Thursday, January 15, 2015

Let's Do Lunch



Lately I’ve been noticing an ongoing theme in my life. I’m not exactly sure if I should be more worried about what it says about me, or other people (I’m hoping the latter)—people don’t follow through!

Before Thanksgiving I had a friend reach out to me and request a lunch date after the holiday. This never happened. A month later this person messaged me and asked to get together over the Christmas break because they “didn’t have any plans.” A few days later I reach out and invite them to a game night. After practically stalking them for a response, I was told they were going out of town. WTF! Now, maybe it’s just this particular "friend," but it starts playing into my insecurities about being a fun person. It also makes me think about how much of our social life planning is merely lip service. 

When we were kids it was so easy. You’d simply call up a friend and say “what are you doing?” Typically this question would be followed by “nothing” and thirty-minutes later you’d be doing “nothing” together. Now we require evites sent a month in advance due to work, families and various other obligations, and this is perfectly understandable. But now the problem seems to be that we often don’t follow through with the initial objective of getting together with friends, thus we become stagnant, bored and uninspired to do much more than what we absolutely have to. 

Most of the gatherings that I’ve planned or partaken in in the recent years require meal preparation, major housecleaning or gift giving, so it always seems like a bigger ordeal than maybe it has to be. It’s also harder finding friends who have significant others that my significant other will actually get like. Then you bring kids into the mix and if they don’t get along or have a huge age gap, it’s now inconvenient and serves no purpose. What the hell has happened?

Maybe it’s time that we adults actually join “play-date” groups where we just sit around and do nothing together. OR maybe I’ll just make myself a martini, grab a box of crackers, flip on the TV and be entertained by people who don’t put me through the ringer just to spend a scheduled hour with them.



-EJ (aka Miss Whineypants)
ejvalson@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Welcome To My Whiney Side

Lately I've found myself thinking a lot about people, the world, life, etc. During those moments I often find myself thinking smart-assy, sarcastic and sometimes blunt thoughts. I wonder if I actually said them out loud, would people think I'm negative or hypocritical? I've always tried to practice what I preach and take a positive approach to most things. However, I've sometimes found that I was only accommodating other people and getting the short end of the stick in the process. If I had done or said what I really  felt, maybe I'd been better off. Truth is, we are all a little negative, sarcastic and have thoughts that might make our mother's wince from time to time -- but so what, we're human!

Though the blog title includes "whine" which is honestly one of my biggest pet peeves (ask my kiddos), us adults deserve the opportunity to do that once in awhile. This blog isn't meant to be mean-spirited, negative, or hurtful, but is simply intended to provide a place to air grievances, while finding the humor in them. I hope you enjoy and I invite you to participate by providing topics or "bitch box" ideas.

EJ (the whiner)