Unnecessary tension

The everyday crap that's part of living in Greece is finally starting to wear on my nerves. I usually like to keep my blog light and fun but I just have to whine or rant-whatever it turns out to be for this post.

I'm only going to write about one thing that's been irritating me lately and it's the grocery store -aka- supermarket. I hate going. I never thought that going to buy groceries was the greatest but then again, I've never dreaded it as much as I do now. First, most of the supermarkets are small. The aisles are small, everything is small. If there's someone restocking shelves and blocking an aisle just be prepared to go around the other way because hell will freeze over before they'll move to accommodate a customer.

Next-the produce section. If you want to buy produce you're supposed to put your food in plastic bags and give them to the person working in produce so that they can weigh your food and put the price tag on it. The problem here arises from the fact that half of the time you have to hunt down the person assigned to produce so that this can happen. I don't believe in putting all of my produce in plastic bags. For example, when I buy bananas I prefer the price sticker to go directly onto the bananas, without a bag. Well, the last two times that I wanted to go bagless with the bananas I've suffered verbal attacks from the idiots that work in produce. The first time I refused a bag it ended up in a 3 minute battle of words...the employee saying that he HAD to give me a plastic bag because that's what they're told to do. It leaded to him asking where I'm from -as if it matters-and said, "oh, well you Americans have all of the answers don't you?" Yep, whatever dude, just give me my friggn' bananas. He wasn't Greek, he was Italian...FYI. This isn't about Greeks vs. anyone-it's just about me vs. idiots that work in the supermarkets that I shop in.

The second banana scuffle occurred yesterday. Again, no one was in the produce section except for the arrogant store manager. After having me stand there for a few minutes I finally had to ask him to weigh my bananas. He sauntered over to the scale. This man is visibly annoyed by me. Guess what supermarket manager...I'm not on vacation, I'm not going away-deal with it. Anyway, so I hand him the bananas and he started to put them in a plastic bag. I politely asked him not to do that and he said, " well where will I put the price sticker then?!"-in a very aggressive tone. I said, " directly on the bananas". He rolled his eyes and said, " no, I'll put them in a plastic bag! That's what we have them for." I said, "I would prefer to not have one, it's just more plastic and more garbage for me -it's not necessary." Now, he's really angry. (idiot) So he yells at me and says, " I'll give you the plastic bag because that's how we do it...that's why we have recycling here in Greece-put your bag in the recycling!" I just took my bananas and walked away, it makes no sense to argue with a rock. Besides, my little Alexandra doesn't need to listen to this BS.

Some other issues I have had at the supermarket include being asked for identification to use my stupid store issued discount card. What? " I need to see your identification"....the cashier scowls. I refused as I thought it ridiculous. She let me use the card anyway.

Recently, with the discount cards customers were able to accumulate coupons that could be counted as cash toward a future purchase. I obviously accumulated a lot of those coupons shopping for a family of five. As I handed my coupons over to the cashier she asked me for all of the receipts from the purchases that awarded me the coupons. What? OK, so I had one receipt in my purse and then she refused to take the coupon that it matched because it wasn't from the same location that I was shopping. Luckily, an employee with a brain intervened and informed her that I don't need a receipt and I don't have to redeem the coupons at the exact location that they were issued.

There's one more issue that I have. There's one cashier at one particular store that dreads to have me in her line. It's obvious. Why? Because more than once she's remarked about the size of my purchase. She's said, " every time that you shop here, you buy so much. You back up my line." Excuse me, but I thought that I was shopping for my family in a supermarket...is there a limit as to how much I can buy?


So, there that's off my chest. I do want to acknowledge that there are a several employees that are very kind and seem almost happy to see me. A lot of times it's those employees that intervene and rise to my defense. I'm not conditioned to walk through life looking for the next argument and I refuse to adjust my personality just because some people can't be civil. Yes, the same type of crap does happen where I'm from-just not as intensely and definitely not as frequent. Going to buy groceries shouldn't have to be such a burden.


***all of these interactions took place in Greek***

Well I was going to update my blog with all of the great things that have been happening here until I was interrupted by Iza running in the house crying.

Here's the story.....

The people in this complex are all pretty much screwed in the head. Each day since we've been here we have been careful to not get involved with anyone aside from cordial greetings as we pass one another. Unfortunately, my daughter has become friends with the granddaughter (GD) of one of the craziest families here. We always watch the children play as we just don't want anything to happen, just in case. (The granddaughter usually comes for the weekend). This last Sunday, GD was at our door waiting for my kids to come out. When we opened the door, she had a bag with toys for the kids. She gave Iza a doll, it was brand new with tags and everything. Iza loves this doll and plays with it a lot.

Here's where it gets weird...

