Day 13

I promise to post less lame stuff now that I'm home again. Tonight I'm inexpressibly grateful for a safe, beautiful drive both ways, my hilarious, beautiful, supportive friend who distracted me with so much fun stuff that I didn't have time to post anything substantial, seeing my kids and dog, and my husband who actually did LAUNDRY while I was away, and had dinner ready when I got home. Also, I got a mark back on an assignment and it was way better than I expected. Also, I bought a new fancy bra at the fancy bra store we always go to in Barrie. I'll show it to you later.

*blows kisses*

Wholesome and Not So Much

Day 11

I'm hearing about horrible acts committed by ignorant, bigoted people gloating over Trump's winning the presidency and drunk with the power of having their racism, sexism and various other hatreds legitimized. I'm feeling enraged and unutterably weary that people fought and died in wars to secure our freedom and this is what so many choose to do with it.

On the drive here I listened to the song Good Day by Jewel, which reminded me that "this crazy mixed-up beauty is all that we have".

Tonight Zarah and I watched the movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, in which one soldier after losing his legs declares that "you embrace the suck. You move the fuck forward."

And that's all I have right now. Other than that I still miss Matt's Grandpa, and I lost a record nine poppies this year.

Nine minutes!

I got up this morning. I took Eve to the orthodontist. Matt got home from California on the red eye at ten. I left at eleven and drove to Barrie. I hugged Zarah. We had dinner. We went to her book club. We briefly discussed Frankenstein and Dracula and then the book club tried to decide on the Christmas book and somehow there was then a longish interlude of people searching out dirty Christmas titles and reading Christmas erotica (you don't even want to know how many ways "naughty and nice" and candy canes and sitting on Santa's lap can be made ugly). Then we went out for a drink and some guy offered to buy us shooters and we thought better of it (just barely) and now we're home just before midnight and I tried to post from the bar and couldn't, but I'm in just under the wire. I think.

I Don't Know

I don't know what to write today. I'm collecting smart and faintly comforting things my friends have said instead.

Fighting for What's Right is Worth It by Maggie.

I haven't lost faith in humanity. I haven't even lost faith in America. America is full of generous, big-hearted, loving people that I'm proud to call my friends. We all know that humanity is variously capable of the most shocking cruelty, the basest stupidity and the most transcendent acts of beauty and kindness. We all know that change is possible, change is even happening - it's just very, very, tediously, mind-achingly, infuriatingly slow. There has been change in my lifetime. My brave friends and my loving, open-minded children have effected a lot of it.

Come at us, Trump. We're not backing down.

Day 8

I've got nothing, really. I spent the day sorting and pitching and wtf-ing in the basement storage areas again. I found books that my kids have outgrown, toys that I never managed to give them when they were age-appropriate, more gift bags than one person could ever use, and these:

That's right. Rocks. In a bag. Bags of rocks. What am I supposed to do, tell the kids they can keep whichever rocks have names? That's what we used to do with the stuffed animals (they all had names. Every single one.)

On the plus side, I can now open and close the storage closet door again. On the minus side, my dining room table is covered with crap to donate, give away or sell (which might give me another Facebook Groups blog post, so maybe it's a plus after all).

Also, here is a picture of Lucy objecting to me reading instead of paying attention to her:

She's extremely clingy right now and periodically driving me crazy, but I love her.

Alright, back to stressing over election results. 

Stupid Things I've Bought Lately

I usually like to think that advertising doesn't have that big an effect on me. I like a clever, funny commercial (those ones are in the overwhelming minority), but as often as not I don't actually notice what it's for. I generally base my decisions on what brand to buy based on what seems like good value or what's better quality once we've tried it.

We also have an unwritten rule in our house that when a new chip flavour comes out, we buy a bag and try it. This went horribly wrong once or twice, because if there's a pack of gum or an open bag of chips on the counter, my husband shovels some into his mouth without really looking - I once told him that he could buy his own mints instead of always asking me for one of mine, but then we agreed that if he did that he would down them all at once and die in an agonizing surfeit of mintiness. So when he came across the open bag of Lay's curry chips (they were not good - the curry flavour was very unsubtle) it was very unpleasant. I said "didn't you look at the label first?" After he stopped choking and crying, he said "no, of course not! You know me - hey, free cocaine!"

But every now and then, one slips past my mental firewall. I don't even try to pretend otherwise.

I mean, wtf even is this? At first I thought, "oh, it's Pepsi's answer to Coke Zero. No, wait, it's still Coke". It's not Coke. It's not Diet Coke. It's not Coke Zero. It's a magical NEW Coke thing. It's green! That means it's healthy! Wait, no it's not. It's sweetened with natural sources! Wait, sugar is natural.

There is literally no good reason for this product to exist.

And yes, I bought six tiny cans. It tastes like slightly sweeter Coke Zero, which I don't even like. I figure Collette and I will mix it with rum while decorating her house at an absurdly early date for the Christmas party.

I am suitably chastened.