Gardening Grumbling

GRAH!

So, part of buying our house in the city was that we got a double lot- which means we get a nice big green space, and even better: the sellers didn't bother to plant a damn thing other than grass, and there is a GIANT Elm tree in the backyard. When I got my catalog from a mail-order nursery this year, I was crazy excited.

See, the catalog came with a 50% off deal- worth up to $500. I planned on ordering about $300 worth of crap, and only paying $150- plus, free shipping. Well, I was telling my gardening-enthusiast/hippie neighbor about the deal, and asked if she wanted to order with me, so as to also get 50% off of her order. She said she was really interested, and requested to see the catalog.

Now, my stupid/smelly/crazy/hippie neighbor has managed to lose my catalog. I officially hate her. So, I called the company, praying that if I was super nice, they would give me the 50% off deal, especially given that I am referring customers to them.

After waiting on hold for well over 30 minutes, this annoying bitch on the line tells me that they only sent those out to first-time home buyers (because the city's "welcome wagon" sells our data to companies who might profit from our new purchase- like furniture and home-repair people). And, because there was "no way" to track that we had received this catalog, there was no way for us to receive the deal.

I informed the woman that we would not order from their company unless we got the deal, and we would certainly not refer the company to any of our neighbors. I mean- COME ON!

First, lesson learned: never trust anyone who smells of patchouli. NEVER. All of the excessive amounts of pot and/or hallucinogens have managed to rot out the part of their brains that remember where they placed the belongings of others and why it is BEYOND funny that they sit around in Whole Foods and bitch about the local coffee shop chain being "too big" and that it edges out the "mom and pop" coffee shops. Does anyone else see the irony?

Second: you'd think that it would be in the company's best interest to keep a customer- especially one who might create more business through referrals. I mentioned that several of our neighbors might order from their company after they see the quality of the plants that I receive, but without the discount, I would not be ordering said plants. Losing my business makes for a much greater loss.

I'm not sure who should bear the brunt of my wrath: my nonsensical neighbor or contemptible company. I've decided: both.

The best part is the Boyfriend lectured me (like a little girl!) about letting people borrow things because "they always lose or destroy" your property. Harrumph! I hate it when he's right.

Me 'n' Jesus

I like to read Service Industry blogs- it makes me feel better knowing that other perfectly reasonable people face the same types of crap that I do. One of my absolute favorites is Ryan over at IServeIdiots.com. He gets to say all of the things I only wish I could say to my *ahem* guests.

Recently he posted about homelessness/an experiment in being homeless, and then a follow-up post outlining why he went homeless for spring break and how this works into his believe system.

To be totally honest, I stopped being into Jesus in high school. I went to a non-denominational church that leaned toward baptist beliefs- and with that, baptist insanity. I was totally into Jesus until a girl got pregnant in our church- her boyfriend was completely absolved of any wrongdoing, and she was actively called a whore and treated like a lesion. I'm pretty sure that if Jesus was God, and if Jesus cared enough to pay attention to the happenings at our church, Jesus would damn sure have been ashamed of the retardation. Something about that whole parade really struck me, and that's when I stopped talking to Jesus. It just seemed that the people who didn't call themselves "Christian" were behaving in a much more Godly manner.

Now that I'm a little older (and partially at the urging of my mother), I decided to re-examine my feelings/belief in any religion.

To be sure, I really want to be religious. I want to be caught up in the whole "I love Jesus, and He loves me and we all are happy and la la la!" thing. I want to go to church and feel like I'm part of a community again. The problem is that I think it's a giant crock. That's right, Mom. I totally do. I just don't believe it. I want to, though.

And really, the only reason I'm really not that into Jesus is that I think that the foundations of what is "sin" and "wrong" and "immoral" are based on social norms of people who lived, literally, several millennia ago. Premarital sex is bad because there weren't effective forms of birth control or a social system to deal with bastard children. NOT because the act of inserting one set of genitalia into another is evil. Homosexuality is sinful because tribes needed to repopulate, and if no one was mixing the right gametes, it wasn't going to happen. NOT because it is unnatural for two people who are attracted to each other to act on their attraction.

So, my moral code is broken down into simple rules:
1. Don't idolize stupid things. Being materialistic leads to selfishness and wastefulness.
2. Censor speech or other forms of communication so as to minimize hurt and offense while not compromising the sentiment.
3. Don't work too hard- remember to take a break and remember what is important.
4. Family and friends are "what is important."
5. Don't kill.
6. Don't cheat.
7. Don't steal.
8. Don't lie.
9. Avoid jealousy.

So, I am not always good at keeping to these rules, but darn! They do look pretty much like the 10 Commandments- and those don't seem to be too bad as far as rules go.

Maybe I'm not cut out for mass worship/religion. I was always bothered by the idea that my pastor would be my shepherd because he's obviously so much better, smarter and more spiritual, so my stupid illiterate soul better just do what he tells me to do.

Anyway, coming back around- after reading Ryan's post, I feel like I can approach religion again. It won't look much different from my daily life. Maybe someone will see me church-hopping around the city, trying to find a church that's not full of lies, blasphemy, and hypocrisy (HA!). But I feel very much like I don't have to join the establishment to have a spiritual life.

As a fan of reason, I'll follow the rules that make sense in a modern life and honor a moral code that fits for who I am and who I want to be.