Greetings, somewhat late today. I had my second shot yesterday, then came home to write something (for work) before the dread second-shot side effects set in, and that ate up my blogging time.
You can read the thing I wrote here. It’s a local story, but those of you who follow HGTV — hi, Pam! — might recognize one of the parties involved. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out; it’s a both-sides condemnation that actually seems justified.
And with that, I will dip out. You have a fresh thread for the weekend now. I should also add a couple housekeeping notes:
Sorry for those of you who have had comments hung up in moderation. I don’t always get to them immediately — email issues not worth getting into — and if you’d like to avoid them in the future, this is what lands you in that particular holding pen:
Posting from a different IP address, posting from a different email address or name, or putting too many links in your comment. I thought it was set at two links, but maybe just keep it to one to be safe. And if you end up there, feel free to comment again, double-checking the stuff I just mentioned.
Let’s all hold hands and have a little cry for Prince Philip, too. I’ll be back Sunday/Monday, on schedule, I devoutly hope.
By the way, I’m still waiting for the side effects. Sore arm is it, so far, at 25 hours post-shot.
Deborah said on April 9, 2021 at 2:51 pm
I’ve typed my email address wrong many times and even misspelled my name.
LB got her shot this morning, a Moderna, she is happy as a clam and I am too.
Has anyone out there watched Behind Her Eyes on Netflix? I’ve got two more episodes to go.
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Little Bird said on April 9, 2021 at 4:03 pm
It was a surreal experience. It was drive through, and once you got to the actual point where they were giving shots it was dusty and packed with cars. It felt like a scene from some action movie when the Red Cross sweeps in to save the masses.
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LAMary said on April 9, 2021 at 4:10 pm
My experience was very cool. I knew my best friend was working at the Dodger Stadium site, which is a massive operation anbut somehow among thousands of other cars, I ended up in his line. I heard music as I approached that part of the line of cars. Green Manalishi by Peter Green, and I thought it was odd to hear that song. Turned out that that music was coming from my friend’s phone. Twas magical. And there’s this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gallup-poll-shows-largest-increase-in-democratic-party-affiliation-in-a-decade/ar-BB1fnQM5?rt=0&ocid=Win10NewsApp&referrerID=InAppShare
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Scout said on April 9, 2021 at 5:03 pm
Hi, my name is Scout and I’m an HGTV addict. I like Nicole Curtis. I think she is far more personable than say, Alison Victoria. This is a good piece, Nancy, and you once again proved your writing chops. My favorite line:
“It seems insane to get lawyers involved any further; it’s like two bald men fighting over a comb.” LOL. I’ll be using that one.
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David C said on April 9, 2021 at 5:04 pm
“So this is, what? A drama queen vs. a Soviet bureaucracy?”
That line by itself deserves an award. I haven’t seen HGTV since we cut the cord except when I visit my parents and then it’s on all the time. I’m grateful it’s that instead of Fox but it does get irritating after a while. Not every old house needs to be open concept. I don’t know why anyone wants a kitchen where you can’t close the door on the mess until everyone leaves.
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alex said on April 9, 2021 at 7:00 pm
I don’t know why anyone wants a kitchen where you can’t close the door on the mess until everyone leaves.
I don’t know why anyone wants a work space that’s isolated from people and devoid of natural light, having now lived with a couple of open concept kitchens, which seem to be a welcome and long-overdue adaptation to the casual, informal way that most people really live, especially now that most families aren’t on the old June Cleaver sort of timetable for dining. But that’s just my two cents’ worth.
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nancy said on April 9, 2021 at 7:22 pm
One of the things she harps on is not trying to make an old house something it’s not. That said, I’ve seen old houses updated in very imaginative and natural-seeming ways. A friend of mine had an older mansion-style house, the kind where the architect assumed you’d have servants. The kitchen was very small, because getting around in it wasn’t your problem. But I saw a lot of remodeling in his neighborhood where kitchens were bumped into butlers pantries and you’d never know.
