A Distant Beach and More Thunder
We had something of a slightly insane day. First the bank for moving around a few investments. The bank is pretty weird to me because about a year ago we got our own personal banker. If we need anything we call, make an appointment and Jose Drysdale (not his name really) makes it happen, even if he has to drive out here. I feel guilty every single time we swan into the bank and around the madding crowd to the offices in the back. We never wait, and he's accommodating.
But it was the afternoon that got strange. We were invited over for lunch to someone we both knew very slightly from church. A lady I'm going to call Sunshine (not to be confused with my friend Sunshine that gave me a huge candle for Christmas) who was living in the back of beyond up a mountain, down a ravine within sight of the beaches north of Cabo Velas.
The lunch was nice, Italian, followed by a tour of the house in one of those gringo gated subdivisions. The house was nice enough, but not as new or well built as ours. Lots and lots of that shiplap wooden siding. They only had ac in one room. The pool was minuscule. Still, all in all it was a pretty little house that was beautifully decorated with lavish touches.
The problem started over Sambuca, coffee, and profiteroles. Our hostess had made enough comments about Jesus, faith and religion for me to judge she was an unsafe person for me. I just knew I was going to be horribly triggered eventually, and it happened. It started simply when she and Jim started praising Joel Osteen. She'd already made a few pro Trump statements, so I had fun busting her bubble just a hair by telling her that Osteen had marched (very uncomfortably) in the Black Lives Matter rally in Houston.
Then both she and my husband fell right straight off the conspiracy theory territory into madness. Jim saying that there were loads of Nazis in the Ukraine, and he said he didn't blame Putin at all for taking over the Ukraine to keep NATO out. I cannot talk to him about these subjects because many times he goes off into a Tucker Carlson talking points.
This Tucker Carlson fixation is new. I keep pointing out what a total and complete bonehead Carlson is, insisting two years ago that Costa Rica was an island and other mistakes that someone just a little smarter would not make.
I was raised that in social situations, like lunch with a new friend, you don't talk about religion or politics. I had no desire to speak of either, much less crazy conspiracy theories. Once Sunny started screeching out about the faked mail in ballots that lost Trump the election and how he'd been screwed over by this evil Democratic cabal and mail in ballots I kind of lost it. I stood up, pointed out that this election was the most closely monitored and the GAO and other orgs found no fraud. That ending mail in voting would affect her and us, that mail in voting predates the Civil War. That the local election board matches the signatory on each sealed ballot to count them, and confirm they are legitimate.
Still the Trump lady refused to stop. I started telling Jim we needed to go. It was just unpleasant and off putting. I was highly triggered and went back into that traumatized state I lived in after leaving my old church, being harassed on the streets of our town, and having similar conspiracy theories thrown at me.
I swear. This new church might be the breaking point for Jim and I. Every single person I run into from there is either trying to bully me into removing my mask, or spouting terrible ideas, or verklempting about Biden being the Anti Christ (I thought Obama was the Anti Christ!)
Just discovered she has my email address and has filled up the box with the same demented stuff. Jesus wept.
Yes, it's thundering here and some of it is me.
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