Whew, step away to take care of some stuff and get a quick nap and the
thread explodes again... consider everything "liked," guys, I'd be here all night clicking like buttons otherwise, and I've got other stuff to do!
Can I spend Christmas with your family instead of mine? I've spent the last 36 hours being verbally assaulted by my mother. It's how she shows her excitement over my coming visit.
You are absolutely *welcome* to (and I know you're kidding, but I'm serious - if anyone ever does need somewhere to stay for christmas and you can get yourselves here, we have a couch and good food and we're nice people to hang out with. We do have a dark
sense of humor and we're far from perfect and what we've got is nothing fancy and rarely spotlessly kept... but we welcome all comers.
It's a cultural thing. In ancient Ireland, the domiciles each had a long bench outside for passing travelers. The *second* greatest insult one person could visit upon another was to not invite a passing traveler inside for food and shelter... the *greatest* insult was to be a passing traveler, and sit upon their bench but refuse the offer of food or shelter and starve/freeze oneself to death outside.
That's where the Irish version of hunger-striking as political protest comes from, and it's why most Irish hunger-strikers went on hunger-strike to the death... they were housed in British prisons, so culturally, they were starving themselves to death on Britain's "bench" so as to curse the British government for what they saw as the unfair treatment of the Irish in general and Irish political prisoners in particular. (That's not to say the Irish invented hunger-striking. Just that for them, hunger-striking to the death has a certain special significance.)
Re: How your mother shows her excitement - I come from a family of rampant alcoholics (no one who lives in this house anymore, thank god), all of whom are "mean drunks". Same goes for my mother, who raised her younger siblings because her parents were both incapacitated by noon... and for some reason, I appear to be a magnet for people with various forms of mental illness who are in no way interested in treatment. Long story made shorter, I've been there and lived with those kinds of people full time, and the worst part for me was the wondering if maybe *I* was the one who was irrational, because people who are that manipulative are great at making you think *you're* the problem!
I hate cutting people out of my life, because it feels like giving up on them and I don't like giving up on anyone... but I've had to cut all ties with three different people who fit that description in one way or another, because all associating with them was doing for me was making *me* unable to function. I still miss those people, but I think I probably miss the relationship I *wished* we could've had, because the relationship we *actually* had wasn't healthy for anyone.
You'll be in my thoughts. Hang in there.
I'd suggest peanut butter and also suggest root beer.
Keep in mind root beer is a tank cracker, so probably not the best choice for a new vaper unless they have a glass/pyrex/metal tank and are willing to remember to use it! Shame, cause it's a great flavor.
Are things going any better?
Seconding this... how are you keeping, Doug?