Venting

A man takes his wife out deer hunting for the first time. It's early in the
morning and the husband is explaining the rules to his wife, "Now, remember
these woods have allot of greedy people in them, so if you shoot one, run right over to it and guard it with your life. If you don't someone else will."
The wife nods okay.
"And, if you get in trouble, shoot your gun in the air three times. I'll be
over as soon as I can."
And again the wife nods okay.
"Now, this is what we're going to do. See that ridge to your right. You're
going to sit on top of that one, and I will sit on this one to the left."
They both agree and go to their blinds. About thirty minutes after sunrise,
the husband hears a gunshot come from the ridge his wife is sitting on. He
thinks to himself, "Cool, her first time out deer hunting and she gets one!"
Five more minutes pass, and he hears three gunshots come from the other
ridge. He thinks, "Oh, great. Now she's in trouble."
Being the good husband he was, he ran over to the other ridge. As he reached the top, he came into a clearing where his wife was holding off another man with her gun. The husband gingerly walked up to them and said, "Alright, what's going on here!?!"
Promptly the other man looks at the husband and says, "Look, I don't want any trouble from you. Just let me get the saddle off first.

I think I'm living the part of the guy who wants to get the saddle off. No details - I just want the plastic tubs that have our names on them after all the stuff is emptied out of them and given away. My hands are open - it's yours. This has not been an easy time coming back to Ukraine - and it has nothing to do with Ukraine.

No More Mr. Nice Guy, er, Mrs. Nice Woman

While we were in L'viv and we were wandering around the city center, this guy came up to me and said, "Where are you from?" in perfect English.

This is a common question here in Ukraine now. It is obvious from the way we dress and the way we walk and the way we look that we are not "from here". It is not unusual to be asked this question and the expected answer is "I'm from ______" with a smile that says 'how kind of you to notice that I am a tourist in your city/country'.

However, it is a ploy to get your attention so someone can sell you something, or even to distract you so a pickpocket can do their thing.

So, this man walks up beside us, walks along with us for a few steps, asks me "Where are you from?" because I am the woman and an easy mark. I look directly at him for about 1 second, never break stride and respond,

"Why do you want to know?"

I have no idea where that answer came from, but it stopped him in his tracks. "Uh, uh, uh," splutter, mumble "because I want you to buy my photo postcards here?" Ah ha! A truthful answer! "No thank you!" and we keep on walking.

Today I made a phone call and asked someone a question. They didn't know the answer. A few minutes later someone else calls me and grills me (GRILLS me!!!) on why I didn't call X 3rd other person instead and then gives me the answer (which I'd already received via text message from the first person I called).

You know - it just pissed me off. Totally pissed me off. And I use that word on purpose because that is exactly how I feel.

This person does this to me all the time. And I was raised to be "nice" even when people are being rude and inconsiderate and downright ugly. It is important to be nice. A real woman is nice. A Christian is nice.

Really being nice means never grilling a person and setting them straight out of the blue, especially when said person was in a really good mood before the phone call. Which was TOTALLY uncalled for from start to finish - I didn't call YOU for a reason!

Well, I guess I've had my fill of being nice because I'm just not going to put up with it any more! I've had it up to the part in my hair on top of my head. So, next time it happens, I'll ask a similar question "why do YOU want to know?" or whatever fits the bill.

First I'll have to remember, though, that I don't have to be nice.

That might be hard.

I'll have to practice!!

heh heh