Well, I decided before I leave Quora altogether, I wanted to collect some of my best answers. These are answers I posted that got more than 1,000 views, and more than 10 upvotes. So, these are my very best.
(What's also funny is the comments to this post...)
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
Wow! I’m such an animal lover, it’s hard to pick the most beautiful. I guess I’d have to say (in no particular order)…
- pretty-much ANY bird. I even find the beauty in such birds as vultures. I love ALL birds!
- Foxes. I love everything about foxes. I love all species of foxes, but my most favorite are these:
3. Kangaroos. They are my favorite marsupials. Probably my most favorite Australian animals. Other people think koalas are cute. But not me! Give me a good ol’ kangaroo any day of the week! I’ll take it. My favorites are these guys…
4. Lemurs. I could go on all day long about how much I love lemurs. They are my #1 favorite animals. I’ve always dreamed of going to Madagascar someday just to see these treetop beauties.
5. Guenon monkeys. NO mammal is as colorful and exotic as the guenon monkeys. Africa is so lucky to have these jungle jewels in their country!
6. Martens. Pretty much any mustelid really. But martens seem to take the place of monkeys in the USA. And the prettiest of them all is perhaps the pine marten…
7. Otters. Again, pretty much any mustelid. Otters are not only adorable, they are also so funny to watch as they move on land, or swim through the water.
8. Wolves. I love most members of the dog family, including dogs themselves. After foxes though, I’ve gotta confess I really love wolves.
9. Horses/zebras. I like a lot of hooved mammals, but probably my most favorite are the horses and zebras. Well, they’re closely related. I think they are so majestic and I love to watch them work out. Every move is like poetry in motion.
10. Last, but not least, elephant shrews. These are charming little creatures that are not too well-known. But their secretive position in the animal world does not detract from their absolute beauty. And sooooo much potential for the animals of the future!
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
Not my story, and not totally a happy one, but this happened to my mom a long time ago. My mom was pregnant with me, and my sis was in 1st grade. She lived close enough to the school that my sis could walk to school alone, and very often did. There was one other girl on the block who would sometimes walk alongside my sis.
One night, my mom had a dream that my sis was taken and dragged into someone’s car and drove away, and later found in a field dead. Mom said she never saw the guy’s face in the dream, it was just blackness where his face would have been. But that dream scared her. It scared her enough that she kept my sis home from school that day.
That afternoon, the other little girl’s mom was looking for her child. This was the other little girl who lived on the same block and sometimes would walk to school with my sis. But nobody saw that other little girl that afternoon, and the mom was very worried.
Later that evening, the other little girl was found in a field. She had been raped and murdered. The guy who did it was caught soon after and confessed to waiting in the neighborhood, and he grabbed her as she was on her way to school and dragged her into his car and drove her away to that field. He actually parked his car and waited for a little girl to come by between where my family was living and the school. He knew there were a couple girls from that block that walk to school alone. That was scary!
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
One day my sis and I were standing in the self-checkout line at Walmart. The few people ahead of us had gone in. It was a particularly busy evening. Suddenly, my sis and I were the next ones in line and just as we were about to take the next available checkout stand, some dumbass guy walked past the entire line (which could clearly be seen standing there) and walked ahead of me and took the stand me and my sis were going to take.
I have no idea if that guy had even been standing in line, but I wanted to go up to him and push him off the checkout stand he took from me and my sis. He never even asked anyone if he could go in ahead of them, he just snuck in without a word to anyone.
To this day, I still refer to that guy as a dumbass.
In another incident at a Winco, my sis and I were shopping. We had just begun, got our carts and my sis went to grab something off a shelf. Some idiot came up behind her, and started to drag her cart away, which had her purse in it too. My sis called out “Excuse me, sir! That’s my cart!” The guy never turned to see she was calling him, and in fact, acted like he didn’t hear her at all. He didn’t let go of her cart until she and I both were almost on his tail. I was going to run him down with my cart. It’s possible he could have just been flirting with my sis, I probably would have thought that if I could see his face and see if there was any hint of humor in his eyes. But he just kept on walking briskly down the aisles. Not even so much as looking back. So, I knew he was up to no good.
