Tuesday

ei34

Greetings from Antarctica.  Hope everyone is staying warm!

ei34

Easy work week for me, no classes, just midterms and Regents (state tests), so although I'm here, for the same hours, it's a much easier week.  

The long weekend was nice enough, a good mix of getting things done and fun with friends/family, good food, sledding, my back isn't sore today in spite of lots of shoveling yesterday.  A negative spot was exH (who's definitely using alcohol and marijuana again) texting me a diabolical tirade of just awful things.  Back to the drawing board with the DA again at some point today bc one of the biggest parts of the OoP is he's not supposed to harass/menace/verbally abuse and I have a ton of his ish literally in my hand.  I'd told him last week that our texts are to coordinate drop off and pickup of the kids only, and I'm keeping to that, so I did not respond even once.  There's no engaging with him when he's off the deep end.  

I (intentionally) didn't watch the inauguration yesterday but caught a clip of the importance of things being "merit based" and lmao at his cabinet picks.

banana468

@ei34 I'm so sorry that you're going through this still with your X.  Seems like this is a continued pattern.  Is there 'teeth' that can be put into parenting agreements because with what you're witnessing you must be concerned also for the kids.  I'm sorry you're in that predicament.

I also didn't watch the Inauguration.  It was both due to time and refusal to poison my ears with his verbal diarrhea.  I don't respect him, didn't support him and he may now be the person in office but I'm really trying to  not lend him ear time for the sake of my mental health.  I AM tempted to write on DH's FB wall, "Hey honey can you go check to see if the eggs are a lower price?  Keep hearing that they went down today," but the reality is that there's no changing the minds of those I know who voted for him.

It is ALSO COLD.  I had to remind my kids that it's REAL winter now.  Wear hats, warm pants, gloves...PLEASE.  I realize that for some of the midwestern Minnesotans and Wisconsiners this is nothing but sending a 14 yo on the bus at 9 degrees F requires some additional wardrobe layers. 

Chiquito's play was Fri night, Sat night and was supposed to be Sunday but shifted to yesterday.  Sponge Bob Square Pants Jr. is SUCH a great production for youth.  The kids are talented, my Gary was adorable and I left feeling inspired for the future rather than disgusted (see above at Inauguration). 

Week is back in full swing. Chiquita's 2nd to last midterm is today, back to fencing practice, pinewood car painting and getting ready for the weekend.  

I did NOT give DH an earful of my irritation that he didn't get vaccinated but I did say, "Hey you didn't sneak out and get vaccinated last fall did you," and he said that he didn't and he regrets it.  I think his witnessing the impact was enough and my answer was "Then I'll give you the Miss Shields response." If you've seen A Christmas Story then you know.

levioosa

I'm so sorry @ei34. Sending you hugs. 

@banana468 That picture of Chiquito was great! 

Well, I wasn't going to look at news or inauguration stuff yesterday but then my friend texted me in a spiral. She had planned to do the same thing, hence why I wasn't texting her (as my usual political buddy) but then she had other people who were texting her info. I don't have any comforting words because I'm so scared. I do feel like I need to figure out some code safety words for certain community members. Trying to figure out how to make myself the most allied looking person I can despite my appearance. My patients are scared, members of my community are scared. Elon fucking Musk is over there doing the seig heil and we're being gaslit and told it's a Roman salute. No it's fucking not and you all know it and you cheered. I'm furious and angry and sad. 

Anyways, work today. I don't know if it still technically counts as dry January, but I've been holding off for the month with the exception of this coming Sunday which is MIL's birthday brunch. And then I probably will keep holding off until my birthday. But who knows, a glass of wine sounds real nice right about now. I'm not really excited about seeing the in-laws as they're super Republican and I just don't want to hear any of their bullshit opinions. 

Casadena

oh @ei34 i'm so sorry your still dealing with all the BS with ExH. 

@banana468 your Gary was adorable! Glad it went well

I'm a bit numb with all the inauguration stuff. I didn't watch anything, but was inevitable that I would see some things about it. One day and i'm just so angry.

I did have a nice little spa day yesterday and turned my phone off for a few hours. Massage, sauna, stretch session. Then plopped on the couch for a couple hours before we picked up kids. Rare that we have the day off when kids do not. Back at work today and have a lot to do but little motivation. I like my outfit today though so that always makes me feel good. 

Need to order a few groceries today because i don't have time to go to the store. Nothing major this week. 

VarunaTT

@levioosa Someone just released a reel that tied the "Roman salute" to fascism as well, so that doesn't work either.  I'll try and find it again and ETA the link here.

I did watch the inauguration and the speech.  I did a little bit of digging and there were only 200K tickets given away.  Obama had 1.8 and 1 million tickets.  It was absolutely about crowd size, visual images, and ego.  I was truly terrified once it was moved; that was an enclosed space with a lot of liberal leaders.  I watched with a friend, so we could talk some shit.  I felt like I had to bear witness.  It was what I thought it would be, which was a weird relief, b/c at least it was just as bad as I thought and not worse.  Melania's outfit was mind boggling.  I love fashion and fashion sends messages.  That hat blocked over half of her face to full face, all the time.  I've never seen anyone in a political position wear something like that.  I also almost lost my entire mind at the Black Reverend who got up for one of the ending prayers and slipped into MLK's, I Have a Dream, speech.  I couldn't even get angry, I was so gobsmacked.

