Hungry Stomach VS. Intelligent Mind

There I was, standing in front of the vending machine on the third floor of building nine. It was around 8:45 in the morning and I didn't have breakfast yet. As my eyes casually glanced at a Twix bar with intense desire, I ordered my hungry, growling stomach to be quiet. My intelligent mind was actually going for something healthy this morning. Before my stomach could give the first blow of the round I searched frantically for a cereal bar. Result: not one in sight. It wasn't enough that there were no hot or cold food vending machines offering soups, fruit, and salad,at school. Instead, the snack machines only offer high-sugar, low-vitamin candy bars, or high-sodium, low-protein chips--none of which were baked in this particular instance.
In 2004, Americans spent over $21 billion on food and drinks from vending machines, says the National Automatic Merchandising Association.
I'm pretty sure I accounted for at least 10.5 billion of those dollars.
In 2005 NAMA launched the "Balanced for Life" campaign highlighting the urgency for healthier selections to be added to snack machines.
While I've seen baked chips and Rice Crispy Treats-- essentially the only two healthier choices I've seen so far--in the vending machines before, lately I've been seeing the slots that hold these few healthy choices empty or stocked with something else of lesser nutrition.
The school cafeterias always have Nabisco's 100 Calorie Snack Packs, but they're not always nearby, and when they are I mysteriously end up acquiring two slices of cheesy, greasy, pizza before I make it through the never-ending line-- that's in addition to my two slices of calorie-filled cheesecake.
Aramark, one of America's leading vending distributors, has vowed since October of 2005 to provide categorized healthy snacks to vending machines. Aramark's website states that they identify the healthier foods in these such categories: foods in lower fat, foods and drinks lower in carbohydrates, foods and drinks lower in calorie, and bottled water and 100 percent juices.
Aramark also states that through their 2004 research, they have determined that there are more than 150 products that fit into these four categories. Yet, the only "healthy"thing staring me in the face was a Rice Crispy Treat.
As I looked around the vending machine room I saw six different kinds of soda being offered along with Aquafina, but no juices. I let that slide, but I was still very hungry and my intelligent mind was brutally battling it out with my hungry stomach.
Because my class would be starting soon-- and because I was seriously standing in front of the machines for about six minutes and this guy kept staring at me-- I decided to make a choice. With a strong sense of victory my mind decided on the slightly healthier Rice Crispy Treat instead of the Twix bar. My fingers pushed 1-4-5, and much to my surprise a Milky Way bar came out. My intelligent mind was now in defeat and filled with confusion. How could I have made the wrong selection? My hungry stomach was also confused. I had made the wrong selection. I honestly meant to get the Twix bar. But I wasn't that ticked.

The National Automatic Merchandising Association
http://www.vending.org/

Aramark
http://www.aramarkrefreshments.com/News_and_Resources/News_Releases/News_Release.asp?id=372

Every year 800,000 Americans are treated for dog bites, half of them are children, says the Centers for Disease Control. Although the CDC no longer records dog attacks by breed, Dogsbite.org states that nearly 70 percent of dog attacks that resulted in the need for medical attention, or even death, are caused by Pit bulls or Rottweilers, based on a compilation of U.S. and Canadian press reports from 1982 to 2007.
These overwhelming statistics raced through my mind as I was walking my sister and nephew to their car not too long ago, when two pit bulls ran up to the three of us. Immediately they jumped up on my sister and I as they stood on their hind legs and revealed their intimidating height. Then one of them put their two front paws on my 5-year-old nephew's shoulders. Though neither of the dogs bit us, they seemed to be trying to scratch me and knock my sister over. Soon after, my neighbors came out and after yelling for nearly five minutes,were finally able to get their dogs to come back into the house as they held down a third dog to prevent him too from running up to us.
I love dogs, and even strays don't usually bother me. But it was obvious to me that my nephew was very scared. So, after I let my neighbors have a LOUD earful of anger from me for not properly securing their dogs— this was the third time those dogs had been roaming our street after somehow escaping our neighbors' home—I went online and found some information about Ohio law concerning pit bull ownership.
"The state of Ohio declared pit bulls as "vicious" and requires owners to carry $100,000 in liability insurance, securely constrain the dog when on-property and to use a chain-link leash when off-property,"states Dogsbite.org.
Based on how irresponsible they have proved to be in the past regarding their dogs, I'm fairly sure my neighbors don't carry liability insurance, and it was crystal clear that they had failed to securely constrain their pit bulls—on or off their property. Most people don't view their dogs as vicious, so it's hard to convince people that even though their dog may not be vicious, it is still their responsibility to properly secure them.
Two days after this incident with my neighbors and their dogs took place. I was honestly thinking about whether or not I had overreacted when I loudly let my neighbors know how I felt about their lack of responsibility. Then, after hearing people yelling outside, I looked out the screen door and saw a group of people chasing a loose dog that looked very much like my neighbors' pit bull, and trying to get it to come back into the house.
As I looked at my neighbor, I was too ticked off to even say anything. I just shook my head and thought "that's a doggone shame".

