Tag Archives: Life

May 20, 2013 · 12:59 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

Last week was all about pain and discomfort. My busted neck finally got the best of me and I went to see the physio, who promptly informed me that my god-awful posture was the culprit behind my neck issues, my back issues, a lot of my headaches, the weird pain I get in my ribs (and who knows, perhaps it’s also the cause of my terrible skin, poor fashion sense and why I’m always leaving umbrellas on the train.)

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No one ever taught me how to stand ‘properly’ before now. Perhaps this should be on the primary school syllabus or something? I’ve spent the past few days practising decent posture and it’s been rather a struggle after 31 years of standing ‘wrong’. (I’m also always holding my head tilted upwards, which is no doubt a symptom of spending a lifetime at one and one half metres tall. I swear, I’m just trying to see over everything!)

So, my two wondrous days off? I spent most of the weekend seeing  awesome people and eating really good food – it was a lovely time (except for that incident involving the Mojito made with salt instead of sugar…) I actually drank enough to become slightly inebriated and fabulous (this doesn’t happen too often, but there were five dollar pints of cider, come on!) and slept on a  friends couch in a room full of other folks passed out on couches. Bonding!

This was my fourth (?) weekend in a row in Sydney and it has really made me pine for that kind of lifestyle again! Of course, this is the perfect time in my life to suddenly question what I want to do with my life and where/how I want to live. NO PRESSURE OR ANYTHING!

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It’s Monday, and everyone knows articles happen on Mondays. I only have some this week, but some is better than none, yes?

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From Nat Geo, an article on why some animals adopt others, including those from differing species. Archaeologists have used planes and fricking lasers to find the lost fabled lost city of Ciudad Blanca, in Honduras(via LiveScience.)

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In this piece from Treehugger, scientists decode the secret language of prairie dogs and finds that they possess some pretty complex vocal skills. From on io9, this interview with geologist Jake Lowenstern explains what would really happen if the super-volcano of Yellowstone National Park erupted.

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A study finds that smoking marijuana helps to buffer the pain of social isolation and loneliness (though researchers admit it’s quite a ”poor way of coping with social pain”), via io9. From the NYTimes, a long read by Michael Pollan about the 100 trillion bacteria that share our bodies.

Finally, in lady business: here is a piece from The Frisky on the ‘penalties’ experienced by women in powerful positions who admit to their past mental illness.

How’s your posture? Read any good articles this week? And by the way, what do you think I should do with my life (no pressure, right?) Suggestions and links go below!

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May 14, 2013 · 2:50 pm

Tell Me A Story: Molly’s First Surgery

I love to tell a good story. After all, what is the point of having madcap adventures, traumatic experiences and mortifying moments if you can’t turn them into hilarious stories to tell at parties? Every time I’m at a loss for what to write on this here blog, I think to myself, ‘Tell a story!’ The most popular of my posts have been me recounting something from my life, so people obviously enjoy hearing about terrible things that have happened to me retold in a humorous and depreciating manner.

I'm always happy to share something gross and or personal about myself to keep the party going...

I’m always happy to do something gross and/or share personal information about myself to keep the party going…

My main problem with this theory is that the majority of my very best stories are best considered NSFB (Not Safe For Blog). I’m happy to regale folks with them in real life, but you know that ancient adage: once on the internet, always on the internet. So this really isn’t the place for my well-known ‘All the Drugs’ tale or that hilarious and sexy anecdote involving the sword swallower.

Today, when I couldn’t think of what to write, I racked my brains for a story that could be SFB. It took a while, but I found one. I call it: Molly’s First Surgery (or: how I ruined my first annual leave with stigmata).

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About seven months or so into my first proper job after uni, I got my first annual leave: two weeks paid holidays! I had always worked casual or cash-in-hand jobs before, so the idea of being paid to take time off was new, sparkly and amazing to me. I didn’t plan to go anywhere; I just wanted to spend the time at home, relaxing for the first time in ages.

The first day was great. I lay in bed all morning, read a book, watched some telly, ate a bunch of junk food. Prospects were looking good. When my house-mates arrived home from work I offered to cook dinner. After all, I’d spent all day flopping about in my PJ’s as they toiled, so it was the very least I could do. I went into the kitchen and started to prep. As I was bumbling around, I managed to knock the cutlery drying thing-y off the side of the sink and thinking little of it, I put my hand out to catch it.

You can see where this is going, right? (Source)

I didn’t realise at the time, but there was a steak knife poking (point up) from it. Which, as I flailed my right hand forcefully to catch the falling cutlery, drove itself almost all the way through the middle of my palm. There was pain, and I remember thinking, ‘This is not going to be good.’ I pulled my hand away and… oh, the blood. Have you ever seen blood squirt out of your own body? It’s not pleasant. Despite my gushing hand, I still managed to stay true to Molly form. “You never put knives point up in the rack,” I nagged to my flatmate as I splattered blood all over the kitchen floor. No matter what state I’m in, I’ll always have it in me to nag someone about something.

So, off to the emergency room and then the hand clinic, where they told me I was going to need exploratory surgery to check for nerve damage. Yay! Having never had surgery, I was petrified and refused to be put under a general. I was given a nerve block and a sedative and though I had no nerve damage, they did cauterise the artery I’d nicked. Have you ever had a nerve block? It’s crazy! It’s like the blocked part no longer even exists to the rest of your body. And it did crazy shit, all of its own volition, like flail at random times. Still loopy from the sedative, I kept holding my weird, dead-feeling hand because it felt like I was holding hands with a stranger, which was oddly comforting.

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(Also note: Not having had surgery before, I didn’t know that I needed to take my piercings out. Instead, they let me put tape over all of them just beforehand. I asked the nurse about my ‘pants piercings’ (oh, don’t act like you didn’t think I’d have some junk downstairs), but she wasn’t sure. “Best ask them in pre-op”, she said, so I did. But they were in the process of sedating me as I remembered to ask, and things get a little bit foggy around that part. Suffice to say, I woke up with no small amount of surgical tape in a rather delicate spot, and to this day I have no idea how it got there. Did I put it there? Did someone else? Was it a group effort? I’ll never know. I like to call it ‘The Mystery of the Taped Genitals’, and it should serve as a dire warning to everyone to remember to take out ALL their piercings before surgery.)

Anyway, I’d done no serious damage to my right hand, they gave me a script for some fun post-surgery painkillers and sent me on my way to enjoy my few remaining holiday days one-handed and with my very first set of stitches.

