My Commonplace Book

Via ms_interpret ...

Women’s shelters in the US and Canada go through thousands of tampons and pads monthly, and, while agencies generally assist with everyday necessities such as toilet paper, diapers, and clothing, this most basic need is often overlooked. 

You and I may take our monthly trips down the feminine care aisle for granted, but, for women in shelters, a box of  tampons is five dollars they can’t spare. Here’s some good news: you can help contribute to rectifying this situation by making a virtual donation at no cost.

For each virtual donation, Seventh Generation will send a pack of organic cotton tampons or chlorine-free pads to a shelter in the state or province you choose.

It doesn't say they'll end a whole box -- a "pack" could be a sample pack of just a few. But it's better than nothing. And if enough people click to donate, it could add up to a meaningful amount.

Go to the TamPontification page, choose the state, and then drag the orange heart along the path and into the shelter.

Pass it on.

Today started out horrible.

I've developed delayed sleep phase syndrome. I don't like it -- I'd much rather be the lark I was nearly all my life. But despite my efforts to reset my body clock, I haven't been able to. I used to go to bed at 10:00 pm, and 11:00 was late for me. Now I'm just not sleepy until 1:00 or 2:00 am.

Part of the problem is that I don't have to get up in the morning most of the time. If I just forced myself to get up at 7:30 every morning I'd probably get reset fairly soon ... if i survived that long with so little sleep! The quality and quantity of my sleep is one of the major determinants of my pain level the next day, so I just can't bring myself to do it that way.

So I've been sleeping till around 10:00 am. Except on mornings like this when the phone rang at =groan= 7:45 am. It was one of the thrift shop organizations, reminding to put my donation out by 8:00 am. They had called the previous evening and left a message -- but I guess they decided that wasn't enough.

I was really irritated. I had been right in the middle of a dream -- a very vivid dream -- but the phone call blew most of it away. I remembered that I was trying to find someone or something in an enormous house -- it must have been 20,000 square feet or so, because it was really huge -- and I kept going all over looking for whatever I was looking for. I wanted to remember more so I could explore the dream and think about what it meant to me, but I couldn't.

The more I tried the madder I got, so I turned on Morning Edition to distract me and concentrated on relaxing. I finally managed to go back to sleep ... only to be awakened at 9:40 from another vivid dream by another thrift shop organization! I was furious! After that no matter what I did there was no going back to sleep, so I got up.

After I was dressed I called the second organization, and told them I had a late schedule and didn't want to be called before 11:00 am. She said they couldn't do that -- there was no way to enter a note into the computer about an individual donor. She said the only thing she could do is remove my name from the list altogether, so I told her to please do that. She wasn't particularly pleasant, but she wasn't particularly rude, either.

The receipt from the donation I had set out was sitting on the floor on the porch. It wasn't stuck in the door, or pushed partway under the mat, or even tossed on the mat. Just thrown onto the concrete right in the middle. My porch has a particularly windy orientation, and if there had been even a mild breeze at all my receipt would have literally been gone with the wind. When the other place picked up some stuff a couple of weeks ago, the receipt was put under the mat with just a little sticking out so I'd notice it.

So I called them, and the phone was answered by an exceedingly bitchy woman. I said that I had a late schedule, and didn't want to be called before 11:00 am. "We don't make those calls here" she snapped in a nasty tone that implied I was stupid for not knowing that. Apparently the calls are made by people working out of their homes.

I said, "Can't you send a message to them?"

"No, I can't" she said sharply.

"Can you tell me who to call then?"

"No."

So I told her to take my name off the list, and she said "I'll do that" in an extremely snotty tone.

I didn't even bother to mention the receipt, since I won't be giving them anything ever again.

I was really annoyed. I have been giving both of those organizations a lot of stuff. When I offer things on freecycle and nobody in the group wants them, I put them in a bag and save them until one of the organizations calls. They need items to sell. But apparently not enough to make the slightest accommodation, or even treat the donors with common courtesy.

Well, they won't be getting any more of my stuff.

I had a weird call a little while ago.

ME: Hello?
CALLER: This is the Police Protective Association—
ME: I'm sorry, I'm not able to help.
C: Okay. Bye.
ME: Could you put me on your don't call list, please?
C: What's that?
ME (surprised): Your "do not call" list.
C: (insulted) We're a charity! We're not telemarketers. We don't use any lists! We just dial random numbers around the state to get contributions to help the officers' families.
ME:
C: If you don't want to be called, don't talk about a list. Say: "I'm not able to help out any more, please don't call me."
ME: Thank you.
C: Good-bye.

If they don't have a list, what do they do with requests to not be called? I was so stunned by his response that instead of saying "please don't call me" all I could say was "thank you." I hope he knew that's what I meant.