Do people just talk anymore? I kind of miss that.

I distinctly remember that there was a day when people could say something without being bombarded with advice they never asked for and don't need.  It used to be totally possible to talk about what was going on in your life without every single person making up some ingenious plan for how you needed to react to your surroundings.  I think social media is to blame.  I think our interactions with one another have changed due to the impersonal nature of a majority of our conversations.  People, listen to yourselves.  This is getting ridiculous. 

Let's look through the past couple months alone.  If I were to follow the group consensus of my friends' completely unsolicited advice to my simply talking about my day from time to time (generally when asked, "How was your day, Anna?"), I would have done these things:

-Lived in Rincon.  A girl who lived in this area for two months when she was 15 insisted that I absolutely needed to live in Rincon, and spammed me with Craigslist postings for houses in Rincon, most of which I couldn't afford, every day for weeks. (Never mind I lived here for five years, recently, know that Rincon is an hour and a half from where Thak works, and told her as much.)

-Lived on Tibet Avenue.  Another friend, this one with an affinity for Google, thought a tiny 2 BR 1 BA apartment in the ghetto was exactly what I needed, since it was, after all, in my price range, and pushed relentlessly until I lied and told her I checked it out and it was already leased, just to shut her up.

-Given away $5000 worth of tools and my spare refrigerator on Freecycle.

-Made myself the most hated parent in all of Bryan County Schools.  Yes, it is the group consensus that I need to call a meeting with the principal of the school that my kid will attend for another 2.5 weeks, and insist on an immediate change to policy regarding junk food requests, and allowing younger siblings at school events.  Now, while I agree that the way this school operates is bullshit (hence telling friends about it in the first place), I really need people to apply some common sense, and realize that maybe, just maybe, I have enough battles to fight in my life, that I'm not looking for a fight I cannot possibly win.  Two weeks left in the year, and I'm supposed to take on the school board for their great injustices?  I cannot believe there actually exist people who think that sounds like a good idea.

-Made my kid a complete social outcast.  Being that I won't take on the school administration on their policies, I DEFINITELY need to make it clear to the teacher that my kid is NOT allowed to eat the shit that all the other kids are eating, and pack her a box of fruit to eat instead. 

-I also need a meeting with my neighbors over the loud gospel music on Sundays, and the occasional loud TV.  Are you kidding me?  I'm lucky as hell that these people haven't driven us out with torches and pitchforks yet!  We're the neighbors from hell and I know it!  We have 5 people and 3 animals in a 2 BR apartment.  There is not one moment of my day (and not many moments of my night) where somebody isn't crying, screaming, or fussing, and if they're not, then I'm probably yelling at somebody or the dog is barking.  Even when you take the noise out of the equation, there is the fact that our backyard looks like an episode of Hoarders.  To say I have no bargaining chips is to make a giant understatement.  I'm a realist.  About the time we try to ask anything of our neighbors here, they'll laugh in our faces, and rightfully so.  Not to mention, they're really not bad.  I had awful neighbors on post when I lived there, I mean, people who almost burned our building down, people who the cops looking for them, swingers, and one guy who beat his wife every day.  What we have now is pretty much the best case scenario, and in the name of not being a complete spoiled brat, I'm going to just deal when they're getting their Jesus on, or enjoying Oprah on surround sound.

Seriously, people, it's not that serious.  If there's one thing I've learned in the past year, it's that as long as you've got food on your table and a roof over your head, things are pretty much ok.  There's no use in picking fights every time the world doesn't perfectly bend to your whims.  Save that for what really matters, and what you can change (like idiot speech teachers who say a kid who obviously needs speech, does not), and above all else, seriously, people... make just one assumption for me.  Assume that others are capable of making their own decisions and running their own lives, and stop with the unsolicited advice.  I make it a point not to do that to you.  Stop doing it to me.