Gaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhh MK IV!

[TVC15]

A very late GAAHH but related to the above posts. I had purchased a vintage amplifier and had expected delivery on a certain day. That day came and went with no package. I checked the online tracking and that had showed the package as being delivered. Contacted the carrier who promptly told me that the route delivery person had, in fact, delivered package to my address. Two days later a thought occurred to me and I checked the house which had an address one digit different from mine. The house was vacant but there on the stoop/porch was a large package sitting in plain view. Yup, it was mine and I brought it home. Called the carrier and reminded them that literacy should be part of their requisites for employment.

[walkthebassline]

A very late GAAHH but related to the above posts. I had purchased a vintage amplifier and had expected delivery on a certain day. That day came and went with no package. I checked the online tracking and that had showed the package as being delivered. Contacted the carrier who promptly told me that the route delivery person had, in fact, delivered package to my address. Two days later a thought occurred to me and I checked the house which had an address one digit different from mine. The house was vacant but there on the stoop/porch was a large package sitting in plain view. Yup, it was mine and I brought it home. Called the carrier and reminded them that literacy should be part of their requisites for employment.

Very happy you got your amp. What model is it?

[TVC15]

This was not a guitar amp but an older 'quad' amp. A Marantz 4230. The packaging was great and protected it from a shower that occurred during the 'two days of misery' and after plugging it in, to my joy, it worked without problem!

[walkthebassline]

Ooh, very cool.

[rovingjack]

I've been attending a convention every year for over a decade. Since the very first one. I started as an attendee, then as a panelist and then as panelist/artist with a table. This year the price of artist tables more than tripled and I'd have to pay the $100 permit reregistration fee to that states IRS for the right to have a table, and 13% of all profits made in addition.

  that. Between that and hotel costs it would run me about $700 for three days. This is a small convention and most artist I know are lucky to clear $200 from their table be the end of the weekend.

Most of their panels last year failed to intrest me. I hate to say it but this con may have finally jumped the shark.

[Flightless Phoenix]

Today's Gah occurred in the early hours of this morning.
I went out to a gig and then the pub with a friend, wearing my top hat (and an outfit I happen to be wearing in the 'are you sewing anything right now thread?' because I made the skirt 2 days ago).

Of course the hat got its usual fair share of attention (3 compliments and 2 Circus/Magician insults before I even got to the gig).

I had a nice evening with my friend and a few drinks at the gig.

Walked into the pub and straight away some random guy came over and grabbed me saying 'I'm single and I love you'. My normal response in such a situation is to look horrified and run away. However alcohol modified my reaction into looking horrifed and quickly responding with 'I'm not single and I don't love you' before storming away. I hate male attention and am bad at dealing with it, but I now feel that this was a pretty horrible thing to have done (poor guy, all his friends were laughing). I feel like such a b*tch.

Therefore I have made resolutions to:
1. Try to avoid going out without my boyfriend in order to avoid such situations arising in the first place.
2. Not drinking in public
3. Never wearing a skirt that short again (It was supposed to be longer I just messed up the measuring when i made it)

Perhaps I should also stop wearing my top hat- people would never notice me without it... I do love it so much though and the normal compliments/insults don't bother me. It's just being objectified by drunk men I really can't handle. I'm shy and was an ugly duckling at school; life has not prepared me for much besides distain from the general populace!

Sorry for my rambling, but I feel rubbish, and thought that at least here where everyone has such good manners my GGAARRRHHH moment might be understood.

[ForestB]

Mine is a somewhat frivolous gaaahhhh....I can't go to Anachrocon next weekend due to schedule conflicts with various other commitments.... If it had been this weekend, no problem, two weeks from now, no problem, but NEXT weekend no way...sigh...

[walkthebassline]

Today's Gah occurred in the early hours of this morning.
I went out to a gig and then the pub with a friend, wearing my top hat (and an outfit I happen to be wearing in the 'are you sewing anything right now thread?' because I made the skirt 2 days ago).

Of course the hat got its usual fair share of attention (3 compliments and 2 Circus/Magician insults before I even got to the gig).

I had a nice evening with my friend and a few drinks at the gig.

Walked into the pub and straight away some random guy came over and grabbed me saying 'I'm single and I love you'. My normal response in such a situation is to look horrified and run away. However alcohol modified my reaction into looking horrifed and quickly responding with 'I'm not single and I don't love you' before storming away. I hate male attention and am bad at dealing with it, but I now feel that this was a pretty horrible thing to have done (poor guy, all his friends were laughing). I feel like such a b*tch.

