marinelli's miscellany

♪ "Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your username." -@vmarinelli

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:03:38 -0500

It’s sweet, and all too appropriate, that this morning, even as I was struggling to summon these words, that the lovely @FanEffingTastic had, unbeknownst to me, posted this.

I HAZ THE BEST INTERNET FRIENDS.

justfantastic:

Still one of my all-time favorite tweets.

Nothing funny here, move along

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:09:00 -0500

What was supposed to have been a time of concentrated focus on a particular manuscript has instead become my harrowing confrontation with how much I would suck as a single parent, as a consequence of my husband having to be gone for longer than we expected to assist his uncle who recently had surgery.

I’m barely holding the everyday shit together, much less doing anything at all beyond that, as a consequence of which I have been fairly toppled by an acute consciousness of my profound inadequacies as a human being (in any and all capacities: parent, writer, etc.)

It has become clear that the more energy I put into planning a particular thing, the more prone I am to psychic disintegration if events beyond my control disrupt that plan. The “setback” I experience is such that I would have been better off having never made any kind of plan.

Yesterday, in the midst of my extended fog, I called my shrink’s office to see when my appointment was again, and the receptionist said it had been the day before. I said something to the effect of “I’m hopeless, never mind” and hung up. Not wishing to cause their office alarm (of course, that was my concern; not “I am in distress” but “I don’t want anyone to worry about me being in distress”), I wrote out a partial explanation of things, and sent it via fax, rather than attempt to deal with the phone again.

The end result of all that is that I have a new appointment for Monday, and it’s possible they’ll waive or at least defer the missed appointment fee, and in any case there will be some opportunity to adjust my meds. (At my last appointment, I’d mentioned the depression appeared to be creeping back, although it was unclear whether that was a consequence of frankly demoralizing physical health issues I was dealing with at the time. Since then, the physical health issues have, if not ‘resolved,’ have at least ‘receded,’ while the depression has continued to take hold in its sneaky, slow, vice-grip fashion.) Right now I’m not on any anti-depressant - only lithium for bipolar, which, while it may be preventing me from going all self-destructively apeshit manic again (this is good), isn’t doing anything at all beyond that, other than giving me a few annoying side effects.

Of course, no matter what plans one makes for any reason, there will always be disruptions, and one needs to develop some flexibility. Part of why I’m so easily derailed is that “flexibility” was all I knew for huge, formative parts of my life; basic survival required that. From when I was very young, and had to move constantly (not a military brat, and not the “fought over” child in a custody dispute, unless you count arguments between divorced parents concerning which one would have to take the inconvenient child in question at any given time), people would praise me for how incredibly “flexible” and “adaptable” I was, as if I’d ever had another option.

In my more recent years, recoiling from certain of the still mostly unspoken horrors of that time, I’ve developed a vastly inconvenient, apparently compensatory inflexibility which I wouldn’t mind shedding oh, like, now. I should not be so easily derailed by such simple things. (Or things which, while they may be individually not all that devastating, tend to bury me when experienced cumulatively. Little defeats here and there, like last week’s election. I still have the signs up for Democrats in Virginia’s race for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General in our front yard, when all three candidates decidedly lost those contests on Tuesday; it is now, of course, Saturday. And though I really don’t care whether that annoys my neighbors, it is, in itself, rather emblematic of my difficulty accepting when something goes wrong, and moving on like people do - like I once did, with the deceptive appearance of ease.)

So that’s where things are right now. I feel like I’m drowning, although there are, ostensibly, life rafts and the like within view. Sputter, sputter.

"Remember when Timothy McVeigh blew up Oklahoma City and 80% of the news was about him being a..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:06:42 -0500

“Remember when Timothy McVeigh blew up Oklahoma City and 80% of the news was about him being a Christian? Yeah, me neither.”

- @Mike_FTW.

Indeed, I also recall early rumors blaming “three men of Middle Eastern origin” for the Oklahoma City attack. See, if you wish, Jonathan Alter’s “Jumping to Conclusions” (Newsweek, May 1, 1995) addressing this and related matters.

Received from the first woman I ever slept with, twenty years...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:19:02 -0500

Received from the first woman I ever slept with, twenty years ago.

I’d say “Um, how much better could we possibly know each other?” - but then I read her replies to the list of questions concerned, and saw that she’d answered “Favorite dressing?” with “four-inch heels.”

Well, that is new information, (redacted).

All I need is the gin.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:21:52 -0500

All I need is the gin.

Hey, panic attack. If you don't mind,

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:41:05 -0500

please stall and then further defer yourself, at least until such time as I have gotten the kids to school.

Um, @EsseErre… I’m the cynical one? First,...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:01:30 -0500

Um, @EsseErre… I’m the cynical one? First, I’d totally fight¹ @sarkastickunt for the “blue” designation. Second? Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway.