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Scout said on April 9, 2021 at 7:34 pm
David C – we cut the cable cord over a decade ago too. We watch HGTV via a Discovery subscription. Between that, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Acorn, & Disney+ we get way more tv than we can possibly watch but pay a fraction of what cable costs.
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Colleen said on April 9, 2021 at 8:17 pm
My house in FW was vintage 1926 and definitely not open concept. My house here is new, and totally open. I agree about being able to leave the kitchen mess in the kitchen and not out in front of God and everybody. I just don’t think open concept is all it’s cracked up to be. My old house had lots of windows, so we didn’t suffer with the dark rooms Alex mentioned.
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Suzanne said on April 9, 2021 at 8:36 pm
Interesting story about the house in Detroit. I don’t even know if we get HGTV on our DISH tv. I never heard of this house rehab lady. But then, a few years ago, a relative posted photos on Facebook of her visit to the Magnolia store and I had no clue what she was talking about.
I am terribly out of the loop.
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Julie Robinson said on April 9, 2021 at 8:42 pm
We always seem to gather in the kitchen so I just like kitchens to be large, open or not. I saw a lot of HGTV while I was doing therapy on my knee and I could see its addictive power. Therapists of both genders were watching and planning house projects while they were supervising therapy. Except days when the boss was there. Then it was sports.
Matt is recovered now from his J&J shot but today I talked with someone else with the same flu-like reaction. Apparently it’s happened in other areas too and some places are suspending J&J. To be continued, I guess.
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Ann said on April 9, 2021 at 11:30 pm
Does someone have the thankless job of moderating comments on Deadline Detroit? They missed one.
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Dexter Friend said on April 10, 2021 at 2:10 am
Yeah. I thought we could post two links per entry but it’s one now. No big deal to lose one in limbo. Just one link from now on.
I have been pushing everybody I know to go find a shot, any brand, but now I have moderated my stance with the inordinate number of bad reports of J&J after effects. I got Pfizer with no effects but a sore arm. I hope J&J gets their problem fixed.
I have cable and all sorts of streaming services. I stopped at paying for Paramount +. Enough is enough. But I have never heard of HGTV.
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Linda said on April 10, 2021 at 4:46 am
I got my second Moderna. Sore arm, body aches, and really tired. But also grateful. My sister is home bound, so J and J seems her best chance for a vaccine and I’m worried about her chances now.
I have seen Rehab Addict and have been impressed with the respect she seems to have for both the old homes and their new owners.
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David C said on April 10, 2021 at 6:22 am
I had a bit of a reaction to my J&J vaccine but it was nothing compared to my reaction to the new shingles vaccine which was a bomb.
Right now our only streaming providers are Netflix, Acorn, and the freebies we get from Roku. We get our home remodeling fix from This Old House on the Roku Channel. They have every episode going back to the Bob Vila days. It’s been quite a change over the years. It went from a how-to show with some product placement to a product placement show with some how-to.
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ROGirl said on April 10, 2021 at 6:47 am
I haven’t watched HGTV in a long time. House porn no longer holds me in its thrall. OTOH, I have been to a lot of estate sales over the past few years, and seeing the interiors of some very high end homes is entertaining.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 10, 2021 at 8:22 am
If you missed the end of the last thread with LAMary’s Prince Philip et ux contribution, I urge you to click back and catch it.
My Pfizer second shot was essentially symptom free, but my next day had a series of adrenaline powered events that might have helped me not notice. The good news is that a week and a half later I gave blood, and they now having a third testing response (though it was almost two weeks before I got it) of “Reactive” along with “Negative” which I’ve been getting the last year (yay) and “Positive.” So I know my vaccine injection did what it should and is at work in me.
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basset said on April 10, 2021 at 10:49 am
Got “reactive” on my post-blood-donation report, had never heard of it and it scared me until I understood what was going on.
Coming up on eighteen gallons btw, just since we’ve lived here and not counting earlier stops along the way.
Our local chapter has started sending emails when the donations are used, interesting to know where they go; Canton, Georgia this last time.
