Might as well laugh as cry

I have been tasked with writing a post that is  lighter, easier.. and unfortunately sooo very unlike the REAL me.... Evie and I were just talking by e-mail. She says she is kinda busy:
"I have my lab practical today and a midterm next Monday that I've been desperately studying for. Tonight after the lab exam, I'm going to be addressing the gigantic laundry pile that has developed and I promised to make supper. I'm not balancing my life very well. If you want to post something lighter, easier, feel free. As I say that, I have no idea what that could be, ha ha. When all the dust clears and I have a moment to think straight (fingers crossed) . . ."
Like Evie, we all promise ourselves we will someday find time to take care of ourselves...(fingers crossed).

Well how does anyone find their way back to  their own special brand of funny-bone when it comes to living life after the knock on the door? (You know the knock I'm talking about? Maybe you had more of a raid than a knock . . .). See how busy we all are trying to keep things together? See Evie's e-mail above? Busy is hardly the right word for such lives as ours. Not after "the knock on the door".

Now April is Stop Child Sexual Abuse Month. It is also Stop Sexual Assault Month. Just for a start, I now raise my magic-mother scepter and hereby declare that 2014 is now officially Stop Picking on the Sex Offender's Wife Year.  Maybe we could all sign petitions and, henceforth, make it an annual observance?

But what do I know? I am an inveterate grouch. And much of the time I am just plain angry about something... nothing light and easy there... (I hate to admit it, but sometimes...I am even one of those frowning women, standing around at 2AM, complaining about weight gain by the light of an open refrigerator door.) Picture that!!

My mother, who lived through some very bad times with my father, her own resident sex offender, used to say, "Might as well laugh as cry." She also fomented (admittedly a very limited) rebellion when she said, "Tyrants make hypocrites." But oh well. And after all that, I turned around and married a man "who seemed strangely familiar". (Remember the old joke, "Wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have no luck at all"?  Well that's some of us in a nutshell.) The real tragedy is . . . I won't even go there. This is supposed to be a light and easy blog meant to cheer us all up. But if this pisses you off . . 

My suggestion is to start your own blog, write comments on Not the Life, flame me on Wind Harp Tree as a grouchy know-nothing ...Get it all out of your system before you have to wake the kids up, take them to the baby sitter (and hope against hope that the babysitter agrees to take them even though you know the baby is running a temp, not (really) just cutting more teeth.)

Get all of it out of your system before you have to go to work tomorrow morning. Before you have to lie about why you really need to take Tuesday off... to go back to court...maybe to visit the jail, maybe to see your molested kid who hates you and is in foster care now. 

Isn't it about time to learn how to keep your life in separate compartments, confined like the icons on your desktop, like invisible gateways to the separate programs where you divide your life now. (but, wait, wasn't that how your sex offender managed  to keep you in the dark  for so long?) And now here you are learning how to hard it is to keep your mouth shut, keep a smile on your face about, well, almost everything you still care about.

So keep a (hidden ) journal, Rant anonymously, Whine...( I just saw a sign that advised "Wine a little, you'll feel better.")   However, I say "Never never drink, not in front of your social worker anyway!" You know, get a little silly, watch cartoons, eat low cal popcorn with your kids, Gripe a lot, save the chocolate cake for night time raids on the by the light of the refrigerator (eaten that way even chocolate cake has fewer calories.. my friends tell me) but most of all remember...

Whether you find ways to laugh or you are forever depressed, It's your choice.  And grouch that I am, I agree with my mother, You  might just as well laugh as cry... Learn to at least Interrupt all the anger once in awhile. Laugh, Post a cartoon, Tell us the joke. You  really are in good company here.

Just Keep it Funny!

(P.S. This is Evie. Instead of doing my laundry and studying, I took the kids out to pizza, let them spend too many quarters on candy and arcade games, and then I came home to eat ice cream. I am proud of myself when I put the important things first: family time, laughter, and sleep. I advise you all do the same, no matter how painful the rest of life is. And watch Lilo and Stitch when you have the chance so that there will be at least one social worker on this planet that you love).