The New Reality

So we are living in a new reality.

One where my kid with learning disabilaties and neurological issues is a senior in high school, with, after a lot of hard work, there is a good GPA and not only a college acceptance, but a scholarship.

We're doing school online. We don't know what graduation will be. Non-existent? Online? Happening a year from now?

We don't know if his first semester at college will be AT college. We're doing Admitted Student Day online next weekend.

I have worked from home for a large company for 6 years, my husband is an essential worker and goes to work everyday. I've done grocery delivery for a year and a half, not much new here, except that toilet paper, cleaning wipes, and eggs are about impossible to find.

But what has changed?

I miss my friends. I miss being able to use my Disney pass. I miss baseball, and am mourning for our empty season ticket seats that are already paid for that I can't use. I miss hanging out at our local cigar lounge (husband smokes, I drink wine, lol). I miss just being able to get out of the house, including driving my son to school everyday at the crack of dawn.

I've realized I've seen every movie on the Lifetime Movie Network.😂 I resorted to watching Tiger King. I'm so tired of my house. I was excited to have to go out to pick up prescriptions. I'm actually looking forward to going to the dentist on Monday (broken wisdom tooth, real emergency).

I don't like this new life. And I don't think our old life is ever coming back, things will change.

And it sucks.

And that's why they have wine.

So I'm Racist and Anti-Woman: Diary of the Woman Who Doesn't Go With the Flow

There are lots of opinions on the Super Bowl halftime show. And many of those opinions judge the opinions of others.  Which, well, in the age of “I am accepting of everyone” just makes me laugh. 

I’m one of those people who is “Puritanical,” “racist,” and “anti-woman” because it was not my cup of tea.  I actually switched it off and went to a Lifetime movie instead, did nothing for me.

Personally, especially in the light of the fact that the Super Bowl, wherever held, is one of the largest events known to attract sexual trafficking, it made me cringe a little that people celebrate what was a show that was very sexually tinged.  Yes, I know, you’re going to call me racist, but I live in Florida and am pretty entrenched in the Latin culture, married into it even, and with many of my friends being of the various Latin cultures.  Oddly, none of them ever included crotch grabbing and pole dancing in their celebrations, so I guess maybe I just don’t know the right people.  And, just in case no one realized it, Shakira and JLo were already big stars, we’ve all already accepted them as such, this wasn’t actually a huge breakthrough.  Yeah, I’d think it was cool if someone sang Polish up there, but, really, it wouldn’t be some big Polish breakthrough, and if people didn’t like it, well, they just didn’t like it.  I can get that.

Then there are those that claim this as a celebration of women, but then in the next breath are lamenting that they don’t look like them.  HELLO.  If what this is telling you is that you are not good enough, how the heck is this empowering?  And if you think your significant other, or they guy at the next table in the bar, or your coworker that is all over this performance is thinking “My goodness, how strong and empowering are they!  I have more respect for women now, especially Latinas!” you are very sadly deluded.  Read your timelines on social media.  You know, the ones with the pictures of rear ends and guys drooling over them.  This is not empowering.  This is putting us back years from where feminism actually began from.  I’m not empowered by some jerk looking at my ass, and I’m still struggling to be taken seriously in a very male environment at work.  This does not further my cause.

So that is where I stand.  Call me whatever names you want, throw me into some stereotype, you’ve likely done it a million times anyways.  I don’t like it for what I don’t like it for, not for what you are going to pretend I don’t like it for.  And, please, if you have some feeling to say “But you think Melania” is OK, you need to examine how you think, because you are way too entrenched into some political position that you don’t understand actual reasoning anymore.  I am not a fan of nude posing either.

And if you are looking for someone to gush over at the Super Bowl, look at Demi Lovato.  Classy performance by someone who is trying really hard to overcome shortfalls, and we all have shortfalls.  You want a strong woman, here is one for you.  Yep, we should not celebrate her drug use, but we should celebrate her willingness to overcome, educate, be open about herself, and her strength.  Her honesty is much more empowering than dancing in a skimpy outfit on a pole, any day.  Any day.

That’s why they have wine.