February 6, 2024 - Tuesday

 

Well, nobody puked last night! And maybe it was too soon, but I decided to take the kids to our nature group today. We meet outside and nobody is friendly enough to touch one another, so I figured it would be pretty safe. Plus, I just really needed to get outside. We went to Quarry Trails and I don't know that I've been more frustrated trying to get into and out of a metro park before in my life. On the way out, I was literally near tears, trying to find my way home. I was also incredibly pissed at Ben for some selfish, manipulative crap he had just pulled, but man. I was struggling. 

I picked up food, picked up my Target order, and went home. I was relaxing on the couch, envisioning my free evening and all the good things I could do with it when Ashley texted, asking if I would want to go get a drink with her while Ellie was at dance. :( I really wanted to use the stomach bug as an excuse not to go, but Ben said he and the kids wanted to go out front and hang out, so that wouldn't work. I decided to just do it. In a way, I'm glad I did, but in another way, I wish I had just said no. So, Ben saw flowers delivered to her house and she mentioned that she couldn't eat much while we were out because Kwin was making her a special meal. I put two and two together and discovered that it was actually her birthday! And I AM glad she was able to spend her birthday with a friend(ish) person, rather than stewing alone in her car, waiting for her daughter to finish dance class. I am. But damn. The conversations we had made me absolutely despise her in some ways. 

First, she made some incredibly racist statements. And that's not even me being sensitive about the issue. She straight up said that white is the best race and how other ethnicities feel is none of her concern. She used racism in China as some kind of explanation for why it's ok for white people to be racist here? Obviously, I got pretty fired up and, more calmly than I've ever done before, refuted her, point for point. But she went on and on about all kinds of terrible things, including how "the native people" get way too much from us and they should just get over it already. She also said that she thinks any drug addicted, mentally ill, or homeless person should just be institutionalized. I kind of thought she was joking and pushed back a little, but no. She was not joking. She was serious. I reminded her that my brother was an addict and that I spent years working with mentally ill folks and people with addiction. Lumping them all together and stripping them of their humanity by locking them away is not only unconstitutional, but also just plain morally wrong. She said they inconvenienced good people way too much and something has to be done about them. *sigh* Dear God, WHY did you put this woman into my life??? These are just a few of the terrible things Ashley wanted to discuss tonight and I did stand up to her about all of them. It was terribly exhausting for me, but she is a person that loves to debate, so for her, it was just fun. I'm so frustrated. ALSO, we are trapped having a Superbowl "party" with just them, while our actual friends get to have an actual party together that we won't be able to attend. Really, really bummed after this evening with her!