Sunday, October 26, 2008

I'm not your friend, buddy. I'm not your buddy, guy. I'm not your guy, friend.

Where did I leave off? Friday night, methinks. Saturday I slept until 12:30pm. Then Michael and I went to see my mom in her new condo in Kits. It was really nice. The views were out of this world. My brother and Andrea were also there which was fantastic because we get together much, much less often than I would like. We all kind of pitched in and accomplished some minor things that my mom had on her to-do list. I hope we can help her out a lot more in the future since she's a lot closer to us now.
Okay. Then I drank a bottle of wine and gave my "we're all fucked" speech. I mean, we're all fucked. Our education system, the media, language, the environment, the new and bastardized concept of democracy and our new found addiction to all things trite and materialistic are why I had a tubuligation a few years ago. We're so far off base it's retarded. I didn't create this fucking mess and I don't subscribe to it and it renders me virtually catatonic on a regular basis.
That's great. I think I've been giving this speech (in various forms) for a number of years now. Super great for the people around me. Very uplifting and happy-making. And? Shit, or get off the pot. I'm not going to lead a revolutionary, anarchist movement. Yeah, I'm pretty much not going to do much except encourage people to vote Green, seek out alternative media, educate themselves and not be such consumers. I try and recycle a lot. Most of it is wine bottles.
I don't have the balls or the energy to make the changes that I would like to see in society. So I need to stop whining about the state we're in. I don't understand why gays can't get married in all of the United States. I am astounded that people think that Obama is a terrorist, or has links to terrorism. I still can't comprehend the Holocaust. It's 2008 and women don't earn as much as their male counterparts and are sexually harassed and abused and we sort of accept it by making comments like, "Well, she was rather scantily dressed/drunk/deserving of it". People still use wooden stir sticks. You've made it if you drive an expensive, foreign car.
Okay. I wash my hands of it. I can't change it. I will do my thing and live my life the way I think it ought to be led but I can't keep on rallying against the world. Hi: I'm one chick.
This morning I drank my coffee and looked at Michael, sitting across from me, next to the cool coffee table that my dad made in high school that I commandeered when my mom moved out of our childhood home, and I said, "It's really exhausting always raging and stressing and fighting about things. I'm really tired. It takes a lot of energy."
I'm not having kids! Who the fuck cares? If anyone should be driving a Hummer or finding tax loopholes that fuck over subsequent generations - it's me! I need to let it go, since I'm not going to do much about it except write angry letters and vote whenever I can. Did I mention I recycle and I've made a very concerted effort to consume less? I'm 31. I'll be here for another 40 or 50 or 60 years. Or not. I could get creamed by a bus tomorrow (cool news: we found out that, if you have a monthly bus pass, you get to take a "guest" with you on Sundays and holidays, so Michael got to ride transit with me for free all day which I think is super, super cool).
I'm pissing people off with my negative energy and thoughts and rants. I've got a few decades to enjoy all that life has to offer (like the site that offers all the South Park episodes for free, and puppies) and I've already killed one relationship over it and I need to change my way of thinking.
Unless I'm going to quit my job, sell all my worldly possessions, and try and overthrow the government, I'm going to have to make due with my current career, weight, accomplishments, looks, noisy elevator, bad wines, ignorant CNN watchers, marathon times, and people that use a chunk of wood to stir the organic honey into their $2.50 cup of coffee before throwing it into the garbage.
So. Here's to good wine, uplifting conversation, Jon Stewart, public transit, solar panels, great sex, coffee, South Park, CBC, friends, family, the Green Party, John Ralston Saul, Margret Atwood, sunny afternoons, tapas, being strong enough to run marathons, people that don't suck, recycling (I don't think I mentioned that, on the BC Ferries coming back from Lasqueti, I grabbed a coffee at the coffee shop there and noticed the woman next to me was using a wooden stir stick and before I even thought about it I said, "Can I use that before you throw it out?" and she initially looked at me as though I was insane and then she realized how much sense it made and so she gave it to me and I used it and then I threw it out and I felt good because I hadn't contributed to any waste, and I had just given her a crash course in "the things we take for granted and, perhaps, shouldn't waste as freely as we do"), blogging, intelligence, democracy, language, independent thought, eschewing tradition and materialism, laughter, tiger lilies, danish modern furniture, good music, sleep, showering together to save water and attempting to be secure and happy in one's own skin.

6 comments:

Margarita Mirasol said...

Ha ha ha ha. Love the stir stick story. I do that. 'Can I use your Hagen Daz plastic spoon when you've finished with it?'

I'd love to meet you to chat about stuff. Like now. I need somebody like you to help sort out my life. I am passionate about all the things you rant about, I'm a strong woman, yet, I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooo weak too and being in Japan there's nobody to help pick me up. This is why I gravitate to the net. Without all my net friends, I'd be 16kgs heavier this year, not 8.
Damn. How did I get so fat? It doesn't show that much but 8kgs is a shitload of extra weight.
I'm having to drink wine tonight cos I had some food left in fridge but the GM soup is on the boil and I start tomorrow.
Hell yeah, I'm gonna drop 5kgs in 7 days.

judith said...

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy your rants? I know I have, and I'll mention it again and again... you're like my Mimi Me... I hate all the stuff you hate only I HATE plastic stir sticks!!!! And Sytrofoam cups!!! and plastic grocery bags!!!! And people who waste at least 5 reams of copy paper a day!!!! All this goes on in my school on a daily basis. And now you know what they are having the kids do today???? A balloon launch!!!! I thought those were illegal. I hope that FAT Bitch counselor gets arrested. All she thinks about is herself. I'll laugh my ass off.

Duder said...

A balloon launch?? That is... yeah. I mean, with people like that I'm pretty sure we're all doomed since they seem to be the majority. I don't get it. I don't get that Styrofoam is still being used by the public or that one individual can purchase a vehicle that is capable of carrying six adults and yet drive it, empty, to and from work every day.
But I will limit my rants to my blog these days, since everyone in my immediate vicinity knows them by heart by now and are perilously close to choking me to death.

Duder said...

I hear you, Overboard. On most fronts I'm a pretty strong person, but there are areas where I am embarassingly weak and lacking. From appearances it looks as though you do have you life sorted quite nicely (a couple of flats, a good job, early retirement) but I reckon it's often our "inner" lives that need sorting out. Things like love and happiness and being content can be messy.
Good luck on the diet. I can't stand weighing more than I'm comfortable with, either. But, as I refuse to eat less, I just have to run further and further!

judith said...

The balloon launch was a fricking joke. The wind was blowing about 15 mph straight out of the north, they had all the kids stand in the front parking lot of the school so they could be in the picture with the school in the background. We have 20 ft. oak trees in front of the school.. Where do you think all the balloons are now??? So after the counselor asks me how I thought it went.... I had to bite my tongue. She said "I know you don't like them, but honestly..." OK you blocked the bus lane and a school bus half full of 4yr olds had to back out of the parking lot into 3 lanes of on coming traffic and you want to know how it went? I just wanted to tell her to pull her head out of her ass and think next time. On top of that 8 teachers met me in the hall and said "what kind of environmental message are we trying to say here?" Whew, I need wine... it's been a day.

Duder said...

Nice. I have a vision of these beautiful oak trees dripping with wilting balloons.
Must've been hard to bite your tongue on that one.
Enjoy your wine! ;)
I did something cool today, though: a guy had little solar panels on his backpack! Cool beans, I thought...