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Pam said on April 10, 2021 at 10:53 am
I’m on Nicole’s side. I think the beef is that she didn’t pay the vig when she bought it off a quit claim. Seems silly that the Land Bank wouldn’t just let her have it after what she’s already put into it.
Nancy, on the 2nd Moderna shot, I got Covid Arm fairly soon after and it was a lot worse than the first shot. The side effects occurred on the night of the 2nd day which would have been about 30 hours later. But you might be out of the woods now, not everyone gets side effects. Bill didn’t feel anything but the arm.
IMO, J&J shots are experiencing different side effects because their shot is a completely different medical approach than the mRNA method. I’ve heard of mass vaccination sites being temporarily halted due to dizziness and nausea which doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. They act like these people self combusted.
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Jakash said on April 10, 2021 at 11:37 am
ROGirl, I thought your comment was funny. I read it to indicate that you’re no longer interested in house porn, but actual house sex is still enjoyable.
Interesting, Pam, when I considered when my less than one-day “cold symptoms” arrived after getting the Pfizer, I figured about the 30-hour mark, as well.
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Sherri said on April 10, 2021 at 11:40 am
My daughter got the J&J shot with no notable side effects. My husband and I got our first Moderna shots, and our arms were sore, slightly more than a flu shot but less than the shingles shot. I felt fatigued the day if the shot, and my husband got a headache, but hard to tell whether it was the shot or just the day to day pandemic stuff.
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alex said on April 10, 2021 at 11:50 am
No sore arm after my second shot of Pfizer. The next day I peed outta my butt, although it was about an hour after eating some Thai takeout, so the shot may or may not have been the culprit. The explosion seemed rather more consistent with acute foodborne illness.
We cut the cord and now we get old HGTV reruns on the local stations, “Sell This House,” “Bob Vila,” and the Canadian designer Sarah Richardson. Other than house porn, there’s really nothing else on cable that I miss. We realized that we were paying hundreds a month for hundreds of channels we never watched and don’t regret the decision at all. Most of it was pure crap. Even though we bought a Roku, we seldom use that either. We’re just not TV-holics.
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Julie Robinson said on April 10, 2021 at 12:10 pm
Congratulations, basset, and thank you for all the blood donations. I used to be a regular but stopped when I had feet problems and started a pain med. Since I’m not taking it anymore I should go back. I’m O- and they used my blood for babies.
Matt is feeling fine now, and says it was worth it to be immunized, but both BIL and SIL had the same flu-like symptoms after J&J. No peeing out the butt for me after Pfizer, thank goodness. My mom felt ill after the shingles shot, but all I had was a worse than usual sore arm, and for a couple days. What’s important is that they’re done, and we can go see our kids for the first time in over a year.
Apparently it’s National Siblings Day, so I’ll be raising a glass of ice cold Diet Dr. Pepper to my late sister today, and remembering her in happier days before all her illnesses.
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Mark P said on April 10, 2021 at 12:21 pm
I started watching This Old House and Home Time back in the ‘90’s when I was planning to build a house. It was like taking classes on home construction methods. Back in those days there was a lot of emphasis on actual construction — how to flash a window, how to attach ledger boards. I learned a lot. These days the houses and materials on TOH are so far out of my reach that I no longer enjoy it, and Home Time went away.
We used to watch Fixer Upper, but ol’ Chip and Joanna got a little too full of themselves. My current favorite is Maine Cabin Masters. They still seem to be actual humans, and the renovations they do are within reach of ordinary people.
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Connie said on April 10, 2021 at 12:30 pm
I am four days out from Moderna #2, with no side effects either time.
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Jakash said on April 10, 2021 at 1:13 pm
Good ole boy J. D. Vance making it crystal clear who he is, for anybody who wasn’t sure:
“Tucker Carlson is the only powerful figure who consistently challenges elite dogma—on both cultural and economic questions. That is why they try to destroy him. Don’t fall for it this time, or any other.”
For some reason, many of the replies take issue with his analysis.
https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1380611143656484870
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David C said on April 10, 2021 at 1:43 pm
I’d forgotten about Home Time. They kept up the actual how-to far longer than TOH. If you remember the Furniture Guys show one of their lines was “Did you ever notice that just before Dean Johnson gets a new TV wife they always do a concrete project”.
