Stuff

It's been a rough season for retailers, and I can't help but at least partly attribute that to the end of stuff.

[I interrupt this post to let you know that mom is lecturing me (from two rooms away) about failing the family in neglecting to have reproduced. This may be the [second] year that I decide it's time to stop visiting my parents. She is continuing to rant: "it's just disrespectful to your parents; I'll disinherit you." (Hasn't she already? I was sort of counting on that). "Yelena is pursuing her singing career instead of having kids, and she can't even sing!"]

The interruption and the original post came from the same source--our friends (Nina's parents), whose grandchildren, incidentally, are arriving tonight, are packing up to move (locally) and have invited us over to pick at stuff that they don't want. My parents are all over it. All I can think is, "don't you have enough crap?"

Earlier this morning, mom tried to foist upon me a bunch of unopened, untouched linens. She kept telling me about how she'd bought them when a high-end store was going out of business. She thinks she got a great deal, but from my perspective, she just wasted money, since she never used them. Mom has always been one to set value externally, i.e., based on how something is supposedly priced. I set value based on what something will add (or take away) from my life. If you don't need something, you're not going to need it at a lower price.

It's kind of funny--I mean, it's always been absurd--that mom likes to say that I care too much about what other people think. It's always been absurd because I don't, but it's even more absurd because she does. She's the same way with clothes--"try this, it's very trendy"--and I always say, "but it's not me. I don't want it." It's like she doesn't understand the concept of not wanting something that "everyone else" supposedly values (or so say the marketers).

Oh, here she goes again:

Mom: I'll disinherit you!
A.: Please do!
Mom: Don't you know that you have to respect your parents? This is our fault. We spoiled you.
Dad: Then why are you taking it out on her now?
Mom: It was one thing when she was little. She's an adult now.