Moments of Permanence - The extraction of poisoned barbs

From: lanning Date: May 16th, 2009 12:13 pm (UTC) (Link)

*hugs* People are so fucking ignorant. I'm glad you took your day back, hon.

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 02:38 am (UTC) (Link)

Thank you. It can be hard; fortunately, I knew that my Dreamwidth journal would be a safe place to talk about this, and it's really nice to have been right about that.

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From: sqbr Date: May 16th, 2009 12:35 pm (UTC) (Link)

Bah! People suck.

Well, except the ones that don't, obviously.

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 02:42 am (UTC) (Link)

Yeah, really.

(Elaboration because you know the people/places involved.) Seriously, this was just outside Reid. Part of why it cut so deep is that I'm used to uni just... not being like that, you know? Like, the Library/Arts area is kind of familiar territory to me.

Chas said that, curiously enough, he'd already parsed that guy as a threat; he would have been actively surprised if the guy hadn't made a comment to *one* of us.

Chas is also totally awesome, because his first reaction, automatically, was to move between the guy and me, and if the guy had made a move towards me, Chas was ready to stop him.

This is why, if not immune to verbal taunts, I feel safe with Chas around. Chas is fast, Chas is stronger than he looks, and Chas has my back.

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From: sqbr Date: May 18th, 2009 04:37 am (UTC) (Link)

I hate that nowhere is totally safe from this sort of crap :(

Chas is indeed awesome.

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From: trouble Date: May 16th, 2009 01:36 pm (UTC) (Link)

I love you.

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 02:42 am (UTC) (Link)

*hugs* Thank you.

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From: lazulisong Date: May 16th, 2009 02:04 pm (UTC) (Link)

what a fucking asswipe!

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 02:43 am (UTC) (Link)

srs.

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From: smillaraaq.livejournal.com Date: May 16th, 2009 03:40 pm (UTC) (Link)

Grrrr. I'm sorry you had to deal with that idiot. And noting his size and appearance is perfectly relevant, since while his comments would be every bit as presumptuous and offensive coming from someone slim and toned, in this case they're coming along with an added level of eye-rolling hypocrisy and double standards.

(And good on you for squelching the DST nonsense! That's one thing I will never, ever get used to after growing up in a state that ignores it, and no, more than a decade now of living under that sleep-disrupting headache has not overcome my resistance in the slightest -- if anything, I'd say I hate it more and more with each passing year.)

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 02:50 am (UTC) (Link)

I know. I have this element of "well, I may be fat, but you know what - I've showered recently" going. *cough*

I only realised afterwards the degree to which I usually feel physically threatened by guys like that (which used not to bother me, since I could handle myself in a fight, but since being debilitated by chronic pain I've lost that confidence), but didn't at all then - because I was with my brother-out-law, who is deceptively strong, very fast, and protective of me. It's this forcefield of "I know you can't touch me, because my big brother will TAKE YOU DOWN if you try." So ultimately it's a giant relief that Chas was with me, at least.

As for DST: Yeah, it's stupid. Western Australia has *always* ignored it, and people keep agitating for it, so every few years we have a referendum, and people vote against it. (Which is why many of us were extremely pissed off at the forced observance for three years as a means of trying to overcome resistance.) The biggest whine tends to come from people who have to do business with the Eastern States, and object to the increased time difference during summer. The strongest objections tend to come from farmers.

There was an article in one of our newspapers (which had a distinctly anti-DST editorial slant) featuring interviews with stockbrokers who complained that they had to be at work really really early during summer without it.

My sympathy was not evoked.

Things are looking good - over 70% of the vote counted before they knocked off for the night, and we've got about 55% no. It's more-or-less guaranteed it's been shot down again. Hopefully the fact that the margin is *bigger* than before this time means this topic can finally die in this state... but sadly, I doubt it.

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From: smillaraaq.livejournal.com Date: May 17th, 2009 01:59 pm (UTC) (Link)

There was an article in one of our newspapers (which had a distinctly anti-DST editorial slant) featuring interviews with stockbrokers who complained that they had to be at work really really early during summer without it.