Therefore I have made resolutions to:
1. Try to avoid going out without my boyfriend in order to avoid such situations arising in the first place.
2. Not drinking in public
3. Never wearing a skirt that short again (It was supposed to be longer I just messed up the measuring when i made it)

Perhaps I should also stop wearing my top hat- people would never notice me without it... I do love it so much though and the normal compliments/insults don't bother me. It's just being objectified by drunk men I really can't handle. I'm shy and was an ugly duckling at school; life has not prepared me for much besides distain from the general populace!

Sorry for my rambling, but I feel rubbish, and thought that at least here where everyone has such good manners my GGAARRRHHH moment might be understood.

I for one think you would have been justified in slapping him for being so forward, but society at large frowns upon that. As it is, I don't think you behaved inappropriately at all. Drinking in public is an interesting thing; when I was in school, we would go out occasionally to several different bars, all of which were very relaxed and friendly. Very few (if any) annoying drunks, and no foolishness. Since graduating though, I've been to some other bars and clubs that were quite different, and it has put me off bars in general. But every place is different, so take that as you will.

As for attire and having your significant other with you, I think that's something that can be applied to both genders. If you stand out you'll attract attention, and honestly some people might not be dissuaded even if a boyfriend/girlfriend was present. Again, that goes back to the people and the place. All you can do is control how you look and how you act, and sometimes we have to tailor that for where we'll be or who we'll be around. I don't tell people how to look or behave, so that's something you'll have to determine for yourself, but I would say don't let the actions of a drunken idiot with a bunch of friends get to you. Guys will do all sorts of things to impress their friends, especially when booze is involved. I think you behaved admirably.

(Not sure if that was any help, but I do understand your frustration.)

[Kieranfoy]

Flightless Pheonix, you really don't have to feel bad for insulting some skeezy creep who grabs and sexually harrasses you. Really.

[Flightless Phoenix]

Just feel bad that I brought myself down to his level by responding, I should have just walked away.

I have been to that pub before but never without male friends, except early in the evening when it's quiet. Maybe i'll be avoiding it in future. I didn't except to have problems though because it's a rock/metal type place and normally people are polite enough in such venues and there are usually enough women wearing far less clothing than me to make me feel safe!

I'm supposed to be going out again tonight to the Midland Goth Festival. Feeling very self consious though, so I'm not sure I can face it especially as I've got no one to go with (the other half is not of a gothy persuasion; he hates goth music and loves his blue jeans =P). sigh

[Gwenifer Scorpio]

GAAAHH!!

I need advice.

There's this guy I went out with a couple times, a very intelligent gentleman around my age, who I like well enough but there's just no spark there. At all. I know he's really into me but I'm not into him and I don't know how to break it to him.
It's not a matter of being scared to be honest with him or anything, it's a matter of me not knowing what the hell to say. I've never done this before....anyone have advice or tips?

[Kieranfoy]

Tell him honestly. Don't pussyfoot around or beat around the cliche, just say "Sorry, it's not you, I just think we're not right."

Drawing it out and trying to break it gently just makes things messier. Trust me, it'll be easier on the both of you if you do it quickly.

[walkthebassline]

I agree completely with Kieranfoy. Be honest, be kind, and be firm.

[Xenos]

My health.  Due to current circumstances, I'll most probably be lurking for the next few days...  I just lack the energy to do much of anything-I have quite literally worked one day this week.  Whatever it is I've got has me really good, mates.

[Evelyn Adler]

[...] I hate male attention and am bad at dealing with it, but I now feel that this was a pretty horrible thing to have done (poor guy, all his friends were laughing). I feel like such a b*tch.

Therefore I have made resolutions to:
1. Try to avoid going out without my boyfriend in order to avoid such situations arising in the first place.
2. Not drinking in public
3. Never wearing a skirt that short again (It was supposed to be longer I just messed up the measuring when i made it)

Perhaps I should also stop wearing my top hat- people would never notice me without it... I do love it so much though and the normal compliments/insults don't bother me. It's just being objectified by drunk men I really can't handle. I'm shy and was an ugly duckling at school; life has not prepared me for much besides distain from the general populace![...]

