Are you cranky about something? I love it when you guys vent.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

Answers

I wasn't cranky before, but now I'm kinda cranky that people have been bitching about posting gift wish lists. I happen to think it's a great idea and I wish I'd thought of it myself earlier before my folks came out and asked me what I wanted...

I agree with you, Pamie -- the way I see it, you made me laugh and kept me entertained with Squishy for the whole year (much more so than "real-life" friends who I get gifts for anyway). To me, a small gift for someone who does that much for us (for FREE, I might add), is a pittance.

People should be glad they don't have to pay for a subscription to read some of these entries. These whiners totally make me nonplussed.

o.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I'm with Omar on this. I think that people are (generally) grown-up enough to make their own decisions on gift-buying, even if it's for people one knows only online.

Sure, it wouldn't be so cool to be spending inappropriate amounts of money or anything, but as far as giving a small gift -- well, I think the exchange of holiday spirit, however you go about it, is always a Good Thing.

There certainly is already enough meanness in the world without begruding people their little wishlists. --Sei.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

Mine is somewhat related: I'm cranky because Rob and Julie just had their baby, and I'm so broke from buying things from people's wishlists that I can't afford to buy a baby gift until after the first of the year. Does that count?

I'm cranky because I don't know how to pronounce "Schuyler" and I think they chose that name just to confuse me.

I'm cranky because I gave out awards to people to tell them I thought they did a good job at something, and some other people wrote to complain because they didn't win one.

I'm cranky because it's a stunningly beautiful day outside, and I have to work late.

I'm cranky because Jeremy won't let me open the things that nice people sent me from my wishlist.

I'm cranky because we're supposed to be setting up our web server next month and the DSL provider went and changed their pricing.

I'm cranky because I've had a headache for over a week, and no one at my office has offered to rub my temples and make me a cup of tea. Bastards.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

having to get together with my family and hearing "and when will you be getting married" for the 9 billionth time makes me cranky.

verrrrrrrry cranky.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

Cranky ? no . pissed off ,yes. Today i forgot to put out the garbage and am going away for two weeks. Last night i decided that i am sick of my job(s) and want to learn kung fu and walk the earth helping people. I have no money as the cheques are in the flipping mail. The birds in my roof are getting up earlier every day. Beer doesnt taste as it should anymore.The women who i flirt with are now believing it means something. My insurance is due. The nye bash i wanted to head to has sold out. I can not get vanilla 'paddle pops' anymore and mud puddle flavour tastes like absoulte arse.Previous flatmate took my 'ok computer' and murder ballads-nick cave cd's.That whilst I am away i will not be able to read squishy every day. merry non denominational holidays people.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

The whole "your" and "you're" thing...

I like you're dog. (wrong!) I like your dog. (right)

Your going to the store? (wrong!) You're going to the store? (right)

Learn it people, for Christ's sake..... grrrrrr.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I'm cranky because boys are dumb. Dumb, I say!

Oh, and I'm cranky that I have to drive 10 hours to Alabama tomorrow and the first thing my mother is going to say to me is "What took you so long?"

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I'm cranky because the world is full of idiots. (Not 99.999% of the people who post here, mind you!) As my friend Colin would say, I live in the City of Dumb. No one out there can drive, maneuver their shopping buggies at the grocery store, spell, use the English language, walk down the street, punctuate, or exist on this planet in a way that I find inoffensive or even acceptable these days. (Of course I'm probably just still grouchy because the same lady nearly hit me with her shopping cart about 3 times in the Tom Thumb today.) Can't people just do things MY way? The world would run so much more smoothly.

It's hard to stay in the Christmas/Winter Solstice/Channukah/Kwanzaa spirit when people are trying to run you over with their cars in the mall parking lot, or 'axing' you for money in a restaurant parking lot, or annoying you with sentences like "If I WOULD'VE known you were getting me something for Christmas, I would've gotten you something too!" (the first 'would've' should be HAD). Not to mention the ones who are just downright mean little Grinches. I start these days out in a good mood, and then someone always finds a way to ruin it.

And it will serve my sanctimonious ass right if I misspelled something or made a grammatical or punctuation error here. 5,000 lashes with a wet noodle to me for being so damn grumpy anyway!

Bah humbug.

Yours truly, Scrooge McChicken

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I was cranky about the fact that I spent day two of my new job 'doing,' not 'training.' If you want me to do the job right, show me HOW. Do NOT expect me to just know things. Training my ass.

However, after reading the name 'Scrooge McChicken" repeatedly, I am now much better. Thanks. ;)

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I'm cranky because I'm home tonight *again*.

I'm cranky because my mother hates one of my friends and I'm afraid hes mad at me because of that.

I'm cranky because he probably went out with another one of my friends (I'm jealous he didn't invite me) and he probably won't call me back.