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So that’s the story of how I ruined my first annual leave on the very first day. Instead of chilling out and gaining weight like everyone else does, I spent it stigmata-ing myself. But there’s positivity in everything, right? I got to have surgery for the first time (so I can tick that off the list), got stitches, they gave me heaps of sweet drugs and now I have a gnarly scar. I don’t just do things normally, like everyone else. I mean, if it wasn’t convoluted, it wouldn’t be my life, right?

So, I've heard chicks dig scars, yeah?

So, I’ve heard chicks dig scars, yeah?

What’s the worst holiday you have had? Got any cool scars? Share your stories below!

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May 13, 2013 · 12:14 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

ALL THE COFFEE

ALL THE COFFEE

Another weekend full of lovely things. Back in Sydney again, I was treated to Iron Man 3 at the Gold Class Cinema Friday night with a bunch of awesome people, great food and cider. On Saturday I swung into the city for coffee with a friend who I don’t get to see often enough (I ordered a coffee and a hot chocolate, because I am a piggy and the choc was made with real melted chocolate. It was amazing.) Before I slammed it back coast-side, I went shopping at American Apparel (despite the fact that it’s a bit too cool for a gigantic dag like me, I found a nice skirt that didn’t break my bank.) I also nipped into the music store and bought one of these:

UKE POWER!

UKE POWER!

UKULELE! So far I’ve taught myself to tune the thing, hold it, a few chords and some strumming (strumming will be my weak point as I have NO RHYTHM WHATSOEVER) using this website, then I taught myself to play my first song, Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order. So far I am terrible, so awful that my cat runs away as soon as I take my first strum, but I’m having fun.

So, yeah it’s Monday and that means articles!

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From Scientific American, an article on oral bacteria and bad breath. Via the Washington Post, some cunning linguists have identified a number of words that have changed very little since the end of the last ice age. This article is about ‘Rat Park’, a scientists experiment to see if drug addiction was influenced by environment (via io9.) From Salon, a small piece about how we have hit a feared milestone in regards to Co2 levels.

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In the history of bad ideas, this is one of the worst: Forbes follows the creator of ‘The Liberator’, the worlds first gun printed on a 3D printer, as he prepares to test fire. From The Verge, lessons learned after one man took a year off the internet (GAH!) Via The New Statesman, Laurie Penny talks about the changing social attitude to sexual assault and while it is encouraging more women to come forth, it’s also revealing the alarming number of rape apologists.

Oh, and lastly: Chris Hadfield, who is on his way back home to Earth after his time aboard the ISS, recorded and filmed this amazing music video in space. SO EXTREMELY COOL!

How was your weekend? See any good friends or learn anything new? Do you think my new uke is awesome? Read anything cool lately? Tell me all about it below!

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May 10, 2013 · 1:27 pm

Superintendent of the Fun Police: On Being an Irritable Person

Allie Brosch of Hyperbole and a Half finally posted a new blog! It’s an explanation of where she’s been for the past two years and a really amazing and funny representation of what it is like to live with depression. Go and check it out!

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So the above picture is an image that shows how Allie came out of having no feelings at all and moved into feeling angry all the time, something that I can totally relate to feeling after I came out of my long ‘proper’ depressive episodes (by which I mean the kind that weren’t just a reaction to bad things happening), many years ago. But when I looked at the above picture, it made me think lovingly of me and about how I am quite possibly the most irritable person on earth.

No, really. While I’m frequently lovey and sunshiny and fun and tra-la-la, inside (and I do try to hide it) I’m kind of ridiculously, hideously irritated and annoyed by a large quantity of things. That’s not to say that I’m always cranky, but when something annoys me – I get disproportionately annoyed.

Me irritable? It couldn't be, look how fucking cute I am!

Me? Annoyed? Never! Look how fucking cute I am!

For instance, I work in a home office in a particularly forested part of Sydney. From Tuesday to Thursday this week, our neighbors had tree loppers in, obviously working on one of the terrifyingly huge gums to prevent it from say, falling over and perhaps crushing their house and all the things they hold dear. So, for three days straight? CHAINSAWS. Not just a chainsaw, TWO CHAINSAWS. From 8am til 2 or so in the afternoon. And when there weren’t two duelling chainsaws, there was a woodchipper. I couldn’t decide which one was more grating.

DUELLING CHAINSAWS won out, I guess. (Source)

Now, if there was some kind of annoying but inevitable noise a regular human being could not control, they would gradually accept it. After all, why bother getting worked up? But me? I was irascible. Furious. I made several passive-aggressive status updates on social media, raged to my boss, and generally just did a bunch of face-clutching and moaning, “I hate chainsaws. Fuck them!” I’m happy to say that the chainsaws have stopped and I can return to being a normal, rageless human being.

Incidentally, here is a picture of me with a chainsaw - it was a gift for my 29th birthday (we had a woodstove, it made sense at the time.)

Incidentally, here is a picture of me with a chainsaw – it was a gift for my 29th birthday (we had a woodstove, it made sense at the time.)

Or can I? When people are not being quiet in the quiet carriage? Fury (I’ve been thinking of having a t-shirt printed that says ‘Be quiet, I’m trying to read!’). Kids on the train just being kids? STAHP! Stop it now! Folk at the cafe talking too loudly about inappropriate subjects and laughing? NO. NO LAUGHING! NO HILARITY OR FUN OF ANY KIND FOR ANYONE!

My ex used to call me the Superintendent of the Fun Police, and it was one of those funny personal jokes that is kinda silly…and kinda true. ‘Cause while I love fun and games and being happy, when I get past my point of tolerance? Boom. Done. NO FUN FOR YOU OR ME OR ANYONE, EVER!

NO. (Source)

I recently read the first instalment of Matthew Mathers Atopia Chronicles, called Blue Skies. The extremely irritable protagonist, Olympia, is trialing a personal reality augmentation program. Needing a relief from stress he asks her assistant to use the program to filter out everything she finds annoying. While the character is not supposed to be likeable, I did identify a little with her, and while I don’t want to spoil the story, let’s just say that a world without all the things Olympia finds annoying? Terrifying. (The short is for free over at Amazon at the moment. Yay, free books!)

Are you irritable too? What really sets your teeth gnashing? Let me know below!

