The thing is, he loves having his family around him, so I'm not sure why he's pushing back against several people helping un-decorate next weekend.

As for dictating the rest of the terms (i.e., "Why are the decorations still up?", etc.), I get that he has less and less control of things as he ages, and wants to have some control over something. I do get that. But still, it's very frustrating.

Again, feeling you. With my mom, it's that she wants to prove that she is important to you by making you dance to her tune.

My grandfather (RIP) would only accept certain help from my mother, aka the only one of his four children who lived in another state. He had one son 30 min away, one 15 min away, and one next door. Literally next door.

IOW, don't blame you at all.

but seriously, if you ask for help, you can't dictate the terms of it.

Man, I want to print that on t-shirts and give them to everyone in my family and my BFF's family too. Their attitude is: if you're going to do it, do it right! Which of course means: If you're going to do this for me (and you are), you must do it my way, or you obviously don't care about [me] doing it right, so don't bother! (but you're doing it, or else you'll hear about it forever).

How will they know you love them if you won't do menial tasks in stupid ways?

Argh, Steph. Much sympathy.

Today was a Stupid Ass Day and it's a miracle I didn't choke anyone. I had to chase people in order to get an answer to a very basic question for hours today (after they didn't reply for two weeks. Today was the deadline). I have just spent ~150$ to buy things in preparation to the snowpocalypse, because my city's infrastructures cannot fathom snow, so every snow is a snowpocalypse. No, really: this year they plan to close the roads few hours before the snow will begin. We've been instructed to buy heating thingies that do not require electricity. Personally, I bought another radiator and came up with body warmer bags and hot water bottle, as my apartment isn't prepared for gas heating, not to mention fireplace or whatnot. I also managed to hurt myself while carrying the radiator to a neighbors/colleague car for 10 minutes, so today was Mucho Ouch-heating pad day on top of everything. And big bosses at work, even though I'm buried well under it, will not allow me to work from home when I (and the rest of the company) will not be able to come to work because of snow, despite they keep saying we really need to get things done. Geniuses, I tell you.

And just to put things into perspective, we do this for 6-10 inches of snow. Because, again, my city cannot fathom snow. So silly.

Phew

Thank you, I feel better after getting this out.

we do this for 6-10 inches of snow. Because, again, my city cannot fathom snow.

That's a lot of snow, though.

The new year is beginning on a bright note, for sure.

Through a series of almost hilarious bobbles on the part of paypal admins, I started out $200 down. Then, in trying to rectify that, a paypal admin took ANOTHER $200 from my bank account.

Today, I finally found someone who actually understands what happened and just gave me back half the money and is re-initiating the process to get the other back.

Go team competence.

Also, the pet care company had a great holiday season wherein not one single emergency occurred. The owner is so pleased with the policies I've initiated that she is totally on board with further changes I want to put in place. It can only get better!

They'll stop most traffic after 1-2 inches. We're really not equipped for snow. They had to bring tanks last year to evacuate people. I kept hoping that somewhere, some TV network is broadcasting this, telling the world that there's a putsch.

After my rant above, I realized was probably exhausted me most today, along with the pain, was the fact that the people sitting next to me in the sorta-open-cubicle space wouldn't shut up all day (and talked louder than ever). It sounded as if they're having an 8 hour long coffee break, not as if they're in a workplace. There's one woman who is reading every text message she gets out load, and I did not choke her. Yet.

Oh, bonny. Sorry about the PayPal thing.

They'll stop most traffic after 1-2 inches. We're really not equipped for snow.

I wasn't trying to dismiss the reaction to the snow; I just meant that 6-10 inches of snow would shut down a lot of cities that *are* used to getting snow. That's a lot to get all at one time.

There's one woman who is reading every text message she gets out load, and I did not choke her. Yet.

I think that's a choke-worthy offense. (I would do it.) Go for it.