Re: Top 10 Nada Body-Panic Lines / FRIENDS OF CAM

May 14, 2010

Yes, yes, yes.

I truly believe, at the heart of it, my mother resents my husband most because I

can't drop everything and fix a lightbulb, fix a toilet, fix a lock, listen to

her going on and on.

Even when my father was alive, she was like this. Now it's worse.

> >

> > So, of all nada did, one of the things that hit me hardest was her constant

torrent of panicked exclamations about her physical condition. She had a set

list of these, and I must have heard each of them literally thousands of times.

She issued them as if she was going to burst into flames any second, and they

were MY fault (for, blame was always in the undercurrent), but she would NOT

allow me to help her or comfort her in any way. She had a pretty specific

litany of these, repeated ad naseum, and they really were like torture to me

when I was a child--because I felt the responsibility she implied, and that I

should help her, but she would not let me, and that made me feel doubly 'Bad'.

Her intense 'panic' level in these statements was very disturbing to me. For

some reason, this week her body panic charade has been bouncing through my head,

so without further ado, here is the top ten:

> >

> > 1. It's FREEZING in this house! (faux shivering)

> >

> > 2. Oh (obscenely huge suck in of breath), I chipped a nail!

> >

> > 3. Oh, that (insert specific food I am eating) is TURNING MY STOMACH.

> >

> > 4. Oh! That air (as in AC) is blowin' right on me.

> >

> > 5. Do you SMELL that? (appalled, huge eyes). What is that SMELL?

> >

> > 6. I just don't FEEL like cooking, today.

> >

> > 7. I think I have alzheimers. (Since her 30s.)

> >

> > 8. OH! I just can't get MOVIN'! (in bed at 1 pm.)

> >

> > 9. OH! My allergies are actin' up today.

> >

> > 10. I am EXHAUSTED.

> >

>

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