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May 8, 2013 · 1:02 pm

It’s all just choices…

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I’m starting to feel like maybe I’m on an upward swing. Or at least I’m at the vertex of the parabola: I’ve fallen, collected the slack and am about to start back up again.  It’s a good feeling, like I can see a little bit past everything that’s been going on and into some kind of dimly glowing future. For me, it’s all been about choices.

I’m actually really lucky. I’ve got no underlying mental illness (I think of my lifelong anxiety as more of a quirky personality trait, like maybe I’m in a constant heightened state of awareness because it’s my secret minor superpower!) I have no huge singular trauma in my past that I have to contend with. Lame shit has happened, I’ve had a whole bunch of wacky adventures and I’ve been at rock bottom (a bunch of times!), but I’ve always bounced back. I have a good job, good friends, a nice little place to live with all the things I need in it and a cat who sings to me for half an hour when I get home in the evenings because she just loves me that much.

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At times she also grants me permission to snorgle her tummy. I’m so lucky.

I’m privileged in that when I’m feeling down, it’s usually directly because of something, and I know that I can pull myself back out again. All I have to do is start making the right choices.

I can easily identify the right choices because they are usually the choices that are harder. It is far more work to do the right thing for myself, and when I’m in a slump, it’s just less taxing on my delicate psyche to take the easiest option. It’s easier to sit around in my PJ’s than get dressed and go anywhere, so I choose that. It’s easier to eat a pack of rice crackers and five Caramello Koalas for dinner than it is to cook a decent meal. It’s easier to sit in front of the heater surrounded by varying levels of untidiness playing internets than it is to get up, clean up and go to my yoga or Taekwondo class, so I choose that. But just because it’s easier, doesn’t mean it’s any good for you.

It's way easy to just pretend I could do this rather than go out and learn how...

It’s way easy to just pretend I could do this rather than go out and learn how…

So I’ve been trying to make the right choices. Yes, it’s cold and would be so much nicer to flop on the couch and maybe pop a Mercindol for my aching neck (also for the funsies!), but yoga sounds like a better idea. I just have to choose to do it, then actually do it. It’s hard to be bothered cooking a meal (because of reasons like effort and dishes) but proper meals make much more sense for dinner than a whole tub of ice cream. I’ve got to just cook some fucking delicious coconut curry or a salmon fillet, and think about those dishes later. These short stories aren’t going to find the time to write themselves, no matter how much I wish they would: I have to set the alarm for 5am, quit complaining and bloody write them. It’s all a choice – I can choose to be lazy and go for the easiest option which will leave me likely miserable and unfulfilled, or I can stop undermining my potential and do the bloody things I know I need to do to be awesome.

It’s not about making one choice and boom, all better! Living the life I want to live is a million little choices today, and tomorrow and the next day and the one after that… For ever and ever.

But I think it’s worth the effort.

I mean, I guess it is, right?

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May 6, 2013 · 12:51 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

Even though I was only at work three days last week, I still cherished my weekend, ’cause I’m rather lazy and I enjoy good weather and company. This weekend was all about good people and good things and I had a really awesome time.

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I woke up early on Saturday and dressed up. Why not? I had on a pretty outfit, a whimsical and large flower in my hair and of course, as I filled my car up at the servo in my little town EVERYONE GAWKED AT ME as if I was wearing nothing at all instead of a lovely little ensemble.

Okay, they may have been staring because I was crawling around on the ground putting air in my tyres in that outfit, but hey, I was about to take a long drive and correct air pressure is important for fuel efficiency, or something like that. I also checked my oil and was horrified (but not surprised) to find that I had very little in my car (Mrs Car is luckily very forgiving in that regard, because I do this often.) I went inside and asked the woman behind the counter if she knew anything about oil.
“Some. What do you need?” She asked, staring at my silly hair flower bobbing around.
“Um, I need to… put some… in my car?” She handed me a bottle and I skipped out to my car and popped the hood. The oil tank was luckily marked ‘OIL’, and the rest of the process was thus self-explanatory. I filled it up all on my own and felt practically like a mechanic!

An hour and a half later I joined awesome folk in Newtown for Mexican food and insightful discussion. I resolve to spend more time in the presence of these magnificent folks in the future, because I adore every last one of them. We also wandered around the markets and I found a pair of Doc Martens in exactly my size and worn enough to be comfortable but not enough to look worn, for only 25 bucks. Huzzah!

Ah, freaks everywhere. I was amongst my people. (Source)

Later I joined more friends for pizza and an epic Game of thrones marathon (six episodes is a lot, isn’t it?) I’m now almost caught up! On Sunday I played with their delightful kitten all morning (you may remember her as the ‘cat who runs up walls’.)

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Ahhh! Cute AND terrifying!

To break up the long drive home I stopped in for coffee with a friend in the city, and I was lucky I did and that I opted for the regular rather than the decaf, because when I got home late in the afternoon I was BUGGERED and yawning. Why does driving take it out of one so?

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So, I’ve seen and read heaps of great stuff online this week. Here is some of it!

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Via Grist, an awesome new solar charger has been designed that is as simple as sticking the plug to the window and boom! Power! From Kotaku, a gamer who is stereoblind sees in proper 3D for the first time using his Nintendo 3DS. This article is about the Pavlovsk Experimental Station in St Petersberg, (whose scientists starved to death while watching over their precious seed bank during the seige of Leningrad in WWII) which is in danger from development (via Huffington Post.)

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From the NYT, the story of Hannah, who was born without a trachea and is the youngest person to ever receive a bioengineered organ. Via Alternet, a reporter goes undercover in a Christian Gay-To-Straight conversion program.

Finally, here’s a cool podcast from Neal Stephenson, via Slate and a great TED talk that suggests that women’s issues are men’s issues too.

So, how was your weekend? Seen any cool articles this week? Tell me all about it below!

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May 1, 2013 · 12:46 pm

A place just for writing

I didn’t really have anything pressing that I felt like writing about today, except… Well, just today.

Today is a good day.

See, a sewer pipe burst under the house where my office is, and my office is also under the house too. So water from the sewer pipe flooded my office and now they have to clean it up and replace the carpets and it really all adds up to this:

DAYS OFF WORK!

It’s like a snow day, but with raw sewerage!

Yay! Poop Day! (Source)

So what does one do with awesome, unexpected days off work? Well, of you are me, you spend it taking walks, watching Game of Thrones, seeing friends, yoga-ing, relaxing and…writing. Yes, I have actually been putting out words. In fact, I opened story I had set aside when the sads hit and wrote a thousand words on it, and they weren’t JUST THE SAME WORD, THEY WERE ALL DIFFERENT ONES and they weren’t awful either.