And today, we just go back to life as normal.

I watched Shrinking over the weekend.  It is well done and I enjoyed it, but it probably won't become a comfort show.  I was also shocked by how much alcohol is in the show and how it's used.  Especially for a show that's about therapy, healing, and moving on. 

levioosa

@VarunaTT are you referencing the reel by Under the Desk News? 

From what I can see, a true "roman salute" if that is even a thing, had a closed fist. And it's historically dubious if it ever existed to begin with in the true "Roman Empire" sense. The closest thing to what we saw is the Bellamy Salute which America used as a Nationalist symbol in schools, fascists saw and liked it and co-opted it and then it became used in Nazi Germany. And guess what, then we stopped using it because it was fascist. The mental gymnastics of the right, they really do think we are stupid. And the worst part is, a lot of people are falling for it. I saw a lot of people from Europe, specifically Germany, commenting that if Elon had done that in Germany, he would have been arrested.

And I friggen died when Trump went to kiss Melania and couldn't reach her face because of the hat. Like, she's complicit in all of this and should be damned because of that, but it's so obvious that she can't stand him either. Even her fashion choices try to repel him.  

VarunaTT

I did see V's explanation, but the one I saw I liked a little better b/c it had more history to it, that could be effective pushback.  It had the Roman painting (I think it was painting) that's been used to show the "roman salute" and how that's not the meaning of the painting, etc.

charlotte989875

Snowy, cold, negative degrees with the windchill. Happy winter! 

On Elon- it’s part of the strategy to do something like that, then tell everyone they didn’t see what they knew they saw. It’s designed to make you doubt yourself. Because the more you doubt yourself the more they can get away with. 

levioosa

I’m gonna throw up. 

banana468

charlotte989875 said:

Snowy, cold, negative degrees with the windchill. Happy winter! 

On Elon- it’s part of the strategy to do something like that, then tell everyone they didn’t see what they knew they saw. It’s designed to make you doubt yourself. Because the more you doubt yourself the more they can get away with. 

And with a personality-type like Elon, there's an arrogance with his intelligence.  There's a very clear insinuation that if you go to the first interpretation of his actions it isn't because that's what it was - it's because he's so far more nuanced so you can question yourself or those who call it out. 

short+sassy

levioosa said:

I’m gonna throw up. 

SIB:

From a President who bragged about sexually assaulting women, smh.

And from the "Muh Freedoms" party, Trump issues an EO on his first day limiting freedom.  I know, not surprising.  Hardly the first time this party has emphasized freedom and less government intervention, but only for their own interests.

On Musk.  Oh!  Is it a "Roman salute" now?  I thought the excuse was he was "sending his heart out."

Nobody knows what a "Roman salute" looks like.  But the whole world is very familiar with what a Nazi salute looks like.  His own grandparents were Nazis, ffs.  You'd think he wouldn't want to remind people of that.  But we are in different days now.  I miss the times when we could all at least agree on, "Nazis=bad".

short+sassy

Now for happier news.

It's HERE!  So MUCH snow in New Orleans.  More than I ever could have imagined.  It has been snowing non-stop since 7am and is expected to continue until 5-6pm.  CRAY-ZEE-NESS!!!!

I'm in a raised house.  You can barely see where the steps are.  My front porch is covered by an awning, but there was still snow backed up to the front door.

There was 1-2' on the ground when I went out earlier with Izzy.  But now it's more like 2-3'.  

Alas, my dog Izzy is NOT a fan of snow.  But to be fair by the time I took her out, her short little legs were about as deep as the snow was.  She was only out for a few minutes.  Then my H picked her up to take her back inside.

I'll post pictures tonight.  It's snowed in NOLA a few times since I've lived here, but it's never been like this.

I LOVE IT!!!  Most of the city is excited.  But that's only because it's so rare.  I can see how much it would suck if many winter days were like this and I had to go to work and run errands in it.

One guy posted a pic of Mardi Gras beads draped around his truck tires and called it "Louisiana snow chains", lol.  

ILoveBeachMusic

I tried to post early this morning but somehow I deleted it and didn't have the energy to rewrite it. @ei34 I'm sorry you are continuing to deal with BS from exH. I know you are taking the high road and giving your kids a stable life. @banana468 your Gary is adorable.

I don't do dry January but have been cutting back on alcohol pretty significantly over the last few months. That just might have to come to an end for the next 4 years. I'm still not watching TV other than HGTV, Food Network and Hallmark (of course streaming channels too). I just can't stand to see the evil orange person or hear his voice. I don't want to listen to all the horrible things he is doing. I know I have to so I will be informed but I'm just not ready yet.

DS2 didn't get the house he put an offer on. That area doesn't have a lot in his price range and things move fast. It is just going to get worse in the Cincy to Columbus area because there are some Tech industries moving in and will attract more people for employment. He will find something and it was all a good lesson in learning how house hunting/making an offer is. He also has Noravirus as of last night. Fingers crossed that H and I don't come down with it.