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
Someone I “met” at a concert who apparently was sitting right next to me. It was a concert in Lincoln City, and I had gone to see INXS performing. Who else? Well, I didn’t think much of her at the time of the concert, because I was busy concentrating on my main man Timmy. The only thing I thought about her was that she had terrible underarm odor. It wasn’t until a couple days later that I discovered the person who sat next to me at the concert, was a very disturbed person. She was so disturbed, she started a closed forum to talk about other INXS fans and mock them and make fun of them. She would silently stalk the other fans and copy and paste their comments and stories onto her forum, and allow others to make fun of that person. They would get nasty on that forum and make their own assumptions about the other fans, calling everyone “psycho” or “lunatics” or “tards”. But I honestly don’t believe anyone on that forum was older than 25 years old.
Another disturbed person I met, well I didn’t know her name, but I was 10 years old at the time I saw her. She looked to be about 35. My grandma, me and my sis were together on the bus, and coming home from the mall. Well, this woman who was 35 years old, insisted on sitting next to me, and my grandma was sitting across from us. She was tall and skinny, never smiled, had very long, black hair, she wore what looked like cowboy duds. A very ugly woman really. Both inside and out. I started talking to grandma, not paying any attention to the strange woman sitting next to me. When my grandma started responding to me, this strange woman said “Would you just shut up lady. I’m trying to get downtown to see my father, IF you don’t mind!” I looked at her like “What the Hell?!” Grandma whispered “She’s just crazy!” Yes, she was!
The bus ride continued, and I still was talking to grandma. But she didn’t say anything more, just nodded. I guess she didn’t want to set this strange woman next to me off again. When we got close to home, I told grandma we were getting closer. She said “Yes, we are” and this strange woman just shouted at my grandma “SHUT UP!” My grandma said “I’m not going to shut up! I don’t have to!” GOD bless grandma, she was too kind to this strange woman. I wanted to punch that woman in the face, and I would have if I wasn’t only 10 years old at the time. My mom always taught me, no matter what, that I was to always treat adults with respect. Even when we got off the bus, and I told her to fuck herself, and she told me to “Shut up!” My sis didn’t care though. As we were getting off the bus, my sis said to that woman “Don’t you tell my sister to shut up!” That woman told my sis to shut up and I saw my sis stick her fist up in that woman’s face and said “Don’t you dare tell me to shut up! I’ll punch you right in your ugly face!” Made me laugh! My sis had no fear at all! LOL! That woman, as far as I know, didn’t say another word after that. I did see her flinch when my sis stuck her fist up at her.
Anyways, those were the 2 most disturbed people I ever met. Even though that last woman didn’t say much, the few words she did say made her sound very angry inside.
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
I know I’m going to get flagged for this, but what the hell. I’ll answer anyways. It won’t be the first time!
- SJWs: Basically the basis of the kind of people I hate most, but still deserves a mention of it’s own. They always have to label EVERYTHING!!! And they call anyone “bigots” and “nazis” that don’t agree with them. Or whomever is a conservative. SJWs are the biggest liars of all! They are the real scum of society!
- “Adopt don’t shop” (ADS) crowd: Yes, those annoying idjuts that wants everyone to adopt their dogs/cats from a shelter, and bad-mouths anyone who prefers to buy their pets from good breeders. Basically, they are nothing but SJWs for animals.
- Vegans: Now, I’ve had vegan friends, but they were not the types that tried to convert me. It’s the preachy vegans that I hate. The ones whose philosophy is if you eat animals, then you hate animals. The ones who say humans evolved to be herbivores. The ones who say we meat eaters are hypocrites, yet they have cats running around their house. Those are the vegans I hate the most.