What witchery have I worked to accomplish such a task? Well, it helps to not be feeling extremely awful all the time. While I still have my bad moments and hours and days, I’m doing a great deal better. I’ve been making the effort to exercise and eat better and working on the notion that I’m probably not the most terrible person on earth (…probably.) These things help to get one in the mood for creativity.

I also bought a desk.

Freakin' desk like an adult! I'm goign to put some pictures up and maybe get a plant...

Freakin’ desk like an adult! I’m going to put some pictures up and maybe get a plant. Also, a better chair…

Now, you may think it odd that I did not own a desk, but I do live in what is essentially a garage. A beautifully converted and lovely and well-appointed garage with a porch and a yard and all the amenities, but it’s still a garage (I’d say about a 1.5, the kind of garage with a small workshop to the side, perhaps.) I really didn’t have room for a desk. But sitting slumped on the couch with my laptop on my legs and the cat trying to sit in my lap (occupied laps mean nothing to her) is no way to get anything done. Plus the TV is so close, with my large collection of documentaries just begging to be watched…

Anyway, yesterday I went on Gumtree and found a cheap desk for sale two streets over, bought it, then cleared a space in what is essentially my closet to cram it in. Just when you think your house is at capacity, there’s always a way to jam more stuff in.

So, this morning when I woke up, I put on some tunes (Fleetwood Mac is great for writing!) sat down at my desk, and out came the words. I’m not saying that simply buying a desk solved all my writing problems, but having a set place, away from external stimuli and where I can focus has definitely helped. It’s like when you are having trouble sleeping, doctors recommend you make the bed JUST for sleeping. Well, my couch is now JUST for relaxing and vegging out and my desk? JUST for writing.

Are you having a good day too? Where do you get your best work done? Let me know below!

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April 29, 2013 · 12:45 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

Remember when I used to blog daily? (Or at least week-daily?) Yeah, I remember that too. Those were sweet, heady days when I had heaps of things to say and a million opinions to impart. Last week? I didn’t have much to say, for probably the first time in my life. It wasn’t a particularly good or bad week, it was just a week in which I attempted to write a bunch of stuff and was dissatisfied with all of it. You know how it is. I’m led to believe that this happens from time to time .

bird

Saturday was all sparkle water and wildlife.

I had a great weekend, though. The weather was AMAZING and I took many walks, including one epic rockwalk/climb/scramble by myself for hours. I would have kept going, except I reached an impasse just before a corner that I was particularly intrigued to get around. DAMN YOU GIANT ROCK, I WILL DEFEAT YOU ONE DAY!

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When you go on awesome solitary adventures, you have to take indulgent selfies.

On Sunday my mum and I went to The Australian Reptile Park. We patted snakes, possums, emus and geckos. I gawked at lizards and spiders and we watched a few presentations (the one on Tassie Devils was particularly awesome – if you didn’t know about the awful facial tumour epidemic that threatens the species, go here and help support the breeding program at The Australian Reptile Park.) I took lots of pictures and it was a really lovely day. There was a giant tortoise walking around (they were holding up a carrot to make it walk where they wanted it to go, the poor thing was all like ‘Why this carrot no get in my mouth?’) and I wanted to take him home and let him live in my yard. Giant Tortoises rule.

chameleon

This chameleon dude was one of my favourites.

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I might not have been blogging much, but I’m still reading a whole lot. Here’s some cool stuff I’ve seen this week.

Commuting Coyote! Via Nat Geo

From Nat Geo, a little piece on animal commuters. This piece from io9 is about how we learn to love and hate certain foods.

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Check out these amazing natural basalt formations courtesy of The World Geography.

Image via Think Progress

Via ThinkProgress, a story on one students protest on the awful abstinence-only assembly held by her school under the guise of sex-ed and the threats her own principal issued to try to stop her. From The Guardian, a body found in a London Street turns out to be a stowaway who fell from a plane.

Image Via The Village Voice

Finally, via the Village Voice, a piece on the day-to-day life of porn star Stoya.

How was your weekend? Get up to anything fun? Read any cool articles this week? Let me know below!

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April 22, 2013 · 12:53 pm

I was reading this article the other day….

(Warning: post contains visible boobs. Not safe for work unless your boss is cool.)

The weather wreaks havoc on my mood. Saturday dawnwed grey and miserable and it pissed down with rain all day. As such, I could barely summon the goodwill or motivation to form a single positive thought. Before things got too dire, I invited myself to a friend’s place, where we talked and ate many delicious snacks and watched Galaxy Quest. The lesson here: friends and popcorn and Sigourney Weaver fix everything.

When Sigourney says ‘Cheer up’ you say, “Yes, Ma’am”.
(Co-incidentally, a great deal of images in the ‘Sigourney Weaver’ search featured boobs. Ah, a woman after my own heart.)  (Source)

Sunday was such a beautiful day that it was hard to believe the previous one had been so awful. I went for a very long walk in a redgum forest with another friend, talked and talked and took some photos. Late in the afternoon we ate lunch overlooking the ocean and watched crazy surfers paddle out and catch gigantic waves.

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(Not visible: madcap surfers)

So, it seems this weekend reflected a truth I already knew: alone + trapped inside + not doing anything= bad.  Friends + doing things + activity= good.

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Now, let’s make Monday a little less heinous by reading and learning a bunch of things!

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From Outside Online, a longread about the traffic jams and high deathtoll on Everest last year. This article on io9 discusses the experience of sleep across the biological spectrum. Via the New York Times, an article on the advances in prosthetic technology bought about by both war and sports.

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An interesting read From Nat Geo about the dwindling diversity of our crops and the efforts of seed vaults to safeguard the food supply. From Scientific American, a detailed look at Ricin in the wake of the latest case of poisoned mail. Finally, via TreeHugger, a unique solar cooling system is in the works, to provide aircon without electricity.

How was the weekend? Read anything great this week? Let me know below!

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April 17, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Some Shrinkage May Occur

I’ve never understood people who keep all their problems inside. It doesn’t even occur to me to not tell people what’s up, in intricate detail. My unspoken problems burn a hole in me like unspent money in my pocket.  So, concurrently with that sentiment, I’ve never got why folks don’t see therapists at every opportunity available. I guess it’s just a further reflection of my never-ending desire to vent my endless well of thoughts and feels.