My sympathy was not evoked.

Oh, cry me a river. Do the folks doing business internationally want to shove the time adjustment around even higher while they're at it, just so they don't have to be the only ones shifting their alarm clocks about? Pathetic.

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From: fayance Date: May 16th, 2009 05:41 pm (UTC) (Link)

I'm so sorry you had to go through that; why are people so small and petty and hung up on exterior appearances, sigh? I know some outwardly attractive people who are complete a**holes but they get by with crap because they LOOK good; makes me ill. I gained 40 lbs this past year with a tumor/growth on my thyroid and felt so physically ill and exhausted and had people insinuating that I must hate myself to have let myself go so badly; well, idiots, I was ILL, and even if that hadn't been the reason for my weight gain, that was still a cruel and thoughtless thing to say. No one has the right to criticize any other human being for the way they look, whether they can 'help it' or not. My sis was born with one eye smaller than the other and even with surgeries in her childhood it is still rather noticeable that one eye is smaller; so all her childhood she had cruel children refusing to let her play with them on the playground unless she would agree to be the 'one-eyed monster.' Breaks my heart for her still and she's 54 now and still devastated by that deep in her heart. So I am sending you hugs and smiles; and though I don't know you (yet!), you sound like such a bright, empathetic, wonderful person!

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 03:05 am (UTC) your spn icon provokes mine (Link)

Thank you.

It is one of those things that sticks with you - I suspect it would bother me less if I didn't have childhood issues assocated with it too, but even if that weren't the case... whose business is it but mine?

My best friend is beautiful, but a good and caring person, who isn't a jerk about appearances. (Oddly, some people are jerks *to her* because they resent that she's better-looking than they are, but that's a whole other thing.) Both she and Chas tell me I'm beautiful, and sometimes I can see it, but this crap can make it hard.

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From: velithya Date: May 17th, 2009 06:34 am (UTC) Re: your spn icon provokes mine (Link)

♥

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 06:38 am (UTC) Re: your spn icon provokes mine (Link)

...

You know that look, where I do that sort of sideways smile? The smile when I'm kind of having trouble admitting to the smile?

*points at face*

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From: velithya Date: May 17th, 2009 06:40 am (UTC) Re: your spn icon provokes mine (Link)

SMILE

IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER

AND YOU KNOW IT

(ps. teeth bitch)

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From: morgan_dhu Date: May 16th, 2009 05:43 pm (UTC) (Link)

If I had put a dollar into a savings account for every complete stranger who ever came up to me under conditions that gave them absolutely no inforamtion about my medical history, lifestyle or eating habits and said such things as:

"you need to stop eating greasy hamburgers"
"you're going to die if you keep eating"
"you really should go on a diet"
"you should exercise more"
"you'd be so pretty if you lost weight"
And on and on and on...

well, by goddess, I'd be able to retire and live off the interest.

It's hard to get back your strength after something like that. Good for you!

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 03:07 am (UTC) (Link)

Ugh, yeah, that stuff is terrible. I get the "you'd be beautiful if you lost weight" thing from family, and it only reduces my affection for that person. My "real" family - my brother-out-law and my best friend (who is his fiancee), who are not biologically related to me but are, in fact, the ones who treat me like family should - tell me I'm beautiful now.

I'd rather believe them.

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From: keeva Date: May 16th, 2009 05:58 pm (UTC) (Link)

Fuck! What an asshole!

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From: keeva Date: May 17th, 2009 02:58 am (UTC) (Link)

By the way, after living in Arizona for 4 years (only U.S. state that entirely rejects DST), I totally agree with you.

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From: sami Date: May 17th, 2009 03:08 am (UTC) (Link)

I know, right? DST is made of fail and suck, and I really, really wish people would stop trying to persuade us to take it up.

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From: lurksnomore Date: May 18th, 2009 08:09 pm (UTC) (Link)

I have never and will never understand why anyone would ever disparage and demean a random stranger. How small does anyone have to be to need to do that? I'm glad that you have a Chas and a Dean in your life, to be there when they can and I think it is great that you will not let it define your day!

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