- Cat-f*gs: (I can't call them fags on Quora) Cat-lovers don’t bother me much. It’s the f*gs who do. Those are the people who get preachy if someone doesn’t like cats. When they realize they can’t convert someone into a cat-person, then they get insulting. They start calling people names who don’t like cats. They are the ones who gripe “dogs are dumb” but don’t realize cats are even dumber. And most of them judge all dogs by the gundog breeds. The breeds that are basically bred to be “dumb”, or clingy. They are the ones who do not see the beauty and diversity in dogs, but think gray-tabby cats are “gorgeous”. YUK!!!!!!
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
My mom tried that crap once when I was about 14. By then it was really too late to enforce JW rules on me and my sis. But she did try. We were already so used to celebrating Christmas and birthdays. Well, that year our mom told us that she did not want to see anyone in that house celebrating Christmas ever again. So me and my sis, being teenagers, rebelled against what mom said, and had a private party of our own.
We went to the mall one day, like we sometimes did on weekends, and just pretended that we were just going to hang out. But we went around and bought Christmas presents for each other ourselves. We had to keep it all secret from mom when we got home and started wrapping the gifts.
Well, Christmas came and the first thing I did was go into my sis’s room, where the presents were stashed. We opened gifts and sang Christmas songs, all while my mom and dad were in the living room not celebrating Christmas. Ya know, I think that was the most fun Christmas holiday I ever had. Mom never did find out that we celebrated Christmas anyway, even though it was against her rules. It sure was fun though!
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
Nope!! Humans are getting uglier.
Most women today either want too much to look like those chicks you see in sitcoms, or they are gay. Gay women are rarely beautiful. Or they are feminists and feminists are always ugly!
And the men, all the best-looking men are either old now or dead. Men today are again, either gay, queer, fat, bald, or cat-lovers. None of which would be the alpha-male type.
You know what I blame for this surge in ugly people? I blame cats. Yes, cats. Those furry little squatting bastards that have now infiltrated almost every home in the world. You notice how ever since cats have surpassed dogs in popularity (since the mid-1990s) people have gotten uglier? At the same time, we’ve seen a rise in obesity, mental illness, and general physical ugliness. I’ve never seen a man (or woman for that matter) that preferred cats that was in any way even remotely physically attractive.
I remember on Facebook, there was this guy, a young guy, and he was always complaining “Why can’t I get a girl to fall in love with me?” Well, I got a good look at his picture, and though he was kindof a nice person, he was unfortunately very UGLY!!! Well, through the months I realized why he was so ugly. He was a cat person, who never had a dog in his life. And I noticed this in just about every person I knew that was born into a family that preferred cats over dogs. Their kids always came out looking ugly, or were autistic. I think this guy unfortunately had both.
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
Several incidents actually.
Let me begin this by saying I used to be a sweet person. I used to be very compassionate, caring, giving, loyal to people I considered friends (even online friends), I had an attitude like “Nobody is perfect, so we should learn to love each other the way we are”. Back in those days, I accepted everyone, people of different races, genders, I used to would go along with this “the world has 1000 genders” business. I accepted gays and lesbians. However, I was born with one handicap... I was too trusting. I believed (too much) there’s good in all people. I believed that no one was all bad, and that their word was the gospel. Back in my innocence, before the conversion, I was one of the nicest, kindest, most caring person you’d have ever met. NOTHING like I am today!!!
It all started when my family moved from Fircrest, WA to Lakewood, WA. Living with a father in the military, my family moved around a lot. But I managed to make friends everywhere we moved to. My best days was when we lived in Fircrest and before. I had NUMEROUS friends in that school. I had my Brownie troup meetings, and I was a member of the Girl Scouts. So I made a lot of friends in that school. In fact, there was only one person I had any kind of problems with and that was a girl named Deanna. She always made it a point to tell me how much she hated me every time she saw me. But she was only one person. She never touched me though, I can hand her that much.
Well, the day came we had to move away from Fircrest. So, we moved to Lakewood, a little house on Farwest Drive. Well, the school I went to there for 3rd grade was predominantly African-american. But that didn’t matter to me at first. But my first day at that school went like this…
Student X: Do you have a sister?
Me: yes.
Student X: Is your sister retarded?
Me: I guess so?