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Jeff Borden said on April 10, 2021 at 4:23 pm
We live a block away from a three-flat converted to a single-family in Lincoln Square on “Windy City Rehab.” The owners are suing the two contractors, HGTV and the Discovery Channel for millions over shoddy work. The husband described the on-camera contractors as “horrible people.” There’ve also been reports these folks never received proper permits on other projects, failed to clean up debris and began work before 8 a.m. (There’s a Chicago ordinance prohibiting use of noisy power tools before that time.)
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Deborah said on April 10, 2021 at 4:34 pm
I used to watch TOH back in the day, seems like a long time ago.
“Peed outta my butt” is a perfect description of that experience.
I started watching Hemingway, it’s excellent.
You should watch Behind Her Eyes, it has a hell of a plot twist at the end. You won’t guess it ahead of time, I promise you.
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Sherri said on April 10, 2021 at 4:45 pm
Jakash, dog whistles aren’t good enough anymore. If JD has political aspirations, he’s gotta come out and say it. Can’t own the libs with subtext.
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Julie Robinson said on April 10, 2021 at 7:19 pm
Here’s a great story from the Washington Post about how introverts have fared well during the pandemic and dread a return to everyday life: https://tinyurl.com/j24tzdjd. Like my newly gray hair, I’ve come to embrace my introverted self as neither superior or inferior, simply the way I’m built.
Remember a few days back, when several of us who admitted we could use some time away from our spouses, even though they were the love and light of our life? When I started snapping at D for no reason, I apologized and told him I needed some alone time. I put on headphones and listened to audiobooks for a couple hours a day while I sewed, and after three or four days, the feeling went away. It was very instructive! Instead of getting in a stupid fight, I owned my feelings, communicated them, and acted positively on them.
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Suzanne said on April 10, 2021 at 8:04 pm
Julie, that article is so great! I had to go to a social function on Thursday and was in a near panic over it, even though I am pretty sure that everyone there was fully vaccinated. I was simply bored the entire time.
Until I read Susan Cain’s book Quiet, I honestly thought I must be a real curmudgeon because I didn’t like big social events. It was a complete eye opener for me!
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Deborah said on April 10, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Except for travel, I too am not exactly thrilled about returning to pre- pandemic life. I’ve always found large parties to be torture. I try to imagine having fun at them sort of but my experience is always excruciating. And my experience kicking myself at stupid things I said later is depressing. I’m definitely a introvert.
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Julie Robinson said on April 10, 2021 at 10:50 pm
Introverts of the world, unite! (By yourselves, in your own space.)
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Sherri said on April 10, 2021 at 11:22 pm
My late MIL, who was very much an extrovert, would get offended when I would have to leave the room and go off alone after awhile. I could only stay around so long without a break; even if we were in the same room reading, she never did it *quietly*.
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del said on April 11, 2021 at 1:06 am
I’m not sure what I like best about LA Mary’s comment – the article charting the rise of Democratic party affiliation or Peter Green’s Green Manilishi. Both rock!
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David C said on April 11, 2021 at 6:43 am
I’ve spoken with a few others at work and I don’t think anybody wants to go back to the office full time.
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Colleen said on April 11, 2021 at 7:15 am
Total introvert here. I think the world is slowly moving to a place of greater understanding that we don’t simply need to “try harder” socially, but that we are wired differently. People don’t (except in elementary school) tell extroverts they need to be quiet and listen, but every introvert has heard that they need to “try harder to be more social.”
I suppose if the pandemic had been about going out and socializing every day, we introverts would be pretty stressed, so I guess it’s not easy for extroverts to be cooped up away from people….
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Suzanne said on April 11, 2021 at 10:03 am
I hope you are right, Colleen, about a slow change in society’s view of introverts. It’s been my experience that introverts on the whole understand that extroverts need lots of human interaction and lots of activity, but extroverts have great trouble understanding that introverts need the exact opposite. Not all, but most that I have encountered. It took me years and years to understand why I didn’t enjoy big gatherings and why I found it so annoying that people urged me to “loosen up” or not to be such a stick in the mud.
