That damn Karma...Biting me in the ass!

We've all seen or have heard of the show where Earl has his list of things he needs to correct so that he no longer has bad Karma...My list is getting longer every day and Karma is chomping down harder and harder in a variety of ways:

1. I have interviewed so many times at Hamot, I'm on a first name basis with the receptionists, yet I still have no job. Something to do with lack of experience. Hey, people...I was in the top 3 of my class. Did I bust my ass to get good grades for nothing? Gimme a job, already. Okay, maybe I didn't bust my ass to get good grades, but I did get good grades. Plus, I had to "bank" hours to take time off during school so that the fine doctors in Pittsburgh could perform a 6-hour surgery on my son. All the while, I did not fall behind in my studies. That should say something, at least. Furthermore, lack of experience?!?! I didn't have a lick of experience when I got hired at a Nuclear Pharmacy, yet in no time, I was compounding, drawing, Q.C.ing, packing, and shipping radioactive drugs to Hamot Heart Institutes from Ohio to New York. Now, if I can learn all the ins and outs of isotopes and millicuries, I think I can room a patient, for God sakes!

2. I was told I had to move out of the cottage because the landlord wanted to use it for personal use. I am so naive; I believe everyone. "Oh, the sky isn't blue you say? Gee, I always thought it was blue. Well, if you say so, I believe you." I went to check the mail at the cottage that would have arrived before the change of address had gone through and right there in the front picture window, big as the sun setting on the lake was a "FOR RENT" sign. Imagine that? I texted my mom and told her what happened. Her reply? "I smell a crazy bitch!" I peed myself from laughing. Then I remembered that I'm living with my parents and will probably die an old spinster in the spare room. Just me and the cat, old and gray, rocking in the rocking chair.

Okay, I can whine and cry all day, but truth be told, this is Karma giving me a little wake-up call, saying, "Michelle, you've got to mend your ways." I may start a list, like Earl and go around, perhaps also with a sibling of mine, and mend my ways. I have 5 brothers and sisters, anyone up for some mending of the ways? I can start here and say, publicly, that I have done wrong.

I was in a relationship that was rocky and when things weren't looking good, I stepped out, and when she kicked me to the curb, I sought comfort in the man that I had stepped out with. While I was with him, I told him that my relationship with her was going nowhere and while I was with her, I told her that I was not seeing him at all. In the end, I ended up messing with people's feelings and made myself out to be the biggest asshole of all. She thought he was an asshole, he thought she was an asshole, and "SURPRISE", I'm the biggest asshole! Probably no real way to mend this, but I sent them an email letting them know this and that it would be best if I not continue a relationship with either of them and we can all go our separate ways.

So, Karma, can you cut a girl some slack and give me a little something to work with here? I think losing in the love department and losing the cottage are some pretty good punishments, but can you throw me a bone here with the job thing? That would be swell!

Gotta go, there's a list to be made. Hey Tammy, you busy this week?

Uuuggghhhh...

Here we go! School is almost out. Let the games commence. We are already trying to start laying the ground rules for this kid for summer and it's not pretty.

He used to have rules. You couldn't spend every night out just because it wasn't a school night and everybody and their brother was not going to be at our house, just "hanging out".
You could not leave your dirty dishes in the living room or your bedroom because you were not allowed to eat in those rooms, unless it was popcorn with a movie and then you need to run the sweeper if it got all over the floor, because occasionally it happened. We're all human.
I don't think we fussed about the kids making their beds and other little insignificant things. All we wanted was for them to respect the common spaces and take care of their rooms. Of course, it was a constant battle, but the job got done. Their were times when we wondered why we had to repeat ourselves on a daily basis to people that would be out on their own in a matter of years, but the job did get done.

This, my friend, is the joy of raising kids.

Now, suddenly, certain people don't understand why it's a battle. Well, he was taken out of obeying rules because he didn't think we were doing right by asking him to do these things and now you want him to obey the same rules that he always had to obey in the first place and you wonder why he's looking at you like you've lost your mind.
We didn't put out the rules because we thought arguing with kids on a daily basis was fun. We did it because that's what needed to be done. So, if you're having a hard time expecting him to suddenly follow rules when he's been able to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, wherever he wants to do it, then you're just going to have to sit back and expect some turbulence. My job will be to remind him that these used to be the rules and that this is not actually something new, it's just being reintroduced...kind of like bell bottoms. Hey, look how people took to bell bottoms when they made a comeback. All in due time, all in due time.

It's gonna be one hell of a summer watching how this trainwreck plays out.