Student X then walks off, laughing. I stand there not knowing why Student X was laughing.
Until that first day at the new school, I’d never even heard the word “retarded” before. But I heard that word, and was asked the same question all day long by many different students. I had no idea what the kids in this new school were talking about when they asked me if my sister was retarded. I went home and asked my mom what the word meant. She asked me first off where I’d heard that word. I told her about the kids in this school asking me if my sister was retarded. That was when my mom told me it was a vulgar word used to describe someone who was handicapped.
Well, my sister did not go to that school, so she didn’t have to worry about that. But kids in the school would relentlessly tease me every day about my sister being “retarded”. FTR, my sis had asperger’s when she was a child. For the most part, she’s grown out of it now.
Well, one day the teasing took a violent turn, when a girl named Melody moved in. There was this one girl named Valerie, who met Melody before me. At first, Melody looked innocent enough, like someone I wanted to make friends with. But that is where the saying “appearances are deceiving” comes in, Melody was a monster! Valerie fed Melody a bunch of bullshit about my family, saying we were all retarded. Melody ran with that, and from her first day there, began tormenting me physically and relentlessly. I would endure beatings by her that did not cease until after Melody finally moved away to California. I tried my best to stay away from Melody! But she always approached me, with her dukes up! Basically, Melody beat me up because she thought my whole family (including me) was retarded, and she figured I was easy prey for her. I was! Not only was Melody older than me, she was bigger too. I was the shortest kid in my class!
Well, Melody had acquired a gathering of other people who would take her place after she left. One of those was a much, much older girl named Crystal. I had made what I thought was a “friend”, named Melissa. Melissa was kindof fat and pudgy, and she would play ball during recess, and I got to like her quite a bit. One day, the game broke up early. She took the ball and headed toward the swings. I followed her, thinking she would start playing again. But no, she went to the swings. Crystal was there. I hung back far away. I didn’t want anything at all to do with Crystal, knowing she had been a friend of Melody’s. I waited for Melissa to finish, she was there talking to Crystal, and I would periodically see her looking at me as she was talking to Crystal. She would look at me with a smirk on her face that I later came to know as the kind of look someone gets on their face when they have a sinister plot at hand.
Next thing I knew, Melissa called me over to the swings. Some red flags had gone up, but I thought I could trust Melissa. She led me to Crystal, who was sitting on a swing as she talked at me. She yelled at me for telling my mom and my sister on Melody for beating me up, even after Melody told me she would beat me up if I told anyone. I was petrified. I knew this was going to lead to a beating! Next thing I know, I am slammed across the head by Crystal. She says “That’s for making trouble!” I stood there, perplexed. I looked at Melissa and she was just standing there smirking. Crystal then said “Now move! Or you’ll get kicked!” So, I tried to move. As I did, Melissa came up and kicked me so hard, it knocked the wind out of me.
Well, I wasn’t mad at Crystal. I’d come to expect that from her. But I was mad at Melissa. I didn’t even want to see her again. Oddly enough, the very next day, Melissa asked me to come play ball with her again, and I refused. When I said no, she just brushed it off “ok”, like nothing ever happened. I went off and found some other kids to play with. That was my first brush with learning to distrust people. But it didn’t last long. I still continued to make friends here and there. Not a heck of a lot, but quite a few.
Forward to the internet age. At 40, I moved from Montana back to Washington state. When I got back, I needed to find a place to live. My mom was supposed to have gotten me some applications before I got there, but my mom is a bit on the selfish side. So, I needed to find a place. I put an ad on Craigslist looking for someone with a rental home or room. I got quite a few that sounded great, but led to nothing prosperous. Then someone named Patti contacted me. She lived in Brady, which was close to Ocean Shores, where I lived for many years before I moved to Montana. So, I thought it would be great to move back there. It’s not Ocean Shores, but it’s somewhat close.
