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Really Trying Here-Another Blog About Depression
This is another entry that won’t get posted to social media. My birthday is coming up on the 15th. I’ll be 58. Big whoop. I’m not doing anything to celebrate, other than not killing myself. (Little morbid humor here.) I’m giving a few presents to friends, since that’s a thing started in my family. On your birthday, you give stuff to significant others to say “thank you”. People think it’s weird. I don’t care. On FB for my birthday donation org, I requested people donate to the National Suicide Hotline. Fitting, no? I’ve not called during this bout…yet. I’m saving that for my last desperate moments.
So what am I doing now? I tried to resign my position with VA ORG. I was told by the powers that be that they decided to ignore that decision. I informed them that I might show up at meetings now wearing a shirt that bears the words NO RESPECT. Lol. I had an LTE get published. I’ve had meetings out the wazoo. I had to go INTO the library to work, as opposed to working from home. I’ve had 2 friends over to eat, thereby violating my “no millennials” rule I had established a while back. I even went out for a drink. So I’ve been active.
And the entire time I’ve been actively depressed, desperately so. As in on the verge. I’ve found a home for Miss P, should I cease to exist. I’ve given dishes away. I’ve thought about who should get my teaware. I’ve thought about how I would pack everything I own in neat boxes to given to the appropriate organization, if I decided to kill myself. I don’t own much. It would not take long. I could do it in one day. I’ve thought about this.
I’ve been telling people I’m struggling. This really shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me. I’m not quite there yet. But the drumbeats are getting louder….
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Why Appalachia Needs Immigrants
The following is a repost of a LTE I had published recently in the Bristol Herald Courier. I could have made a much more nuanced argument but for brevity’s sake decided to K-I-S-S.
The other day I overheard a person (white older male) comment that that he was tired of seeing all these immigrants coming in and stealing jobs away from good, hard-working Americans and he esp. didn’t want any of them around HERE! I felt compelled then to answer him in this letter. Sir, have you noticed that the population of SWVA is shrinking? We are losing folks, not gaining them. The young people are leaving, by and large, and it is the habit of old people to die. That alone would seem a rather good reason to be welcoming immigrants, not discouraging them. And, let me say, they are indeed NOT taking jobs away from hard-working Americans. Have you seen any immigrants lazing around the streets or just hanging out at a coffee shop? I’d hazard a guess not. Chances are the immigrants you HAVE seen have most likely been working harder than many Americans would at the jobs they have and doing them very efficiently while learning a new language, to boot. Think about that the next time you talk about stealing jobs. And have you SEEN all the “help wanted” signs out? Americans aren’t lining up for these jobs. Finally, and I can’t believe I’m having to say this, WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS, indigenous inhabitants excepted (and they too originally walked from somewhere else). It’s just a matter of when did we get here? The United States was founded by immigrants; it has traditionally welcomed immigrants; and that has long been a source of pride and strength for this nation. It can be for APPALACHIA, too. If we let it. a -
Close Encounters Of The Creepy Kind
Yesterday I had an up-close and personal encounter that was beyond creepy. It was with two Melaleuca devotees, the company, not tea tree products in general. This was my second brush with this particular scam, and it confirmed my general STRONG feeling that these folks are just icky, as well as as determined to part you from your money. Here’s what went down:
I had found a flyer at the library for an outfit called The Company Store claiming to sell organic cleaning products and offering free samples. I was curious and called the number for the rep but also instructed them NOT to return my call if they represented a MLM. I had MELALEUCA as a company in mind specifically, since I had had an unpleasant brush with them early in the 90s and did not care to repeat it. I got a return phone call, and the woman assured me she did NOT represent a MLM, she said she was local, and would like to meet with me to show me what she could offer. I said that I was looking for a way to cut down on my use of plastics in my cleaning products, wanted a plant-based cleaning system, and had to be extremely cautious about switching from my current products (METHOD). We agreed to meet at the library.
I’m at the library, and a couple shows up. Right away I get an odd vibe from them. It’s a HOT day, yet the man is wearing a long-sleeved shirt completely buttoned up. But, okay, whatever. The woman is dressed in standard Walmart. So they proceed to tell me THEY REPRESENT MELALEUCA!!! I audibly groan and inform them that I’ve already been through one go-round with Melaleuca,and didn’t I ask you NOT to return my call if you represented a MLM? Oh, it’s not a MLM, they assure me. (They obviously think I’m stupid here.) Then the dude proceeds to pull out a bottle of Melaleuca Tea Tree Oil and tell me WHAT IT IS. (Hello, I’ve already told you I know what Melaleuca IS???) Then they go into their spiel and give me the hard sell, which I have explained to them was PRECISELY what drove me away the FIRST time, aside from the poor products, the point system, and the fact that the whole thing is a fucking scam. They explained that “all you need to spend per month to remain a member is 80.00!” Well, geez, 80.00 on products that aren’t what they claim to be (organic), don’t work, and cost a heck of a lot more than my products that DO work? SIGN ME UP, JACK!!! NOT! These folks just didn’t hear me….
And here is where the creepiness REALLY amps up: religion was just oozing all over this meeting. This was a Saturday, right? Well, these folks were on their way to CHURCH afterwards. And that’s fine. Good for them. BUT…they had taken note of my name. At the end of the meeting they asked if I were Jewish. I said yes. The guy pulled out a TALLIS and said that his pastor is teaching his weird Jews-for Jesus-type church Hebrew (but pretty sure that they have no actual Jews, just Christians doing their own Jew-ish-oid thing). He then invited me to attend. Ummm, that would a firm “no, thank you.” I had an encounter with a similar maybe even the same group years before when I lived here. My chiropractor violated HIPAA, disclosed my deets to this little merry band of whatevs, and they hounded me: phone calls; flyers; even showed up at my residence. But now I know attorneys….a fair amount of attorneys, and I’m not afraid to call upon them. I will find out what I can do to legally restrain your harassment this time, church or not. Ugh. I DO NOT NEED THIS.
Throughout all of this I was very polite to these people. I was never disdainful or rude, even when they went into their Hebrew Christian speech (and that sort of thing REALLY pisses me off.) I just gave a nod and said something neutral. But these folks prey on people, IMO. People who might not realize that they are getting into a MLM with substandard products that WILL pressure you to BUY products you might not be able to afford AND to recruit other people into their little pyramid scheme. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks a duck, and tests genetically as a duck, I’m sorry, IT’S A FUCKING DUCK. Don’t lie to my face and tell me, “It’s not a duck (MLM)!”
