Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

One of my coworkers is having a really rough time. Him, his wife, and their two children were living with his wife's mother because they were homeless. They were on several hundred dollars worth of food stamps to feed their kids. He was doing work out of a temp agency and scraping by paycheck-to-paycheck.

But... now that he has a job (that only pays him about $10 an hour, mind you) the state cut his food stamps by over $200 per month. He couldn't afford a box of cake mix for his birthday yesterday, couldn't afford to buy milk so his kid could have cereal for breakfast.

Then he got an eviction notice yesterday (on his birthday) because he was behind on his rent because he can't live with the mom-in-law anymore because she had a medical emergency and had to be moved to a group home with full time nursing staff.

So he decided to quit the job. His logic is that if he quits, his income will go down, and his food stamps will be returned to him, so he'll be able to feed his children.

Someone let slip to the boss that he needed help. The big boss called him into his office and they had a little chat. And the big boss ended up giving him, as a gift, several hundred dollars in cash. Enough to pay his rent for at least this next month, and enough left over to buy his two kids something for Christmas. <3

I had a best friend, and since she found out that my political/religious views are different from hers she stopped speaking to me. Just disappeared. She's still on Facebook, she didn't unfriend me or anything. She just didn't speak to me.

Then it kind of went on-again-off-again. She'd decide to say hi after several months of no contact, or she'd send me a thank-you text when I sent her daughter a stuffed animal for her birthday. Not even a thank-you, more of an "aww, you didn't have to do that!" text, then declined to respond to any other texts or messages. I figured we were off again.

Then she sent me a bouquet of flowers for my birthday, begging forgiveness for how she'd been. And we were on again... for a few weeks.

Well, on the 21st of this month, she had her second baby. They are home from the hospital now, and we found out about it on Facebook. They didn't even bother to call or text and tell us she was in labor. We used to share everything with these people. We used to drive halfway across our respective states to meet at a hotel in the middle and split the cost of the four of us in one hotel room so we could see each other sometimes. We used to spend holidays together.

And now, we find out that she had her baby on bloody FB? We found out that she was in the hospital for five days on bloody FB? We found out the baby's name on FB? Really? I guess we're off again.

These same friends had a dog, a dachshund named Jasmine. They had Jasmine for about two years, then my friend decided that she didn't like the dog anymore (she wanted a different dog) and so they just dumped Jasmine.

I just can't forgive it. A dog isn't a doll to be tossed aside when you want a newer model. It's a living animal who gives you their whole heart, all their love, their loyalty. I just can't look at someone the same after they betray all that love and loyalty. I mean for crying out loud, when my husband and I discussed our natural disaster/emergency survival backpack/kits, we picked out which food we would take for our dogs and how much of their food they might be able to carry in tiny dog saddlebags. I would not even give my dogs up to survive the zombie apocalypse. I even worked out how I could keep both my hands free in case I fell down while still holding their leash by looping it around my waist.

So, if I think she's kind of horrible for dumping me over religious/political views, how bad does that make me for wanting to dump her over her dumping her dog? Yep. I'm the hypocrite. I still want to dump her though. Poor Jasmine!