When I first met Patti, she seemed like a nice person. She was 15 years older than me, she was shorter, had the old lady hairdo, she was by no means attractive or graceful, but she did seem like just a nice, grandmotherly type person. She was looking for a roommate, and I thought it could work out. Being older, I figured moving in with her would be like moving in with a friend. Well again, appearances were deceiving! For one thing, Patti did not have any kids of her own, let alone grandkids! All she had was a couple of stupid cats and a mongrel dog that was half husky, german shepherd and rottweiler! And here I was with a chihuahua and a papillon, living with a dog mixed with 3 breeds that have the highest prey-drive in the canine kingdom! Not only that, but the dog’s mother had bitten people twice!! Not a good sign! That’s why the dog’s mom was at the shelter, to be put down for biting people. Now you know that’s gonna rub off on the pups! And Patti had one of those pups. For now, the dog was nice, but only because he was 4 months old at that time.
Another thing I noticed about Patti, she liked to drink. She told me before I moved in that she drank only on occasion. I figured once or twice a week. That was the impression Patti gave. Well, she had one glass of wine that I saw. Then she ran out. When I moved there, she had a half full bottle. I only saw her take one glass of wine. That said a great deal. She ran out of booze, and then she became the crankiest, most obnoxious and hateful old buzzard you’d ever hope to meet! One night, after we went shopping and she tried to get me to buy her a $15 bottle of booze and I told her I couldn’t, she just started yelling at me for every little thing. She’d yell at me for putting the groceries away where she would want them one minute, then change her mind the next minute. She yelled at me for looking at her while she was talking. She yelled at me because I was drinking a can of soda. She yelled at me for walking, talking, putting up grocery bags, a fly flew by her head, just every little thing that went on would set her off.
I didn’t want to be around someone like that, so I spent the evening in the room I was assigned just so I wouldn’t have to listen to Patti. I came to the conclusion that Patti lied to me about how often she drank booze. A person does not generally get this out of control angry when they have maybe one or two drinks per week.
Well, that night, after spending a half hour in the bathroom, getting sick, I went to the kitchen to fix myself a snack. Patti came down while I was fixing my snack. I thought I had disturbed her. Well, she started yelling because the lights were on. Then she started yelling because I was eating without her. Then she yelled because I was having the kind of sandwich that she did not like! Then she started talking about how her brother was going to kick me out (it was his house really and he was in the process of moving out). Patti added “And I will have no control over it!” Well, at this point, I was so sick of hearing Patti’s pissing and moaning that I actually would have welcomed being kicked out! I was ready to embrace being kicked out! I actually could not wait for her brother to come and kick me out! Aside from Patti’s attitude problem, this was an unstable arrangement anyways, since the owner of the house was moving out and putting the place up for sale.
Well, sure enough, the next day Patti’s brother came. I saw her talking to him for a long time. No doubt telling him what she thought of me. Who knows what she said! The next thing I knew Patti told me we needed to talk. She told me that her brother said “instead of moving in, maybe you should be moving out.” I said “Cool!” I was actually happy! Again, Patti said “And I have no control over that!” I called bullshit, because those were the exact same words she used the night before. I knew damn well she pushed her brother to kick me out for one reason and one reason only; because I didn’t buy her that $15 bottle of booze she wanted so bad when we went shopping the day before. She wouldn’t cop to that, but I knew that was the real reason Patti was kicking me out. But now I was like “Who cares! I’m outta here!” I felt like I was being released from prison! Or being released from a communist country!! That was what living with Patti was like and it only would have gotten worse. Patti may have even gotten physical had I stayed there any longer!
I tried to make that arrangement work. I put the effort in, but Patti was not interested in even trying to make it work. When my mom took me back to her place, we were talking. Mom told me I should have defended myself better than I did. Mom kinda got the feeling that Patti was a bit of a bully and I just let her walk all over me. I was concentrating too hard on trying to make that work out that I did not defend myself from Patti’s attacks. After that, I got angry, and for quite a while I became hostile. But I softened up and began making friends again.
