Bad timing

Last month I opened the mailbox and found a couple magazines that I had not subscribed to. I thought perhaps the postwoman had put them in the wrong box, but nope- there was my name on the front sticker.

It was two issues of a womens mag; a how to be a Barbie kind of thing. One proclaimed the secret to sexy thighs was inside and the other how to get sexy abs. I joked to Bret that they probably had a goal to work the word sexy into every cover. He said it was probably true.

I am not a fan of magazines, they're usually full of mindless garble that I just don't have time to read. I hoped it was just a one time publicity stunt to try to get me hooked on the magazine and pay for a subscription.

Today I opened the mailbox to find another issue. Great.

Bad timing.

I have been struggling lately in trying to overcome my personal temptations and be happy. Today was a huge internal war. The last thing I wanted was one more thing to fall on my plate that I didn't ask for but now had to deal with. This was definitely not something I wanted to deal with ever, let alone today. I was upset with the magazine company before I even pulled the thing out of my mailbox.

And when I did pull it out- what should one of the large teasers on the front be but "sexual confessions!" Now it was also a trashy magazine that they wanted me to bring into my house:/

I was so upset that I sent the boys outside to play so I could immediately figure out how I could cancel this stupid business. I opened up the issue to try to find a customer service number. Didn't see anything in the first few pages, so I flipped to the middle where the subscription cards were to see if there was any info there...Only to be distracted by big red words reading "55% watch porn every week."

Filthin' foul filth! Are they kidding me?!?!

I read half a paragraph underneath for some sort of explanation, only to read, "So don't sweat it [if your man is into porn]. Glimpsing at porn a couple times a week is normal."

Gah!

That's when my eye was caught by the picture in the middle of the page.

GAH!

I slammed the thing shut, wondering how to find a number without having to open it again, and started yelling at the magazine for containing trash. That's when curious Jonz came back inside to ask what I was yelling about. I told him that I was upset that someone had sent me a magazine that had bad things in it and he went back outside.

I finally was brave enough to try again and found a teeny tiny customer service number to call and also a "tell us what you think" email address. While I was on hold, the "tell us" thing had me wanting to tell them what poor taste it was to write about porn being an okay thing and there were probably women who would read that and think, "oh...okay." I decided not to because I didn't want them to have my email address and end up getting more publicity stunts. As I was hanging up the phone after a successful cancellation (turns out the subscription was a "gift" from a website I shopped at), Jonz came back inside and said, "It's not good to put bad things in magazines, huh?"

"No, it certainly isn't," I replied. And then he said, "You should tell them," and walked back outside leaving me stunned. Yes. I should tell them. So I did. Thanks for giving me the guts, Jonzy boy:)

And so I opened up my email and sat there for a long time trying to come up with a way to word things professionally and to the point. I started out just being matter of fact and pointing out that it was not okay to conclude that just because lots of people do something that it's normal and okay; and that they shouldn't print false conclusions like that. But by the end of my 10-15 sentence email, I was tired of beating about the bush, sick of wasting time, and beyond fed up with the situation. So I told them that- printing such things in a magazine sought after by weak-minded women is shameful, to say the least.

My only excuse...bad timing.

Maybe I would have been nicer about it on a different day.

Maybe.