to keep some odd hours (like the ones that most Americans keep every day), I've eaten all sorts of crap that I wouldn't normally consume, and I've dealt with more crowds & bureaucracies than I care to think about.
Yesterday is a perfect example. I needed to go to the grocery store. I wanted to get it done yesterday because more snow is coming this weekend (it's falling right now, in fact) plus I wanted to be able to stay home and watch the playoffs over the weekend. I also needed to stop at the credit union and make my contribution to my HSA account for the year and I needed to go by the pet food store to pick up some different varieties of low phosphorous cat food for Princess to try.
Since the credit union is a few miles away in the land of suburbia, I calculated that it would be less total miles to drive a bit further into the land of McMansions, combine all of the trips into one and shop at the "nice" grocery and pet food stores, rather than the smaller ones closer to home. What a mistake!
The net result was that running those three errands ended up taking nearly 3 hours, during which time I had to battle incredible numbers of people and cars, and got really, REALLY grumpy. Seriously, by the time I was finally headed home I was doing some serious windshield screaming and vowing to never EVER put myself in that position again.
But here's the thing... "normal" people deal with this sort of thing pretty much all day every day. Honestly, I just can't fathom how people tolerate this sort of thing on a regular basis without becoming completely homicidal.
Now... you all know that I'm a HUGE fan of the Denver Broncos, but what you may not know is that my Broncos obsession is such that I can't just listen to the announcers on television, I have to turn the volume down on the set and listen to the fabulous Dave Logan calling the games on the radio (with my special sports sync radio that lets me get the timing of the two signals perfectly lined up.)
At any rate, the radio station that broadcasts the games is... well... let's just say that when they aren't broadcasting football games they're busy filling the airwaves with right wing garbage like Rush Limbaugh. And since their normal clientele is a tad bit more conservative than I am, their advertisers tend to cater to that crowd. So during the games, I get subjected to all sorts of ridiculous propaganda from the fossil fuel industry using fear tactics and threats of economic ruin to convince people how important coal and petroleum are to "preserving our way of life."
Soooo... yesterday as I was fighting my harrowing battle against crowds and traffic, all I could think was that anybody who wants to "preserve" this "way of life" seriously needs to have their head examined!
Honestly, it just doesn't seem to me that the harried existence of stress, and commuting, and crap food, and sleep deprivation, and generalized misery that defines the lives of most Americans is something worth destroying the planet for.
Call me crazy, but I just think that there MUST be a better way.
Once again, tell us you really feel. :) I do live in the land that you talk about and don't like being out in it either. However, I've learned to time my excursions to minimize the hassle and to flip a switch in my brain to just go with the flow. It helps me to not get so frustrated with the seemingly random or aggravating behavior I see. However, it does take practice on my part.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and I hope you don't have to go out more anytime soon. Or me either for that matter. The switch in my brain gets tired this time of year.
Me, too! I am the queen of shopping at times when I can avoid crowds (what WERE all those people doing at the grocery store at 8:00 a.m. the Monday before Christmas? Begone, foul monsters! That's MY shopping time!) and to go to what my husband refers to as "my happy place" which I suspect is similar to LAL flipping the switch in her brain. That being said ... I am looking forward to the next few days--I'm not scheduled to work, the kids are going back to school, and it will be snowy outside--I might just "nest" and avoid the real world for a bit.
DeleteLive & Learn - I think I need to cultivate more of that sort of switch. I think I also should just avoid piling on the stress... like hitting the suburbs a rush hour, AND driving on icy streets, AND driving in the dark, AND feeling the need to get home in a hurry to look after Princess. Really bad combination!
DeleteKris - you totally crack me up! But I think that's part of what made me so grumpy... I thought a Friday afternoon would be a pretty quiet time at the grocery store - instead it was bedlam!
Oh, Fridays in general are crazy at grocery stores. Everyone is "stocking up" for the weekend (on what, I'm not sure ...). I also find that Saturday/Sunday afternoons and evenings are busy as well--I think the weekday-working-world uses that time to catch up on errands. Unfortunately for you, my technique of earlier morning shopping on weekdays won't work, but any time before the afternoon rush hour should be an improvement over the craziness that you experienced. Speaking of which ... time to go to Aldi's--it's bitterly cold and snowy but the weather is better than it will be tomorrow, when I really DON'T want to leave my house unless absolutely necessary.
DeleteYou know, as long as I stick to the grocery store in my neighborhood it's generally not too bad - especially if I go any time during the work day. I just think that these "super stores" are crazy because they funnel sooo many people into one store, and even though the store itself is HUGE, the crucial stuff, like the produce section is just always packed to the gills. It's like you have to stand in line to get to the cucumbers or something. I guess that tells me that I should stick to my neighborhood store!