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Connie said on April 11, 2021 at 10:28 am
I regularly leave inlaw events to sit in the yard, or garage or car. There are too many people in a small home, everyone is talking, the football game is on tv and some people are yelling at it, and then I see a BIL get out a guitar (or a banjo) and I flee. For most of that time I have been sitting in the middle of a loud buzz, unable to actually hear whatever was actually being said.
My MIL, who had her own hearing issues, realized quite early in our relationship I had some sort of hearing problem.. I told her I was feeling overwhelmed by a wall of sound, she got it and never had a problem with me taking a break.
Or as I sometimes say, I can hear fine. Unfortunately I hear every thing and sometimes I have trouble telling it all apart. Could you turn that music down a little?
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nancy said on April 11, 2021 at 10:34 am
Popping in to say I loved “The Furniture Guys” so much and wish they were still on the air. I also remember that line about Dean’s wives; we both laughed ourselves to tears over that one.
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Dorothy said on April 11, 2021 at 10:56 am
Is there a name for someone who is a combination of extrovert and introvert? I’m thinking more and more that is what I am. I’m talktative and a morning person and can laugh and carry on for ages. But there were times (past tense cuz no one has done this in at least a year) that I would be at a gathering of lots of people, and yet all I wanted to do was get the hell out of there, go home and be alone with a book, knitting, an old movie on t.v., anything but make small talk. Does that make me moody? Or just normal? I hate being defined as only one ‘thing’. I feel like we are all combinations of many things. And what’s wrong with that?
Mary’s imaginary royal situations at the end of the previous post are really great. Was there really a car called a Ford Cortina? By George, there sure was! Reminds me a little of the old Chevy Nova. But her maj (aka Brenda) and Phil owning a car that has one unmatching door was just killer!
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alex said on April 11, 2021 at 11:26 am
I was always a bit socially awkward and alcohol became my crutch and fairly ruined my health. I don’t know when the switch inside me flipped, but now there is very little that puts me at unease and I’d rather not be inebriated because I’m embarrassed when I reflect on my drunken self.
Dorothy, I think it’s hard to classify oneself as either/or intro or extra. To me it’s situational. It’s certainly possible to be both. Depends on one’s mood. Depends on the other people. I know some social butterflies who I used to envy but came to realize that they were deeply insecure people who need constant affirmation from others. I also know people who always seemed shy and reserved but who are really quite self-possessed and simply not interested in suffering self-absorbed social butterflies. Wish I’d had these insights a few decades sooner.
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LAMary said on April 11, 2021 at 11:50 am
Alex, Connie, we’re on the same team.
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David C said on April 11, 2021 at 11:53 am
There is a word for a combination introvert/extrovert, Dorothy. It’s ambivert.
My other favorite Furniture Guys line was the only thing Norm Abram has that isn’t electric is his personality. They have a YouTube channel with their old shows. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnjSlpxRh0PIJ4uphVvKvgg
Ed Feldman is on Twitter. At least, some of the time he is. He’s often in Twitmo. https://twitter.com/edfeldman7?lang=en
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Deborah said on April 11, 2021 at 12:47 pm
LB is very much the way you describe yourself Dorothy. She’s very social but she definitely needs time to herself.
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Dorothy said on April 11, 2021 at 1:06 pm
I like the way you put that, Deborah. And you too, Alex. Situational is right.
I definitely need time to myself. Which was incredibly hard to come by in my huge family. I got my own room in 1969, I’m pretty sure, when my oldest sister moved into her own apartment, the next sister got her room, and I got to move out of the room with the four youngest girls (I’m the oldest of the 4 youngest ones). I was 12 in ‘69. It was a tiny room but I didn’t care. The solitude was marvelous. Maybe that’s why I’m a combination of personalities.
