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  <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:222407</id>
  <title>chicating</title>
  <subtitle>chicating</subtitle>
  <author>
    <name>chicating</name>
  </author>
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  <updated>2023-09-16T22:14:47Z</updated>
  <dw:journal username="chicating" type="personal"/>
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    <id>tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:222407:45960</id>
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    <title>Wish I could be all "This is what fifty looks like,"</title>
    <published>2023-09-15T21:38:01Z</published>
    <updated>2023-09-16T22:14:47Z</updated>
    <category term="life"/>
    <category term="50"/>
    <category term="birthday"/>
    <category term="bittercrip"/>
    <dw:mood>pensive</dw:mood>
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    <content type="html">(Even if it's not till Monday, and I'm still halfway hoping for some kind of metamorphosis over the weekend. Even a full-on Gregor Samsa would give me more mobility, I guess, though there would be a lot else not to love about that shit.) And, okay, a few things have worked out since I was twenty-five: I've learned to meditate and half-assed find my body on a size chart.  I finally found a decent moisturizer and occasionally have lived up to maybe half my promise as a prize-winning collegiate ink-stained wretch, if nowhere near what I imagined at sixteen or so(well, see, I believed in equality, access, and meritocracy, only to find out later that the Land Of The Free(TM) isn't into it, nor that whole "Leave no man behind," thing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My life is on a thinner thread than most other Americans could ever imagine, much less cope with, or smile through.(what passes for a long-range plan is making  a short list of people who help us and just... hoping they don't die before something else good happens...the long term care apparatus is as  fake as a Western backlot, but much more oppressive and onerous.  Judgemental, too. It sucks to feel that the activist you have the deepest common ground with is the one *on parole*, especially since you have no funny bender stories or wacky crime sprees because, even though your toes were on foot-pedals the whole time, you did nothing as well as you've toed someone else's line.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Am I a good person, or just really scared a lot and inclined to vomit and/or soil myself.ETA: Mostly under duress, but if I eat too much or too little or something hits me wrong, I could have an Anything Can Happen Thursday on any day. Guess I can't get romantic about the Peace Corps either. As the ad from my youth said  "Inquiring minds want to know..."(Well, okay, maybe just one. Maybe just the most important one.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; So there's that...it's a real triumph of the human spirit watching  them go with their strengths I've stopped trying to have a better attitude, but I work better with the anger, anyway, so my job is kind of thrilled with that. And if paralympics ever has a "Dozens over 45" category, I'm so signing up!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok, I admit it.  I'd like to be touched in an impure way by mutual consent again before I finally die.(If we can also hang out and talk about books or politics or something, that would really be a cherry on the sundae.) Also, I'd like someone to bring at least one dramedy out next year(once the writers have their new bangin' contract) so I could maybe have a My Show again. Something where I can fangirl the actors and put the first fanfic in the archive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am so sorry I can't play my cultural part and swear that I wouldn't change a thing or that when God nailed all my doors shut, He put in a skylight...not just for whoever ends up reading this, but for me. More than anything.  But it's not true. Yet, anyway.(Blink and you'll miss it, but, hey: Optimism! Crippled magic!)&lt;br /&gt;Even Gloria has lived to get tired of her little tossed-out quip as it has followed her through so many Big Days, including, iirc, her bittersweet marriage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=chicating&amp;ditemid=45960" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/&gt; comments</content>
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