This was a popular catch-phrase in the early ‘90’s when the show Full House aired. Little Stephanie Tanner was famous for saying this at least once an episode. Most times, she was right. People are rude! I work with the public; in a public sector; and when it comes to meeting rude people, this job just takes the cake. As a National Park Service employee, it’s becoming clear to me that not all of today’s’ kids are the rude ones like everyone has pegged them. Sure, some are, but of the kids I’ve met over the years, it’s the PARENTS and even GRANDPARENTS that feel so entitled to EVERYTHING they can’t be anything but rude (and aren’t they the ones setting an example for these “rude” kids?). Allow me to explain:

An older man walks into the visitor center and had a family sized bag of chips. Right as you walk in there is a sign that says “No Food or Drink Allowed”. Rightfully so, as we have a lot of displays and books and such and there is NOT enough time for anyone to sit there and clean up food stains off the visitor center carpet and glass—adult or not. Now, normally I wouldn’t mind if an adult walks in with something to eat or drink (esp. if that drink was a bottle of pop and had a cap) However my work lead was standing there and he looked at the guy with the bag of chips and goes “I’m sorry, Sir, you’ll have to eat the chips outside…there is no food or drink allowed in the visitor center”. To be honest, my work lead can be quite a crab; however in this case, he was actually very nice about it. The older guy looks at him and in this sarcastic, quippy tone goes “Oohh well I wouldn’t want to break any LAWS” starts to walk out of the V.C. My lead is not the kind of guy anyone would want to mess with. As a retired military man of 22 years, he won’t take any crap from anyone. He looks at the guy and goes “YOU don’t need to be in here then”.  The guy just looks at him all wide-eyed and shovels a huge handful of chips sloppily into his mouth and walks out. He never came back in the V.C.  How hard would it have been to walk 50 steps to the car and put the chips down? Is he really that pissed about not being able to stuff chips into his gaping mouth for 10 minutes? Why does he feel so entitled to do whatever he wants and just ignore the rules?

Ok ok so I’m hoping I don’t contradict myself here….as previously mentioned; young kids are not really the rude ones. Still strapped to mom and dad like the cord was never cut, they do say please and thank you quite often. When it comes to people around my age (mid-late 20’s), the rude thing is somehow associated with “cool”. This is completely perplexing to me. High school is OVER, get OVER yourself. No one thinks you’re so cool because you have the ability to be a dick. I can be a dick too and no one will be impressed.  I was in the middle of selling a pass to a guy, when literally 35 people walk in (family reunion); including a guy I thought was kind of cute. He killed it for me within about 3 seconds of walking in. As I am in the middle of helping the gentlemen in the front of the line, he pushes his way through the crowd of people and right up in my face and goes “So what can I do here?” He was looming over me and the guy I had been helping stepped back. I looked at the young man and looked at the gentlemen whom I had been helping and said “Sir, you’ll have to wait your turn” in a huffy tone he goes “I don’t have time for this”. Well I don’t have time for your SH*T---I didn’t say this, merely thought it. So I finished helping the man that was rightfully there first. When the young guys’ turn came, he didn’t say anything and I didn’t bother asking him anything other than how many people were in his car (we keep count of how many people come in the VC).  This is my pointàWhen you come to a NPS site, dressed like you’re ready to hike all day including having sunblock all over your face, can you expect the employee to think you don’t have time to be there? Get a grip!

All I am saying is this. When you work at or visit a place like a National Park, of course you should plan on a delay or two. You can be as scheduled as you like, but when your day depends partly on those around you, you have to just chill out. What is working yourself up going to do for you? People feel so entitled these days. It’s like they are so great and everyone owes them everything. Do you know how many times I have heard “You mean I have to pay to see the park? I pay taxes already!! I’m not paying to go in”. Good, get out of my face. To anyone who has ever tried to get out of paying to get into a park, get this: I work for the parks and need to pay to see them (not the one I work at, but at all other 391 park units.) AND I pay taxes, too you know! People assume because we’re such a small park they can push me around and argue their way in. Would you go to Grand Tetons or Yellowstone and argue with the staff about needing to pay to go in? It’s not going to get you anywhere. If you don’t want to pay to go to a park, don’t go. People need to understand that the entrance fees don’t always stay in the park. It’s not part of their funding. Why do you think they accept donations? Most are underfunded, especially when it’s the 18^th least visited unit of the park service. Most people haven’t heard of Capulin Volcano and the rest couldn’t tell you where it is.

