Finally Friday #2
May 6, 2016
Mood: Resolved
- Healing is hard. I battled my way through a pain spike for days, losing miserably because sometimes you can only win by not fighting, and this is a concept I totally stink at. How do people just veg and do nothing? I made myself lie down and give in to the urge to pass out at least once a day when JuggerLB was napping. It was bizarre but effective, the pain spikes were less severe and a little bit lower for each spike, the jagged aches were a little less intense for every 8-10 hours of sleep. Bless PiC for taking the brunt of the Unstoppable JuggerLB’s onslaught so that I could get that precious sleep.
- Friends depicted LB as the Unstoppable JuggerBaby and it’s so apt I haven’t been able to stop calling hir that ever since.
- I scored 48 on the Do you live in a bubble? quiz. What do you score?
- On a quest to annoy me to pieces, my craptacular phone’s trick this week is to keep turning off Mobile Data. STOP THAT.
- This may come to you as a surprise but we didn’t win a million dollars. Or even a $5 gift card.
- Last minute bonus: OUR REFINANCE IS COMPLETE. Wahoooooo!
Happy Friday, y’all! How was your week? What’s on for your weekend?
I saw that bubble test on someone else’s blog, so I took it and had my husband take it, too. I’ve often tried to explain how different our backgrounds were, but he didn’t really “get” that. The questions on this quiz allowed us to speak about some of those differences, which was a great way to really illustrate how being raised in a rural, blue-collar, low-income family is different than being raised in a metropolitan, white-collar, upper/middle income family. His score was in the 20s, and mine was 65.
I don’t know how much I feel about it being likened to the “American mindset,” because I’ve often felt very out of place due to my upbringing–more so than feeling like I’m part of a majority of any kind. It’s interesting to feel like you live between two worlds, belonging to neither fully anymore. I’ve always found people in both places who are unkind when they find out that I’ve “lived” in the other place. 🙁
I score 39 on the Bubble quiz. It’s an interesting set of questions, that’s for sure.
I totally live in a bubble and I know it. I scored 31.
Congrats on the refinance! Sorry about your missing out on the million bucks. Next time, for sure!
LOL! “JuggerBaby”…that’s good. I used to call mine a similar alarming nickname. Without doubt I was then and still am the only human ever to say to hir kid, with a straight face, “Please don’t walk on the ceiling.”
Tried the Bubble Test and found it…what? Sappy? Insipid? Limiting? Box-putting-in? No…I’m afraid the word is “offensive.”
“Have you ever lived for at least a year in an American neighborhood in which the majority of your 50 nearest neighbors did not have college degrees?”
HUH? How many people go around polling their neighbors on the highest level of education they completed? And so what if you DID live in such a neighborhood (if you could prove it)? As a matter of fact, I lived in Sun City after my parents moved there; in the 1960s most middle-class Americans aged 55 and older were not college graduates.
“Have you ever walked on a factory floor?”
Answer: Yes.
Pop-up follow-up question:
“Was it related to your job?”
Yes — job entailed routine visits to factory floors
Yes — worked on a factory floor
No
Answer: None of the above. I was a journalist and on occasion I visited and toured factories on assignment.
The choices make no allowances for people who have been raised overseas, for first-generation college graduates, for people whose thinking or habits don’t fit the norm, for people who own a pick-up because they own a business in ranching, construction, or the like, for people who own a pick-up for no other reason than that they WANT to own a pick-up, for people who live modestly because they have no desire to be in debt up to their eyeballs…you name it.
“Have you ever held a job that caused something to hurt at the end of the day?
“The question applies to any part of the body that hurts because of physical labor using the large muscles. Headaches don’t count, neither does carpal tunnel syndrome, nor does a sore rear end from sitting all day in front of a computer screen. Sore feet from having to stand up for long periods of time, however, do count.”
Uhm…so crippling back and hip pain don’t count because they were brought on by sitting at a computer instead of sitting at a truck’s steering wheel or standing at a cash register ? SERIOUSLY, dude?
“Have you ever had a close friend who was an evangelical Christian?
“The distinguishing characteristics of evangelical Christians are belief in the historical accuracy of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, including especially the divinity and resurrection of Christ, and belief in the necessity of personal conversion — being “born again” — as a condition for salvation. ”
Answer: of course. Is this a reason to pigeon-hole me instead of her? Am I supposed to spurn someone whose religious beliefs don’t come up to some shallow class-marker standard? At the risk of repeating myself: SERIOUSLY, dude?????
“Have you ever purchased Avon products?” (Is that like “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party”?)
Yes
No
I didn’t have to. My mother tried to sell them. When she couldn’t get rid of the junk, we ended up with all the “free samples” she’d paid for, plus a bunch of full-sized containers of the products that we couldn’t get rid of. On the other hand, she and I were both given to crowding the top of the dressing table with Estee Lauder products. What does THAT say about me? Or her?
“How many times in the last year have you eaten at one of the following restaurant chains?” Names of nine purveyors of over-salted, over-sugared mass-market foodoid follow.
Answer: None of the above. I can’t even ANSWER this question. And dare I ask what THAT says about me? Note that there is no “none of the above” choice for this question.
“Answer “yes” if you got any high school varsity letter (that wasn’t for the debating team or chess club) or if you were a cheerleader or in the marching band.”
The assumption is that you naturally don’t have a disability that would preclude athletic activities. Presumably you don’t fit in ANY bubble if that’s your case?
“Have you ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club or union local?
“Note that it is not enough just to have belonged to a union. You have to have actually attended a meeting in order to answer “yes.””
So…Kiwanis and Rotary are low-class now? Sinclair Lewis must be dancing in his grave. Do the researchers understand that Kiwanis & Rotary are not the same as the AFL-CIO or MM&P? And do they consider AAUP to be a union?
“Have you ever done either of these for a trip of 50 miles or more?
“Ridden on a long-distance bus (e.g., Greyhound, Trailways)
“hitchhiked”
Yes, and yes. So what? There wasn’t any other way to get home from the university in 1965…does that make me WT? Hitch-hiked? Haven’t you ever backpacked around the outback of Alaska and Canada without a car…and done it on purpose?
“Which of the following movies have you seen (at a theater or on a DVD)?” (10 choices follow)
Answer: None of the above. Movies lost me when they started featuring nauseating violence as “entertainment.” I’m too busy adventuring around the boondocks, anyway. And that says what about my social class?
“During the 2014–15 television season, how many of the following series did you watch regularly?” (10 choices follow)
Answer: None of the above. I threw out the TV years ago, having found a number of more interesting things to do with my time.
Obnoxious, obnoxious, and obnoxiouser.
Was curious about the quiz, and I got a 7. I didn’t know that was possible.
I had to redo that quiz because it had been awhile. I got 56. The main reason for that is because of where I live now. We have a truck because we live in a rural area, etc.
A large number of my answers are due to that. I live in less of a bubble, but I definitely do not identify with the descriptor, I was raised in an upper middle to upper class neighbourhood and went to a university that had a lot of similar people there.
I thought it was interesting, though not comprehensive, and I didn’t necessarily agree with their choices for parameters but interesting to attempt to address the differences in the different economic classes.