Thursday Thirteen

1. "Line on the mirror, lines on her face. She pretended not to notice; she was caught up in the race." Those lines from the Eagles song, Life in the Fast Lane, haunt me when I look in the mirror now. My face is starting to show my age. There are lines. I never snorted lines, though.

2. My husband said the lines on his face remind him of this: "Every time that I look in the mirror, all these lines on my face getting clearer," which are the opening lines from Dream On, by Aerosmith.

3. My voice is finally starting to come back, though it still sounds a little croaky. It has more volume now. My doctor diagnosed this as tracheal bronchitis, which is something I used to get a lot when I was a child. It means that my last sinus infection tied in with my asthma, I think.

4. A younger person yesterday was asking me, "What happened?" She was talking about the rise of the former guy, which she rightly called a cult, and all of the fear exhibited by people who support him. I explained that it started under Reagan and coalesced after 9/11 (she would have been about 3 years old then), which is when I first felt the fear and anger radiating off of people in the grocery store. It would rise and ebb, but it never went completely away. Now people think rude and crude are acceptable behaviors, and manners belong only to the "woke" (whatever that is), and meanness is their creed. The cruelty is the point for them. I apologized to her for not leaving her a better world.

5. She also fears the loss of her rights. Women's rights. I think it's a very real concern. It has been in my lifetime that women could have credit cards in their own names. Or inherit property in their own names without having to split it with their children, in this state, anyway. The recent ruling in Alabama about embryos being "humans" chilled her. The loss of abortion rights was a blow to women who want autonomy over their own bodies. These are scary times, but all times are scary, and every generation seems to think they're the ones who are going to get live through the Second Coming. I've read old newspapers and books. Nothing much has changed for centuries.

6. Speaking of women's rights, I'm having an issue with a banking institution that thinks they need more ID than the State of Virginia or the US government. And I've been a customer for years and years. They're about to lose my business. I have a Real ID. That should be enough. I've been angry about this for days.

7. What do you do with your coins? Banks no longer take them in rolls. You have to drop them in some machine and then they take a percentage of the total. That doesn't seem right. A roll of 50 pennies is 50 cents. The bank should give me 50 cents for 50 cents, not 48 cents for 50 cents.

8. I am supposed to be eating for heart health, digestive health, lung health, and nail and skin health, and for fat loss health. I cannot figure out how to do this. Or maybe I just don't want to.

9. A new medication that I was given says on the directions not to take it within 4 hours of any other medicine. I am on medication that I take every 4 hours, so I haven't started the new medication because I can't figure out when I am supposed to take it.

10. When I was at college, I found the atmosphere invigorating, enlightening, and occasionally frightening. But the experience, which lasted 8 years because I was going part-time, was the best thing I ever did for myself. I met wonderful, strong, encouraging women who think like I do, and I made a few friends. I grew into myself. I was happy in classes; I love to learn. I missed out on the bonding because I was an older student and didn't live in the dorms, but I was still young enough to fit in. I remember one evening when we were taking a break during a 3-hour class and some of the young women were talking to me. One of them noticed my wedding ring. "Oh my God, you're married!" she cried, and they all wanted to know what it was like, being married. This was back before cell phones, when people really talked to one another.

11. Another friend tells me she has determined that social media/the Internet is evil. She says it is harming young people, who can't tell the difference anymore between real life and life online, and in general adding to the fascist line of populist thinking that has brought such a twist into the political realm. I can't disagree. I liked the Internet better when it was monitored bulletin boards and email. I liked the closed nature of AOL when it first went live, because if you had a problem, you could report it. Now if someone chases after you or is inappropriate, there isn't much to be done about it.

12. I haven't chewed my nails in three years, but they still are thin and brittle. There are lines and ridges from where I damaged them by chewing on them. I will never have pretty nails. But they look better than they did.

13. It's been two years since my husband gave up chewing tobacco. He eats a lot of sugar free candy instead, which probably isn't good for him, but I don't miss the chewing tobacco. That stuff smelled bad, and it made a mess everywhere he went. It trailed after him like the dust on Pig Pen in the Peanuts comics. No, I don't miss having to sweep up particles of tobacco around the trash can every morning.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while, and this is my 848th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.