It’s bright and sunny. What’s to complain about, you might ask? My dogs keep wanting to go out. Open the door and a polar blast hits you right in the face. The dogs only last 3 minutes out there. We’ve done this 4 times. Aggravating.
To: Every single person who says “I don’t think anything is going to change” who also refuses to contact their Reps and Senators, telling them they support impeachment
From: JohnT
Re: Your complicity
In the American system of government, which requires participation of the People, being silent and refusing to call your Reps/Senators because of bullshit excuses like the above makes you complicit as well.
cc: Everyone.
I’m represented by Robin Kelly, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. I’m good, thanks.
Argh.
I’ve lived in this godsforsaken city for 25 frigging years.
I STILL get two of the main streets downtown mixed up CONSTANTLY.
As a result I ended up standing outside in -5C weather for over an hour, waiting for my ride home from the doctor.
Took half an hour to realize what had happened.
15 minutes to get to where I’d SAID I was.
Another 20 for my ride to show up again.
Wow!
What did they serve?
Salmon mousse, apparently.
“I had the lasagna.”
Ain’t that the truth. It’s like I hit 40 and all the damn doors started falling off and the engine dropped out the bottom, which has gotten way the hell bigger than it used to be, and much heavier to drag around.
You inspired me to contact my rep and two senators a few weeks ago. Only one responded, Thom Tillis. He told me the whistleblower was a second hand account, and Nancy Pelosi was trying to use it to undermine the presidency.
Sorry, but it’s not voter inaction. It’s Congressmen who fear they won’t get re-elected if they support impeachment.
I didn’t miss it so much as get distracted from it due to trying to decipher the unfamiliar abbreviation.
I’m going to be 40 in a couple of months. Y’all are not reassuring me.
This is just the beginning of a very slippery slope ending in death. Enjoy the ride! 
Ah, but you won’t notice the aches and pains because you’ll be too busy not giving a shit about everyone else’s expectations of you.
My BIL turned 60 after I did and I texted “Welcome to the decade of Not Giving A Shit About What Other People Think Of You!”
Maybe you can get a jump on that in your 40s and 50s… And stay active! I’m in my late 60s now and I’m too busy playing soccer and rugby with whippersnappers a third my age. And biking and swimming and drinking Irish whiskies.
If I stop and think about it, yeah, I got more pains (and a bad wrist and hip and shoulder)… but if I keep my weight down and my activities up, I’m good.
Oh hey, me too! We can sit at the same table and get aches and pains together, while apparently, also not giving a shit about the opinions of others. (I have enjoyed beginning to practice that one a bit.)
Wandered by to Pit myself. Seriously. Why? Because I noticed nobody started the Secret Santa exchange, which I truly enjoy … but no way in hell should I volunteer to run, because I’m not in a super great place in life mentally or otherwise right now and the odds of me winding up whimpering in a corner over the whole thing when it’s aaaalmost Go Time are quite high.
But I feel like an utter asshole complaining that nobody else has volunteered to do what I don’t wanna do either.
Maybe next year? I’m addressing the crap that’s worn away my emotional resilience, slowly, although all that work in turn is creating a pile-on of its own.
Which reminds me, I got rejected by the unemployment benefits people today. Spoke too soon in the MPSIMS thread I’d started about me breaking up with the boyfriend who was paying for nearly everything, packing up my shit and moving to a state I’d never seen, all while abruptly and unexpectedly losing my damn job.
It wouldn’t have been a lot of money, but it would have been a lil’ something, at least. God fucking damn it all.
Alright alright, I know the negative physical effects of aging are largely inevitable, unless one leads an apologetically unhealthy lifestyle. I get that, I hear you. Living through the initial throes of it now, and trying to shake them off and mitigate it as best I can…with varying results. 
But to a few irksome older peers and relatives of of mine, let me say this: stop trying to validate your own downhill slide by inviting me in by saying the water is fine. You’re you and I’m me. I’m trying to get there later than you did, and so stop this faux wisdom of throwing in the towel as being savvy. It aint, at least, not for the sake of itself. Most of all, stop using your aging as a crutch, because I’ve known you all too long and too well: You were always opinionated, short-fused, grouchy, quick to anger, stubborn, lacked dietary willpower as long as I’ve known you. Don’t try to bullshit me to the effect that you have those traits now just because “you’re getting old”.
Damn that felt good.
… I’m 51 and, until I fell down the stairs and broke my toe last Spring, the only aches and pains I’d had were those associated with being a woman of fertile age.
At my same age, my mother’s sister was a double cancer survivor and grumpy because she couldn’t raise her arms above her shoulders.
Age is a number, and it weighs more on some than in others. But it is seriously never too early to start practicing the art of “not giving a fuck any more”. I think it is important to have given a fuck at some point (people who never have tend to be very harmful to the minds of those around them), but being able to not give one any more is really, really nice.
Why did they reject you? That sucks. Is there an appeal process?
Yeah, when my gf told me the news I asked what she’d had. I was told (reminded) im going to hell.
The stated reason, and I’m directly quoting here, was disqualification because “your former employer fired you.”
Well, yeah, assholes. That’s why I’m unemployed. Maybe it’s a semantics thing.
… and I have already filed the appeal. But that’s got a 6-8 week timeframe. If found in my favor, I get backpaid the unemployment money from that time.
Which is strangely unhelpful re: the groceries needed to fill my belly NOW or the car insurance payment due this week.
I think it’s supposed to stand for Product Development. My workplace has a ton of acronyms. I’m in E&LI (Engaging & Learning Initiative) which is part of LD&D (Learning Design and Development). Or is it the other way around?