Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"Gee I hope I'm not too late to cast...

my vote."

so. how do you tell your brother that his son is kind of a dick? it would seem that my alleged honesty with myself on account of my "DRINKING PROBLEM!!!" has made me more sensitive to the dishonesty and emotional ugliness of others. just spitballing here, repeating myself a tad. but, damn, could this disease have made me a better person? answer: yes.

i need a drink. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

keif, tis the prickly heat methinks. i.e., awful humid down there in iberia. -ish. huh?

31 comments:

bright said...

If you figure it out let me know. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have that conversation with my sister in law in about 8 years.

I'm really proud of you. Keep fighting.

We open for the critic tonight. Lord save me from teen-aged divas!

Michael said...

Trying out new eyes is always educational my friend, and usually helpful. As long as we keep moving forward (and whirling, always whirling...) Good to see you.

Isonomist said...

It's usually best to tell the kid directly. Not that you'll get any satisfaction from that, except whatever of it attends honest words. I'm thinking we all have some form of a "drinking problem" but it may not be in liquid form. I remember being shocked that "people pleasing" had anything to do with addiction. Up till that moment, I thought that was a life goal.

Keifus said...

Yeah, watch the next match and tell me I'm wrong. It's evidently been bothering my wife for awhile (or more likely she's been staring at his ass for a long time).

Sarcastic remarks have always been my MO in situations like that. It's been sometimes observed that this is not without its own emotional unattractiveness...

Cindy said...

Great to see you posting! And, glad to hear you're in the mud with the family. :) I know, that sounds crazy, but actually it beats the heck out of pretending everything is "just fine."

I like Iso's comment - talk directly to the kid. Assuming he's over the age of 12. My guess is he knows he is a bit of a dick. But no one is calling him on it, so why not continue?

Here's an acronym for you:

THINK

Is it True?
Is it Helpful?
Is it Important?
Is it Necessary?
Is it Kind?

Of course this isn't ALWAYS the best way to decide, but sometimes it helps me.

We have the world's biggest football game in our town tonight. I'm talking Game Of the Century.

We'll probably lose.

rundeep said...

Eh, I woudn't bother saying anything to the kid or his parents. Because he will still be a dick and then you will have just one more issue with the family. I'm with Keif. Sarcasm works because it will put the kid on notice that you know what he really is. Love Iso's comment. A few months ago, I went to a lecture at my daughter's school to hear a woman named Rachel Simmons who's written a lot about teenage girls. I thought it might be all poor victims of queen bees stuff, but it was a lot more insightful. Her thesis is that the pressure on girls to be people-pleasing actually means they suppress real emotions and thoughts and turns them into people with intimacy problems, stuck using passive aggression as a relationship tool. Sound familiar? Actually, on second thought, tell the kid he's a dick. Or better yet, "Stop being a dick. You don't have to be." Then deny you ever said it. Not.

Good to see you. Keep on fighting.

rundeep said...

Man, the Sing-Off. Ben Folds has such great, subtle ears.

David Marlow said...

glee. too gay? answer: yes.

sing off can't top season 1.

also, a.a. is a CULT!!!!!

Michael said...

Okay so it's not just me. When they wheeled out the purple piano, I thought, "Say, that's pretty gay not that there's anything wrong with gay but that's really, really, really, gay." and then high voice is telling tragically good-looking that he could spend eternity holding hands with him in the cafeteria and I thought "Now see, that's also quite gay not that there's anything wrong with gay but two guys in a cafeteria holding hands, one of whom is wearing a checked hunting blazer, is really very very gay." By the way, that is a transgendered teacher right? The linebacker sized one who looks like a guy who became a girl in the Lithgow-in-Garp fashion. And when it was over I thought, "wow, I just watched Glee" and the gay thing doesn't bother me at all, but the purple piano has got to go!!!

topazz said...

The epitome of gayness was when Kurt returned to the high school last year, and the gang sang and danced him right up the steps to the front door, where he kissed his boyfriend from The Warblers goodbye. Later, the whole gang went to the mall and vogued "Barbra Streisand" on the escalators. Very very gay.

Cindy said...

So, definitely don't get on Facebook. It's all about to change. Wait a few weeks.

By the way, FB is also a cult.

rundeep said...