I always feel I have so many, many feelings that I need to expunge, and laying all that crazy out on my friends is asking a lot (though, despite my worries, I still do it anyway.) But a counsellor, therapist, psychologist or a psychiatrist – you are essentially paying them to listen to you talk about yourself! I’m really good at talking about me and their job is to listen to me talk about me — It’s like a match made in heaven! And, as an added bonus, often times they have good advice that they can give you based on that whole ‘many years of experience and education’ thing.

JUST LIKE THIS except imagine me on the couch with messy hair and more face-clutching as I ramble about ‘losing my shit’ and ‘the sads, you know?’ (Source)

As you have probably grasped, I had my first appointment with a local psychologist yesterday. It was good and I like her –I say that with a great sense of relief. It’s rare, but it does happen that I don’t mesh well with a person now and then. I have a lot of views and do a lot of things that conservative types can find… weird. (If it shocks you that I am actually a crazy weirdo, then I guess it’s just that you haven’t been around here too long. You’ll learn.) Most professionals will not allow their personal opinions to effect a session, but if I begin with the impression that I’m going to be judged, even silently or in any form at all, I become guarded. And that is not what therapy is about.

“I can see you judging me with your sneaky, judgey eyes. Hope you like weird, stilted guardedness and stuff!” (Source)

First sessions are always a huge and exhausting info-dump – I have a complicated, complex and madcap history that needs to be got out of the way first (maybe one day I’ll tell you guys about it… Maybe.) That takes a while just to scratch the surface. It’s essential, for me, though. It’s like: “this is what I’m working on top of…”  because all this information is going to make it easier for the shrink or psych or counsellor to know what you are coming from. Every single person is different and has different experiences that create their framework for coping.

(Source)

For me, It’s a pretty simple thing. I know what I need to be doing to get myself back to where I want to be. I am lucky to say that I am pretty close to where I want to be, headwise. I’ve just got a case of the reactive sads and some pesky anxiety that’s making it hard for me to do all the shit that will get me going again. Hence, assistance. I think time and some good advice from someone who I don’t feel as if I am burdening with all my Molly-ness will set me back on the up-and-up.

I had little glimpses of the person I could be over the past year. It was awesome. I’ve seen what is possible. I want to get back there, and if that means I need some professional help? No wuz, I’m on it.

How do you feel about talking about your issues? Seen a mental-health-care professional? Was it good or bad? Let me know below.

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April 15, 2013 · 12:21 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

I spent the weekend focused on dragging myself out of misery in the usual ways: exposing myself to sunshine, engaging in leg-driven locomotion through the natural areas of my locality, forcing people to hang out with me and talking endlessly about myself and my many, many feelings and problems (sorry everyone!) It’s working, slowly but surely. I also went to a baby shower yesterday and there were friends and cake! The best possible combination.

Did I mention that this happened last week?

4puppy

No one can be sad with a puppy around. I believe it’s like a scientific fact or something.

It’s not my puppy, it belongs to my bosses family but I can still utilise the cute for my own purposes each day at work. PUPPY! He’s a darling and he is going to be HUGE. He has big paws and floppy ears and joie de vivre – you know, all the best attributes of puppies.

workpuppy

“Don’t be sad, Molly. Here, look at my paws. I could roll over and show you my fat little tummy too, if it might help. Also, ruf.”

As well as that, I have NEWS. NEWS that I’m not totally sure on just yet, but let’s say it’s exciting and I am lucky and that my friends are honestly the best friends who exist in this or any other dimension. MORE ON THAT LATER.

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Here’s some junk to read!

(Source)

From E&T Magazine, scientists have created a new power source using ‘artificial leaf’ technology. Palaeontologists have found rare organic material in dinosaur embryos from a bone-bed site in China (via Science Daily.)

(Source)

io9 asks the question: what will life be life after antibiotics? and the answer is a little scary. From Live Science, a mysterious ancient structure under the Sea of Galilee in Israel has archaeologists both excited and puzzled. From the BBC, an article on the recently forgotten phenomenon of segmented sleep and why the whole ‘eight hours a night’ is a relatively new standard.

(Source)

From Nat Geo, the story of the first keyhole brain surgery performed on an Asiatic Black Bear in Laos. And from Nat Geo again, a piece on retraining drug detection dogs to ignore newly legalised narcotics.

Finally, here’s an interview with Jason Merkoski, who helped to crate the first Kindle, on E-books and publishing from an insiders perspective.

So, how was your weekend? Do you like puppies too? Read anything good lately? Let me know below!

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April 12, 2013 · 12:55 pm

Progress Report: Sorta, kinda, perhaps maybe a little bit less awful.

I woke up this morning feeling less like the worst, most awful person on the face of the earth. Like, maybe still top ten, but not THE worst.

I’ll take that.

So, how did I accomplish this amazing feat of waking up and not feeling like throwing myself out of the window? (please note: my windows are just over a metre off the ground. Window throwing, for me, is always merely a symbolic gesture. I’d probably just flop into the garden bed, get dirt on my dressing gown, cry, dust myself off and proceed with my day. If you have real window-throwing thoughts, please call or visit Lifeline, Beyond Blue or a similar organisation in your locality.)

So, how? Baby steps, my friends. Little things.

1. I exercised. Attending Taekwondo class last night (where I was presented with my yellow belt) no doubt aided this slight boosting of spirits. I know that exercising is an amazing way to manage depression and anxiety for me. But the nature of the bleh means that I have little to no desire to do anything besides sad-eating and engaging in endless Buffy marathons. I have to literally drag myself out of the house, but when I do, it helps. (We practised this pattern and I think if I do it a million times, I might just get the hang of it:)

2. I ate real human, grown-up food. The other day I actually cooked something. I know, right? Like an adult! So instead of just engaging in a bizarre ritual where my feelings are represented by a large quantity of Caramello Koalas or an entire package of flavoured rice crackers that I consume in a hasty, haphazard fashion, last night I re-heated some leftover curry and rice. It even had vegetables in it. I felt so accomplished.

Caramello Koalas as self-loathing. I sad-eat them in a similar fashion. (Not sure of source, found this image on Tumblr.)

3. I avoided the usual comforts. So usually it goes: come home from work, put on kimono of doom, worry, eat feelings, loathe self, then watch Buffy until I fall asleep. This ritual helps no one. Sure, I feel nice and comforted by delicious comfy things and my favourite TV show, but it’s a rut and it’s getting deeper and harder to climb out of with each passing day. So last night I went to TKD. I came home and hemmed some pants (after a lifetime at 152cm, or 5’0″, I am an expert pants hemmer). Ate a responsible dinner. I watched an episode of Game of Thrones because I have decided that after all this time of people telling me I’d love it, I should give it a try. I did something different to break out of my pattern of ugh and meh. I guess it worked.

