Spiralling

Activity around here has been turned up to eleven as we realized we’re moving in like, two weeks. Which, uh, OMG. Add the packing and utility switch and general moving-related crap with random phone screenings and scheduling people to look at our house in Florida and my head is sort of spinning as I collapse nightly into a pile of exhausted mush. And I haven’t even thought about the fact that we’re having a baby and I’m guessing she’s not going to a) go naked; or b) sleep on the floor. Mercifully, I have a few months left to do all that stuff, but lord knows I don’t want to do it all at once.

*breathes into paper bag*

One of the things that I struggled with today is not being able to do a lot of the things I used to. I was shocked — SHOCKED! — at how quickly I tired out, or the fact that sciatica had my ass radiating in pain after five minutes of sitting on the floor to file some work papers. Since when did FILING become a heavy-duty physical activity? I’m not even that big yet, which makes me wonder if I’m going to find myself laid up next to a Snoogle in the final weeks of my pregnancy, too immobile to do anything but watch WifeSwap and suck down oranges.

I hate not being able to totally help with the move by lifting things. Let’s not overstate my capabilities, however, as it’s not like I was single-handedly carrying the bedframe down the stairs on my trapezoid shoulders in my pre-pregnancy state, but I was at least able to lift a box before becoming crippled with amber waves of pain in the lower back and ass-region. Nowadays, I’m waddling as I load books into boxes, pausing only to feel the baby kick, as I wonder if she’s totally pissed off at me for making her suffer through such jiggly activity.

And in perhaps the worst segue ever, I’ve recently been reunited with two women I went to high school with who, as it turns out, also blog. One of them, at least, runs in almost the same bloggish circles that I do, and it’s very strange that I didn’t we didn’t run into each other a lot earlier than we did. Oddly, too, it was a random Facebook thing (oh, Facebook, how you haunt me), wherein she became a fan of The Bloggess, and I was all, wha? You read The Bloggess? I love her! And so on.

Facebook is so fucking weird. I will say that I like them both so very much, and that we ran into each other only tangentially during our high school days, but now I wish I’d hung out with them back then, too.

Anyway! They reminded me recently that we went to high school with several children of Klansmen. Yes, that kind of Klansman — in fact, if I’m not mistaken, the son of the, uh, lead Klansman (?) for our area was a year or two younger than me, and oh yes, I remember his name now . Dude, I’d TOTALLY forgotten that on a few occasions I could, in fact, see burning crosses from right near my father’s house. I have mostly fond childhood memories, but wow, I must have deliberately blocked that one out entirely. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about all of it.

But it does explain why when John Murtha said what he did, my first reaction was not righteous indignation that he would say such cruel things about the people of my beloved native state, but was instead, reluctant understanding and resigned nodding, because I’d seen a little of what he referred to. Pennsylvania isn’t all bad, not by a long shot — in fact, I’ve said before how much I love it — but it isn’t exactly 46,055 square miles of grace and open-mindedness, either. But really, what state IS?

It all makes me grateful, however, for my upbringing. You know, no one had a perfect childhood, but my God, I can, among other things, be grateful that I wasn’t raised in one of ignorance, like several of my contemporaries were. And for the record, all three of us — the women I refer to above and myself — were, at least from my vantage point, raised in very similar environments (ultra-liberal and at least a little crunchy). I only say that, lest you think I mean THEY were raised in ooky, ignorant environs, which of course they weren’t. That’s not to say that anyone who wasn’t raised in a crunchy-ish liberal environment is a Klansman. Or anything remotely close to it. Not all of the above statements are related! I’m rambling! I … I’m backpedaling and weirdly covering my ass, but God, I don’t want any of these statements to be misunderstood.

And on that happy, awkward note, have a great Tuesday!

21 comments October 27th, 2008