DeleteI know exactly how you feel. I had to venture out into some of those places these past few weeks, and I always come away more determined to continue my opt out strategy.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a sports fan so it's easy for me to say...don't listen to the radio, but it does add another layer of stress onto an existing load of stress.
I hope Princess does well on the new food.
Marieann
It's funny... I grew up in the "suburbs" but compared to the 'burbs of today, it was downright urban! I'm totally with you in terms of opting out!
DeleteAnd I figure it's always good to get a little taste of what right wing crazies are saying now and then... sort of a "know your enemy" type of thing! :-)
I feel your pain. I hope you can avoid the outside world for a while now, and snuggle down with Princess.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. I think I hear my sofa beckoning for a nice evening of snuggling!
DeleteBeen there done that! I have purposely chosen a life away from the popular and affluent 'burbs. I can get places more quickly because the traffic in my under-desired area is not as dense and the attitudes not as crazy. People used to flee to the suburbs to "get away" but my idea of "getting away" is avoiding them!
ReplyDeleteYou said it! For some reason I just find modern suburbia to be completely overwhelming... it's like nothing is built to human scale - everything is made for monsters (well, for cars really, but it's sort of the same thing.)
DeleteCat, it felt like you wrote this about me. I hate traffic, packed stores and so on. Plus I was feeling the same way as you this past week with my grandchildren here they wake at the crack of dawn. The latest they slept was eight!
ReplyDeleteI love the cultural events that can be found in a city but can't handle the stress to go to them. The few times I have gone into Pittsburgh it was with my son driving and I'm happy it wasn't me. When he took me into the city to go to my favorite salvage store (37 miles from my house) it took hours. We left at 1 pm and were still driving at 4:30. I got a bit concerned the store would close before we got there. On the way back my son took back roads to escape traffic (his smart phone comes in handy when he thinks he's taken a wrong turn) but it was so late he decided to stop for dinner which not only added to the gas and time but now the cost of a meal out.
How can people live like this? I don't know how you handle living in Denver, When I was 19, inspired by John Denver, I wanted to visit and drove through. Now I reached the city at dinner time but the hours I sat in freeway traffic had me so stressed I have planned trips since then that avoid Denver. I also avoid Chicago, St. Louis and many other cities when traveling. I just can't handle it.
I was horrible about dealing with grocery shopping as a mother because I hated the crowds, but when I decided to homeschool my sons and them being night owls like myself we used to do our shopping at midnight to have the stores to ourselves. :-) I'm all for not preserving this way of living.
As for the commentators on the football games, I prefer the radio announcers as well. I even got my oldest son hooked on the radio broadcasts while watching the games. My Steelers are out of the playoffs, it wasn't a good day for me, so I'm sending you my best wishes for a Denver win.
Holy Moly! That sounds like an epic journey just to get to the salvage store and back. I'm not sure I would have stuck it out. I mean, you reach a point of diminishing returns when the effort to salvage something requires hours of burning fossil fuels just to get there & back.
DeleteDenver is a wonderful place to live as long as you don't have to get in or out of the city during rush hour! My Dad (an 80 year old Denver native) has taught me the fine art of route finding - AKA taking the back streets instead of main thoroughfares. During our 3 days of "kitty daycare" (as CatMan called Princess' trips to the vet for IV fluids) I scouted out numerous different routes and finally found a way to avoid most of the traffic and cut the travel time in half. Too bad I haven't figured out how to apply this principle when traveling out to the suburbs - it's hard when all non-trivial roads lead to endless cul-de-sacs!
Sorry about your Steelers - I was fully expecting to see them in Denver this weekend. I think these days, so much of who does well in the playoffs is determined by which team can stay healthy - injuries are certainly what killed us in last year's "stupor-bowl!"
Now that I work from home, I really hate getting stuck in rush hour for any reason. The other day my friend asked me to come over at 6:30...and I got stuck on the 101. Worst half hour I've had in a while.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, it's kind of an inescapable reality for most folks, as it comes along with the jobs they need right now, and will for a while.
I guess that's the part that gets to me... it shouldn't be inescapable - there's just no reason that keeping this society going should require everyone to spend hours every day behind the wheel of a several ton machine moving about 5 miles per hour. It just makes no sense.
DeleteOn a group level, absolutely: there is a better way to skin that cat (pardon the phrase). But on the individual's level, employment is currently a necessity (at least for another decade or three, usually) and the car very often isn't an optional part of that equation.
DeleteThe catch is getting governments, employers, charities (and maybe a blogger or two) to nudge large groups of people towards better alternatives.