American Disfunctional Family – Thoughts from June 25 and 30, 2023

June 25, 2023

I’ve been back to work for two days now. I’m still feeling tired, itchy, puffy, and not quite back to normal. The one thing I didn’t miss while on vacation was my difficulty breathing at home. In bed, my office, and while watching TV, I’m surrounded by fur in the form of cats. I love the furry maniacs, but I don’t love what they do to my throat, sinuses, and breathing. Right now, I have a headache, but I think I took my ibuprofen out of my backpack during the vacation. I’m just not cut out for handling good things while ignoring bad things. There are good and bad things about vacation, just like there are good and bad things about being home.

When I’ve talked about being puffy after my vacation to coworkers, I realize that I’ve been calling myself fat. I’m fat compared to my pre-vacation self, but I’m not fat compared to many of my fellow employees and most Americans. I can think of myself as fat, but I shouldn’t call myself fat to others. America is a land of overweight and obese people. To call yourself fat is to call yourself an American. These days, I’m feeling less and less like calling myself an American. I’m definitely not a typical one.

June 30, 2023

I’m at my dealer getting an oil change. In the waiting area, there is a family in here made up of a short older woman with all gray hair, a young girl, and a young woman. The older woman and young girl are sitting right in front of me. The older woman spanked the girl and told her to sit and be quiet. Sitting off on her own, the young woman seems unphased by what’s happening. She has very prominent buck teeth and is wearing all black clothes and has black hair. I can’t tell if she is the daughter of the older woman or the mom of the young girl. If she is the mother of the young girl, she doesn’t act like she is. The older woman continues to give the young girl nasty looks like she’s just looking for an excuse to hit her again. Her face is in a permanent scowl. No happiness exists in this family, except possibly when the young girl is away from the older woman. There’s a house hunting show on the TV. Very few people are watching it. Only people who are old or can’t afford a smart phone watch it. There is free Wi-Fi, so it makes more sense to be on your phone.

A young man near me is on his phone and is wearing over-the-ear headphones. It’s a phenomenon I don’t really get. I bought Patti a pair of wireless over-the-ear headphones as a gift because she prefers them to the in-ear headphones. I like the in-ear headphones because they don’t mess up my hair and they’re less intrusive. The larger headphones also hurt the top of my head after some time. I wore them many times while I was recording music in my home studio and never liked how they felt.

There is an update on the family. The young woman came over and sat in between the other two. She has the young girl on her lap and is talking to her. They were just called to get their car, so I guess that’s the end of the update. The young woman held the girl’s hand as they walked out. This isn’t definitive proof she is the mom of the little girl, but it’s as much proof as I’m going to get. The one thing I know for sure is religion is the reason the older woman is so nasty. You don’t get what I observed from them without it.