Forward ahead again a couple of years later. My dad is gravely ill with a rare form of cancer. I am beside myself with worry. By now, I had made some friends with some other INXS fans online. INXS is my favorite band! I had about 400 INXS buddies on Facebook at this time. Again, I had become a sweet, kind, giving person, and I gave my all to all these people. I liked seeing my friends happy and I did all I could to make them happy. I even went out of my way more than once. One person saw a video I made of INXS and it had a picture she had never seen before and she wanted a copy of it. Well, at that time I didn’t have a computer, so I made a special trip to the local library just so I could get that picture and send it to her. I was loyal, I never judged them, always friendly, I even always would post videos, pictures and things to make them laugh or smile every day. I even created a group specifically to share my vast collection of INXS pics. Some of which were very rare and even very personal.
Well, in September, I moved in to my new apartment, where I am living now. But it was bittersweet. My father was at this time, on his deathbed. I had to go from Oregon to Arizona to see him. He was barely clinging on when I got there. He could not talk, he could not move, he was in a coma-like state. Occasionally he moaned because he was in pain, but that was the only sounds he uttered. He died the day after my visit. I had to ride the bus home, and I cried all the way.
When I got home, I announced it on Facebook and thanked my friends for all their prayers and well-wishings. I also told them to bear with me, because I knew that the emotional roller-coaster was about to take off. I told them I may say some things I don’t mean. I told them not to take it personal. I knew it was going to happen because it happened before. Twice.
Well, forward to November. I’m still mourning my father, but at least I stopped crying every 10 minutes. I had joined several groups devoted to small dog breeders, where they come in and discuss things about showing, breeding, all that stuff. While I am there, I get the news that someone I used to know in those circles was in the hospital with diabetes and a bladder infection. I knew this person from many years before, and that person said some awful things about me and my family and spread it around all over the Chihuahua breeding world. So, I said “Karma finally caught up with them!” I wrote about the incident, not naming any names, and not even divulging what this person was sick with. I just said karma came around and bit them! I didn’t even mention why I was angry at this person. Well, that person did make it through OK.
About 2 days after I wrote about that, I began to notice I was losing friends on Facebook. Not only that, but my INXS group was also losing members in record numbers. I figured something was going on, but I didn’t know what. Then one of my friends PMd me, and told me what I wrote about Kelly having cancer was very disturbing. I was like “Who having what??” Kelly was someone that all the INXS fans knew. She was one of the moderators for the Statue For Michael Hutchence group. I didn’t care for her personally, I only spoke to her a few times and at this time, she had me blocked on Facebook for whatever reason, I didn’t care. But apparently, she made a big announcement on the group that she had cancer. Well, because she blocked me, I did not see the announcement. So, I had no idea she had cancer.
Well, I had 450 friends at that time, but by the end of that day, I had gotten down to about 411. Kelly’s rumor spread fast! I gotta hand her that much! LMAO! I was surprised, even people who I thought were very good friends deserted me. Again, FTR, I knew Kelly from 2005, when the old INXS forums were up, but even back then I never spoke to her much. She was friends with the “uber-popular” people, the stuck-up crowd that I don’t ever even attempt to make friends with! Then there was this one woman that Kelly liked that I sure as hell didn’t like, and Kelly has been trying to destroy me all over the INXS community ever since then. I believe that is what got this started. So now, all the INXS fans are acting like Social justice warriors, and turning against me. One person that I liked a lot and I thought liked me equally as well, turned against me in spades. And she was one of those people I never thought would believe bad rumors spread about me! She proved me wrong!
Well, you can imagine how this made me feel, as if dealing with the loss of my father wasn’t bad enough! Now, I had to put up with dumbasses spreading untrue rumors about me all over the INXS community. I didn’t even know how they could accuse me of making light of one person having cancer, when I just lost my father to the disease 2 months before. Especially people who were still on my friends list when my father died. And also especially knowing Kelly had me blocked on Facebook, so there was no way I could have ever read the announcement. I have the distinctive feeling that Kelly conveniently left out the part where she blocked me on Facebook so she could tell her friends that I must have read her announcement. It was a scheme to make me look bad.
