Incoming!!!!!!
2003-06-09, 9:02 p.m.

Pending arrival: mother of wife. For the summer. Luckily, not living in our house. I will not lose another teapot.

For those of you (and I know there are lots of you out there... ahem) who are not familliar, my wife's mother is quite the something. She's been a long time yoga practitioner and such, but not all crazy-like or any such thing. But then the marriage broke up and she ran off to India to soak up the swamis. Today, we see her in all white cotton, shaved of head and generally in her own bubble of existance that is not compatible in any way with American society's version of reality. And she smokes a lot of pot. And teaches super-spiritual, go-with-the-flow yoga. As a geek technophile skeptic, you might imagine that there's something of a disconnect here.

Don't get me wrong-- I don't look down upon her lifestyle or anything. If I could practise yoga and get stoned everyday, I'd be there. It's just that she - and her half-her-age partner, the Ghost - do not function in such a way that considers the timetables or social needs of others outside their Bubbleworld.

I'm sure that I just met her at the wrong time. When I enttered into my wife's life, her mother was already askew and well on her way to Bubbleworld. And I'm sure that if I were to get past her mushy exterior, there's still a person worth knowing in there.

In a way I feel kind of wrong for taking an attitude. I mean, she's doing the spiritual journey thing, and her children are old enough to have their own families so it's not like she's abandoned them or anything. And yet I have a hard time dealing with the mushyness. Perhaps it's just not my view of what someone who's doing the spiritual journey should be like. Not that I could pin down for you what that is. Perhaps someone who's deep into themselves but not disconsiderate of others' existances and life situations.

A perfect example is during our wedding reception, when she was supposed to be watching the kids - then 8 and 3 years old - and instead let them all but run loose. I don't believe that the youngest even ate dinner, save for some cream puffs. Strangely enough, they turned out to be strung-out tired before the night ended, blubbering and such. Really instills trust in a person, ya know?

Alas, it shall be an interesting summer.

Meanwhile, if you're a Cartoon Network watcher, download yourself this:

My Best Friend Plank

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