(Found this on Tumblr too)

4. I made an effort. This morning, when I woke up feeling slightly less like a crumpled train ticket stuck to someone’s shoe, I actually made an effort. I put on a nice outfit that made me feel less hideous. I did my hair in the customary pigtail buns I enjoy so much (and refuse to stop wearing even though I’m almost 31 years old.) I put my camera in my bag even though I’m scared I’m going to drop it or lose it or have it stolen because I like taking pictures and I don’t do it enough. I listened to some happy music. Isn’t it weird that doing things that make you feel nice can make you… feel… nice? Who would have thought?

5. I listened to the words and actions of others that show me my worth. Folks have been telling me nice shit and doing nice things for me ever since I started on this whole slide down into ugh. And even though they’ve been telling me that I’m not awful, that I’m okay, that I shouldn’t blame myself, that I shouldn’t hate myself, I haven’t let it get through. See, I know all this stuff on one level, it’s just that I have an equally powerful side of me that tells me I’m just the worst ever, that everything is all my fault and I’m a terrible person. Everyone does (wait, do they?) I guess in the past few days the overload of kindness reached some kind of critical mass and I was able to actually let some of it in.

“Not sure if you’re just saying that to make me feel better or if I’m really not the vilest example of a human being there ever was…” (Source)

I know I’m going to go up and down. I know that all I can do is just keep trying and I’ll get there. Here’s to feeling kinda, sorta, maybe just a little tiny bit less awful.

What are the things that help drag you up out of the sads?

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April 11, 2013 · 12:51 pm

‘F&@k Australia’: On encounters with spiders.

It’s been a bad, bad day today, headwise, so I thought I’d share a story instead of filling the page with my endless and dismal self loathing.

This morning I was sitting at my desk, working away, and I needed to pee. This happens roughly eight million times per day as I have a small bladder and I drink a metric fuckton of tea while working. I finished what I was doing, stood up and wandered into the bathroom. My bathroom at work is just off my office, it’s a tiny little windowless room. I closed the door behind me and glanced up into the mirror over the sink as I fumbled with my belt and started to undo my pants. Like in a horror movie, reflected back in the mirror – behind my little, innocent, rotund and utterly unsuspecting visage – was a monster.

spider

Oh hai!

That, my friends from varied shores whose walls aren’t festooned with such horrifying arachnid specimens, is a Huntsman Spider. They grow to pretty decent sizes, are found all over the world in temperate climates, and they are very common in Australia. The above specimen was almost the size of my hand.

On realising the beasts presence, I shrank as far as I could from it. I crammed myself into the far corner beside the toilet, quivering in terror, trying to factor in the horror of this new trajectory my life had taken.  I looked at it, perched right above the doorknob, and thought: ‘I’m never getting out of here.’

The thing about Huntsmen see, is that they are unpredictable. One might spent three days motionless in the corner of your loungeroom ceiling, and you think, ‘ok, cool, that’s where the spider is. I don’t like it, but this is how my life has turned out. I share my house with this spider now, but as long as he stays in that corner and things continue along in this fashion, everything is going to be okay.’ Then, without warning, suddenly the bastard is halfway down the wall on the other side of the room. You don’t even see them move, it just happens.

hunstman

Sure, he’s on the curtains now, but just wait…

So even though the spider had stayed motionless through my whole act of opening, walking through and closing the bathroom door, who knew if it might suddenly decide to change positions just as my quivering hand was reaching for the knob? And maybe the new position it chose would be, oh I don’t know, inside the arm of my cardigan?

Seeing as it was a choice of either starving to death in a tiny bathroom or being brave, I battled my revulsion and finally got the door open. It’s okay now. If the spider wants the bathroom, that’s cool. He can have it.

I recounted the story to my Canadian friend who I was speaking to on FB chat. “Did you kill it?” He asked. I laughed. Of course I didn’t kill it! These things are too big to kill, it would be like killing a puppy or a small horse. And, what if you don’t do it right the first time? What if you just made it angry? “Fuck Australia, man. Just fuck it,” was his reply. It’s true. My beautiful country is a bounty of rich, creeping, insectile horrors. Another friend told a delightful story in the comments section of the image I posted on Facebook:

spiderconvo

Every awful spider just provides you a lesson. For instance, I will never close the door of that bathroom again without first checking that there isn’t a beast on the back of the door. It’s like the time my ex-boyfriend went to fill up the kettle and as he opened it, a gargantuan Huntsman ran out and up his arm. Now, I know the odds of that happening again are slim to nil. But I’m not taking that chance. I check inside every kettle before I fill it. Maybe you should too.

Arachnophobic too? What’s your worst spider experience?

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April 10, 2013 · 12:07 pm

Bleh on the Blog: Blogging from all the way down here…

Being miserable is really boring.

There are really only so many ways you can say ‘I feel shitty,’ before people get the picture. But when that awful feeling pervades your every waking moment, it’s kind of hard to stop finding new ways to verbalise and floridly describe the exact dimensions of the pit you have dug for yourself. I’m not sure if I should call it ‘depression’. It’s more that I am having a depressive episode due to perfectly regular environmental factors. Lame shit is going on, therefore I feel bad. I wish I didn’t, but I do.

Via Hyperbole And a Half. Go there, read the whole thing. By thing, I mean blog. It may take a few hours. It’s okay, you wont regret it.

Things could be worse. They could be better. But I feel icky. That’s all there is to it. It’s very natural to feel lame when stuff blows. The unnatural thing would be to not feel bad when things aren’t going so great.

“You are sad because things suck? What is wrong with you, you freak?”

So what happens when you’re mired in a deep pit of despair, yet you’ve made a weird and punishing vow to blog every weekday?

Do you pretend it isn’t happening? After all, this blog was supposed to be about books, speculative fiction, writing, martial arts and adventures! Not some sad chick who can barely involve herself in any kind of activity that isn’t sitting in her house in a filthy cotton kimono, hating herself, watching Buffy and confusing (and enraging!) the cat with her intermittent bouts of crying. Should I completely avoid the subject and talk about happier things, pretend that things are just dandy instead? No, that would be lying. I’ve aligned myself as being the type of person who is honest at all times, regardless of the consequences. (Living by your principles is awesome and easy in theory, but much harder in practice.)

