I had picked out the meme for this morning a few weeks ago. No, though I AM usually up around 3AM, I use the scheduling function on Blogger to automatically post most of my meme content. Today's meme, "Ready! Set! Hate!" somehow feels... a bit close to the bone today.
Husband and I spent the weekend in NYC.
Dinner Friday night at Katz's Deli.
Stayed right around the corner from "The Vessel" in Hudson Yards.
The primary reason was a periodic visit to the New York International Auto Show, at the Javits Center. My other half is contemplating an upgrade to his 10 year-old Nissan Rogue to an EV. We went with the best of intentions; happy, relaxed, contemplative. Had "Early Access" tickets that let us get in and down to the indoor EV test track; got to ride in practically everything of interest on display! Huzzah!
The Volkswagen ID Buzz.
And then after a few hours, we concluded the test drives and went back into the main floor of the nursery playground show. Into throngs of toddlers on leashes and (unsupervised) adolescents, into masses of parents with children for the sole purpose of barging into a line of waiting adults, to set the spawn behind the wheel of a $110k+ vehicle in order to take their photo while the snot locker pushed every fucking button they could find. Happy, relaxed and contemplative rapidly evaporated into... absolute contempt for the parents of these creatures, and for the hoards of unsupervised gangs of 9-13 year-olds who would push into a vehicle (they climbed over my husband, seated in a back seat, to get into one!) to lock themselves in as part of a game. Hatred. Bubbling hatred by the time we realized we had enough. I turned into "That douche bag who told my kid to get outta da cah!" I could not stop myself!
I did use this phrase... a lot.
Each time, just a wee bit louder hoping some parent would get a fucking clue. But nay, nary a clue to be found. It did not have to turn into that. But the level of ...rude was extraordinary. Numbing. There were even a few moments when I contemplated channeling my inner "Spleen" (a.k.a. Paul Rubens) to lay the little bastards to waste, but I held back.
In shows of past, these... types... were always present, but this year, it just felt WAY over the top. Even the vendors realized it was well out of control. But it was the last weekend of the show; all things considered, Mrs. Lincoln, when we left we did feel like we got to see everything we wanted to see and do what we wanted to do.
And... nothing that a pitcher of sangria with dinner at "Mercado Little Spain" afterwards could not undo. ...that and cheese cake with strawberries from Juniors Deli...
We made it home; Acela back to RI. Back to peace. And cats.
Like I said, this morning's meme was a little close to the bone.
7 comments:
One of my managers here who goes camping a lot just bought that new VW bus and he said he loves it.
With exception to your dinner and being in Hudson yards, the rest of your time sounds horrid. And it's long been my philosophy when it comes to children and noise and squealing.... it's exactly why some species eat their young.
For the most part, the show was interesting, though we found nothing of interest to research further. Husband is already on the waiting list for a Rivian R2S (we have an R1T and LOVE IT).
We had nothing else going on, no place else to be, so we just sat... and had our patience tested more ways than I care to think about. I think I want a tee-shirt with "WARNING - YOU MUST KEEP CHILD MORE THAN 30 YARDS FROM THIS PERSON. He's not a perv, he just hates your spawn."
I used to love traveling but not anymore. You get to a certain age where you've seen and heard it all once before.
The older I get, the more kids get on my nerves. Good thing I don't encounter all that many.
Yup. That ship has sailed for me/us. When I was in my 20's and dating a woman. We had a couple of "Ooops!" and missed periods. At that time in my life, my only thought was "I'm going to be a PAPA!!!". In my 30's, after I came out, I had met a wonderful lesbian couple who were interested in a surrogate doner dad. I was like, "Okay! Glad to contribute!". That fell through (they broke up). Then I hit my 50's... and it's been like "KEEP YOUR FUCKING SPAWN AWAY FROM ME!" ever since. I even catch myself muttering "Ugh! Yuck!" when I see young parents carrying their semen demons.
I have come to also realize that - it's not the child; I actually do love children, it's the parent of the child. I was born of a generation where we were taught to look people / adults in the eye and greet them. To speak when spoken to. When I see children who are just... obliviously antisocial... that, to me, is just a the conditioning by their parents - and to them I look on with great disdain. "Let me give my child an iPad to boink on while shopping so I can surf my phone in peace". Then there are just wonderful children loving dialog.
Case in point - at the auto show. Husband was looking at a car. I sat one of several large, cushioned benches across from the display. An adorable black toddler was just having a great time climbing all over the benches and came over to me and said "HI!" I lit up and said "HI!" right back to him and asked if he liked the cars. He said "Uh huh!" and bounced away. Spot on, brilliant. Perfect moment in time. Not like many of the other interactions throughout the day.
Katz's is the best, ain't it?
It's amazing how parents no longer control their kids. We got a generation right now that thinks the world owes them everything.
Ugh, children.
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