My oldest sister is like you, Connie. She just can’t tolerate big gatherings with lots of people talking and activities. She won’t join our every other Monday Zooms because she dreads people talking at the same time. (When two of us start to talk one ALWAYS says – oh, sorry – please go ahead! We keep track and don’t step on each other’s toes very often) She’s the oldest of our 10 kids and high strung in many ways. I used to look up to her so much and badly wanted to be like her. But lately I just feel sorry for her – the weird shit she puts on Facebook drives me nuts. She complains about the noises going on in her neighborhood. I mean she’s bitching about neighbors having their roofs replaced, or grass being mowed, or just generally pissed off when her quiet is disturbed. I have to restrain myself from telling her “You don’t live on an island, toots! You chose to live in a town where your daughters live so you can be close to them. You have to accept what’s going on in your neighborhood, or just go in the house and stop bitching!” Yeesh,
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Dorothy said on April 11, 2021 at 1:13 pm
Dexter I think you recently mentioned finishing up a series you liked a whole lot on Netflix or Prime. Can you remember what that was? And I’m hoping it was you who said this! My memory is not what it used to be!
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Little Bird said on April 11, 2021 at 1:52 pm
The word you’re looking for is Ambivert, and I’m very much that. I love my friends, and I frequently strike up conversations with random people while waiting in lines. But I very much need my private time to recharge.
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Julie Robinson said on April 11, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Like sexuality, I think of intro/extroverts as being on a continuum. If I’m in a small group of very close friends, you’d think I was an extrovert. And most people who don’t know me well think I’m an extrovert, because I’m pretty good at faking it for a short amount of time. I’m very friendly and smile at lot, mostly because after seeing pictures I realized I have resting bitch face.
Colleen is correct that the pandemic has been difficult for extroverts. Our daughter has been struggling this whole time, and it’s been worse because her roommate (her brother) spends most weekends at his girlfriend’s place. Normally she’s around people all day and many evenings, and this makes her feel energized. She’s figured out some workarounds, like masking up for walks with friends or sitting outside at a distance, all things that work much better in Orlando than Fort Wayne.
Edit: Little Bird just said it much more succinctly than me.
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David C said on April 11, 2021 at 2:17 pm
The middle group are called ambiverts. I don’t know how far out on the scale you have to go to be called and introvert or extrovert. I know I’m pretty far out on the innie scale. This isolation has been mostly a breeze for us. I feel bad for those who crave company. It must be their idea a hell.
My other favorite “The Furniture Guys” line is that the only thing Norm Abram has that isn’t electric is his personality. The Furniture Guys have a YouTube channel with their old shows on it and Ed Feldman is on Twitter except when he’s in Twitmo, which is often.
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Suzanne said on April 11, 2021 at 3:25 pm
I guess I would be an ambivert as well. I thoroughly enjoy long conversations with a small (operative word there is small) group of friends or just one or two people. That does energize me, but large groups, no. Very draining.
I also strike up conversations with random people on airplanes, in the theater, waiting in line for something. I have had some wonderful conversations that way. I think I enjoy them because they are brief and usually informative. Large gatherings remind be of a gaggle of loud annoying geese where everyone is full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.
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Jakash said on April 11, 2021 at 4:09 pm
I can be the life of the party, if the party consists of about 6 people or less. But at an *actual* party, nobody knows I’m there. Often because I’m not…
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Deborah said on April 11, 2021 at 4:30 pm
I don’t talk to strangers much, when waiting in lines etc I watch people and eaves drop. As LB knows when we go to restaurants (or rather when we went to restaurants) my eyes would get weird and she knew I was eaves dropping on the next table. I read on airplanes (or again I used to when I flew on airplanes) it’s not that I don’t want to talk it’s that I get a good book specifically to read on the flight and I’m usually chomping at the bit to start reading it. I have to keep myself from starting it beforehand. Also my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be and especially with everyone wearing masks I have to ask people to repeat what they said all the time. I think it’s probably irritating for them.
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LAMary said on April 11, 2021 at 9:30 pm
Ford Cortinas were sold in the US for a while. I remember the TV ads and the jingle. A high school friend’s mother had one. Her doors all matched.
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