Cereal: Also, Hec, if Spike did it, how girly is that?

I'm giving up DoorDash for Lent, which should help me eat better as a bonus. I'm planning to donate half of what I usually spend on delivery each week to my church's fund that pays for grocery store gift cards for people who show up at the office and ask for help and put the other half in my "oh God what if Dylan doesn't find a new job in the next few months and/or what if the funding cuts get bad enough to take out my job" fund. (Since I work in one of the central offices for university-wide research administration I'm not at the same risk I'd be if I were, say, the grants manager for a group of PIs, but I'm a hell of a lot less confident than I was a few months ago that I can stay in my current department till I retire if I want to.)

I need to both find my expired passports and my birth certificate if I'm going to do anything about Real ID before the May deadline. So Project Organize Papers is underway.

It wouldn't surprise me if I put all three in A Safe Place Which I Have Forgotten.

sigh

Safe Places are overrated because they too often become Safe From Me places

My BIL is a menace to diets. He looked in the fridge and decided the mashed potatoes were too old and made lefse instead. After I’d eaten his second attempt at perfecting his ginger loaf with cream cheese frosting for breakfast

Safe Places are overrated because they too often become Safe From Me places

Yup yup yup.

Family venting time:

Aaaand right on cue, my SIL’s family in Russia are calling her and crying about “why are Geoff’s relatives being so anti-Russia” And how hurt they all are. And by anti-Russia they mean, “put up a stand with Ukraine frame” on Facebook.

What is kind of funny how I learned of all this. in the car with my sister yesterday and she’s furiously typing a text message.

“Fucking Geoff”, she says.

Me: why, what’s up?

H: I don’t even wanna tell you.

Me: [Thinks for a moment] Is this about Ukraine?

H: slow nod

Me: [beat] is this about my fucking Facebook frame?

He wants me to take it down because SIL and her family are so hurt and all. Which, fuck that. What am I calling all my friends and relations all over the world who are reacting to what’s happening in the US and crying and asking them not to be so mean? No, I’m furiously, nodding and agreeing, and hoping for eventual forgiveness.

That frame is set to expire in a few days and they can suck it until then. [Unless I extend it for pure spite.] I just can’t even believe after all this time. Gives an idea what the tone of things is in Russia I guess.

There is a lot to unpack there but I’m gonna just say go spite, choose spite

I have all of my Extendeds on mute(Not really about politics, really, though if they did it to me back, I bet it is.) No, I did that when we were most broke and they were all flaunty...on top of everything, I didn't need to feel like fucking Tiny Tim three times a week or whatever. I'm not missing anything, even though we were living better, and cracks in the facade and all that jazz. And my stupid cousin with the multiple kidney transplants who, like, enjoyed age nine so much that she...just decided to camp there does rouse herself to vote GOP now and again and it's better for my health that I don't think about that...too much more than this, right now.(and I can't really be mad at her...she never lived in reality and then she had a Health Crisis and *really* never had to. And we're both..you know, on the supplemental Hoping The 'Rents Don't Die plan, but, you know, only one of us really understands how informal that arrangement is--you'd think that might bring us together more, wouldn't you? There's actually kind of a lot of disability in my family, but if there's a message in that, I'm not sure anyone has it.) I am not upset with the Russian *people* just the Russian government, but if your SIL feels attacked personally, I'm sure that wouldn't help that much.

cereal: I feel badly for ordinary Russians...ordinary Israelis too. It sucks not getting to choose.. Not that I thought we'd all match. I find how my cousin lives to be nauseating, for all that I liked being nine when I did it the once, and though I find being this single right now to be lonely, my cousin is married to Lucky from King of The Hill so it's not like I'm jealous, Except that she's not hung up on by strangers, chasing a creative dream that she only catches about a fifth of the way, if that, and she can still think God is Santa Claus. She's not tracking every time the legislature twitches. Sometimes that's where I get jealous.

cereal: I feel badly for ordinary Russians

In contrast to the Israelis I know, V and her family are all in on every bit of wacky propaganda and Putin bullshit. Between this and Covid, these past few years have been difficult to say the least. I’m about done with them.

But I’m not ready to consign my brother to the rabbit hole. Or to his own depression and persecution mentality. It’s a delicate balance. I tend to save my powder for election seasons since he’s in a swing state and I’ve been able to pull him back from “there’s no point in voting” nihilism the past several elections.

“there’s no point in voting” nihilism

There have been several occasions where I've had to use "If you don't vote, you don't get to complain about the results."