Once again I’ve run away with my thoughts. At any rate, people need to get out of this ever-deserving mindset they seem to be in. No one is owed the world and don’t expect me to give it to you. Get over yourself and realize there are more important things going on all around you.

WEll....I started another Tour of duty with the park service. I'm still in New Mexico and its the high mountain desert/prairie. The weather is colder than when I lived in Minnesnowta....and its been snowing a lot. I can't wait for it to warm up. I didn't spend time making skirts to be stuck in pants the first 2 months of "summer"

I don't get regular internet access anymore, but have had some thoughts i'd like to share....I still get email through work but govt blocked sites include xanga and facebook....so here I am at a friends house. So my point is, I do get messages in my email about xanga update subscriptions and here are a few things i'd like to touch on...

I saw a post about diamond engagement rings. Honestly, to each his or her own. For me, its not what I want. I think the way diamonds are "harvested" is something I just can't get on board with. If you are lucky enough to get engaged, the kind of ring doesn't have to be a diamond because that's what society says. It should be something you're happy with. You're the person who has to wear it the rest of your life (should you chose to wear a ring in the first place) so it should be something meaningful for you. And, it should never be about the ring, or the dress. it always always should be  about the marriage itself. It bugs me when women refer to it as "my day" doesn't your other half count? Are you marrying yourself? didn't think so. Just my two cents on that.

I've been working with the Acting superintendent at park the last couple weeks getting a reference binder together on  sustainability. This isn't my regular job. My job title is fee collector, however she asked if I would be interested in working on this with her, and I am eager to get a foot or even a toe in the door (and sustainability is what I want to get my masters in) so I figured this would help. Everyday I get to work on this binder, the more and more excited I am to get back into school. I can feel myself getting impatient with not being in school...ah. motivation.

 The other thing I'm doing is reorganizing the park library from the Dewey Decimal System to Library of congress. Proving to be a harder task than it sounds. All the National Parks have a Service Center they work out of. In Denver, so i've been making calls and getting everything together and find out that the Denver center that has all our books on file has 800. Seems like a lot. From the master list the park has on file, we have 1400 books. So Not only am I relabeling the 800 books we have, but I'm going through the master list to find all the books that don't have labels, setting them aside and photocopying their title and publishing pages, then sending them to denver to be entered into their database, which in turn i will get labels for and then add them to our new library. Its not hard trust me, just time consuming. I'm glad I'm organized though. I've got the method down pat and it should work out in the end.

In the world of ex boyfriends, the shit has hit the fan. Seriously. In one week, 2 ex's get a hold of me. one to tell me he is sorry for hurting me almost 2 YEARS ago! 2 years!! is that how long it takes for someone to get over himself?? I mean Iknow I should be glad I got an apology, and I am. But I was done with the whole thing a LONG time ago and suddenly, its just brought back into light and I'm supposed to be ok with it? I made small talk and then told him how I felt then. I accepted his apology, but if he can say sorry, then I should be able to tell him how I feel right? We haven't talked since and I am glad I told him how I felt. Rarely am I handed an opportunity for closure, esp when it comes to guys.

About 4 days later, my most recent ex sends me a slew of nasty texts to which I didn't reply. Then he did something that totally surprised me. He picked up his phone (which he hadn't done since the end of February) only to start calling me a POS who only uses people for what she wants. I, in turn, got so LIVID I let my emotions get to me and my exact or nearly exact words were something like "Good luck working your way to number one on the list of Who's Who among human crap" which I viciously yelled into the phone before hanging up on his sorry ass. I am not this ugly mean hearted person. I would rather keep the peace and have civil debates. When you attack me like that, I don't hold back. And let me tell you, what he called me, and what he said to me was not true in the slightest. Imagine a girl not hearing from her BF for 3 weeks. then what? any girl in her right mind would assume its over. which I did. the jerk did this to me a couple times...starting days, then a week, then 3. I was fed up and that was about it. NO GIRL in her right mind would have stayed in as long as I did. Then he has the nerve 4 weeks ago to send me a FB message saying he was sorry and wanted ot make things work. only I didn't have internet until today because I moved. reread the beginning of this paragraph and you'll be all caught up. Needless to say he got an ass kicking message back. Get lost crab shack. Did you reach Number 1 yet?

other than that, things are going well. I'm loving it here and have some really good friends already. More later....i'm going home and throwing in a movie :)