Tuesday, October 14, 2008

How Excited Am I?

It looks like we may be getting to meet R's "gentleman friend", as she refers to him, in the near future.

Excellent.

This came out in emails with her this morning that started with a movie I thought she'd want to see that I'd recorded and continued on in an "Oh by the way" way. Maybe we can arrange to go out to dinner with them. I suggested that K meet the guy first -- got to pass the sister test, you know -- and she said they're having dinner together tomorrow night.

I am sooooo excited!

In other news, the SCM is back today and we are cordial, but no more, really. I'm better about the situation now, because I think I've done a few things, or made a few decisions, that give me a little bit of control back. He still can take off whenever he wants to because I can't stop that, but I've made some adjustments in the work he does, which is virtually nothing to begin with. Anyway, hard to explain, but I am better with it, which is all that counts.

I didn't watch Heroes last night because I knew I was too sleepy to follow it, so I guess I'll watch it over the weekend. I watched Two and Half Men instead, because I needed something mindless. This is, I think, the first time I ever saw it first-run when it was on; I usually just watch the syndicated reruns every day, which my kids think is the most ridiculous show on TV and they can't believe I watch it. Which means that in a year or two they'll discover it and they'll be watching it too. It's so hard to be a trendsetter. *sigh*

I slept right until the alarm this morning, very rare for me, so I woke up all kind of confused and in a way, five minutes behind on my routine since I always wake up at least five minutes before the alarm. Not that I don't have scads of time there in the morning, it's all a matter of who gets the bathroom or kitchen when. But it all worked out. Really, when the alarm goes off, I get up and go through all the steps like a robot, no thinking, just doing each thing in order until they're all done. That was one of the things I loved about this summer, not doing any of that, or at least, doing it in my own good time. But I made the mistake of having coffee with dinner last night, and even though it was decaf, it had me up three or four times. Note to self: don't do that anymore.

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I watched WifeSwap yesterday at 4:00 because there was nothing else on, an old one, I guess, and although the brief moments of that show I've seen before were annoying, this episode -- the first full one I've seen -- took the prize. In brief: one family is an upscale urban San Francisco clan with two adorable little boys; the husband is some kind of stylist (like he creates wardrobes and "looks" for people), and the other family is an Iowa farm group with two teenagers. Sounds fine at that point, but I gotta take a side here: the farm folk did not

- send their children to school because they worked full time on the farm
- clean their house, because they believe that all bacteria is good for you, or as the father said "Do you really think god would put anything on this earth that would hurt us?" Yes, he said that, and yes, I think we all know pretty well that He has.
- cook their food, including meat, because they believed that raw meat was better for you
- wash their hands, even if going directly from the never-been-cleaned toilet to prepare raw meat for dinner.

They did have a shower, which the swapped wife almost threw up when she saw. It too had never been cleaned, and was probably not all that much used, either.

I found this family infuriatingly stupid. Yes, of course, have your own lifestyle, knock yourself out. Eat raw meat, if you must, but you know, wash your damn hands first. And by the way, prepare your children for the world outside your farm. These children will know how to be good farmers, but they will have no skills whatsoever to function in the world beyond, which just maybe, they might need. It was as if these parents expect their children to live there with them forever. When the swapped wife suggested her changes -- part of the show's routine -- the 16 year old boy started shaking and crying, he was so angry.

Anyway, it was just really strange, I thought. And the only reason these people don't get sick, probably, is that they're never exposed to outside germs or bacteria, only to their own. Once again, not so much preparing their children for actual life.

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Or something. Who used to say that? I have no idea.


WATCHING FRIENDS :: ENTRY #1881
READING: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

3 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness. I cannot even imagine living like that one farm family. I have watched my hands approximately nine kajillion times today in an attempt to keep my germs to myself and not make anyone else sick, let alone my five-week-old kid. And I didn't even have food preparation duties today!

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  2. It is amazing to think that these people don't learn at least through the TV. They must have television to have gotten themselves on the show. Though I don't believe everything on TV, one must realize that at least the health shows are real.

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  3. I'm the one who's always saying you have to prepare your children for the world, that they need to know there are more people who are not like them! Yet every now and then, I find out about people I never want to know.

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