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Pictured: sad girl, often-worn but less-often-washed kimono, and cat.

Anyways, I’m a terrible liar.

So do I stop? Should I take a break, ‘break the chain’ and take some time out until I’m feeling better? How long will that be, exactly? What do I do in the meantime? I like blogging. It makes me feel happy, and the idea of stopping something that does make me feel even a little bit happy at a time when happiness is in short supply makes me feel worse.

Makes me want to fall on the ground like a sad bunny.

So far, all signs point to ‘blog’. However, there is the small matter I mentioned above: depression and misery and general self-loathing? Not very exciting. Not conclusive to entertaining, informative, non-boring writing.While I want to be honest and say, “this is how it is right now,” I also don’t want to alienate, irritate, impregnate or otherwise bore people with my own personal brand of icky-feelings.

My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to keep at ‘the blogging’ while I’m wallowing through my many awful feelings and at the same time, attempt to not give into the self-indulgent, whiny, boring nature of the bleh.

What are your thoughts on blogging through depression? What would you do in my place? (I can loan you my kimono if it helps you get into character more fully.)

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April 8, 2013 · 12:47 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

This weekend brought with it a sense of finality that is both freeing and crushing. It’s some symbolic point that de-marks the line of then and now. All I can hope from this moment on is that the free-falling spiral I feel as if I am in, where I careen from one disaster to the next calamity, becomes some kind of controlled levelling.

AHHHHHHHH! (Source)

I keep busy. I do things and seek out people and go places and it all helps, it really does. It’s nice to get out of my head where everything is all my fault and guilt seems to be my prevailing emotion, because HOLY SHIT am I tired of this self-indulgent, isolated misery. I miss effervescing. I miss the way my face feels when I am not frowning or slack-jawed with bleh.

So, in happier news, I graded in Taekwondo on Saturday and will hopefully gain my yellow belt when I go to class this week. I was under-prepared and unsure, but I’m really glad I went and saw it through (and also provided a body to be fly-kicked over by the red-belts on their quest towards black!) On Sunday I went to a recreational park, went for a little bushwalk, ate a picnic lunch and walked on the rocks. There were starfish. I had a really nice time.

Clambering on rocks as the ocean heaves close by is something that always makes me feel refreshed.

Clambering on rocks as the ocean heaves close by is something that always makes me feel refreshed. Also, my endless talking unburdens me too… Thanks guys.

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Because it’s Monday (I don’t know about you, but it seems to me like these cursed Mondays are occurring weekly now. It’s getting out of control…) here’s some links to junk I’ve been filling my head with.

(Source)

From Treehugger, this story is about how Exxon won’t pay to clean up its latest disaster because of some bullshit reason. This one from Lifescience tells us that we might be able to cure cocaine addiction with LASERS! (What can’t they fix?)

From io9, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield tells us about crying in space (totally relevant to my varied interests in crying all the time and space.) I stumbled across this cool zoomable tool that shows the scale of the universe.

Here’s two more depressing examples of rape culture. the first, from the Atlantic Wire, shows the generational divide in the Torrington case. The second is about how a woman who crusaded against pro-rape pages on facebook was forced to stop because of, you guessed it, threats of rape and violence.

Because I know those last two articles will probably make you want to head desk until the world isn’t such a gross place any more, here’s a little tiny bat from Zooborns to serve as some emergency cute.

LOOK AT IT DRINK WITH ITS TINY LITTLE TONGUE! IT’S NAME IS BLOSSOM FOR FUCK’S SAKE! (Source)

How was your weekend? Read anything interesting? Seen anything cute? Suggestions for relieving crushing guilt? Put it all below!

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April 2, 2013 · 2:26 pm

I was reading this article the other day…

I got a long, long, long weekend for this whole ‘Easter’ business and I needed it. I kept busy, surrounding myself with my wonderful, wonderful friends. From Thursday night through Monday night I made sure I was in the presence of awesome people at almost all times.

bmebbq

I know some exceptionally cool people and I met them amongst the beautiful freaks at BMEzine, back in the day.

I drank cider and cooked healthy dinners, travelled to Sydney and had a BBQ in the park with some of the finest folk in the Sydney Body Modification community. I ate grilled onions and Italian cake in a bag (long story) and caught up with my best dude friend who I really need to see more often. I watched bad Vampire movies, ate Thai food, got some impromptu hypnotherapy and spent Sunday night having an alone-party complete with Buffy, cider and cheese. Monday I drove around, visiting. All throughout I talked and talked and talked and every single one of my amazing friends let me, and they listened and they gave me their invaluable advice and I was filled with gratitude.

NHLighthouse

On Monday my friend Cloud and I picked our way across the rocks, barefoot, the sharp edges of them biting into my arches and making me feel alive.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I honestly have the best friends a girl could ever have. I am really lucky and I ask myself daily what on earth I have done to deserve such awesome fucking people who actually want to hang out with me. It’s not just all the people I’ve seen, but the ones who I’ve reached out to on this crazy interwebs who took time out of their days to tell me that I am worthwhile, even though sometimes I feel the complete opposite.

Today? Today was one of those days that went horribly wrong even before I got up. It started with awful nightmares, and progressed through more shades of awful until it’s culmination at the ripe old hour of 7.05am. Look, if you are going to burst into tears in public, it’s best to do it on the day after a public holiday when there are several hundred agitated people at the train station waiting to buy tickets who can witness it. Suffice to say, I came home, got back into my PJ’s and resolved to start again. The second attempt at the day has been smoother as I attempted very little, and it’s really hard to fail at that.

Tomorrow will be better.

Here’s a few things I’ve read lately:

Image via Tree Hugger

From Tree Hugger, scientists have successfully created a living embryo of an extinct species using preserved DNA. Here’s a piece on giving IQ tests to animals from io9.

Image via Live Science

From Live Science, an article on how tsunamis have changed the course of history. This piece from the NYT is about archaeologists working to discover more about the history of Africa in war-torn Sudan. This one from The Birmingham Mail speculates that the remains of Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni could be underneath a McDonald’s restaurant in Kings Norton.

Finally, from Daily Life, a great article from Clementine Ford on violent men and the women who defend them.

How was your long weekend? Read anything I’d be interested in? Wanna say some nice to junk to me ’cause I’m feeling emotionally tender? Put it all in the comments section below.