Iza was playing with other kids in the complex and having a great time. GD has been gone since Sunday so she's not here. Grandmother walks through the yard and sees the doll on the grass and takes it from my daughter and goes upstairs to her condo and closes the door. WTF? Iza comes in the house crying telling me that GM took her doll. I said, "honey I thought GD was gone." Oh, by the way, GM and GD have the same name, this is Greece after all. We refer to them as " the big one" or " the little one." When Iza said, " the BIG one" I just couldn't believe it. So Kosta went upstairs to knock on the door and ask what the heck happened. The witch said that the doll was her GD's and it was her favorite doll (BS) and that Iza couldn't play with it unless she was playing with her GD. Oh and also that she should take better care of it. Are you kidding me? You are going to play your freaking' mind games with MY child?
We got the doll back and Iza was very happy, but still a little shaken by the incident. The other kids that were playing with Iza were shaken as well and one even went home crying. Her father came out and yelled at the witch. It doesn't make a difference, she won't change. We will just have to make sure that GD doesn't play with our daughter. I really feel sorry for the poor girl.

Aside from that our lives have been good. I will have to post our good news later as I'm still sizzling!

The Opportunist and the Container

There is a certain Greek person that we know here that drives me over the edge. He doesn't think twice about imposing, in fact, I think he has mastered the art of shameless imposition. Since the day that he arrived in the U.S. he has relied on my husband to find him a home, a job, friends, cars and more, much more. He is constantly screwing up his life and waits for my husband's advice or help to fix it.
For those of you that know me well, you will probably know of whom I am speaking about, but for the purposes of this blog we will call him N. Before I go into what he is up to now I will give you a list of idiotic and nerve-wrecking behavior that has impacted my family and my every last nerve.

-First, he decided to move to Milwaukee because his mom knew my mother-in-law...not my husband. (can you see where this is headed?)
-He arrives and we drive him around town to look at apartments, nice apartments. He rejects every one of them and finds his own rat hole, complete with drug addict neighbors, the kind that knock on the door for a dollar or two from time to time....and then he complains about it.
-He didn't take a shower for his 1st week here, because he couldn't figure out how to work the shower. Sister-in-law showed him how to TURN THE FLIPPN' HANDLE.
-skip ahead a year or two because some of it might just seem too unreal....
-My husband goes to Greece to visit his family and N. wants to send something along for his mom. He comes over with an antique SILVER TEA SET and a leather trench coat, I am not kidding. It put my husband's suitcase over the weight limit.
-He decides to move to another big city in the U.S. and dares to ask us if we know anyone there that can help him. I stayed out of it. But, my husband gave him a name of someone. He moved there, rented an apartment, rejected a job that our acquaintance offered him and moved back here less than a month later only to arrive at our doorstep needing a place to stay. My son was only 1o days old.
-I will skip another year...
-He buys his mother a curio cabinet because it's a " good deal". My husband has to go get it with his truck. My husband asks how N. is going to send it to his mom. Hmmmmm....he didn't think of that.
He hangs on to it for a year or so and decides to move to another city. He puts the cabinet in storage. (is this still a good deal for him?) That city didn't work out for him either so he comes back here 2 weeks later.
After we tell him that we are moving back to Greece for sure he is struck with a great idea, he can put his mom's cabinet in our container. Never mind that she doesn't live where we are going, but at least it will get to Greece. Hubby tells him that we'll take it only if it fits. N. thinks that it will fit for sure because it's a container, hell if you can fit a car and the contents of a 3 story home into it, surely there will be room for one more piece of furniture. Ever since his great idea he has called every week to talk about it, you know, so we won't forget. Tomorrow my husband will go get the dang cabinet, so it will be here when the movers come and we seriously don't think that it will fit. My husband told him that it is the LAST thing to be loaded and if it doesn't fit...N. will have to figure out how to get it back to his apartment without his help. It's all so annoying.
I feel bad ranting about this but when does it end? I do realize that he is really good to our children and he thinks the world of us, but how doesn't he know that what he does is just out of control? His mom is wonderful to us also and I think that she feels bad for us having to deal with him. I can't wait to see how this turns out. ARRRGGGH!!

Ghost Citation Surfaces with an Ugly Late Fee

The City of Milwaukee has done it again. I received a "Notice of Past Due Violation". The funny thing is that I didn't even know that I had a violation. It took me about an hour to figure out why my car would have been where the alleged violation took place. I finally figured out that I was cited while literally running up to some one's mailbox, dropping a letter into it and coming right back down...and all 3 kids were in the car. I had my hazard lights flashing also. Here's the thing, I saw the little parking jeep pull up behind me and I waved to acknowledge its presence. I also signaled that I was leaving. It turns out that whoever was in the jeep issued me a citation. OK, thanks dude. Why couldn't you have given me the citation? They drove off before I did. Is this fair? Now I have pay a late fee for a citation that I didn't know had existed and I can't get anyone on the phone to discuss the matter.
What's more funny is that I can count the many times that I have called to have a car towed from in FRONT of my driveway and had to wait an hour or so each time...and take slack for the phone call. Once I was pregnant and they didn't tow the car away for 3 hours. So now, I am actually with my vehicle as I was dropping something off, it took a total of maybe 3 minutes-if that and I am going to be issued a ghost citation? What my taxes aren't enough? I will have to pay it anyway and it is just WRONG!