Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[Piratelvr1121]

I've heard the Catholics aren't Christians from some.  Couldn't even say it was from any denomination because I've heard it from some people who had only half heard something and filled in the blanks with their own opinions.  Then I met others who said "oh we don't believe that..."

[RooRoo]

My wonderful mental health clinic was shut down, and I need a new psychiatrist for "medication management." I called another clinic.

The receptionist told me I had to call my insurance company to make sure they would pay. I told her I had just been to the insurance company's website, and her clinic was listed as a provider.

That conversation was repeated about 4 times, before she finally told me that they would need to do an intake evaluation on me before I could see the psychiatrist, and needed to know if that would be covered.

I think I'll keep looking for a new doc.

[JoW]

I am a news addict.  I listen to the local news on tv while I get ready for work.  I record the local and national news every evening so I can watch them even if I’m not home when they are on.  I read the newspaper every day.  My mother knows this.  She has complained because I watch the news too much.

I got hit with the blizzard that hit the Midwest Thursday.  It was forecast 5 days before it hit.  It made the front page of the newspaper and every local tv news shows for a full 5 days.  It made the national news several times.  School closings were announced on Wednesday evening.  They sent us home from work at noon Thursday so we would be snowbound in the relative comfort of home.  I was late for work Friday because my snow thrower broke down.  Every outdoor surface is covered with snow. 

My mother does not live in this area.  When I got home Thursday afternoon I e-mailed her, telling her I was safely at home. 

Mom reads several newspapers on line.  Today, Saturday, 2 days after the storm, my mother e-mailed me a piece from MY local newspaper telling me that the roads in my area are still bad.  No attached message.  Just a piece from the paper I read yesterday when I finally got to work.  Because obviously I’m not bright enough to realize that it snowed and the roads are still bad. 

[Mental Magpie]

I'm sure I hurt some brains today.

It is currently 36F outside with about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  I was outside in a t-shirt and sandals taking a walk with the dogs.  I just didn't think it was cold...

[violinp]

I'm sure I hurt some brains today.

It is currently 36F outside with about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  I was outside in a t-shirt and sandals taking a walk with the dogs.  I just didn't think it was cold...

You could just run hotter than average. I have to wear sweaters/layers until the temp's in the high 70's because my normal temp is a bit lower than average.

[mmswm]

I'm sure I hurt some brains today.

It is currently 36F outside with about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  I was outside in a t-shirt and sandals taking a walk with the dogs.  I just didn't think it was cold...

After living in North Dakota for a couple years, 36F seems almost balmy.  Since I've been back in Florida, there have been a couple of cool nights (in the 50's or so).  My kids and I have been driving my mother nuts because she wants to bundle everybody up like it's 40 below, and the kids and I are all "But it's not even chilly yet!"

[Luci]

I'm sure I hurt some brains today.

It is currently 36F outside with about 6 inches of snow on the ground.  I was outside in a t-shirt and sandals taking a walk with the dogs.  I just didn't think it was cold...

You could just run hotter than average. I have to wear sweaters/layers until the temp's in the high 70's because my normal temp is a bit lower than average.

This with sunny and no breeze? I get it.

[Lynn2000]

Yeah, the weather often breaks my brain here in the Midwest. I was walking to work this morning, sunny, no wind, sidewalks relatively dry even though there's unmelted snow piled up on the sides, thinking how pleasant it was. Then I get inside and see that the temperature was something like 34F, which just seems really COLD to me! Other days it can be twenty degrees warmer, but cloudy and breezy, and it just feels miserably cold. I have lived here my entire life and still don't even understand how to dress during the winter... 

[Mental Magpie]

The funny thing is, I don't run hot, not compared to the Eagle anyway.  He sweats when it's barely any over 75F.  I don't really sweat all that much due to hot weather unless I'm exerting myself.  I have compared myself to others and don't think I run hot.  I think it's because I enjoy cold weather.  A lot.  In a way, it's not that I run hot, it's that I don't get cold easily because I enjoy the cold.  I get cold in movie theaters and sometimes in the office where I work (that's about 68-70F) but when I'm outside with the snow, I don't think it's cold at all.

[kherbert05]

That reminds me of another type of brain hurt-y exchange. Those who proclaim Catholicism to not be part of Christianity.

