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04:21:2002 Entry: "The Kitchen"
The Kitchen
Yesterday after our vet appointment with Persephone, (she's doing fine...just an annual check up and the vet recommended some joint supplements because we think she might be getting arthritis, or just stiff joints) we went to southeastern Wisconsin. There's a few greenhouses down there that I like a lot, and we just had to go for a ride and get out of town for a short time...cabin fever, you know. Tim is on spring vacation, down in that part of the world visiting his parents on their farm for more than a week (aaarrrgh!!). We stopped by for a short time before we headed back to Madison. It's always rather strange. His mom will always ask us if we want soda, we'll refuse because we don't want to have to go to the bathroom on the road, but she'll give us some anyway, and she'll ask us the same or at least very similar questions to those she's asked us before. We sit in the kitchen at the table with the vinyl tablecloth, and I internally freak out by the mass quantity of Catholicabelia...Jesus as a nice young hippie man, Jesus as a nightlight, some disembodied bleeding heart of Jesus, Jesus here, Jesus there, Jesus Jesus everywhere. Thank goodness my mom didn't allow my dad to have that sort of stuff in their house. I keep thinking that this would be funny if it was a kitschy ironic statement. But it's not. It's totally serious.
We've never seen the rest of the house, other than the kitchen and the bathroom off the kitchen. According to Tim, his mother lets guests further into the depths of the house depending on how much she likes them. Only a few of his friends have gotten past the kitchen. We never had, and I'm afraid that this last visit cemented that. First of all we happened to mention our "being like Tim" as far as being "Democratically aligned, politically." (The rest of his family are staunch Republicans.) Then when she was asking me about painting, I mentioned that I had a Master's degree in Art, "In fact, we both do," I said, referring to Stan. "Oh, you have Master's degrees! I had no idea you had Master's degrees!" Master's degrees in the Fine Arts don't fly too well on the farm. Then I brought up the fact that Stan and I don't want kids, and we're happy that other people are having them instead. "Well, to each his own," she said. Top that off with me being an only child of two only children, and the fact that Stan and I were married at a Justice of the Peace, that's just too much for a conservative German-American Catholic Republican from a very large family to handle.
Nope, we'll never get past the kitchen now.
On the bright side, Tim's dad is a nice, friendly farm guy. He doesn't have the intellectual interests as my dad or Stan's newly found biological dad, but he's the most normal of all our fathers. On the mother side though, I think Stan and I have pretty nice ones. It's odd how we all revert to being a teenager whenever we visit our parents. I think Jerry Seinfeld may have observed that first, but it's true. When I visit my parents, I immediately switch from my normally mellow and calm self to becoming fiesty and confrontational, like a rebellious teenager. Tim goes from his normally loquacious and loopy self to subdued and quiet. Whenever I see parents, be they my own, my in-laws, or my freinds', I always feel like I'm living right out of a Seinfeld skit. He truly mastered the art of adults interacting with their older parents and their quirks that they've been cultivating for 40 plus years.
8 Comments
Having elderly "normal" parents sounds like lots of fun to me! =o) Seems like they all get weird ideas and strange rules they live by, like Tim's mom not letting some people get past the kitchen ;o]
It's good everything is alright with Persephone.
Posted by Nico @ 03/27/2002 05:53 PM CST
you know...you mentioning the catholic thing, there was this lady in New Mexico awile back who swore she saw Jesus in a tortilla, and alot of folks made this trip to it....damn those people are bizarre! whew!
And Ann, i must correct you. You DO have kids. Intelligent ones at that. Who are creative, full of their own unique personality, loyal, and dependant, and oh so loving. And hey, so they have fur, like all over their bodies, and tails....(( like that kid in India that i saw on Ripliy's Belive it ir Not )) and whiskers... but no matter what anyone says...they ARE your kids.
ANd to hell with anyone who scoffs at you choosing not to have human ones. I think it takes alot more intelligence to choose that option, than to just have them and regret it later.Because i can assure you now without a doubt, even though i coose to have ahuman or two...they age you quicker, teen life can be hell, yes there are rewards, but damn....what the hell was i thinkin! ;) And they have said that women lose brain cells having kids, and i am chasing mine as i type.......;)
Posted by Lori @ 03/28/2002 12:52 AM CST
I can't imagine that anyone actually regret it later that they got kids, if they're first there you love them more than anyone and anything and can't imagine life without them. Or?? ;o]
And I think women lose more braincells by watching soapoperas and Ricki Lake than they do by being pregnant ;o]
Posted by Nico @ 03/28/2002 05:01 AM CST
Glad to hear Persephone is ok! :o)
Parents are parents. We love them no matter what they do. I'm sure they say the same things about kids! heheee..... :op
Posted by Maria @ 03/28/2002 06:28 AM CST
Nico, you think Tim's parents sound normal? Well, maybe his dad is, but his mom...hmmmm...all I can say is that I'm glad she wasn't my mom, 'cause with her as my mom and my own dad as my dad, I would've become the Ann-T-Christ, not just Ann-S-Thesia.
And that would be an interesting study. Have four groups of women, one that was pregnant, one that watched Ricki Lake, another that was both pregnant and watched Ricki Lake, and a control group that was neither pregnant nor watched Ricki Lake, and see which group lost the most brain cells.
Lori, I saw a giraffe in the clouds once...and I think I saw that tortilla lady on tv. And once I saw tiny plaid macaronis covering Stan's bedroom walls when we were dating and indulged in some...well, I won't tell you what...I never saw Jesus, though. Especially in a tortilla. But wait...I saw him at Tim' parent's house. And he's kinda cute from that picture.
Yes, my furpeople are my babies. And my greenpeople too (chlorophyl people?)
Posted by Ann @ 03/28/2002 09:08 AM CST
I don't know what normal parents are like, I just think that it must be good to have some at all, even so they are high on Jesus ;o] I don't know really.
Well, it will probably be less silly comments from me in the future as it seems like my active onlinelife is reaching the end. If my mailbox ever decide to work again I will write you. Be patient.
Posted by Nico @ 03/28/2002 02:39 PM CST
I like your silly comments, Nico (I don't think they're that silly!). And I like everyone's comments, be they silly or serious.
I guess this is a good time to say how much I appreciate my readers/visitors!
Posted by Ann @ 03/29/2002 08:50 AM CST
well you know, there are people i know who do regret having kids, and what a damn shame. i know they test you and piss you off royally at times, but geez!
And the brain cell thing was an actual study they did, that proved females do lose brain cells combined with pregnancy. yet, even though i "indulged" in the wonderful world of psychodelics in my youth:: brain cell losses there!:: i still believe one can regain them too....
see...that's why us mom's, when we get in a various state, call our kids by different names...brain cell loss! LMAO
Posted by Lori @ 03/30/2002 10:18 PM CST