I'm in a bad mood about a lot of things!
Firstly I hate my daughters school. I am so curious about the rest of canada. I moved to canada after completed my B.A. My mental framework for how school works has been abruptly adjusted. In Quebec with the commission scholar de montreal (French school system in Montreal) my daughter goes to a small school without a cafeteria. So they can only have packed lunches. You can never buy or preorder a lunch. Furthermore she has 2 days of hot lunch, these are days where her tupperware can be heated up. The rest of the time she has to have cold lunch. She does not like sandwiches and so this is challenging. We have to pay for lunch time care giver services. We don't qualify for bus services because we are 100 meters too close to the backside of the school, not the entry. She has to go to school two days a week dressed for gym and if we forget lord forbid, we have to go back home, because she can't leave her gym clothing at the school. We had to buy 80 dollars worth of very specific supplies for kindergarten and pay 30 dollars directly to the school for school supplies. We are expected to buy stupid **** for expensive prices like ugly child fabricated reusable bags for 10 dollars each and christmas cards from recycled paper made by kindergartners for 2.50 each. What happened to selling chocolate? They want parents to come into the classroom every week. Who has time for that if they are working full time? We aren't all teachers with ample vacation days. I swear they think we are back in the 1950s. Furthermore they have pedogical days every month which are days where teachers don't work, they think about working and we have to pay extra for those days. We pay for morning service and an evening service because kindergarten is still a half day. Is it crazy or am I a whiner? Isn't public school supposed to be free? How can they not have lunch cooked on site or a gym locker? How do people manage everything?
Honestly with two parents who work full time, my commute is 3 hours a day and my husbands is two hours a day: we struggle just to try to keep the house clean, the car in order, the kid stocked appropriately, it all comes across a bit much to me. So then I had a minor break down as I left BMO today. I hate BMO at the moment. Or well the fact that they won't just transfer my RRSP mutual fund to a RRSP savings account. I went for an appointment for a mistake they made last year and while I knew it was thursday in my head, it was in my blackberry for today. Somehow I thought today was both Thursday and Friday. Except I know how I thought that. I am so busy mentally remembering appointments for school, hot lunch and cold lunch, gym days and non gym days, work and medical care appointments for everyone that I have no ****ing mental space to make bank appointments 3 weeks in advance. Why can't they handle a short request quickly? I threw a small hissy fit there and told them I want to take all my money with me, not knowing what bank will be any better. At my branch they make you wait 35 minutes to see the teller only to wait another 3 weeks to get an in branch appointment, they'll waste my time for 45 minutes telling me how it is better to buy and hold and then tell me they can't operate such a complicated transaction in the branch. It is not better to buy and hold in this economy with a 3.5% MER. I have no mental space to remember telephone banking codes. I don't know where would be better but I can't tolerate this ****.
The metro broke down this morning too so I was late to work. Some lunatic was walking on the track this morning which slowed us by 20 minutes, only to have some sort of rechargeable battery not recharge slowing us another 5-10 minutes. When this happens the metro gets so back and some jerk keeps his giant backpack on and wops you with it unavoidably. I keep thinking about reaching into that backpack and pulling things out of it and throwing it on the ground. I am so tired of the metro at the moment.
I hate living in the east side of town. The love of learning a new language has turned into despise.
My favorite thing about living here is this amazing and cheap chinese massage place that has vastly improved my quality life. They allow me to just walk in and get great 30 minute massages that lengthens my commute by the massage time only. Last week though the massage table was covered in phlegm and it was so green I thought initially it was left over massage cream. I took a tissue to wipe off what I thought was a huge dollop of massage cream and realized immediately what it was. I tried to explain that it was dirty and should be sanitized but they only speak chinese. I was in a hurry to get my kid from school and so I just replaced the face covers after I cleaned it which was a mistake because now I have a cold. Furthermore for the first time ever the owner was rude to me completely unrelated to the phlegm issue...and I am a very good customer who always tips well and is always polite. I don't want to go back there and literally it is the only thing I like about this side of town. I moved here to be forced to speak french and live near my mother in law. She died. I speak as much french as I am going to but I am not sure we can afford a remotely similar place in the west and anglo side of town.
In the states they offer better customer service, lower bank fees, better school services, less school related fees, fewer expenses for kindergartners, reduced stress on the parents. They'd see me right away at a bank, even if I was a lunatic who didn't know what day it was. I am way too smart, too educated and good at my job to paid such a ****ty salary and have to live in the ****ty side of town, with ****ty bank service, ****ty school service. My husbands francophone and would deal with these issues if we move west. I would make so much more money though. I really want to move. So thats my series of complaints. I realize I might be a frustrated and overwhelmed jerk but thats me today. If anyone can comment on schools and banking services I would appreciate it.
:rant: