New Year's Decrees
The new year is quickly approaching, and I have never had much success with resolutions made around this time (I'm much better with Mid-October or Late-Feb resolutions). So instead I decided to go with a set of New Year's Decrees. These are not so much decrees about what I should do or what the world should be like, but more decrees about things that really irk me that other people should resolve to no longer do.
Decree #1: When talking about a group that you are in "we" is acceptable. When talking about your favorite sports team(s) it is not. This has to be my biggest pet peeve as of recent (which seems to just smack me in the face daily at work). Unless you were at one point on the Cowboys payroll you are not allowed to refer to them as "we". This is especially true if it is an out of town team whose games you don't even attend. I constantly hear "we played a great game this weekend" at work. No, the Cowboys did. You sat at home and watched them on TV. There is no "we" here. And don't try to tell me that you support them, so therefore you are like a part of the team. Bull. I used to watch Gilmore Girls almost religiously, yet anyone (sane) would have smacked me upside that head if I ever uttered the phrase "we really had a hard time this week deciding between Jess or Dean". Sports is no different.
Decree #2: It's nice to be thanked, but stop doing it so freakin' much. This one also stems from work, where I am constantly thanked when I leave everyday. Maybe once in a while if I go above and beyond this would be ok, but most days I haven't done anything other than my job. Do you really feel the need to thank me for doing what I am already paid to do? I mean I really don't do any of it out of the goodness of my heart. I even once had our employee representative thank me for coming in one day. I was scheduled that day. Normally when you are scheduled to work you show up. Have we really gotten to the point of incompetence where showing up is greatly appreciated? Cause it's either that or they've all decided to over use the words "thank you" until they have absolutely no meaning left. At this point I seriously no longer believe that they know what it is to be thankful, and hence I'm just insulted when they thank me for doing what I'm paid to do. If you really think I'm doing something special and want to thank me then give me a raise. Otherwise save the thanks for when they are truly deserved.
Decree #3: Please, please, stop telling me I'm a scrooge or that I've lost the holiday spirit when I can no longer stand the over hyped Christmas season that drives everyone into over stressed assholes. And also please stop telling me that it is the "holiday season" or that Christmas is a "religious holiday".
The first was never true (yes it's nice to try to include Chanukah or Kwanza in there, but no one besides the small minority that celebrate those two do anymore than pay them lip service). This is the Christmas season. That's why we see Christmas trees and Christmas music and Christmas cards and Santa (and occasionally Baby Jesus) everywhere.
The second part (Christmas is a religious holiday) passed ages ago. It is a consumerist holiday. Maybe part of the spirit remains (familys getting together and all), but it's been a while since the religious aspect was anywhere near equal to the consumer aspect. Trees and Santa and flying deer have nothing to do with Christianity. Trying to claim that "Jesus is the reason for the season" is just insulting to the actual religious aspects of the holiday. This is why I made the earlier plea to distinguish between Christmas and Xmas. Let the religious people have Christmas, and let everyone else (and mean everyone else) celebrate Xmas.
So stop telling me I'm a scrooge for disliking a holiday that promotes excessive shopping, which in turn leads everyone to be in such a rush and frenzy that they learn how to function as normal compassionate human beings (trust me, I work in a service style industry and see this on a daily basis this time of year).
So these are a few things that I'd like everyone else to work on for the next year. Oh, and Happy New Year!
P.S. - I apologize if this has all come off a little harsh, but as I have said, I work in a service industry and have had to deal with these annoying problems on a rather constant basis for the past two months (let us not forget that Christmas starts about the same time as Halloween, and I think that they might even move the startup date back to Labor Day next year).