Kvetching Allowed

Philosopher’s Playground has a really good post today about the differences between whining, complaining, bitching and kvetching.

I am trying to analyze which of those I do most here on the blog. I always hope it’s kvetching, but it often does seem to devolve into whining and bitching.

I bitch about the admin guy all of the time – especially to Mr. Random, who in a highly entertaining way can also do a spot-on impersonation of him.

I whine about a lot of things, because I guess deep down I want someone to go “oh, poor Random Kath . . . there, there now.” I mean, in a way it’s human nature to want to have your misery validated. Who wants to think they are paranoid for no reason? Who doesn’t want some love shared their way?

One thing that I do not do a lot is complain. If I see something wrong, I try to fix it myself. If I go to a restaurant and there is a little puddle of schmutz on the table, I’ll just get a napkin and wipe it off myself – I’m used to cleaning up myself and other people – it takes more time to flag down a busy person and make them get a wet towel to wipe off a little spot. I’ve been on the other side in similar situations and no one is perfect, so I try to cut others some slack. If I can’t do it myself, I ask for help – then half the time people take over the task anyway. . .

~ Time passes ~

Oh, I’m back. I went away for a while – not that anyone would have noticed – to participate in Mr. Random’s good-bye party here at the Random Non-profit. I was the one assigned to keep Mr. Random busy until the party, which was pretty easy since he had to show me a few office procedures this morning and that activity took up over an hour. He was very surprised! I took many pictures, however I was not able to immortalize the look on his face when he walked into a room full of people with balloons, confetti and silly string. He received many cool going away gifts and started choking up when he was asked to give a speech. I started crying too . . .

This day has been quite surreal for the both of us, and I don’t think either of us will fully realize that he isn’t working here anymore until a couple of weeks from now. A chapter of his life is ending and a new one is beginning – very scary and exciting stuff!

I guess today is a lame posting day – I’ve been pretty low on sleep – but I’ll try to do better next time . . . But my Question of the Day is this: Of kvetching, whining, bitching and complaining, which of those do you find yourself doing most often?