The Not Happy Thread

One of my coworkers asked me to pick up her shift for Friday. Not a problem... except it's from 3 PM to 11 PM. 7 hours. WTF did I get myself into?

 

I’ve had a bad afternoon. I’m not typing this here for sympathy, but because I need to rant. So be warned. This is a rant.

Spoiler

It all started with my Co-worker who was late, as usual to return from her lunch break. It put me in an annoyed state because she’s not very considerate about that sort of thing and I had a lot to get done today. After finishing up said things I came home to my apartment and noticed my neighbor’s garage door up .. no vehicle.. nothing in sight. I didn’t think much about it at the time because I knew she was moving out.

I got ready to go back to work and hoped into my truck. Looked behind me and pulled out of my garage. Our apartment is a duplex with personal garages. I pulled out like I always do moving toward the back fence and started to cut my wheel to get ready to back into the alley. Then I heard and felt a loud bump.

I had backed the front bumper of my pickup into my neighbors brand new Honda accord. Quite a feet considering there is nearly a full car length between her garage and mine. I immediately put the truck in park and climbed out to look at the damage. I was already sick to my stomach because I couldn’t believe I had hit it. I couldn’t believe the car was where it was. Which was more than half way into my garage space along the drivers side.

About the time I’m standing there thinking. Shit. A blond woman I’ve never seen before comes out of my neighbors house yelling. “Didn’t you see me hit your truck I was trying to get you to stop.” It freaked me out because I didn’t know her, I never saw her, and then she started yelling at her 4 year old son to get back because he was playing too close to the car.

My neighbor was very understanding about the whole thing but the woman kept screaming (I still dunno who the lady was) and what not. I very carefully backed my truck off the Honda. The only damage to it was a quarter size paint fleck off the drivers side door from where my bumper made contact. We were both extremely lucky.

I’m ranting because of the lady screaming really. The whole time I’m apologizing my head off for not paying more attention and thinking.. God what if it had been the kid? Or, Why the hell would you park in someone else’s garage space when there isn’t anything in your garage.. and you’re not loading a moving van?

 

For real, dude? I would have told that lady to eff off. Or maybe not actually told her to, but I would have wanted to. My sister used to date a guy who would do that crap, parking his car partway blocking where we parked, and it really got under my skin. Once he parked partially blocking my car in, then had the tailgate down, so I just clipped the tailgate as I was backing out. Apparently he told my sister "oh, don't worry, I'm not upset about it or anything." Yeah, damn straight you're not upset! You shouldn't have been a douche and blocked my car in over and over...

Don't let that lady get to you. When people do stupid sh*t, they like to make other people feel stupid so they don't have to feel bad for being idiots.

 

Thanks Hidden, I'm not sure why the whole thing just got to me so bad. I mean, there isn't even any damage to my truck. My neighbor had only lived there for less than a year. In that time I've seen the woman a grand total of three times... And then today. It was a trip.

 

That sounds like a pretty terrible day Corbyn!

Do you have to pay for the damage caused, or is it going through insurance?

 

Because of the size of the damage and deductables I decided it would be prudent not to get the insurance companies involved. I offered to pay for the damages. Although I'm not sure the owner is actually going to do anything about it. I have her forwarding address just in case and I left her with my information. Since it happened in my driveway I didn't file an incident report with the police. I figured handling it personally would be best.

 

You did the right thing, and I absolutely hate people like that. You are pretty lucky, though. I backed my mom's car into my dad's truck in the driveway two months ago and caused $2000 in damage to dad's truck (haven't gotten mom's checked out yet). The insurance paid for it and I worked off the $500 deductible, and it's fixed now. I plan on working to get mom's fixed too.

 

Looking at my sig, I just realized that I've made a commitment to myself to write the stories and...I'm not sure if I can do it! D= I think I made a mistake here.

 

^Well you better get started then! Good luck

 

I'll try. I mean, I keep saying "Aaaagh! What have I done!? DELETE! DELETE!" and another part of me says "Dude? Shut the hell up and write. Quit crying like a baby with an upset stomach and do it."

