It Was, After All, My Old Personal Motto

Perhaps you've noticed a thread running through this blog. An underlying theme that reveals the true nature of Mrs. Hillbilly Mom. She lives her life in a state of perpetual pissed-offed-ness.

I can't help it. I was born that way. Spending 28 years holding my tongue in the teaching profession did nothing to improve my temperament. It's not that I mean anything by it. Not even that I'm truly incensed. But when stuff bothers, me, I have to let it out, and this is the place. I don't throw things, or go on screaming tirades, or plot tit-for-tat revenge on my detractors. I rarely even speak my mind in a modulated voice. I hold it in, until I can let it out here.

PEOPLE PISS ME OFF!

That used to be my personal motto, you know. They just do. I'm not a people person. I'll be polite, and expect to get politeness in return. But if I don't...

BLOG HAPPENS!

Thursday, for instance, when I accompanied Farmer H to our old favorite casino on his weekly Goodwill tour.

It seem like every time I go into the women's restroom (where else would I go)...one of the attendants follows me. Not so much follows me, like into a stall, or with evil intent to rob or assault. But one always appears. Sweet Gummi Mary! You'd think I'd been caught squatting in the vestibule and smearing waste products all over the walls and ceiling. I assure you that I have NOT. Been caught. Nor done the act. On the contrary! I even wipe down the counter if I've spattered water on it while reaching for a paper towel after washing my hands.

Anyhoo...Thursday, I came out of the stall, with two minutes left until time to meet up with Farmer H near the entrance. I went to the sink area to wash my hands. There are 8 sinks, people. Four on each side. A big wide area between them. I went to the right side. Sink #2 of the 4. In the mirror, I saw an attendant rush in, and go to the other bank of sinks.

The soap dispenser was not dispensing at my sink. I tried numerous times. Occasionally, I don't move my hands in the manner to which those sensors are accustomed, and it takes several tries. But this one was obviously out of soap. So I moved over to Sink #3.

That's when the Attendant rushed over to my bank of sinks. She flung open the cabinet door between sinks 2 and 3. Then she darted behind me, and flung open the cabinet between sinks 3 and 4. Seriously? She had to make this move right that instant, when I was the only one in there, and using those sinks?

This left me trapped between two open cabinet doors, about hip-high. Okay. I wasn't trapped, trapped. Not penned in. Not restricted from leaving. But who wants to dry their hands with an Attendant breathing down their thighs? I turned and went to the other bank of sinks, where I fished out some paper towels from the countertop dispenser, and then took a tissue (NOT Puffs With Lotion) from the wall-mounted dispenser, and blew my nose.

Let the record show that once I left the first sink bank, the Attendant rushed over to the big trash bin in the corner, by the entrance. I can't say door, because there isn't one. Just a large opening, across from the opening to the men's restroom, with a drinking fountain along the wall connecting the openings. Meanwhile, the Attendant had left behind, sitting out on the floor, all the full wastebaskets that she'd moved out from under the chrome-lined holes in the counter for dropping your paper towels and tissues in. I have no idea what she was fiddling with.

If I'd been a vengeful person, I might have dropped my tissue and paper towel into one of those openings, to fall into the open cabinet bereft of wastebasket to catch it. But I am not. I balanced my used paper products on top of one of the full wastebaskets.

And rushed out to meet Farmer H, afraid to look over my shoulder to see if I was being followed.

It's not that the Attendant did anything wrong. I would think that perhaps one might dump the wastebaskets from the side of the room where nobody is using the sinks, and then get the wastebaskets from the other side of the room when the only person using them has finished a hand-washing routine which generally takes one minute or less.

People piss me off.