RANT UPTDATE*****

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

I live in a beautiful home, in a beautiful golf community, surrounded by beautiful people but (that is a different rant).  In the summer 99% of them live up north, Canada or someplace in between but this time of the year they all come back.  Let me begin by saying that I'm a mid-west gal, chubby and of a conservative viewpoint.  So basically I'm saying "that I do not fit in".  But I do my best to be friendly and try.  Last year Rooney and I went to small dog time every day at 3:30 and he got to run and play with all the other small dogs but by the end of summer he was pushing the size limit.  Now with Stuart at 53 lbs we go to big dog time but I am OVER IT.  These men bring their giant Weimaraners, mixed breed dogs (that have that boney head of a pit) and delight when their dogs play very aggressively.  Stuart and Rooney hold their own but neither one has an aggressive bone in their body.   And I can't tell you how proud I am of Stuart who will put himself between another dog and Rooney if he feels that it is getting too rough.  So tonight - as things are going as usual and I'm trying to maintain the peace without drawing notice - one of the men asks me what mix Stuart is and I say " he is a Poodle-Golden-retriever mix and he doesn't have an -------   I WAS going to say an aggressive gene when he jumped into my sentence and said "any brains"!  So basically he said Stuart didn't have any brains being 1/2 poodle/retriever!  I very calmly looked at him and said "poodles and retrievers are some of the smartest breeds".   All of this in front of a group of other men and one woman who looks like a man.   I let the boys play a bit longer and then left.  I hate to punish Rooney & Stuart but I will not take them back.  When dh comes back from China he is either buying me a lot to build on that has room for a fenced dog area or I'm going home to MI and not coming back.  I can't take these smug, skinny, liberal, rude, A$$holes any longer!!!!  Stuart is the sweetest puppy you would ever see and I'm not taking this cr@p any longer.  I would NEVER say anything so rude to another person EVER.  I don't care who you are, think you are or what you have, but I'm not taking it.  I grew up very poor but I was taught kindness, courtesy, and manners.  Dh is gone and I'm crying - why are people so mean?  I just hate these snobs!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Nina, I love this and your mom :)

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

"Bun-Yacks" I love this and think it should be put into use here on DK more oftenl

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

O.K. - lets just clear this up - to all my Liberal friends here on DK - love ya.  And there is a reason we don't discuss politics here - lol.  I don't want to sound like I think I am the total victim here.   What I was trying to say is that EVERY DAY - I don't feel that I DO NOT belong.  Most of this area, retired from the East Coast.  Very liberal.  I come from a small farm town in the Mid-West.  You add all of THAT to rude men at the dog park and well ----- enough said.  I've already got a bad attitude and THEN you call my Goldendoodle stupid.  I think NOT.  If you Liberals were thrust into a total community where it was VERY conservative - you would feel my pain.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Tomorrow I could go back but I'm done with these jerks.  I will not let them make my life be full of anger.  Stuart is more loving than their dog will EVER know.

 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

We feel the pain of NOT BELONGING.  We have all experienced these horrible and uncomfortable feelings. What I would like to say, just rephrase your words.  Don't use name calling.  He called your dog STUPID.   You were offended.  It might be that the same is happening here. You said it well, but once you used terms or labels, well then, you lose credibility to a very viable argument.  The argument is rudeness and being inconsiderate.  Someone called your dogs Stupid and then let you sit in Pee!   For Goodness sakes.  Now those are good points.

Take out the words liberal, skinny, Northerners, Canadians, etc~~ just don't use the name calling and your argument should be just fine.   Think about this.  Isn't name calling 'Stupid' and the terms you've used, the same?

[Leslie and Halas]

Don't let that guy get to you. He doesn't know Stuart at all, and he probably thought he was being funny. You know, if interrupting someone and insulting their dog is funny. Just trying to impress his friends with something he thought was funny.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Don't you sometimes wish you had one of those dogs who pees on people's legs at the dog park??  Wouldn't it be fun if you had a secret command word and Stuart would just pee on the guys shoe?Then you could use Nina's  nize, Po lil and bless his heart phrases as in, "Isn't that nize!  Po lil brainless guy just can't help it if he pees on people he doesn't like.  Bless his heart."

 

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Love it, Nancy!!

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Oh! I have to remember that line.

[BG and Gavin]

My mother used to say "Throw your shoulders back, hold your head high, square your chin and smile.  You are every bit as good as those others."  And she lived what she spoke.  She has no education past 8th grade and took work in a factory to support her ill father and her mother who struggled with a run down farm.  They were so poor that her sister was sent to live with an elderly woman and assisted her for room, board, clothing and the opportunity to go to high school. 

Having said that, your dissatisfaction with your housing situation has come through loud and clear in many of your posts.  It is likely compounded when you husband is away for business.  Is he open to moving?  I hope you are able to find some like minded individuals to socialize with where ever it is you end up living.  In the meantime If someone says something else again that is hurtful, I would look them straight in the eye and say very evenly "wow, that was really rude" and nothing else. 

Good luck.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

You know what Jane, there is a lot of anger coming from you now and I have seen countless posts from you about the perils of alligators and all of that... I mean you even bought a gun because you don't feel safe. In my opinion, whether you're liberal or conservative, skinny or chubby, look like a guy or a girl, have a doodle or a boxer, or whatever your life is, you deserve to be happy. Life is just too short to be surrounded by so much negativity. I think you need to find a safer, happier and more comfortable community to live in. You deserve that, we all do. If you can't be happy with what you have you need to change it. That's my two cents.

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

Jane, Florida's recent voting shows a definate swing conservative, additionally there are communities in Florida that are and have always been very conservative. They may not be the retirement or golf course communities, but you can certainly live in Florida and find like minded people. When I lived in central Florida, several years ago, I felt like I was on a different planet. It was so conservative and openly racist compared to the community that I was raised in. My daughter's first grade teacher insulted her and then when confronted told me that she did not know how to treat a Jewish child since she never, in her 20 years of teaching, had one in her class. We lasted one year, and then moved to Tampa  for three years where there were more liberals and I felt more comfortable and a I believed a better place to raise my child.  Lots of communities to live in.