The Venting Thread

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

She also wants me to quit my job teaching here (this topic has come up a lot over the past 10+ years) and teach out where she is (which is in the middle of Nowhere). One- my subject area isn't even offered out there at the tiny college they have. Two- SO said the country folk would burn me at the stake for professing my belief in Science and not the all-knowing Sky God (no offense to Sky God followers). Three- I am not giving up my life for her. Four- I would probably no longer exist on the material plane if I had to live any where near her (not a threat).

[clean]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

oh no!  The car was packed, and you were about to get started and the Check Engine light came on!!  Too late to get it checked!  Too late to rent a car!  What a tragedy! 

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

oh no!  The car was packed, and you were about to get started and the Check Engine light came on!!  Too late to get it checked!  Too late to rent a car!  What a tragedy!

Great idea. Unfortunately, they'd come get me. So I think maybe I'll be volunteering at a soup kitchen this year (which I probably should do anyway).

[Puget]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

oh no!  The car was packed, and you were about to get started and the Check Engine light came on!!  Too late to get it checked!  Too late to rent a car!  What a tragedy!

Great idea. Unfortunately, they'd come get me. So I think maybe I'll be volunteering at a soup kitchen this year (which I probably should do anyway).

Or you come down with the sniffles and don't want to risk exposing them, since they are unvaccinated and all. But the soup kitchen is a win-win!

[mythbuster]

Say you come down with Norovirus. Aka the Cruise virus. No one ever argues over GI symptoms.

[Parasaurolophus]

Say you come down with Norovirus. Aka the Cruise virus. No one ever argues over GI symptoms.

Oh man. I still remember catching it from a visiting hockey team in university. I was one of the first to come down with it, and spent a whole night just simultaneously expelling matter from the front and back. Over and over.

*shudders*

[Langue_doc]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

oh no!  The car was packed, and you were about to get started and the Check Engine light came on!!  Too late to get it checked!  Too late to rent a car!  What a tragedy!

Great idea. Unfortunately, they'd come get me. So I think maybe I'll be volunteering at a soup kitchen this year (which I probably should do anyway).

You can come up with countless excuses. The norovirus (see above) is an excellent one. If they do come and get you, you can't open the door because you're in the bathroom dealing with the stomach fu or something similar (use your phone to text or call the person outside) or you can't open the door because you've been mandated to quarantine, or because you've been prescribed bed rest. If you do open the door, do it in your jammies, and tell the person to be careful as you don't want them to catch whatever you have (invoke a mythical doctor). Do not let yourself be blackmailed or guilt-tripped into doing something you absolutely do not want to do.

[sinenomine]

I just popped to a specialty food store a couple towns away to grab ingredients for the holidays and while there got a parking ticket, despite having paid for my parking space. The overzealous meter person wasn't taking the time to ask the people standing in line at the payment kiosks if the cars she was flagging were theirs. My receipt was printed a minute before she printed my ticket, but I've had to file an appeal and wait for a response. Happy holidays, indeed!

[apl68]

My ears are acting up again with the extremely variable weather.  It's giving me a terrible headache. 

[mamselle]

I just popped to a specialty food store a couple towns away to grab ingredients for the holidays and while there got a parking ticket, despite having paid for my parking space. The overzealous meter person wasn't taking the time to ask the people standing in line at the payment kiosks if the cars she was flagging were theirs. My receipt was printed a minute before she printed my ticket, but I've had to file an appeal and wait for a response. Happy holidays, indeed!

That's just mean.

They're probably on a quota system and time's running out before the end of the holiday shopping period cuts back on the notches in their scanners...

M. 

[Juvenal]

How to deal with a colleague's grating trait?

Today, some recent-to-antique retirees/sem-retirees (all men--yes, yes) gathered at a venue much favored by some (shellfish in red sauce), not-so-strangely near empty in the Omicron surge hereabouts.  The usual at-tables, seven or more; today only five, and of the five, the last was nearly an hour late.  That was a plus.  This colleague, most amiable, most friendly--has a loud, braying laugh that shakes the glassware and punctuates nearly every other thing he says.  After five minutes I begin to cringe, internally.  Nothing to be done--save eschew the mollusks (mussels) and the company of old farts (average age, mid-seventies, one [not here today; Covid fear] pushing ninety).

One of today's group, a more quiet one, with about eight decades of practice, flirted with the servers.  Our tip was very generous.

We tottered to our cars.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I need to find a really good lie to get out of Xmas this year in order to preserve what little sanity and emotional health that I have left. My mother, who isn't right in the head and hasn't been for awhile [most of my life], wants me to go to Xmas with my unvaccinated family. Interthreaduality.

oh no!  The car was packed, and you were about to get started and the Check Engine light came on!!  Too late to get it checked!  Too late to rent a car!  What a tragedy!

Great idea. Unfortunately, they'd come get me. So I think maybe I'll be volunteering at a soup kitchen this year (which I probably should do anyway).

You can come up with countless excuses. The norovirus (see above) is an excellent one. If they do come and get you, you can't open the door because you're in the bathroom dealing with the stomach fu or something similar (use your phone to text or call the person outside) or you can't open the door because you've been mandated to quarantine, or because you've been prescribed bed rest. If you do open the door, do it in your jammies, and tell the person to be careful as you don't want them to catch whatever you have (invoke a mythical doctor). Do not let yourself be blackmailed or guilt-tripped into doing something you absolutely do not want to do.

A few problems with this. There's a medical professional in my family, who unfortunately subscribes to hydroxychloroquine therapy (and has some).

The only 'plus' from all of this is that I actually think I am sick now with mild symptoms of whatever I have. I'm hoping it's enough to keep me home on Saturday.

[Antiphon1]

Explosive diarrhea.  No one will question your excuse because, really, who wants to share space with that fun if they don't have to.  And yes, as a mother of 3, I've had lots of experience with that illness and using the excuse.   

[Parasaurolophus]

Do not--I repeat--DO NOT go out on the ice on lakes and ponds. I know it's exciting that it's chilly and snowy, but it hasn't been cold enough for long enough. This is not a winter place; unfortunately, that means you can't safely perform all of the winter activities. Like skating.

For fuck's sake, what's wrong with you?

[mamselle]

Someone's read 'Little Women' and wants to be Laurie rescuing...who is it, Amy? or Jo?

Only explanation for not listening to people telling you the ice isn't 'ready' yet...

M.