A million miles above my head

[sienamystic]

I wish I could shake off this blah feeling - not quite depression as much as a general malaise that makes me say "bleah" to the idea of doing anything combined with the deep desire to crawl back into a snuggly bed. The bulk of it stems from a phone call with my mom. I phoned because I thought she wanted to babble excitedly about her trip to Ireland, but her mood had changed and now she wanted to talk politics.

I'm sure you all can guess how well that might have gone. My mom is firm in her views, which mostly are bolstered by every Fox News outlet you can imagine, plus all the worst radio hosts. Plus, apparently a pair of college kids (whom I'd like to find and strangle) decided that seeing her McCain sign in the front yard made her a fair target. They hung a McCain/Palin flyer on her front door with a drawing of a penis in Palin's mouth - a crudity my extremely sheltered mother reacted to very badly. I don't think she truly believes that this was an official Obama-sponsored campaign tactic, but she takes it as proof that his followers are horrible people. Just as she knew all along, of course.

There was a brief sideline into "poor President Bush" and why the Iraqis are, of course, enthusiastically happy with Americans - we liberated them, after all. And her mom and dad were so happy when the Americans came to liberate the Philippines from the Japanese in WWII - everybody sang God Bless America. The two scenarios are the same in her mind. Exactly the same.

Even mild countering of her points (I knew not to try and face her dead-on, because all it brings me is hysteria) got me a lecture about working for a university not meaning that I have to put up with Socialist propaganda. By the end of it I had developed that self-descructive burn deep in my chest that I knew I had to smother before I said anything I regretted later (I AM SO VOTING FOR OBAMA, MOM. I'D VOTE FOR HIM TWICE IF I COULD. AND I'M GETTING A TATTOO OF THE SOVIET FLAG ON MY ASS TOMORROW. PLUS I PLAN TO KICK A PUPPY ON THE WAY TO MY POLLING PLACE AND MAYBE SPIT ON A BABY.) so I finally got her off the phone and promptly called my sister. She's the only one who understands in this sort of scenario, so she was able to calm me down.

And then I discovered the giant spider bite on my leg. Ok, maybe it's not so gigantic, and it's not spreading out redness around the bite, but I of course skipped right over the "huh, well I'll watch it for a while and see if it looks worse later" and went right to "OMG how will I survive when they have to remove the leg?"

Thankfully it's a quiet day at work. I think I'd run screaming if I had to think about anything difficult right now.

Comments

Will you call your doctor's office about the dratted spider bite if it gets worse?

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I had a friend who had to have surgery after one, so I am a bit paranoid about the subject.

Re: Will you call your doctor's office about the dratted spider bite if it gets worse?

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

In a heartbeat. I keep rolling up my pantsleg and eying it suspiciously. So far it hasn't shown any signs of turning evil.

[swooop.livejournal.com]

Poor Geniepie. I am feeling your political pain, being saddled with a bunch of idiot relatives (not saying your mom is one of those, just that mine are) who are the biggest bigots who ever bigoted. They're an embarrassment to the human race, not to mention the 21st century, but they're MY idiots. My mother has, in the past three weeks, told me no fewer than six times that she doesn't like McCain and thinks Palin is a moron, and she would like to vote for Obama, but he's a muslim, you know, and a terrorist, and oh yeah, he's black, and she's scared of him, to which I wearily respond, "You're frightened of a Harvard educated lawyer? My goodness you have odd boogiemen. And don't you think some of his Senate pals would have noticed if the guy was a terrorist? Jeez, Mom, get a GRIP. If you want to vote for an old white guy whose solution to every problem is to bomb the hell out of a third world country, go ahead. I'll be moving to Canada if he wins."

Seriously. Six times. My mother has no logic left in her skull whatsoever. She complains about Obama's Baptist minister, but then claims he's a Muslim. She insists he wasn't born in this country, but in Indonesia, and I have to remind her that if he weren't born in this country he couldn't even RUN for President, and Hawaii was admitted to the union well before Obama's birthday. No it wasn't. I ask her if Hawaii was a state when I was born. Yes. Then it was, because his birthday is 27 days before mine. And so on.

I'll be glad when tomorrow's over, believe me. I am sorry some kids pulled that prank on your mom though. That's just crude and uncalled for, and it reflects badly on Obama and all of his supporters.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I am sorry some kids pulled that prank on your mom though. That's just crude and uncalled for

I forgot to say this, too -- but Amen. There is no reason for anyone to do anything like that. It's just shameful.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it definitely riled up the waters at Casa My Mom. Not that she's usually a calm, rational person. Her gun-toting friend from Texas has been telling her she needs to learn to handle a gun so she can defend her property (a house in the suburbs, not the Ponderosa) from young roving bands of thugs like the two kids that did this. Thankfully there's not a chance in hell she'll ever actually buy a gun.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

My mom was doing the contradictory thing as well. "They're saying that I have to vote for him or else I'm racist!" (this after she referred to him as "that black man" and I said, "Mom, don't say that." And then she went right to, "and he's not black anyway, so I don't know what the big deal is!"

Yeah, I wish those kids had reined in their idiot tendencies. If I were a conspiracy theorist type I'd suspect McCain supporters trying to drum up sympathy, but I doubt that's what was happening. They were just young assholes.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh man. Families + politics = alksdf lkasldkfjlkasjdfsadf

//offers you gallon of tea

(I AM SO VOTING FOR OBAMA, MOM. I'D VOTE FOR HIM TWICE IF I COULD. AND I'M GETTING A TATTOO OF THE SOVIET FLAG ON MY ASS TOMORROW. PLUS I PLAN TO KICK A PUPPY ON THE WAY TO MY POLLING PLACE AND MAYBE SPIT ON A BABY.)

That _did_ make me laugh!....

I of course skipped right over the "huh, well I'll watch it for a while and see if it looks worse later" and went right to "OMG how will I survive when they have to remove the leg?"

//offers hugs OMG, that's me too! SPIDERS SUCK.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll get portrait tattoos of Stalin and Lenin on each bicep. What the hell, in for a penny...

And she woke up my sister this morning to rant at her about how *I* better not be voting for Obama. My sister has been instructed to lie, lie, lie. Which was kind of a given.

I am watching my spider bite veeeeery carefully. I normally don't have anything against them, but this is the first time I've been vilely attacked in the sanctity of my own home!

[swooop.livejournal.com]

When you're finished with the Lenin and Stalin tats, you might do Breshnev and Kruchev too--one on each butt cheek ;-)

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I made a comment to Bemo about where I'd place Karl Marx, and he nearly veered off the road.

Mine is a twisted and evil brain.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

What about Trotsky? And Gorbachev?

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Trotsky was the one killed by the ice axe, right? I think my AP history class group did a short play that featured his grisly death. He can go on my forearm, as Zombie Trotsky, brandishing his own murder weapon.

Gorby can go on my lower back, where you'd put a tramp stamp.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Oooooooh. How about Zombie!Rasputin on your other forearm?

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Politically not quite right, but I can't pass up the zombie parallelism. Sold!

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I suppose you could counter with xiphias's logical proof that Palin is a Communist.

It's fortunate my husband wasn't drinking anything when I read him that. (Not that he likes Palin - we wouldn't still be married, I don't think - just that it was funny.)