Photobucket Album

Finally figured out how to post pictures! This is a hodgepodge of Patrick and my trip to San Diego (where we got engaged!) and a few of the kids from March 2007.

Not that this will do an ounce of good, but I finally wrote a letter to McDonalds voicing my, to put it mildly, dismay about the fact that it is nearly impossible to walk into a McDonalds and place an order then actually receive what I order. I know this might come across like I'm some redneck bigot who wants an Aryan nation or something, and I don't mean it that way. But at what point is there a limit to how far cultural diversity goes when it comes to language? Is it really appropriate that I should have to learn how to say "I only want chicken, lettuce and cheese" in Spanish to get a chicken snack wrap with no sauce? (and yes, this is true...I did learn this because I was unwilling to give up my beloved snack wrap)?

Yes, I could give up fast food to try to get around the problem but that wouldn't really solve the larger issue. Why is it that our standards are apparently so low that someone who doesn't speak a word of English can be employed and making, in theory at least, a living wage? How many non-fast food workers would be allowed to show up to work and not be able to do their jobs at all because of the language barrier, yet still keep the job? Or, for that matter, could I move to Paris and get a job in a boulangerie while operating at about a 7th grade level as far as speaking/understanding French? Could I then get food stamps and free medical care to supplement the income I make standing around not being able to fulfill my job responsibilities because I don't know enough French to take an order and accurately fill it?

The fact is that I know I'm part of the problem--I keep going to McDonalds even though I have to practically use hand signs to order my meal, and 9 times out of 10 walk away with a large fries instead of the large drink I ordered because it would take too long to get them to correct the mistake. Maybe I and everyone just like me--short on time and patience and needing the occasional fast food fix--am the reason that the problem keeps getting worse and worse; if McDonalds and other restaurants continue to turn a profit whether people get good service or not, what's their incentive to try to attract English-speaking employees?

Anyway, here is my letter to McDonalds--what do you think the chances are that it will actually get read?

This complaint applies not only to this visit but many visits at local McDonald's restaurants. This particular visit was representative of almost every visit to a McDonalds in the Olney/Rockville/Gaithersburg MD area.

The order taker could not speak English--none of the employees could. I ordered a grilled chicken wrap with no sauce, just like I always do. And just as is always the case these days, he couldn't understand me. I had to say it several times, then of course they put sauce on it. Then I returned it and they gave it to me with no sauce--but gave me fried chicken instead of grilled chicken.

This same thing happens literally 9 out of 10 times I go to McDonalds. Also, 9 out of 10 times they get my order wrong, whether they speak English or not: I order a drink, they don't enter it right so they don't give me a drink and I have to do a whole new transaction. Or I order 2 of something and they give me only 1.

Is it that McDonalds doesn't pay enough to attract English-speakers? It drives me crazy that I, the customer, a US citizen residing in America, have to learn Spanish just to order a grilled chicken wrap with no sauce!! Americans are the people who made McDonalds the wildly-successful institution it in this country; as such I think it is your responsibility to keep it so AMERICANS can order food in your restaurants in ENGLISH, which is still, to the best of my knowledge, this country’s native language.

I swear, I don't know how people who do daily blogs find time to do it. Then again, I guess if it's your job then you have the time to do it.

My divorce is final TOMORROW and I can't wait to finally have some closure. Even though I was married for almost 14 years it feels like that part of my life never existed--when I think back to how miserable I was for so many years I can't imagine having lived that way for so long. The good news is that for as miserable as I was for all those years, I am so happy and in such a great place now that my old life seems like it was just a bad dream. I have learned and grown so much and am such a better person and mother for it. I always used to think that the whole "a good mom is a happy mom" thing was self-serving bullshit, but I have to say in my case it's true.

But I digress...enough of me rambling about my personal life. Or maybe that's what my millions of readers want to read? lol (I may as well be writing an email to you, Cassie, because you're probably the only one here!).

I have added a link to the blog I read every day because I think it has a lot of food for thought. I find it very ironic that I relate to the author because back when I was a stay-home mom valiantly trying to convince myself that I was doing the right thing for my kids by staying in a horrible marriage and denying myself any personal satisfaction or fulfillment (What--me, bitter? Never!)I would have jumped all over everything this woman and her fans say. Daycare for sick kids. Valuing one's job and not being willing to just walk away from it to stay home with kids full-time. Who knows what else; all I know is that if I were reading the same blog 3 or 5 years ago, instead of relating to Leslie Morgan Steiner, I would have been bashing every single post. Live and learn, I guess. Now it's the exact opposite--I feel like I finally have given myself permission to actually admit that I need the intellectual stimulation and, yes, income, that working provides. It feels a little weird, like I've joined the dark side or something. When I was a stay-home mom and associated only with other stay-home moms I experienced first hand--and of course participated in--the blatant scorn stay-home moms have for working moms. I remember friends who would deliberately have birthday parties for their kids in the middle of the day on a week day, scoffing at the fact that if a mom worked she couldn't come to the party. Maybe if she wasn't selfish and WORKING then her kid could have come to the party; it was a good way of making sure that they (we) never got to know any actual working moms because the stay-home mom lifestyle just didn't really intersect with the working mom world.

I know that my stay-home mom friends look at me and think "poor Maggie" now that I HAVE to work; I, on the other hand, now can't imagine being a SAHM again. Two summers ago it drove me crazy that I couldn't be home full-time with my kids and had to send them to camp and arrange babysitters, and I wanted nothing more than to have the luxury of going to the pool with them every day and just "doing nothing." That is, it drove me crazy until I stopped and remembered those many summers where I had done just that and was about ready to slit my wrists by mid-July. This summer, even though it's hectic and expensive and stressful to figure out the childcare thing, the thought of the alternative--being home with them every day myself--makes me shudder and want nothing more than to be sitting in my cube at work. I guess different things work at different points in people's lives and what I thought would never work for me (no pun intended)--being a career mom--is, in the end, what I probably should have been all along.

Anyway, I digress....I'm even boring myself here so I know it's boring anybody else who may be reading this.

Wish me luck for tomorrow--Eric is the plaintiff so he's the one who goes to the divorce hearing and I just hope he doesn't screw it up. All I want is, come this time tomorrow, to not be Mrs. Eric Leifer anymore!