 

That's extremely responsible of you Gigi.. most kids wouldn't do that for their parents. That's awesome!

Link-- Don't over think your stories just write one then the other. If not you'll never get them going or in a position to do something else with. You'll be too busy bouncing between them. I say this because I've noticed how you latch on to one story idea then it kinda fizzles. I'm not trying to be rude. I just really want to see what you come up with. To do that though I think you need to focus on one idea first, get it established then move to the next.

 

You should listen to the second part of you. You can do it, Link!

Corbyn, thanks. It's what I feel I need to do, and if I can help at all I'm happy.

 

I think the problem is that I am so used to just talking about writing a story, but never actually getting around to doing it. Now that I've forced myself to write something, my mind's going "OMGWTFBBQ!!?" over it and is not sure how to respond.

I guess the only logical choice would be to continue. If Heridon must drag me every step of the way, then so be it. I promised myself I'd finish a story, and I will.

I agree with Corbyn. I should stick with one story for now, as to not get overwhelmed. As of now, it's Heridon Copper.

 

Chop chop man! I can't wait to see it

 

I have the same issue, Link. I love coming up with story ideas, but actually committing to just one idea is difficult. Do you have a writing notebook that you record ideas in? Everyone is different, so it might not work for everyone, but having a notebook dedicated to my story ideas really helped me be able to focus more on one project at a time. It's intimidating, but we have faith in you! You can do it!

 

I agree... actually committing to doing it is intimidating. My biggest problem is myself.. making myself do it.. it's like I'm so afraid it's going to be crap that I psych myself out before I ever get going. That's why I said hang it and just started writing .. I've found a little more structure is really good for me to. I write then go back and review my notes.. make more notes... then write more and tweak along the way. It's worked out best for me... I have a skeletal outline of my plot and am filling in the rest as I go. My writing group helped put me on that track. It helps me stay a little more focused. Plus I've limited my time here and doing other things online.

Also, big big thank you's to Mallory. Having her challenge me a bit to do things really helped me put myself into gear.. So thanks!

 

I think if you focus and commit yourself, you can do it, Link.

 

Corbyn - Thanks, but you put yourself in gear. I could challenge you to contests twenty times a day, but you're the one who decides to sit down and write. So it's all on you.

 

Funny, I just posted in the happy thread for legitimate reasons...but despite the fact that I'm moving towards real goals, towards really improving my life, all I want to do right now is to die. I want to die, because I don't think I can ever really be happy. Depression is really holding me down. I'm having a hard time seeing beauty in the universe right now. Is beauty, like love, an illusion? How the hell do I delude myself into thinking life is worth living?

 

I'm not experienced with depression, but perhaps talking to a professional might help. The good thing is you're doing something to improve your life and that may help you feel better towards everything, give it time. If you keep being in the same state of mind, that you'll never be happy, then you probably never will be. Stop thinking 'I'm never going to be happy' and focus on all the good things in life. Think to yourself 'I will be happy', you just have to be patient. Don't give up on life and finding happiness.

As for me, I wish I could distract myself. I can't focus on anything. Some people can do the whole throwing themselves into work, cleaning, doing productive things. I can't. I've tried and I just can't switch off. Can't I just sleep until I feel better?

 

It's not very easy to distract oneself, I know... when I had to do that, I decided to do something completely new: learning to play guitar. And it actually did help, so maybe you could try something like that?

 

Thanks but I've tried that. I tried teaching myself Italian a few weeks ago, and then again this week when I knew I was going to Italy in a couple of weeks. No success. Going to try and start writing my novel again, didn't work last time but it might this time.

 

Yeah Yeah, I know but it did sound good. Believe it or not it did help.

 

Well, my story's starting off on a slow start. XD I guess it's good. Slow and steady and eventually I'll get it done. Some authors spend years writing one book.

 

Yes they do. Like I said The whole story boarding and roughing out my plot outline helped me tons. But really I'm just getting started.