Journal Entries
It's the most wonderful time of the year (PC)
Posted Sep 13, 2012
So, is anyone among my subscribers also one of those people who is mildly annoyed when the Easter candy hits the store aisles in January, or they start piping in the Christmas carols in July? (Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit... but you know!!)
Just checking, because I am. Especially Christmas, though I admit that's because I don't really enjoy the holiday in general and have a tendency to be a grump. Not that I'm never a grump at other times of year, but especially so between Thanksgiving and New Year's. 
But perhaps I am not the only person who's inconsistent in applying these standards? Because I not only have no problem with the Halloween stuff beginning to appear around mid-September, but I'm pleased that it gives me extra time to plan and assemble my costuming for the year.
K's decided this year we'll go with a Mexican Day of the Dead theme. Boy, I didn't think I'd regret putting the cheap sombrero I got for doing too many tequila shots at Salvador's into the charity pickup when we moved. I guess now I'm stuck going out for margaritas again, so I can get another one. Tragic! 
Seriously, though, hitting all the Halloween stores, the huge costume shop, and a couple of the local thrift stores is one of the highlights of autumn for me. The only down side is having to wait to actually wear it.
Is anyone else looking forward to Halloween yet, or am I just "special"? 
Discuss this Journal entry [21]
Latest reply: Sep 13, 2012
Philosophical ramble (PC)
Posted Aug 17, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/blrgba9
I read this article in Slate this morning. I found it very interesting. I didn’t read many of the comments- I have a firm policy regarding not reading comments relating to online articles, for the sake of maintaining my blood pressure- but it seems a lot of readers misinterpreted the article as one of existential angst.
Maybe it’s just because the author’s experience resonates vaguely with me, but it doesn’t seem that difficult to understand that feeling (or realizing) that one or more of your parents should never have been a parent, or at least not at the time you were born, does not mean that you are suicidal, mentally unstable, or unhappy overall.
My mother should never have been a mother, at least not to me. While she showered my younger sister with attention, affection and love, she was physically and emotionally abusive toward me. I won’t go into all the details- I find it boring, and other people tend to find them unbelievable anyway. Suffice it to say that I have very few pleasant memories from childhood, so it’s not much of a stretch for me to appreciate that a lot of childhoods are just not worth having. Not to mention that some effects last well into adulthood, even for a lifetime (for example, my mother’s refusal to contribute toward college expenses while also refusing to sign an affidavit that would make me eligible for government grants- on the basis that a “decent woman” has no need of an education as it is her “duty” to find a man to support her- has meant a lifetime of student debt and crappy jobs).
I think there’s a big difference between a person realizing things would have been better if s/he hadn’t been born (I wouldn’t know the difference, after all) and wishing s/he were dead.
Is it responsible, or selfish, for someone to acknowledge that they'd be a terrible or miserable parent, and choose not to make at least two lives miserable? I don't have kids, mainly because while I do like specific individuals in small doses, I don't really like them very much and the thought of having one around all the time leaves me cold. I've opted to remain childless and enjoy life as I already know it rather than be a resentful or neglectful parent.
I've had friends tell me that I'd feel differently if I had one. That no parent dislikes their own child or truly regrets having them. But I know that's not true, because I have other friends who do indicate that they regret having their children, or regret having them under the circumstances they were in at the time and would do things differently if they had a second chance. I also know that my own mother never loved me and did in fact dislike and resent me.
I don't understand the logic behind the idea that every woman should be a mother, and every fertilized egg should become a human child, even if it means that child is born into and raised under horrible conditions. And yes, I appreciate that many people overcome overwhelmingly bleak childhoods to become Nobel Prize winners, brilliant artists, and such, and that plenty of people raised in "happy" homes grow up to be serial killers or hedge fund managers (or both). I think my point isn't so much to dispute the fact that unhappy children often go on to have reasonably happy and successful lives, as to wonder that there are people who think it's worth the risk enough that children should be forced to be born, even to parents unwilling to or incapable of loving or caring for them, or put into foster care or with adoptive parents (where, statistically, children tend not to fare much better) when they'd be better off never having been born and having no way of knowing what they're missing out on.
Maybe I *am* in a slightly existential mood today?
Any thoughts from anyone?
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Aug 17, 2012
Home Sweet Home (PC)
Posted Aug 7, 2012
I would just like to let everyone know K and I (and kitties) have arrived in our new place relatively unscathed. We have a couple of framed art works and a couple odds and ends K needs to grab with the car, and it will take weeks to get shelves picked out and in the appropriate places so we can empty the back bedroom which is filled more or less wall to wall with boxes...
Cats are settling in OK, and we are enjoying the nice cool air conditioning and working appliances.
Obviously I have internet access again, too.
Back to work tomorrow- and month end close, to boot- so I will be glad for the weekend to come around again.
The last two nights, we fell asleep to the sound of frogs chirruping. And woke again to, in addition to the familiar sound of squawking squirrels, a family of ducks quacking happily as they swam down river (our bedroom faces the river from an eastern and a northern window). 
I think we will like it here. I just hope it's usually reasonably quiet once they get all the units occupied.
Thanks to those who listened to me fret about moving for the last few weeks. I don't *ever* want to do that again!!
Discuss this Journal entry [10]
Latest reply: Aug 7, 2012
See you in a few days! (PC)
Posted Aug 3, 2012
FIL is on his way with the van to help us start moving some fragile items, and others the movers don't like to haul, over to the new place (so we won't be making dozens of trips with the car). This computer will be one of them. I'll have the laptop here, we'll take that with on Sunday, but it's harder for me to type on that keypad, so you won't be hearing much from me till Monday afternoon, after Comcast comes and hooks up the cable at the new place.
I'll need breaks from all that unpacking.
See you all early next week.
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Aug 3, 2012
Packing it in (PC)
Posted Jul 22, 2012
Just two weeks till the scheduled move date! We're to call the building manager next Friday and arrange to meet and pick up the keys next weekend. 
I had an estimator from the moving company come out and take a physical inventory, so they can make sure they have the right sized truck and the right number of men. (Also hopefully their office people can get the city out with No Parking signs for in front- no one from Streets & Sanitation ever called me back)
K and I have dragged out and put aside a number of items to donate to charity, and a truck is coming in the morning to pick it all up. It's enough to fill a decent sized storage unit. We can start out with a little less clutter- and I'll have less of a struggle with over-full kitchen cabinets.
We've got about 30 boxes packed, which I'd like to think is somewhere between 1/3- 1/2 complete. I suspect that there will be a minimum of two boxes marked "misc" where all the random bits that got missed will end up.
Plan is to hand-carry a couple boxes of very fragile glasses and knick-knacks, my small house plants, the TV and the PC. Possibly the Dyson, not sure. Oh, and the cats, of course.
The cats were at first intrigued and amused by all the boxes, and Herman kept crawling into boxes of stuff before we'd gotten them taped shut. Silly cat. Now they're mostly trying to stay out of the fray.
This is really not fun, and I hope not to have to do it again for a very long time. Keep fingers crossed the management at the new building maintain things well and we won't be moving again when the dishwasher/ dryer/ furnace/ etc malfunctions.
It's exhausting!! I will be so happy in a couple of weeks when everything is IN. Unpacking can be done a little more gradually- we won't even be unpacking any books, movies or CDs until we've bought and received delivery of some new bookcases.
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: Jul 22, 2012
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