It seems we lose the game

It occurred to me today, that if I started to reject the people who behaved in the following ways;
wanted too much
ignored me
didn't do what I asked them to do, requiring me to remind them frequently, often to no avail
made a lot of promises they never kept
rarely, if ever put me first, as I had done for them
were often short or terse with me,
that I would have very few people in my life.

We will smoke them all

Ava ( I can use her real name now, that, well you’ll see), and Jacob moved back from California, and are staying with us.  They are also getting  married.
We have a date and we have a dress, and that’s (the dress),  really what I’m here to talk about.
If ever there was a combo misogyny-scam package, it’s available at David’s Bridal.  Comes as a set, and will cost you a lot of money, time and self-loathing.
The latter being the most expensive.
Picture if you will, after four or so hours of trying on dresses, shoes, slips, petticoats, veils, dresses, rinse, repeat, and finally realizing that indeed it was the first one, going to find out what amount you have to put down as a deposit, or set up layaway terms, and being told, “no, you have to pay for it all right now”.
Got that?
 Okay, add hunger, thirst, fatigue, in most cases, a mother and daughter, friends, aunts cousins, all ready to go to Applebee’s, to bite into some much needed riblets.
“Can you hold it?”
“No”
“Any other options?”
“No”
And, here comes the credit card.
Then, comes the reeling, the what have we done, how did that happen?
It happened on the store’s front, with strategy, very deliberate manipulation, and fairytales, and in our case, a lack of preparedness in the realm of weddings.
So, what that means, is it happens every day to young women and their families.
  And, it’s my job to tell all seven of you to eat before you shop.

Impossible to face

Today, at the branch where I was working, I was sitting at my desk, evaluating books for condition when the Circulation supervisor looked over at me from her desk a few feet away, and I heard her saying, “..you are in the library, where are you?”
She got off the phone and said to me, “someone just called from the computers, they want you to come over and help them.”
Infirmed, nope.
Old, nope.