¹Pillow-fight.

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS, MY FACE SMELLS LIKE DIAPERS, due to the...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:24:47 -0500

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS, MY FACE SMELLS LIKE DIAPERS, due to the above product (supposedly comparable to Pond’s Dry Skin Cream, purchased because I am a miserly person who always buys generic if that is an option). DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET AWAY FROM THE SMELL OF DIAPERS WHEN IT IS ON YOUR DAMN FACE?

STOP CRACKING ME UP, ANNIE. I AM SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING A VERY SERIOUS CONVERSATION. (Shhhhh, she...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:55:55 -0500

STOP CRACKING ME UP, ANNIE. I AM SUPPOSED TO BE HAVING A VERY SERIOUS CONVERSATION. (Shhhhh, she might hear us typing.)

shoesonwrong:

vmarinelli:

On the phone with her again.

Sigh.

For a second, I honestly thought you were talking about me. Then I remembered I wasn’t on the phone. Finally the feeling of stupidity sank in.

Posting it on the internet happened somewhere between the second and third parts.

On the phone with her again. Sigh.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:50:25 -0500

On the phone with her again.

Sigh.

Have you ever found yourself muttering, "Please God, let Remiel get that last joke"?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:28:06 -0500

…because that’s happened to me more than once.

(This is all the more hilarious to me because of an Atheist v. Nonatheist faux tiff he and I had some time ago, though damned if I can find the relevant link.) (And yes, of course, he is one of those who helped inspire this.)

Also, I am an idiot for getting all effusively tumblr-y only hours after whining (to Tumblr, of all collective entities) about having “no time to write.” (Much less for posting this.)

…

Yeah… I think I’ll stop now.

It is not possible to not love this face. shoesonwrong: I also...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:10:16 -0500

It is not possible to not love this face.

shoesonwrong:

I also have a charming monkey face, though it looks a bit mirthless in the eyes. Like the monkey is crying for help.

Department of Health employee: "How can you be such a wuss? The shot is going in your arm OVER A TATTOO."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:21:04 -0500

Department of Health employee: "How can you be such a wuss? The shot is going in your arm OVER A TATTOO."
What I wanted to say, but didn't because my kids were there: "Um, DUH. I was LOADED when I got the tattoo."
What I actually said: "..."

Silly me!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:51:37 -0500

And here I thought after 4.5 hours spent in line for the H1N1 vaccine and another 2.5 getting kids and dogs fed (also: kids homeworked and tucked into bed) that I might get some writing time in but nooooooo, apparently it’s High Maintenance Hound time.

Related: I cannot even begin to estimate how many times I have hollered variations on Ernie! Stop biting Lynyrd’s junk! as well as No humping!

In fact, I’m pretty sure that if we had a much younger, preverbal child in the house, that his or her first complete sentence might be No humping!

(BRB, beagle-on-foxhound harassment intervention is required…)

Swine flu line update!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:56:00 -0500

We are almost out of the (actual, not proverbial) woods! (For the many who asked, the clinic is being held at a community center at Deep Run Park in western Henrico County.) Soon, we will be in view of the ass end of the parking lot! Perhaps by sundown we’ll make it into the actual building.

The “I deny all charges!” face the 9yo made when...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:52:46 -0500

The “I deny all charges!” face the 9yo made when confronted with information, shared by her teacher, that she has been chasing down and kissing boys from school.

By the time we get to the front of this swine flu vaccine line,...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:40 -0500

By the time we get to the front of this swine flu vaccine line, I fear we may actually contract swine flu.

This principle from science may also be helpfully applied to constructions of narrative

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:46:00 -0500

This principle from science may also be helpfully applied to constructions of narrative:

We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

— Isaac Newton, qtd. in Wikipedia entry for Occam’s razor.

EDITED: Also, I am an asshole.

"We could also have equality by revoking tax breaks and health care from straight partnerships...."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:25:43 -0500

“We could also have equality by revoking tax breaks and health care from straight partnerships. Let’s put it to a majority of the LGBT vote.”

- @dysolution.

After Jeff Kelly’s image noting a major, election-relevant...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:37:00 -0500

After Jeff Kelly’s image noting a major, election-relevant photo gaffe in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, I thought of this image, captured in 2005.

At that time, Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell were competing not for the Governor’s office, but to be Virginia’s Attorney General. We all knew the race would be close, so when I saw the above graphic on the news broadcast of our local NBC affiliate, I was extremely happy!

Until, of course, I realized the numbers had inadvertently been transposed. After the recount, Deeds lost the AG race to McDonnell by 360 votes - the closest race {EDIT:} for a major office ~~(someone correct me if I’m in error)~~¹ in the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

¹Thanks taylorinrva for the clarification.