Thanksgiving and the Big Kick Off to the Holiday Season

 I'm probably going to be viewed as ungracious, but after Thanksgiving, I go into a slump.  I do not care for the Christmas Season.  It is no reason to be jolly, in my opinion.  I have a long and checkered unhappiness where Christmas is concerned that doesn't even merit discussion.  It just exists and I deal with it and try to make others not have to deal with it by pasting on my peaceful holiday resting non-bitch face.

But I am very thankful for a few things this year.  First of all, that no one I know has died of COVID.  That the people I know who got COVID did not die, despite not being vaccinated and that I am not as ridiculously ignorant as they are.  I am thankful for a new person in the White House to replace the fascist orange blob who sinks to new depths in the swampland of Florida.  I would be ever so thankful if the failed one term, twice impeached ex-president got eaten by an alligator on one of his slummy swamp golf courses; but that's almost like a Christmas wish, and I don't make those.

It has been a really rough couple of years for all of us.  A pandemic of epic proportions.  Disinformation that has added to the death toll.  People being shot dead in the street by a teenager whose mother drove him to a protest.  That same teenager being acquitted.  A cop committing murder as a crowd watched.  White supremacy raising it's ugly head in a Georgia suburb.  It has been horrendous.  Hurricanes, floods climate disasters, OH MY!   And the fact that so many Americans are incredibly stupid.  That just boggles the mind.  I think, before Donald Trump, stupid people kept a low profile, lest they be thought of as stupid.  But Trump brought new glory to Stupid, and all the stupids rose up and screamed at the top of their lungs, MY STUPID IS JUST AS GOOD AS YOUR SMARTS.  Sadly, they still believe this.  

I'm no genius, but I know when I'm being had.  I know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, law and order.   So if I believed in the Christmas miracle and actually thought I could make a wish, I would wish for the strength to hold this country back from the rabbit hole it is heading toward unless we can educate these incredibly stupid, right wing, gun slinging fanatics.

 

Strange People I Have Known

 Funny where creative ideas come from.  Sometimes, I dream them.  Sometimes I imagine them.  But today, while making oatmeal cookies, I started to think about weird situations I have been in/heard about/lived through/been horrified by......the full monte of strange but true experiences only possible after having lived 50++ years.

In view of that, I've decided to periodically write about these situations, lest they be lost to history forever because of a) my death or b) my precious grasp of reality in a brain growing tired and old.

Let's call her Doreen.  I won't use real names, although it will be no stretch for the people who know this story to make the leap.  

Doreen was a wonderfully kind person, just like us; a single, struggling mom with two tots, just like us.  We were all bedraggled,  divorced people, borrowing five dollars from each other to make it to payday.  We'd watch each other's kids, cook a meal for each other, loan each other gas money to get to work, borrow tampons.

One day, in a wonderful moment of generosity when one of her clients tipped her well, she called and invited all the tots to go with her and her kids to see the Disney movie "Fantasia" at a local theatre, her treat.  What a glorious thing.  What a generous thing.  That was going to cost at least $25 and she was paying for it, taking charge of the kids, and giving the rest of us beat up souls a few hours respite from toddlers, chaos and noise.  To us, it all sounded like a little piece of private heaven and we happily waved our kids off.  Yes, we packed them off with home-popped popcorn bags, stale Halloween candy and pocket smuggled juice boxes.  But as any kid will tell you, not important where it came from, as long as it was there.

Sadly, in the first half hour of the show, Doreen realized she had misread the Marquee.  The movie was not Fantasia, but rather Phantasm, a bloody, stab, slash, demon horror of a movie.  It took her that long to realize there would be no singing flowers and butterflies above the screams emanating from the silver screen.  Trust me, those screams had nothing whatsoever on the screams of terror coming from our kids.  And then there was the movie house theatre, packed with teenagers screaming "GET THOSE GODDAMNED KIDS OUTTA HERE!".

All in all, not a good night for any of us.  In fact, some of those kids were still having night terrors well into adolescence.  

Alas, this is the plight of overworked, underpaid single women in our society.  A simple glance at a theatre marquee could lead to mass confusion, horrific terror and upset friends.  What can I say?  We've all been this distracted.  It's a miracle our kids made it to adulthood.  I look at my really comfortable life now and am so thankful for the hard work I put in (and my current husband).  I cannot honestly say I miss those days of hardship, worry and living on the edge of barely solvent.  But after a few months passed and the friends talked about the marquee mishap, I can't remember laughing so long or so hard at things, either.

The Dead Know Best

 Living in a coastal community has been both extraordinarily enlightening (how to survive a hurricane) to exceptionally frustrating (Steve Scalise and John Kennedy in Congress).  But perhaps the most incredible thing I have learned since living here is you Can't Teach a Sneetch.

For those of you who have just awoken from a coma, on August 29, 2021, New Orleans and Louisiana suffered a Category 4 Hurricane named Ida.  My family and a few neighbors thought we'd ride it out, since it was designated a Category 2, right up until the moment it roared on shore.  We are accustomed to Cat 2 hurricanes, they happen frequently here.  By the time the Hurricane Center changed it's mind and called it a Cat 4, there were hundreds of thousands of cars on the road, going nowhere.  In short, it was too late to evacuate.

Long story short - it was devastating for us, for New Orleans and especially for areas outside the levee district.  Frankly, when an area prone to hurricanes can't provide water or ice after a major weather event that has left the city powerless, you know you're living in the South.  Reconstruction continues one hundred fifty-six years after the Civil War, with the same carpet baggers now holding elected office.

But here's the really amazing thing I've learned.  Homes are destroyed for hundreds of miles.  Islands have lost half their land.  And yet, these stoic people say "we are going to rebuild" and they are treated like some kind of  national hero.  Call me ignorant, but why would anyone rebuild a house on stilts, on an island half gone and think this is smart or reasonable or courageous.  It's just stupid.

During this catastrophic event, the cemeteries in low country floated up their dead during the flooding and sent them inland with the storm surge.

Take a lesson, low landers, your dead ancestors want out.  What's wrong with you?  Move.  If ever the dead spoke, this is it.  Yet, "we will rebuild" is the resounding cry from a populace really to stubborn to think things through or figure out that rebuilding in the same place just invites more agony.