Well, after that happened, I realized I needed some time to heal. I got off Facebook and deleted that account. I didn’t want to go back on Facebook until I got myself a dog. I knew a dog would give me that extra boost to deal with the ding-dongs in the INXS community. But more than that, it was just the final slap in the face that told me I needed to stop getting so close to people. One of my very best friends told me that I am too caring and too giving to people. When that happens, you’re gonna get kicked every time! It’s best to stay aloof and not consider anyone on the internet a “friend”. That was when I changed. I used to be loving, caring, never did judge anyone. Now, I am not like that anymore. Now, I am mean, nasty and hateful. I hate all people equally. I have NO desire to make friends, especially on the internet. I’m much more brutal now than I used to be. If someone asks me to share a picture with them, I say too bad! Google it! If someone tells me I need to apologize, I tell them to fuck off. Talk to the hand! I no longer care if other INXS fans like me or not. I’m not a friend of the fans anymore. Now, I hate them. All except a very few elite. Extra bonus points if they’re dog lovers. But that’s it. I’m only in 2 INXS-related groups, and even in those I don’t post much and I do not interact with the fans.
As for Kelly, well I found out later she had faked having cancer. Of all the INXS fans, I hate Kelly the most. I hope she does get cancer for real next time! She caused me all that trouble and didn’t even have cancer! I totally believe she somehow heard that my father had just died of cancer at that time, and Kelly, being the attention-seeking whore that I always knew her to be, was upset that I was getting attention from my friends that she was not getting. So she made up the cancer saga just to get that attention focused back on her. But anyways, that is why I am unfriendly to this day, and I’d rather keep it that way. I do not want fake friends anymore!
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
- If someone calls you, and you’re busy, don’t pick up the phone and say “I’m busy”. Just let the answering machine/service answer it. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message.
- If you are with a friend and you have a snack, offer some to them.
- If you have something you don’t want to share, then don’t let anyone know you have it.
- Always be polite, even if you’re facing someone you really don’t like.
- Apologize first. Show everyone you are the better person.
- If you know you’re right, you don’t have to argue.
- Name-calling is a last resort of the weak-minded.
- Forgive those who have wronged you. Again, show others who the bigger person is.
- Don’t lie to be accepted. Be yourself and the right people will like you.
- Don’t procrastinate others. It only makes you look like a desperate fool.
Dee Dee Finch, Author/Illustrator at UMG Productions, Inc. (1989-present)
What happened to you on the day you were fired from your last job?
I went home and celebrated!!!
My father urged me to apply for a job at the Puyallup Fair when I was 20 years old and out of high school. I decided to give it a try so I went and applied. There was one job I was particularly fond of, someone had an opening for a tropical fish display. But when I applied for that job, they gave me a phone number to call. It was someone in Canada, and I was not able to get ahold of anyone.
Next thing I know, someone calls me and asks me to come to an orientation. I thought it was about the tropical fish job. So, I went to the orientation the next day. To my surprise, there was a lot of people at this orientation, and it was not about tropical fish. No, this job was for working the rides. “I didn’t apply for this!” I said to myself. But I thought I would stick around anyways to humor my father. I didn’t like it though. The speaker at the orientation was a short, dumpy woman with black, stringy hair, and she was talking to the audience like we were a bunch of children! It gave me bad vibes. But I didn’t say or do anything because I thought if I refused a job that my father would be angry with me.
For the record, I was warned about the rides employers, they treat their workers like shit, so that’s why I didn’t want to work for them and did not apply for a job with rides. I could definitely see that in the woman giving the speech at the orientation. She looked very full of herself.
Well, 2 days later, I was to start. I was given a jacket, a time card and an ID number, and that was how I was known. This was also when I met Tracy. She was a skinny, red-headed scarecrow who always looked angry. She saw me and said I looked disoriented and scared. Well, I was. I did not know what to do first. They put me as an operator of a ride that the man already working there said only needs one person to operate. Again, I got a bad feeling that these employers don’t know what they’re doing. Then I knew this was not my place.
