Your Bad Day?! (Watch it Lady) First Deployment Goal

This post is about complaining. Yup, I'm gonna complain about complaining. But it's my blog so I'm entitled to complain about whatever I want.

Yesterday, I got out of the house and did some stuff. They say being busy makes the days go faster (although I can't imagine making the days go faster, I only wish they feel like they didn't drag...) so I try to take their opinion. They, of course, being more experienced mil wives that have done this numbers of times.

So anyway, I get up and get ready (the hardest part of the day actually) and first stop at WIC. Yup, we're poor so we get WIC, when it boils down to it the average married Marine makes approximately 53 cents an hour (they are Marines 24 hours a day, that's how we calculate this, yes, it's an exaggeration but in some cases it's not... my husband will definitely be working 24 hours a day for the next several months...). WIC is usually a total f-hole containing rude government workers who often treat you as if you're standing there for your "hand-out" and screaming kids that are bored to tears after sitting for 97 hours. Luckily, on this day, WIC is relatively quiet. There are only about 5 other women and a couple kids there. Almost peaceful. The wait did not take nearly 97 hours, maybe a solid one. Maybe. And the woman who helped me didn't act like it was the end of her world in doing so. Phew, got that over with relatively quickly and painlessly. No complaints here!

Then I went about my day going to the bookstore and meeting up with my friend Lori for some book browsing. Our intention was ultimately movies, but we had time to kill so we laughed at Post Secrets for about an hour and then cruised the mall where we wound up at Ulta, a huge beauty product store. Love!

I found a neat little set with about 12 Ulta brand eyeshadows and lipglosses which I couldn't resist for the low price of $10 and Lori found a flat iron. We headed to the checkouts and were offered Ulta Beauty memberships (get so many points, get a free gift). Being all about free, I jumped at the opportunity and filled the card out. So did Lori at her register next to mine. I chatted with the salescerk and Lori while filling my card and then paid with my lovely plastic accessory the credit card. As the sale is complete, the cashier realizes that she has run out of receipt tape and thus can not finish the transaction until refilling it. Lori had been called to her register after me so she was still finishing her own transaction. The cashier had a little trouble filling the receipt tape but eventually got it - no worries, and finished. I noticed the woman behind us getting a little huffy but whatever - that happens when you gotta wait in line for frivolous things like receipt tape, it can be annoying and cause you to huff, totally ok.

That's when the cashier was finished with me and I moved over to stand beside Lori and wait for her to be finished. My cashier apologized to huffy woman for the wait when huffy woman proclaimed

"Yeah well I just wish you could put some people to the side and move on to the next. Some of us have been up since 530!"

O. No. She. Didn't.
Was she implying that it took so long because I decided to fill out the club card I was offered? Was she implying that my transaction was not important enough to take a few extra minutes and that I should be shoved to the side? These things I don't know, but I know she was making it sound like being up since 530 was a big deal and because of this, she deserved special treatment.

First off, 530 is a pretty normal time to wake up, especially for those in the average working world, I would imagine (Like I've said, I'm used to a husband who leaves for work by 5, isn't typically home til around 7pm and then still has time to do things with me before heading to bed...). And it was not even 6pm, not like it was midnight. And lastly, really? That's you're complaint? You've been up since 530? I only can wish that were my sole complaint.
Those of you knowing me know this did not settle well with me.
So, as I moved over to Lori I simply stated...

"Yes well some of us sent our husbands to war yesterday" (Lori did too) "And haven't slept since. Really?? 530???"

For some reason that just heated me. You're going to complain to me about getting up at 530?! Have you any idea what my day/week/last 4 months have been like? Let's talk about it lady, and here I am still being decent to the sales clerk as well as to the other patrons in the store. So shut your fat mouth, wait patiently in line like the rest of us, and keep your complaints to yourself.

And no, I'm not saying that my day/week/last 4 months are the worst in the world. (They're certainly no worse than the other wives in our unit.) What I'm saying here is that it's key to remember that there's probably always someone who's having a worse day or time than you and people don't often consider this when they spout off about their own bad days. I know that Tuesday was the worst day of my life, putting my husband on that bus. But while I was having the worse day of my life I'm sure there are people who were having an even wors-er day, at least I have someone I love to miss and I have a warm, although empty, home to return to.

So, goal number one of deployment (and of life, I suppose) is to remain more positive and remember that other people have bad days too. The world does not revolve solely around me (or you, huffy lady).

And thus begins my list of deployment goals. Some tangible, some characteristic, all important and focus-worthy.