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March 28, 2013 · 10:38 am

Drawing the Line

So, when it comes to blogging, where do you draw the line as to what you will post and what you wont?

Source

In my real life (in ‘Real Meat World’) I talk to everyone about everything. I’m not ashamed of that, though I have been shamed for it. If you know me well, odds are you are going to know pretty much everything about me.  Get ready for Molly to spill it all. I don’t care.

But online? I feel more of a sense of privacy. I don’t know why, I just do. I admire bloggers and writers who lay it all bare, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

There’s stuff that’s just for me, just for my friends. Want to know about it? Lets get to know each other, talk a bit, meet up IRL and I’ll tell you all about it. I just don’t think that my blog is the best place for all my various and assorted baggages.

But wait, there’s more! (Image via News.com.au)

If you do talk about personal stuff on your blog? That’s so awesome. More power to you. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not for me. Don’t think I’m being judgey ’cause that’s not my intention here.

For me, I  feel like I have consented to put my business up into the public sphere, but no one else in my life has. So unless I have their express permission, I keep them out of it and only blog about my perspective of whatever event or incident I’m in. And if whatever is going on is too tied up with other people? I just don’t go there. Which makes for some pretty interesting vagueness.

I just figure I would rather be publicly vague than potentially hurt someone. Else. Again.

So if you are wondering what the go is with me, well – I’m not going into it here. Strike up a conversation with me elsewhere instead. Tell me all about where you draw the line in the comments below.

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March 26, 2013 · 1:18 pm

Big Faker

I’ve honestly sat here, looking blankly at the blinking cursor, for an age.

I’m not sure what to say. For me, this feeling is unfamiliar. Usually there is a well of words inside me, bursting up to the surface. Today there isn’t. Today I think back on my old posts and I think:

Fuck, Molly. You are a fraud.

Because I preach ‘wisdom this’ and ‘positive that’ and ‘oh, all my life experience has taught me all this shit’… But has it? Am I really the good person I pretend and  so desperately wish I could be? Honestly, inside, a great deal of the time? I feel like a fucking monster. Like a bumbling, self-absorbed, unfeeling, awful person. A person who buggers up lives and hurts people who don’t deserve it.

I know I’m not all bad. I’ve had enough kind words given to me today to make me realise that I’m not really the most awful person who ever walked the earth. I just feel that way.  So while pretend me might be all like ‘oh, life experience,’ and ‘yes, positivity’ and ‘you have to do the things that make you happy’, real me is sitting here thinking, ‘why must you be so bloody awful?’

Apologies for the vagueness and negativity barrage. I can’t be sunshiny ALL the time. Here’s a cute puppy to make up for my sadgasm:

It can’t be ALL bad when cute like this exists in the world….right? Right? (Image via CuteOverload)

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March 25, 2013 · 11:28 am

I was reading this article the other day…Or was I?

So a funny thing happened in that I totally forgot to record most of the articles I read this past week. I guess I was too busy being obsessive about my response from Clarion and then preparing my application for Odyssey, which I have subsequently decided to abandon (after all, it’s a LOT of debt I’d be going into and I’d kinda prefer to just try out for Clarion and Clarion West next year and possibly save up my potential debt for that.)

I had a nice weekend: I workshopped with one of the amazing writers I’ve met on Twitter thanks to this whole Clarion business and read a great story. I saw an old friend, ventured into a veritable shrine of chocolate that is known as ‘Max Brenner’s’ and ate chocolate fondue until I almost threw up. I took a quick and impromptu journey to Sydney to replace some body jewellery (it’s a long story that starts with me refusing to set foot into any ‘piercing’ establishment anywhere near where I live) and finally tried to do some writing but didn’t get very far. It happens. I did a bunch of editing instead, which is generally my go-to when I have no words coming…

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So, check out a few things that I’ve managed to scrape up from the net:

Image via io9

From io9, a collection of images from the last days of the USSR.

Image Via Archaeological News

From Trust.org and via Archaeological News on Tumblr, a pre-viking era tunic found with the ‘help’ of climate change.

Image via Life Hacker

Lastly, some tips from Lifehacker on things you can stop doing right now to make your life that little bit more awesome.

So, that’s my shoddy effort for this Monday. Have you read anything good this week? Did you get up to anything awesome this weekend? Jam it in the comments below!

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March 20, 2013 · 10:40 am

Exasperated Facepalm: People Can Be So Rude

The other day I was standing in line at the servo (that’s the petrol station to those who can’t understand my colourful Australianisms) and this woman behind me said to her husband in a very loud voice: “That girl on My Kitchen Rules has her whole arm tattooed like that girl. She’s going to look awful when she is sixty’.

I turned around and looked at her (in true passive aggressive fashion) then turned back. Her husband muttered something to her, in the polite way that polite people mutter in public when they are talking about someone who is standing a foot away from them. She huffed and continued, ‘I said the MKR girl was going to look awful, not her. Some people are so rude.’

…and there was nothing I could do but an exasperated facepalm.

tumblr_mjxhl3JYGx1qaum24o1_500

I was reduced to equal parts fringe and palm in the depths of my frustration.

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Sometimes I’ll be walking down the street and people will be staring at me and I’ll think, “what the fudge is everybody looking at? Jeez!” Then I will remember: they are looking at me and the odd additions and decorations I have made to myself. Duh.

They are just checking out ALL this.

Sometimes, when people are making loud public comments on the way I dress/ my body/the way I have chosen to decorate it, I think to myself “Well, you chose to do this/wear this/tattoo this, so you deserve to have strangers say rude things/touch you without permission/make comments about how awful you will look in the future.”

But that isn’t right. Because while I have chosen to look like this, I haven’t chosen to allow people to be rude to me.

Besides which, what does it matter that my tattoos will age terribly? I don’t really care. Why do other people? Hopefully, when I’m sixty I’ll still be extremely awesome and cool, and maybe I’ll still be getting tattoos. All I can hope is that I age so well that I end up as cool as this old bird:

Image via FlashYourTattoo

After the woman was done telling me about how awful I was going to look as a sexagenarian (that sounds kinds dirty, doesn’t it?) I felt compelled to make a loud comment about how older women who wear way too much makeup aren’t fooling anyone, but I didn’t. Because she was right. Some people are so rude.

But I’m not one of them.

Have you fielded any offensive comments about the outward state of your person lately? Encountered any public rudeness? How did you deal with it? Let me know in the comments section below!

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