I'm cranky because one of my friends says I'm a good flirt but it doesn't seem to get me anywhere.

I'm cranky because I have to work all the time and thats what I feel like my life is headed right now: wake up, work, get home, sleep, wake up, work, etc...

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

Wish I knew why I was cranky. The fact that there's no 'valid' reason for me being down in the dumps (as well as cranky), only makes it worse. I dont want to be in Oz for Xmas. I want to be with our friends in Calif..which is a bit tricky, 'cos they're not talking to us any more. Maybe that's why I'm down. It's nice to have somewhere to grinch to. Can I use that as a verb? Too bad, I've done it anyway.

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

What am I cranky about?

Oh, shit. Here we go. You're all doomed.

First off. This Y2K crap. I was okay with all of the end of the world hype until I heard that MTV was putting people in a shelter so that if the rest of the world dies, they can repopulate. The simple fact that the people who are going to be in this shelter are going to be picked by MTV worries me, because, well, think about MTV's viewing audience. Think about their VJs. Do you want the spawn of that populating the earth?

I'm crabby because I really don't want to go out on New Year's Eve and no one seems to understand that. Let me stay home, play in the net, watch stupid people blow things up in Times Square because you just know that some freaky-ass militant group is going to be all about planting bombs or something.

I'm crabby because I have a grand total of seventeen cents to my name, have done no Christmas shopping because I'm freaking broke, and christmas at my house is essentially nonexistant this year.

I'm crabby because I went to the mall today to laugh at the throngs of rabid, frenzied shoppers, and there weren't any. The mall was actually less crowded than usual. What a let down!

Oh, and I'm crabby because I fell down all the stairs last night, and I think that I broke my butt. Don't laugh. I mean it!

I think that's it.

-Meghan

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

I am cranky for the following reasons.

I've got a really bad cold and cough, I've had it for over a week, I wake up coughing every half an hour during the night, and I hate it.

I am so sick of my job that I could almost kill somebody. I was all set to look for something else, but our company is merging with a much larger company, and this should hopefully lead to more opportunities for me. So I'm having to be prudent and sensible and spend another six months here, despite being sick of it all.

The flat is a dump. We moved in at the beginning of July, and we haven't got round to fixing lots of things - the leaky roof hasn't been seen to because the bloody roofer keeps standing us up, we haven't got round to organising an electrician, which means our faulty wiring will kill us any day, and last night my step-brother in law accidentally made a hole in our dodgy kitchen floor, so now we'll have to get that fixed much sooner than we were planning.

Yesterday my husband spent the day buying me Christmas presents, and was walking in Putney High Street with lots of Harrods bags (because he always does all his present shopping there - everything is under one roof). He accidentally dropped a bag with my main big expensive present in it, realised a couple of seconds later, turned around to look for it, and discovered some absolute bastard had seen him drop it, pounced on it, and pocketed it. How mean is that? However, we've be able to claim it on our insurance, but he was so pissed off, and is now going to have to go back to Harrods again.

I feel really bad because I haven't sent anybody Christmas cards or presents. I could have sent my family in New Zealand presents via online shopping, but the recent merger has made life really busy and I just didn't get round to it. And now I feel guilty.

I've put on loads of weight through too much chocolate consumption, and it sucks to realise that just before the Christmas binges start.

I am not looking forward to Christmas and New Year. I hate Christmas in the winter - I want to be back home with my family, lying in the sun, drinking white wine.

I'm just a big ball of complaints at the moment, but Pamie - I've been rereading some of your old entries, and they are funny and have cheered me up no end. So thank you for all your excellent writing, and I hope you, Eric, Taylor and Cal have a fantastic Christmas.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Things that make me cranky... well, actually, I usually don't get too cranky except at the dangerous antics of some of the idiots I encounter on the roads... (and if I manage to avoid the latest idiocy perpetrated by the sleasy scumbags in public office or the latest idiotic statement and/or outrageious falsehood from the next crop of sleasy scumbags who wish to win public office... and if I manage to avoid making dumb mistakes myself...)

However, I do get a bit cranky when I have to listen to the same clumb of clueless business cliches over and over again... Especially the phrase "full plates" or "have a lot on our plates" to mean we are busy and have lots of work to do. It is okay the first thousand or so times, but eventually it gets annoying... along with an entire list of similar cliches and wornout phrases: "At the end of the day" -- "Bring to the table" -- "That said, "

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Okay, now I'm cranky... I typed "clumb" instead of "clump" in my previous posting so now I look like a subliterate fumble-fingers and that makes me cranky!

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Not cranky, but bummed, because my boyfriend is still in college and I'm not, which means he gets to go home to California for a whole month in January, leaving me in Boston--where I moved to be with him, and where I have made no friends yet--by myself. Waaaa! :(

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Just a little PSA here: If you're cranky for no reason, for real, it can be a sign of depression. Believe me, I know whereof I speak. I'm serious about this, because I was cranky and suicidal, but not really SAD, a few years ago, and had no idea that it could be an indication of clinical depression.