...huh? I need to look that up! I was raised Catholic (converted to some kind of atheist-but-tolerant-albeit-skeptical since) and I never even heard of that...

I've run into this several times in the US South. The bigoted arguement is that Catholics worship idols (Stations of the Cross, statues of the saints), Mary, and the Saints. That they want Jesus to suffer because they keep him on the cross (AKA Crucifix) - oh they also worship the Pope.


On the flip side the Catholic Church's rule restricting Communion to Catholics and a few other denominations that believe in transmutation is seen by other Christians as saying they aren't Christian. That isn't the position of the church. The RC considers the other denominations Christian, but to take communion you have to believe in Transmutation.

[Piratelvr1121]

That reminds me of another type of brain hurt-y exchange. Those who proclaim Catholicism to not be part of Christianity.

...huh? I need to look that up! I was raised Catholic (converted to some kind of atheist-but-tolerant-albeit-skeptical since) and I never even heard of that...

I've run into this several times in the US South. The bigoted arguement is that Catholics worship idols (Stations of the Cross, statues of the saints), Mary, and the Saints. That they want Jesus to suffer because they keep him on the cross (AKA Crucifix) - oh they also worship the Pope.


On the flip side the Catholic Church's rule restricting Communion to Catholics and a few other denominations that believe in transmutation is seen by other Christians as saying they aren't Christian. That isn't the position of the church. The RC considers the other denominations Christian, but to take communion you have to believe in Transmutation.

I was raised Catholic and heard this as well.  Mind you I didn't listen because I'd been lied to about Catholic policies in the past so I wasn't sure what to believe.  My granddaddy was raised Baptist but was never baptized and my grandmother was worried they wouldn't be together in the hereafter so she got her priest to go to the fishing hole Granddaddy loved.   Granddaddy agreed to be baptized "If that's what mama wants" but said he didn't want to be baptized as a Catholic, just as a Christian.  Father said that was fine, he could do that.

My mother told me later, years after Granddaddy passed, that he had been baptized as a Catholic.  I insisted no, Father said he was baptizing Granddaddy as a Christian because that's what he wanted.  Mom said snottily "Well, Father was a Catholic priest so therefore Granddaddy was baptized a Catholic."  That made me so mad on Granddaddy's behalf.  But I'm still not convinced she was right on that detail.

I'm now attending an Episcopal church, known affectionately as "Catholic Light" and our priest shared with a little discussion group that the bishop was not happy to learn that in our bulletin she had it written that anyone who wishes to receive communion is welcome at the rail. The "official" position is that you have to be baptized to take communion but she joked that she's not real good at recognizing if a person is baptized or not just by looking at them and she's not going to be asking for documentation of every one who approaches the rail. 

I think the Episcopal/Anglican church believes in transubstantiation, but I'm still relatively new to it, so I'm not 100% sure.

[Yarnspinner]

Oh my!  If I had a dime for every time I was told I was not a Christian because I was Catholic, I could probably have bought and sold the Vatican.  As a child, it didn't bother me much because when you are five those things don't make sense, but as a teen and an adult, I was first scared and then highly annoyed.

A dear friend/coworker who was an evangelical Christian once made the statement about Catholics celebrating masses in which they sacrificed children on the altar.  By then I was just plain mouth and didn't put up with this stuff and I said to her "Heck, when is THAT holiday?  There's a whole bunch of kids here I'd like to see sacrificed!"

After that she started questioning me about Catholicism and every other statement was "Well, we do that.  We do that, too.  Oh, we do that."  I don't know for certain, but I still hope that my fellow Catholic coworkers and I changed her mind about whether Catholics are also Christians.

On the flip side I once had a fellow Sunday School teacher (who was about thirty or forty years my senior) say to me "I have been praying for your father."

"Why?"

"He isn't Catholic, dear, and will be going to hell when he dies if he doesn't convert."

And after I picked my jaw up off the ground (who tells a 19 year old girl her father is going to hell?)  I said "Thank you for your concern.  Frankly, my Dad is a better man than many Catholics I know and his belief in God is stronger and if God isn't taking him in because of where he got baptized, then I don't think I would worship that God."

We did team teaching together and it was kind of chilly in our class room after that exchange.