I worked for 10 hours that first day and hated every single second of it. I really did not want to go back the next day, but then I remembered my father wanted me to get this job. So, I almost felt obligated to keep it. Besides I really did not want to be a quitter. I turned in the jacket and clocked out.
The next day started off kindof cloudy. I figured I should get my jacket again. So, I went through the time office, like I did the morning before, to clock in and ask for my jacket. The lady who was working behind the counter at that time asked for my ID number and looked for the jacket. She could not find the one with my number. She looked twice and still could not find it. But I know I turned it in the night before. The lady told me to take it up with Tracy. So, I did. I told Tracy that for some reason, no one could find the jacket that was assigned to me. Tracy’s response to that was “Well, we’ll have to charge you for it!” I told her “I’m not the one who lost it though.” She asked me if I turned it in and I said yes. She asked me who I turned it in to, and I didn’t know anyone’s name so I just said “Some blond woman.” So Tracy told me I need to find “that blond woman” and ask her what she did with it.
Well, I looked in both offices for that mysterious blond woman, and I could not find her. So, I did the only thing I could think to do; go back to Tracy and tell her I could not find that blond woman. I saw Tracy walk briskly out of the time office, and I caught up with her, and I asked her if anyone turned in my jacket yet. Tracy stuck her finger in my face saying “No! Do I look like I have time? Huh?! Do I?” I told her “Well, I cannot find that blond woman!” Tracy turned and walked away saying “I don’t have time for you! You must think I’m crazy!” I said under my breath “No. I know you’re crazy!”
Needless to say, I went to my post angry. The little old man who worked that ride with me the day before, and one of the maintenance men was there. They both noticed I was upset. They asked me what was wrong, and I told them about Tracy’s bad attitude with me that morning. The maintenance guy cracked up laughing. He knows all about Tracy’s bad attitude. He said she’s like that with everybody. I totally believed with that, that Tracy probably lost my jacket on purpose just so she could keep my paycheck.
Well, I was not going to go down without a fight. I waited until the line at the time office went down, so I could get Tracy’s full attention. Or so I thought. My sis even passed by and came with me for moral support, and the fact that she is my ears. My hearing has never been very great, so I figured my sis could hear things that I couldn’t hear.
When we got to the time office, right away, Tracy began attacking my sis, thinking that I could not speak for myself. Well, I never told Tracy my hearing is not that great. I told her “Certainly I can speak for myself!” Tracy then made up some bullshit just to make herself look better. She said “I told you to come back after the line went down and we would discuss it.” I reminded Tracy that she never said that. Which she never did. She just made that up so I would look bad. Next thing I know, this became like a shouting match. Tracy would yell at me, and I yelled back. Tracy would call me names, and I would just throw it in her face that she never asked me to come back. I don’t do name-calling.
I felt like I was back in high school, only here I was, 20 years old, arguing with a woman in her 30s with the morale of a 12-year old!
Well, even the dumpy, black-haired woman who I originally saw giving the orientation got in on the act, calling me and my sis both “retarded” and other names. Tracy looked at her and laughed at the names she was calling us. I said to Tracy, “You can laugh if you want to, but stop lying! You did not tell me you’d discuss it later!” Tracy was shocked! She said “OK, I’m terminating your employment here because you are just being so rude!” I laughed at her assessment! She was the one being rude first. But it made me feel rather good that I made them feel like they had to call me names (you know what they say about name-calling; people who resort to that know they’ve lost the battle!)
And I felt good that I no longer had to work there! I was hoping to lose that job, because I never wanted it in the first place! So, I went home and celebrated! I even bought myself a bottle of sparkling apple cider to celebrate!! LOL! That’s how much I hated that job! That’s how happy I was to be let go! And being terminated from that job did not hurt my future employment. I got a great job after that, that paid a lot better and treated me a lot better! They didn’t see me as being at the level of a small child!
To this day, I still believe Tracy lost that jacket on purpose! I just wonder if she had done that to anyone else? Maybe she does it to a different employee every year. That might be how they make their big money.
Kara R. Laidlaw
Dee Dee Finch
Maverick Fisher
Dee Dee Finch
Vincent Anton