Depression can be a really serious problem this time of year, even for the nonreligious (as I'm sure we all know), so if you have the least inkling you could be depressed, please go to http://www.depression.org/ and click on the symptoms link. Please get help if you need it! I did -- and I'm a new person because of it. (But I'm still cranky a lot! Maybe I should get my meds adjusted...)

:::stepping down off her soapbox:::

Thanks for listening...

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

And now I'm even crankier ... my husband is going to Australia for ten days at the beginning of January. He'll be back for four days, and then we'll go on holiday to South Africa for two weeks. The lucky bugger will spend virtually all of January in summer weather! I'm cranky and jealous.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

Today I'm cranky because I'm at work and I'm hungry and I'm sick of doing the things I need to be doing and I want to cheat and read Pamie but she hasn't updated yet and I can't bring myself to nag her because it won't do any good and I get really cranky when people nag me. But that unfulfilled urge to nag makes me cranky, too. It's like the nagging equivalent of blue balls.

And I'm cranky because someone keeps filling the big basket of chocolate in my office, and if there's chocolate here I will eat it, even though eating sugar all day makes me unproductive and, well, cranky.

And I'm cranky because the lady downstairs with the leaf blower is just doing her job, so I can't drop a flower pot on her head even though she's making me want to scream.

That's all. Thanks for listening.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

The word "fey," which doesn't mean coy or gay, but "sensing imminent death" or "having visionary power" or even "appearing as if under a spell."

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

I'm cranky because of the IT people at my work place. If I am told one more time that it's ok to send .exe files out to customers because Macintosh users aren't important, I think I'll explode. Oh well, I guess watching them frantically put Y2K Microsoft "fixer" patches on all the PCs makes me feel a little better.

I'm also slightly pissed with myself. Why must I make all the bloody xmas cards? Why???? I know they'll look cool in the end, but really.... isn't Christmas hard enough? Hmmm? Get over it already!

-- Anonymous, December 22, 1999

i'm still super-cranky about my apt. complex (CANYON OAKS IN AUSTIN, TX) was going to evict me if i was going to have my hubby live with me, and this is AFTER i gave them money for a townhouse... damn them. (he was rejected by their really high moral standards-too high for a shithole- in that he has a FIVE-YEAR-OLD class "c" misde. for 1/2 a joint that wasn't even HIS.) last weekend, we moved into a house, but still have to pay three months' rent on my apt., which means that the happy newlyweds are borrowing money from the in-laws in under a week after getting married.

and this is why we cancelled christmas this year. you are free of your present-giving obligations. (and, you can thank me later.)

have a good one- -i

-- Anonymous, December 23, 1999

Hey Chickengrrl, thanks for making that PSA... more people need to be aware of their own symptoms.

I'm cranky about my family & some friends thinking that some of my internet friends aren't real. They don't believe me until I show them an actual photograph.

They also ask me when I'm going to settle down and get married. That's a good way to piss me off, too. "Yeah, Grandma, I'll just find myself a girl right off the street and knock her up. You'd just love that, wouldn'tcha? I thought so." Heh heh.

Another thing that makes me cranky is the long, cold and hard winters in the Midwest. I'm sick of them. God bless global warming should it ever become reality! Damn snow & ice. Get in my way of traveling, willya.

Oh, and the last thing. I will not tolerate backseat drivers any more. I know what I'm doing, and my driving record's much more likely to be better than yours. I swear, it makes me paranoid and I'm likely to kill the passenger(s) out of spite. I am one of the most mellow drivers I've ever known, but if I get ragged on for my driving, I'll be thinking about going postal.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 1999

Wow, Irene, I just went to Austin to visit some people who live in that same complex! Too weird. They're moving out at the end of the month, though... I just thought that was too bizarre a coincidence to pass up mentioning!

-- Anonymous, December 25, 1999

c- did you just wanna blow up the place? haha actually, it was a fine place to live until all this bullshit happened... i'm still unsure what "action" i'm going to take... so tempted to write a scathing letter to the austin chronicle (and that joke, the statemen), just to get the ball rolling. any other ideas? i know that i'll not get out of my lease, or anything, but i just want aimco (who owns Crapyon Oaks) to know that AUSTIN is NOT the city to be pulling shit like this. please pass on ideas! thanks- -irene

-- Anonymous, December 26, 1999

What makes me really cranky are pathological liars. I can do without them fucking up my life.

-- Anonymous, December 27, 1999

Cranky? Nah. Not these days. Hakuna Matata.

Have a good new years all, Kevin

-- Anonymous, December 27, 1999