Random rants

Here are just a few of the things that are bothering me this week:

1) My truck, and Chrysler as a brand in general. Seriously, Chrysler, fuck you. This is the second Chrysler-made vehicle I've owned, and, like its predecessor, it is a serious piece of shit. I have had more problems with my Jeep in the short ten months that I've owned it (and don't get me started on my first car, the Eagle) than I ever had with my Honda in the three years I owned it. In ten months, my three-year-old Jeep has had to be towed twice, and will need to be towed AGAIN to fix (ONE of) its current issues. My ten-year-old Honda was towed ONCE in three years. I know... comparing Chrysler vehicles to Honda vehicles is like comparing apples to oranges -- it really isn't fair -- but honestly Chrysler, the only thing I can manage to say is fuck you. It should be sad for you when I find a 1999 Honda with 140,000 miles on it to be a more reliable vehicle than a 2006 Jeep with less than 50,000 miles on it. Oh, and I realize that the fact that my car is not fixed at the moment is partially my fault due to my lack of funds from being unemployed, but this part is my favorite: Since August (that's three months for those who are counting), my Jeep has been drivable for... maybe... three weeks. Maybe. Which leaves nine weeks of non-operable, piece of shit truck sitting on my curb. Which, really, translates into TWO MONTHS of paying for a car that I CANNOT DRIVE. Yes, because I really love that. FUCK YOU, CHRYSLER.

2) Barbara Walters. Truthfully, she bothers me during any given week, but for some reason, I felt compelled to watch a bit of her interview with Sarah Palin this morning. This is funny in itself, because Walters and Palin are BOTH on my top ten list of public figures I'd like to take a swing at with a bat, but I digress. What I hate most about Barbara Walters are these two things:

• The fact that she believes she is some kind of goddess in the industry... Watch her and you'll notice, she plugs herself EVERYWHERE. She is a plugging whore. On The View, she'll say, "Well, on 20/20, I said this...", on Oprah, she'll say, "Well, on The View, I said that...", and on Good Morning America, she doesn't hesitate to make Diane Sawyer or Robin Roberts look like complete idiots, which they are not. And she talks over EVERYONE, which I hate. So rude, Barbara, so rude! And, I personally think she has a goal of making everyone she interviews cry, which just makes her an ass.

• The way she asks questions to which the answers were obvious BEFORE she asked them, and then acts surprised when the answer comes. Like this morning, she approaches the subject of Bristol Palin's pregnancy and asks Sarah Palin, "Did you know your daughter was sexually active?" Umm.... DUH!!! Everyone knows that Sarah Palin is a staunch advocate of abstinence-only education. Of course she didn't know Bristol was having sex, and she told Barbara as much in no uncertain terms. Barbara, you dumbass, either you suck, or your writers suck. But mostly, I just think you suck.

3) Joy Behar. This one makes me sad, because really, I love Joy Behar. I love her on The View, and I was excited about her new show on HLN. For the first couple of weeks I watched it and I liked it. But then the news broke about David Letterman's affair with a staffer, and it's like every night is "Let's Defend Dave Night" on The Joy Behar Show. For the first night (or two, or even three), that was okay. But it has been weeks now since that story broke, and still, all Joy talks about is dear old Dave. People have sex with their bosses or their subordinates more than we know, and it really doesn't get talked about this much. Trust me. I worked with someone who was nearly six months pregnant with the boss's baby before a word was ever spoken about the situation, and even then, it wasn't confirmed that the boss was actually the baby's father until the baby was nearly five months old. That's a long-ass time for no one to say anything about a relationship between a boss and an employee. Oh sure, there was gossip flying around the office because we were suspicious, but I'm talking about rehashing the details of a confirmed relationship as Joy does every night in an attempt to save her buddy Dave. But Dave didn't rape anyone, it was consensual. he is not a criminal, just a lousy husband apparently. And it doesn't appear that he needs any saving, his career is just fine. His marriage might not be, but Joy can't really do anything about that. And Joy, I am tuning out until you move on, sister.

4) My ex-boss. Just because he hasn't called me in two months doesn't mean he's gone from my life, it just means he hasn't felt compelled to bug me lately. But, as one of my former co-workers so lovingly reminded me yesterday, he does have a birthday coming up this week and the holidays are fast-approaching. Given that his own children have shunned him, I'm sure the baby will be reaching out for Mommy sooner rather than later. Ugh. I told my former co-worker, sometimes it sucks being home, because when I walk out my door, I look both ways to make sure he's not walking up to my doorstep for a surprise visit, and before I get in my car (which I haven't done for months now, ahem, Chrysler!) I check to make sure there are no notes taped to the window or slid through the crack in the door, as he has also done before. It's not that I don't feel safe in my own home because I do; he has given me no reason to believe that he poses any kind of physical threat to me. What it is is that he imposes a complete violation of privacy and a complete lack of respect for my own time and space -- by walking up to my doorstep for surprise visits; by leaving notes on my car; and by calling, texting or e-mailing at his leisure and expecting me to drop everything and respond when it has been nearly TWO YEARS since I have been a paid employee of his. Never knowing when I am going to hear from him next leaves me feeling very unsettled, and truthfully, it feels like a control he still has on my life. I resent him for that, and I resent myself for allowing him to do that to me.

I think that's enough for now... I've (unfortunately!) been on a rather short fuse lately, so there is definite possibility for there to be more later.