So - you do realize you're being objectified and rudely treated by some drunk creeps - and your reaction to that is, to dress up like a nun, never go unchaperoned and generally try to become invisible?  
Do you really want to have your life ruled by mindless idiots?

I think, your reaction was an excellent one! If someone behaves that rude, they deserve no better!
My advice would actually be, to learn a martial art, to give you some more self-assurance - once you have the knowledge you could theoretically kick their rear ends into oblivion, it's not very likely you let anyone treat you that way again! (I don't mean, to beat someone up, it just makes you feel more courageous, if you know you're not helpless.)

You deserve to be treated like a Lady, never forget that! And never let anyone bully you into behaving like a little mouse!

[Unsubtle Pete]

^ Seconded ^

[Kieranfoy]

Thirded. Not a soul in the world would have made a sound (except cheering you on) if you had slapped that creep a good 'un upside the head. Stand up fer y'self.

[rovingjack]

Today's Gah occurred in the early hours of this morning.
I went out to a gig and then the pub with a friend, wearing my top hat (and an outfit I happen to be wearing in the 'are you sewing anything right now thread?' because I made the skirt 2 days ago).

Of course the hat got its usual fair share of attention (3 compliments and 2 Circus/Magician insults before I even got to the gig).

I had a nice evening with my friend and a few drinks at the gig.

Walked into the pub and straight away some random guy came over and grabbed me saying 'I'm single and I love you'. My normal response in such a situation is to look horrified and run away. However alcohol modified my reaction into looking horrifed and quickly responding with 'I'm not single and I don't love you' before storming away. I hate male attention and am bad at dealing with it, but I now feel that this was a pretty horrible thing to have done (poor guy, all his friends were laughing). I feel like such a b*tch.

Therefore I have made resolutions to:
1. Try to avoid going out without my boyfriend in order to avoid such situations arising in the first place.
2. Not drinking in public
3. Never wearing a skirt that short again (It was supposed to be longer I just messed up the measuring when i made it)

Perhaps I should also stop wearing my top hat- people would never notice me without it... I do love it so much though and the normal compliments/insults don't bother me. It's just being objectified by drunk men I really can't handle. I'm shy and was an ugly duckling at school; life has not prepared me for much besides distain from the general populace!

Sorry for my rambling, but I feel rubbish, and thought that at least here where everyone has such good manners my GGAARRRHHH moment might be understood.

Nah! When dealing with drunks who are entirely too forward anything goes. First of all chances are better than even he won't remember much if anything. The alchohol dull the sting if there was one which I couldn't imagine finding in your reply.

Me personally I blunt as a hammer. And snarky too.

In your situation I might have said, "Back when I was a man I used to accost women in bars while drunk off my ass, look where that got me." Then indicate your femininity.

A drunk brain won't usually come up with understanding let alone response to that before you can wander off.

I've hung out with some folk at a pub and one of the guy Tried getting me to stay and get drunk with him. I told him bluntly I can't drink. He said I wouldn't have to worry about getting home he'd get me a cab or something. I told him I was more worried about Sh  tting blood because that's what my illness does when I get foods that are not safe for me (anything made with grains, sugars, or having ethanol are usually not on the safe list, in fact there are less than 15 things on that list). His response was, "I love Sh tting blood!" I laughed wished him a good night, and told him to pace himself.

[Corroded Alloy]

I agree with what everyone else has said. I wouldn’t change anything I do for the sake of people who don’t know how to conduct themselves properly in public.

I don’t think he was poor guy at all. You were not horrible, you merely clarified the situation for him.

And please don’t stop wearing your top hat, it rocks.

[DrArclight]

My hah for the day: Old guy at church has been teasing me mercilessly about my long hair. I finally got it cut this week so today he pays me a backhanded mildly racist compliment, so I decided to teas him. Just one sentence. Apparently I hurt his feelings. D@#%1t.  What makes it worse is that I felt terrible about the whole deal.  Came home and went straight to bed.  I hate that I made him feel so bad, but at the same time it irritates me that it's OK for him to tease everybody & nothing is off limits, but tease him back & he gets upset.

Ugh. I'm still sick to my stomach over it.

