Motherhood

Is it wrong if I have no inkling whatsoever to become a mother? Christmas time always makes me question my lack of maternal instincts. We always meet up with our family & friends at this time of year, most of whom have little kids attached to their hip (figuratively speaking, but you know what I mean). But I don't ooh & ahh over them like some women I know. Does that make me less of a woman in some way?

Then there's the guilt I feel that my parents will not be grandparents. (Not from me, anyway. My brother could be a different story.) I see their friends becoming grandparents, and I feel sad that I can't (or rather, won't) give them the same opportunity. It brings tears to my eyes. I would LOVE my parents to become grandparents, I just don't want to be the mother of the kids. LOL

And why don't I have any desire to become a mother anyway? Shouldn't it be something innate in all women? I feel like I'm wired incorrectly or something. I know I'm not (wired incorrectly), but sometimes I wonder why I feel the way that I do...

A small business with a large problem

A friend of ours (let's call him Lowes, LOL) owns a small business, and I've been helping out at his store over the last few days. And I've had the "pleasure" of working with one of his staff members during this time. Let's call her Clueless. (This is in fact a double entendre; there is such a clothing store in Sydney... LOL) And she is so disrespectful! She's not rude, she just doesn't respect Lowes' decision on so many things. It's his business, and if he makes certain offers/discounts to people, then she should just respect his decision, and not question it each and every time. Certain decisions are made for strategic reasons, and she doesn't always see this bigger picture. All she sees is "well this is a 10% discount, and so we're losing 10%, which we wouldn't lose out ordinarily. So this is a bad decision", and herein starts the questioning of Lowes' original decision. She just doesn't see that this isn't all there is to it, and that we may be winning a lot more business from this one customer, which we otherwise would not have received. ARGH, she is so frustrating sometimes!!!

The other thing that annoys me is how she makes decisions based on how easy it makes life for her. If she can find a shortcut to do something, then she'll do it that way. That's not always a bad thing, sometimes she comes up with ingenious ideas this way, which can turn out perfectly fine. It just becomes a problem when she starts vetoing Lowes' ideas, just because his ideas - in her opinion - are too hard to implement, administer or manage.

And one final issue - she feels like she is entitled to make overarching decisions in Lowes' absence. Uh HELLO, I don't think so! You don't own the business. You don't have the authority to do whatever you want. Just because he is not in the store at any particular time doesn't give you the right to offer whatever you want to customers. Unbelievable.

I think Lowes is partly to blame for how she is right now. He hadn't set boundaries from the outset; and being a small business, written procedures aren't in place to set boundaries and expectations. I'm not saying that he shouldn't have processes in place . The complete opposite, actually. Especially after seeing what has happened now, without them. And I don't know how he can rectify the problem now. He has let her run amok in certain ways, and I can't see how he can all of a sudden set boundaries and not expect a negative reaction from her.

Lowes has also mentioned that in the past, when he has put his foot down, and made his final decision, no questions asked, she becomes sullen and ignores him for the rest of the day. How rude and disrepectful is that?! I can't believe you would act that way with your own boss. I am completely shocked. And at the same time feeling sorry for him to have to put up with this behaviour.

Change? How much?

I have a friend who I believe has changed dramatically since she started studying medicine at uni. I think it just got to her head, and now she thinks that she's better than everyone else. She puts everyone down (including her own partner), and makes it out as if she knows it all and that no one else could possibly know as much about anything as she does. Whenever she's talking to you, she puts on this tone so that it sounds like she's lecturing you, that she's doing you a favour for imparting her knowledge on to you.

She is just so intolerable now, to the point where I just don't even want to talk to her anymore.

I know this is just one person, but if I decide to go in to this field, would I also change? And would the change be so gradual that I wouldn't even realise it, which is perhaps where she is at now??

A Real-Life Medium?

I have recently found out that one of my friends, Dotti, could possibly be a real life Alison Dubois, the lead character in the TV show Medium. I don't normally believe in that sort of thing, but when she rattled off all these different scenarios where she seemed to have 'influenced' or predicted what was going to happen, it sounded like it just happened way too often for it to all be mere coincidences.

She denies it all of course, but I think deep down she thinks it may actually all be true, and probably uses her denial as her form of protection from it. Which I can completely understand. If you knew - or even had an inkling - that bad things were going to happen to people you know and loved or cared for, you're not going to want to have that sort of responsibility hanging over you. Good things are of course nice, but it's the bad events that will haunt you.

So yeah, they're all coincidences Dotti. :)

Lunch

I organised lunch for next weekend with a few of my girlfriends. I don't see them as often as I like anymore, I guess that's what happens when you get older. :( So a get-together is worth an entry these days! LOL

Oh, lunch is with CC and Prada and their respective partners. Prada I haven't yet mentioned. I'm not as close to her as I am with CC, DKNY and YSL. But she's still a great friend to have around, and I've known her for almost as long as the other 3.

I'm looking forward to the lunch already! :)

Characters

I guess I should introduce a few main characters in my life, who will no doubt pop in to my entries time and time again.

B - The love of my life. He's my rock, my support in good times and in bad.

YSL - One of my close girlfriends. We've known each other since university.

CC - One of my other close girlfriends. We've known each other since high school.

DKNY - Also a close friend from high school.

Mum & Dad & Brother - Pretty self-explanatory.

I'll elaborate more on their characters another time. It's time for sleep now. Good night! :)