[mmswm]

Oh my!  If I had a dime for every time I was told I was not a Christian because I was Catholic, I could probably have bought and sold the Vatican.  As a child, it didn't bother me much because when you are five those things don't make sense, but as a teen and an adult, I was first scared and then highly annoyed.

A dear friend/coworker who was an evangelical Christian once made the statement about Catholics celebrating masses in which they sacrificed children on the altar.  By then I was just plain mouth and didn't put up with this stuff and I said to her "Heck, when is THAT holiday?  There's a whole bunch of kids here I'd like to see sacrificed!"

After that she started questioning me about Catholicism and every other statement was "Well, we do that.  We do that, too.  Oh, we do that."  I don't know for certain, but I still hope that my fellow Catholic coworkers and I changed her mind about whether Catholics are also Christians.

On the flip side I once had a fellow Sunday School teacher (who was about thirty or forty years my senior) say to me "I have been praying for your father."

"Why?"

"He isn't Catholic, dear, and will be going to hell when he dies if he doesn't convert."

And after I picked my jaw up off the ground (who tells a 19 year old girl her father is going to hell?)  I said "Thank you for your concern.  Frankly, my Dad is a better man than many Catholics I know and his belief in God is stronger and if God isn't taking him in because of where he got baptized, then I don't think I would worship that God."

We did team teaching together and it was kind of chilly in our class room after that exchange.

My brain is now broken.  That woman needs to go back to Sunday School herself!

[Piratelvr1121]

Getting off the topic of religion, the house hunting thread made me think of this one.

In the county where I mostly grew up, since I was 8, the public school system is very competitive and people generally tend to be very well off.   So people are willing to pay extra for a house in a district for a certain high school that has high test scores.

What has always broken my brain is that people would buy their homes when their children weren't even born yet!! My parents were partly guilty of this.  They bought in that area when I was almost 8 and my brother wasn't even born yet.  They wanted both of us to be able to attend one of the more popular high schools in the area.

Well, guess what? Districts changed when I was a freshman. Since I was already there, I was grandfathered in, but my folks were bummed that my brother would not be able to attend that high school and would be bused to another one that was in one of the few areas of town that was a little too close to the working class part of town.  They did rebuild the school in the 8 years between when I started high school and when he did and it turned out to be nicer than the school I went to. 

But that always hurt my brain.   Do people really expect that districts aren't going to change in 14 years?  Why pay extra to buy a house in a certain area just to make sure your kid will attend there, when that child's not even born yet?

It does make sense in an area that's small and you have one of each kind of school that will serve a large area.  Like my bff's small midwest town.  Doesn't matter where you buy either in town or in the country, there's just one elementary school, one middle and one high school, and districts just don't change.   

[MommyPenguin]

Getting off the topic of religion, the house hunting thread made me think of this one.

In the county where I mostly grew up, since I was 8, the public school system is very competitive and people generally tend to be very well off.   So people are willing to pay extra for a house in a district for a certain high school that has high test scores.

What has always broken my brain is that people would buy their homes when their children weren't even born yet!! My parents were partly guilty of this.  They bought in that area when I was almost 8 and my brother wasn't even born yet.  They wanted both of us to be able to attend one of the more popular high schools in the area.

Well, guess what? Districts changed when I was a freshman. Since I was already there, I was grandfathered in, but my folks were bummed that my brother would not be able to attend that high school and would be bused to another one that was in one of the few areas of town that was a little too close to the working class part of town.  They did rebuild the school in the 8 years between when I started high school and when he did and it turned out to be nicer than the school I went to. 

But that always hurt my brain.   Do people really expect that districts aren't going to change in 14 years?  Why pay extra to buy a house in a certain area just to make sure your kid will attend there, when that child's not even born yet?

It does make sense in an area that's small and you have one of each kind of school that will serve a large area.  Like my bff's small midwest town.  Doesn't matter where you buy either in town or in the country, there's just one elementary school, one middle and one high school, and districts just don't change.

Well, we're looking at houses right now, and we're homeschooling.  So it won't even matter to us how good or bad the schools are, for our own sake.  But at least for us, finding a house in a good school district matters because we'll need to sell or rent the house out eventually, and *other* people will be looking for that.   So it's an important aspect of the value of the house.  Of course, it's probably more important to us since we'll only be stationed there for four years, whereas that may matter less to somebody who expects to live in that house for the foreseeable future, maybe the rest of their life.