msbelle, hope you get a good night's sleep.

Exciting, -t! Gender indeterminate so far?

I am so over stripping, 5 more to go, 2 prepped for tomorrow. I think before I do any sanding, I'm going to fix up the floor finish on the second floor landing by the spindles. It wasn't finished to begin with (sloppy refinishing job) and there have been a few oopsies. It'll just be sanding and varnish (or shellac or whatever.)

Only 5 more. Only.

Mac! Behave! Momma said so!

Go, Owen!

I am suddenly overwhelmed with useless guilt. Over something I did 10 years ago that I don't think the "offendee" cared shit about. It's been distracting me for two days now.

I was at cousin N's (one of many, but bear with me) 21st (wearing a dress I'd wheedled out of her, which I now additionally feel guilty about--I wonder if she wants it back? I still have it), sitting with my childhood best friend who was about my age--31. We were sitting behind N's little sister M. M has pretty much always been a spectacular athletic specimen. So, naturally, I say to my friend R...

"She has the most amazing ass. You have to touch it."
"What?"
"Touch. It."

So, he reaches out and cups her butt.

M, turns around and looks at her ass, looks at R, looks at me, says "Oh." and goes back to her conversation.

R looks at me and says blankly "It's been a long time since I felt up a fifteen year old's ass."

OMGWTF? That is so many different levels of wrong. You don't encourage someone to touch someone else without their explicit permission. Someone else's ass. Male someone to touch female someone's ass. 30 year old someone to touch 15 year old's ass. What was I thinking?

Thing is, this was perfectly normal for M. In fact I'd spent a fair amount of time trying to protect her from sexual advances from men her parents' ages, and I was the fazed one in the picture--not her, not her parents. But this wasn't a sexual touch--no one was treating it as such. She's a marvel of human engineering, and has a really great ass. That was an experience to cup.

WHY DO I KNOW THAT? WHY DID I PROMULGATE THAT? OMG, boundary!fail of the largest magnitude.

That whole family was inappropriate up the wazoo, and I can't believe what I started to take for granted. Jesus, woman.

I know M doesn't care. But I feel shitty about it, so t /vent

tl;dr: ita didn't respect boundaries and can't let stuff go.

Today was the house cleaner's first day.

Everything is so CLEAN.

I have no ideas about hween costume and two events where I need a costume. Yikes! I think last year was my Halloween high point!

tl;dr: ita didn't respect boundaries and can't let stuff go.

Could you call her up and apologize? Or would that be weirder?

Everything is so CLEAN.

Yay!

I have no ideas about hween costume and two events where I need a costume.

Roller Derby Hottie?

Could you call her up and apologize? Or would that be weirder?

She'd be all "WTF, ita?" This is entirely an issue I'm making for myself. Platonic grab-ass wouldn't even peg her meter, not from someone I was with. That's how she grew up. I am just hung up on so thoughtlessly contributing.

What made you think of it now, ita?

Were the cats good for the cleaner, Perkins?

ita, chalk it up to a (NPI) contact infection. Lack of boundaries momentarily infected you. But you recovered quickly!

I revisit past did-I-really-do-that's?! for no reason so I know how it goes. If I wanna cringe, I can remember something needlessly stupid that I did and feel bad all over again.

My husband set a 5 year statute of limitations on cringey stuff like that. If it happened more than 5 years ago, he is not allowed to feel bad about it.