Seasonal/political blues

I haven't felt like blogging lately. In fact I haven't felt like doing anything lately.

But I'll tell you a story. I got a political call at lunchtime today. The guy said, "Hi my name is Bob I'm calling on behalf of Jeff Perry I was hoping he could count on your support."

"...." I said.

"Hello?" he said.

"Sorry," I said. "That was a lot at once."

"Oh. Well, I just called to ask you to support Jeff Perry for Congress."

"No," I said.

"No? ....why not?"

"I am not pleased with the Republicans in general right now. They're far too combative."

"Combative?!?" he said. "We're not.. huff huff... sputter sputter..."

"Have you watched TV lately?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "The system is broken and it can't continue on the way it's going. Don't you want the government to be fixed?"

"Of course I do," I said. "But I'm not sure why you seem so surprised that I used the word 'combative' to describe Republicans." (I mean, geez, mister, you're being it right now. Caught up in the hype - any hype will do.)

"Have you seen what the Democrats are doing?" he sputtered. "Now THAT'S combative!"

"That's true here," I said. "But in general, in the wider view, Republicans' behavior fails to impress me. I would prefer to replace something bad with something better."

(The dirty Democratic politics Bob was referring to was Bill Keating's unpalatable smear campaign, which, yeah, is uncalled-for and off-putting, but not quite what I'd meant by 'combative'.)

"I'm looking hard at Maryanne Lewis," I continued. "I agree with hardly any of her opinions - I agree with two, I think, at most - but at least she's clean."

"Sputter sputter," Bob replied. "Humina humina!"

"Anyway, good luck in your campaigning," I said. "Bye!"

Hey, I'm too polite to EVER end a phone call with anything other than 'bye'. I have an example to set for my son. However I want him to speak to people, that's how I need to try to speak to people. I hope he grows more social skills than I have, though. I seem to have reached the glass ceiling for social skills. I'm as good as I'm ever going to get.

But right now socializing has been stressful and sometimes difficult. Well, it's mixed. When I talk to Karen, a lovely older lady, at mallwalking, it goes well enough. (Except she keeps bringing up astrology, and I'm sorry, I'm much more interested in astronomy.)

But then other times, I come away feeling rotten. Like the time I asked the storytime lady if she'd throw in a few more multicultural books. She apparently thought I meant specific multicultural books, and when I told her I meant multicultural books in general, she told me to search the shelves for some.

So I did.

And there was crap for choices there. Like, really almost nothing. Which is sad and strange, because I'm sure there are tons of multicultural children's books in publication. The children's librarian opined that she was sure the library had plenty of them, but my eyes told me otherwise.

I wonder if the Hyannis library has a storytime. And more multicultural storybooks. And maybe even a multiracial audience.

If it has all three, I'm totally defecting.