I don't know. I thought the Gayest Episode was the wedding. When Kurt danced with his "brother." Anyway, FB is a cult. I'm moving to google plus. Cause my d-i-l (step version) loves it. And she's super cool. And I'm going to be a step grandma. Very, very, weird.

Dawn Coyote said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dawn Coyote said...

Okay, so I can comment now.

topazz said...

dawn! good to see you here, finally.

Cindy said...

Maria - ok you're like the umpteenth person who says Google+ I guess I better go look at it.

Whatever happened to that nice truthy phrase about old dogs and new tricks?

Cindy said...

rundeep I'm on Google+ now ... how do I find you?

bright said...

Community theatre is a cult. Also.

Isonomist said...

If you define it loosely enough, academia is a cult. And liberalism. And the Tea Party. Farmers' Co-ops. Unions. Rock bands. Small towns. Fine art.

rundeep said...

Hey Cindy -- try finding me again. I'm there....

Cindy said...

Okay Maria - now add me back!

topazz said...

switters, you HAVE to turn on the new "Playboy Bunny" tv show. It sets a new bar for godawful, horrible, derivative crap. So bad that it's good! Especially the Don Draper look-a-like, sound-a-like. Unbelievable.

Cindy said...

I thought between the Playboy Bunny show and the Pan Am stewardess show television has basically made a full court press to turn my daughters into retro-Sarah-Palin-look-alikes.

No offense, topazz, I'm sure it's good television. But I have to say I'm rather thrilled to see one kid in a Steelers jersey glued to Sunday night football, and another crying in her homework because the Boston Red Sox were losing.

topazz said...

Good for you, Cindy. I had hoped that it would be such truly bad television that it was fun to watch (like the bachelor, etc.) but this show was so seriously cliche-ridden I had to turn it off.

rundeep said...

Good news. High school honors courses are too much work to watch television. I only wish I had the same excuse.

rundeep said...

Best Glee since Season 1. Actual, you know, character development, real issues and consistent arcs. The new writers are good.

topazz said...

I just visited IOZ's blog for the first time in many months. Sad to say, what was formerly a really funny, snarky and fiercely intelligent group of commentators has been infiltrated by ciinc, who is instantly recognizable even as an anonymous poster. He is widely ignored there, as everywhere else, except by other newbies and/or spammers - with whom he of course carries on long idiotic conversations where he spews out unnecessary unrelated literary references, all "look at how smart I yam" Makes me wonder if IOZ disbanded his blog earlier this year specifically because of how much ciinc was ruining the conversation there. He's a new genre of cyber ugly, all to himself.

rundeep said...

wondering if you caught any of the Prohibition series. Super interesting 1) alcoholism was to some extent cultural; 2) it was very much involved with women at first, then went all christian and then 3) became anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic and really nasty. And then it died. I hope this means the Tea Party disappears in 6 weeks.

Cindy said...

I was in Ogden UT for the weekend.

Got to meet Thom Paine and Fielding Bandolier!

Told my Al-Anon Story.

Made it home safely.

Thought of you while flying over Iowa and Ohio ...

Keifus said...

Hey, so how are y'all doing? I've been feeling fairly bad lately that I've been such a terrible facebook friend, blog citizen, (not to mention a crappy employee, job-seeker, and depending on how you measure those things, for example, by "breadwinning potential," husband). I haven't had it in me to closely follow the ongoing diaspora, and while I'm not exactly uninspired lately, most of that energy has (uncharacteristically) gone to personal correspondence and even some real-life conversation, where support has come from unexpected places. Which is great and all, but I feel like I'm losing grip on some of the people I care about, you know? And since like half of you wander in here now and then, hey and stuff.

Kinda funny how transition can breed more transition, not that much has quite happened yet, it's only just about to. Some friends asked me last weekend how I was doing. "Strange," I said, "times are weird."

Switters, it'd help if you posted something. I'm also losing my patience for people's usual blog subjects, especially those mock-serious noodleheads can stomach the political or ideological world. You can single-handedly save the internet for me if you put your mind to it.

K

Anonymous said...

The big problem with the "scientific community" is that its academic machiavellism is incompatible with the scientific method. Please check out Pure science Wiki. That is an Internet platform for the real scientific method.

purescience.wikia