The Centers for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Dog-Bites/dogbite-factsheet.html

Dogsbite.org
http://www.dogsbite.org/dangerous-dogs.htm
http://www.dogsbite.org/legislating-dogs.htm

For information on how to avoid and how to treat dog bites visit these links.
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/healthy/firstaid/bites/203.html

http://www.nalc.org/depart/safety/dogbites.html

http://www.avma.org/animal_health/brochures/dog_bite/dog_bite_brochure.asp

Meow, Peeow

Here's a great one. So, I used to do housekeeping with my friend who runs her own housekeeping services. Alot of our clients had pets, and some of them were cats. I've never been a cat person. There's just something about cats that annoy me or make me feel slightly uneasy. What annoys me more than cats themselves are their owners who seem to believe that cats should be universally loved, and even if you don't like cats, there is no way you won't like theirs.

Me: "I don't like cats. At all. I'm slightly allergic to them, and they have this nature about them that I just don't care for. That's all there is to it."

Cat owner: "Oh, but you'll LOVE my Fefe."

Me: "Is your Fefe a cat?"

Cat owner: "Yes. You'll LOVE her."

My thoughts: "NO I WON'T! "

One particular cat owning client comes to mind. I'll just call her Overbearing. Overbearing had this HUGE orange cat with constantly spiked up hair, a sightfully unpleasant scrunched up face and a really conceited attitude –even for a cat. I'll just call her Pepe.

One day as my friend and I were walking into Overbearing's house for her scheduled light cleaning, she walked into the room we were in –simultaneously interrupting my prayer for her not to be home to encourage me to cuddle with her spikey, scraggly cat– with Pepe in her arms.

Overbearing: "Hi, how are you guys doing? Pepe's feeling down today."

My thoughts: "Oh, no. That's the worst news I've heard all week. This definitely tops the house fire that was two doors down from my friend's home yesterday."

Overbearing: "Do you want to hold her? Maybe you'll make her feel better."

My thoughts: "I'd rather clean the inside of your toilet with my favorite sweater."

Overbearing: "Maybe you could rub her belly, she really likes that."

My thoughts: "Not even if I were forced to at gunpoint."

Before I could even head toward her bathroom with my favorite sweater in my hands, Overbearing pushed a chair underneath me and plopped Pepe right on my lap.

Overbearing: "There you go Pepe. Ingrid will make you feel so much better.
Thank you Ingrid. This means so much to me."

My thoughts: "This means in two seconds I will be at suicidal gunpoint."

As I looked into Pepe's scrunched up arrogant face, I realized that cats –at least this cat–weren't so bad. When I scrunched my eyes up as much as her face, she looked a little bit like a cute bunny. And her spikey, scraggly hair suddenly seemed a bit stylish. Her face was still as conceited looking as ever, but there was something about her that gave off this feeling of warmth inside –and out. Suddenly my lap was beginning to feel the warmth that Pepe was giving off.
After she had sprung her 60 pound body off of my lap, I realized that the warm feeling Pepe was giving off, was actually the coldness of her conceited heart.
My lap was soaked, and I was pis– ticked off.

Gag Me with a Smooch

Smack, smack. Slurp, slurp. That isn't the sound of me consuming a turkey sandwich and a smoothie (although sometimes it's very similar). That's the sound of an oblivious, inconsiderate, and "oh, so in love" couple making out in the cafeteria.
To be fair, they're not the only oblivious, inconsiderate, and "oh, so tacky"couple out there, because they're not the only couple doing it. Not IT, but displaying other over-the-top public affection. Public Displays of Affection has risen by 51 percent in the last year, says a credible, yet, anonymous source. As I shot an annoyed glare at the couple, while consuming my sandwich and smoothie (slight smack, slight slurp), I realized the growing epidemic, and I was ticked off.
Everywhere I go I see another couple swallowing each other's faces, groping like there's no tomorrow, or (insert air quotes)whispering things that I would only expect to here on channels that I would never pay extra for. Who cares if a couple is holding hands, hugging, or even a few kisses here and there? I don't. But what ticks me off is when I can't tell whether they're siamese twins joined with their hands on each other's bottom, or if one of them accidently dropped their expensive text book down the other's throat and is searching frantically for it with his/her tongue. I'm not the only one feeling the anger of having to be an involuntary viewer of such inconsideration.
Recent studies have shown that 76 percent of people experience actual gag reflexes when seeing someone play "tongue of war" in a public vicinity. In all honesty, I'm not a bitter single person who hates to see love going around. I would just as adamantly be defending my position on PDA if I weren't spending my Friday nights working and watching PBS specials on cephalopods (sob, sob). I'm merely someone who likes to see others acknowledge that there are people around them who would prefer not to barf up their lunch.
If you haven't already caught on to the fact that there is no credible, yet, anonymous source who claims that PDA is on the rise by 51 percent(DUH!), or that ther is no study that proves people gag when seeing PDA (double DUH!), then I feel I should be completely honest with you. I kid you not when I say that as soon as I was getting up to go barf on the inconsiderate couple, the girl says to her boyfriend about another annoyed, involuntary cafeteria viewer, " Let's go, people are staring. Some people are so rude".
Needless to say, I didn't finish my lunch, and I was ticked off.