[greatestescaper]

The internet.  My gah every darn day.  Between moronic people butchering the language who are just filling space with ignorant comments about a meaningless existence, far worse even than what I know of the Jersey Shore and the politics of my sad country, not just the political waste of time that is Congress, the ridiculous laws about women and their rights that are constantly trampled and also, on top of all things, the further RAPE of nature by GREEDY Dirtbags with huge pockets that don't value anything.  A friend of mine put it rather well about politicians who know the cost of everything, yet they value nothing.   AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  It destroys me.  It really does.  It keeps me up at night.  It makes me sick.  Because in the end that simple life that I dream of is becoming more and more a fantasy.  Which is all  the worse since I finally had the courage to venture towards it.  It was possible, and now, at this last moment, it eludes me.  Because of greed.  And I fear that my children and my grand children will only know my dream through pictures, movies and literature and that the only way they'll get to know it for themselves is if I can manage to build myself a time machine, travel back to a better time and crash it there.  Or perhaps we'll go the other way, to a time when life has once again found a way.  Which only frightens me more really.  Because even though I love it all, that free and wild nature, it stands to reason the some descendant of mine will not, that somewhere down the line they will destroy it as have their ancestors before them.  This may sound terrible.  This may sound as if it is the delusions of a tin-foil hat type paranoid.  But it can't be helped.  I do feel this everyday and I'm surrounded by it everyday.  And it is one of the most heart breaking things I've ever had to endure.



o, and the internet crashed, as usual, while trying to post this.

[Lady Ava]

Had to email my tutor explaining in depth why I'm leaving UNI, and he is really disappointed in me. I feel bad, I hate disappointing people.

[D.Oakes]

Today's Gah occurred in the early hours of this morning.
I went out to a gig and then the pub with a friend, wearing my top hat (and an outfit I happen to be wearing in the 'are you sewing anything right now thread?' because I made the skirt 2 days ago).

Of course the hat got its usual fair share of attention (3 compliments and 2 Circus/Magician insults before I even got to the gig).

I had a nice evening with my friend and a few drinks at the gig.

Walked into the pub and straight away some random guy came over and grabbed me saying 'I'm single and I love you'. My normal response in such a situation is to look horrified and run away. However alcohol modified my reaction into looking horrifed and quickly responding with 'I'm not single and I don't love you' before storming away. I hate male attention and am bad at dealing with it, but I now feel that this was a pretty horrible thing to have done (poor guy, all his friends were laughing). I feel like such a b*tch.

Therefore I have made resolutions to:
1. Try to avoid going out without my boyfriend in order to avoid such situations arising in the first place.
2. Not drinking in public
3. Never wearing a skirt that short again (It was supposed to be longer I just messed up the measuring when i made it)

Perhaps I should also stop wearing my top hat- people would never notice me without it... I do love it so much though and the normal compliments/insults don't bother me. It's just being objectified by drunk men I really can't handle. I'm shy and was an ugly duckling at school; life has not prepared me for much besides distain from the general populace!

Sorry for my rambling, but I feel rubbish, and thought that at least here where everyone has such good manners my GGAARRRHHH moment might be understood.

Do not under any circumstance give up your fun because of some idiot.  It does not matter what you wear, there will always be some creeper around who will find you attractive enough to go and do something stupid.  (there is a college kid who goes to my usual bar who on more than one occasion, I or somebody else has had to run out of there for getting way too close to women) 

I completely agree with Evelyn.  Learning a martial art is very important.  Shop around for an instructor who will teach you the practical applications and not just the showy stuff.  Many times when I'm in a confrontational situation in a bar, I'll act drunker thank I actually am.  The reason being is that I appear to be less of a threat.  It gives me two advantages: 1: if the person isn't in the mood to fight, then they will walk away or we'll end up having a good conversation, 2: if they are in the mood to fight, well then they won't know what hit them.     (Zui Quan) 

[Evelyn Adler]

On a related note, I DID just change my profile pic on Facebook, because the one I had, got some Gentlemen slightly over-excited and they tried to engage me in conversations, they would probably not have dared, had their wives been present. (In case you wonder, the photo in question can be found here).

I was slightly very shocked, because the way I see it, if you're attached to someone, you don't engage in any "extracurricular activities" and especially not if you're a Gentleman.

Now I wonder, how to make unmistakably clear, that even if I'm always up to funny, flirtatious banter and even if I'm not completely disinterested in meeting a nice Gentleman, I am certainly NOT interested to engage in any kind of shenanigans with men who are not single.

The fact alone, that there are men I have to explain that to, annoys me! 

[Lady Ava]

And now, I've got a bank statement telling me I'm crazy poor.