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Jun. 17th, 2014 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raincitygirlGakked from twistedchick, What's Killing All the Bees? Long, but fascinating.
Cutting for blethering about neuroses and ancient (but juicy) family gossip about adultery.
I am going through a very neurotic phase at the moment. It is coinciding with me going through a sleepless phase. Possibly not a total coincidence. The last time my doctor had me keeping a sleep diary, I slept like a baby, so I was hoping the journalling would improve my sleep. If anything, however, my sleep has worsened since I started keeping the diary.
My current neurosis involves not being able to open letters without having a full-fledged panic attack. I have longstanding mail anxiety, but it’s a heck of a lot worse than usual right now. I had a long letter two weeks ago from Uncle #1, probably totally innocuous, but I don’t know because I can’t read it. I was at my doctor’s on Friday after work and brought the letter with me so I could read it there. Short version: didn’t happen. Sigh. Generalized Anxiety Disorder sucks.
I had my second-to-last French class last night, and got to tell the story (in French) of my great-uncle and his second wife. Some years ago, my paternal grandfather’s brother (now deceased) announced that he was getting remarried. This caused a sensation in the extended family, because he’d been a widower for about 15 years at this point, never shown any interest in getting remarried. His new bride was a recent widow, and if memory serves they only waited until her first husband had been dead for a year before they got married. Her grown children were a bit huffy about it, if family gossip is to be believed.
So, they got married, and were by all accounts very happy together until he died at the age of 92. On my last visit to England, after my great-uncle had already died, and when his second wife was in very poor health (she was no spring chicken herself by that point), I mentioned to Uncle #1 that I’d been surprised when they got married. He raised his eyebrows and said, “You mean you didn’t know they’d been having an affair for thirty years before they got married?”
After I got over the shock I thought it was kind of sweet. I mean, obviously the whole extramarital affair business was pretty shady, from the point of view of their respective spouses at least. But staying loyal to your affair partner for three decades shows a remarkable level of commitment in your adultery. It’s a bit like Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, I suppose. I wonder if her children (my great-uncle’s second wife’s children, not the Duchess of Cornwall’s children) knew or suspected about the affair. Could be why they were huffy.
twistedchick, What's Killing All the Bees? Long, but fascinating. Cutting for blethering about neuroses and ancient (but juicy) family gossip about adultery.
I am going through a very neurotic phase at the moment. It is coinciding with me going through a sleepless phase. Possibly not a total coincidence. The last time my doctor had me keeping a sleep diary, I slept like a baby, so I was hoping the journalling would improve my sleep. If anything, however, my sleep has worsened since I started keeping the diary.
My current neurosis involves not being able to open letters without having a full-fledged panic attack. I have longstanding mail anxiety, but it’s a heck of a lot worse than usual right now. I had a long letter two weeks ago from Uncle #1, probably totally innocuous, but I don’t know because I can’t read it. I was at my doctor’s on Friday after work and brought the letter with me so I could read it there. Short version: didn’t happen. Sigh. Generalized Anxiety Disorder sucks.
I had my second-to-last French class last night, and got to tell the story (in French) of my great-uncle and his second wife. Some years ago, my paternal grandfather’s brother (now deceased) announced that he was getting remarried. This caused a sensation in the extended family, because he’d been a widower for about 15 years at this point, never shown any interest in getting remarried. His new bride was a recent widow, and if memory serves they only waited until her first husband had been dead for a year before they got married. Her grown children were a bit huffy about it, if family gossip is to be believed.
So, they got married, and were by all accounts very happy together until he died at the age of 92. On my last visit to England, after my great-uncle had already died, and when his second wife was in very poor health (she was no spring chicken herself by that point), I mentioned to Uncle #1 that I’d been surprised when they got married. He raised his eyebrows and said, “You mean you didn’t know they’d been having an affair for thirty years before they got married?”
After I got over the shock I thought it was kind of sweet. I mean, obviously the whole extramarital affair business was pretty shady, from the point of view of their respective spouses at least. But staying loyal to your affair partner for three decades shows a remarkable level of commitment in your adultery. It’s a bit like Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, I suppose. I wonder if her children (my great-uncle’s second wife’s children, not the Duchess of Cornwall’s children) knew or suspected about the affair. Could be why they were huffy.
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Date: 2014-06-18 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 08:29 am (UTC)