the way things go in times of woe

Goings on in the past several days: my 90-year-old grandmother had to have a toe amputated. A semi-distant cousin committed suicide. After 3 interviews with a great company they've decided to hire an internal candidate.

But in all of this my biggest concern is the reminder that my family, particularly my mother, doesn't acknowledge that psychology is a Real Thing. She does not believe, despite the fact that it genetically runs on both sides of the family, that depression exists.

How many people in the family have to kill themselves, or attempt as such, before my parents can stop making fun of my sister for going to free counseling when she was in college?

It's Like Riding a Bike...

I never leaned to ride a bicycle, but had made it my end of summer goal. I have no idea where to start or who to ask for advice, all I know is that I have a trip to the Netherlands in November (2 years in the making) and bike riding is mandatory, as we are staying on a schamcy house boat just out of the city.

I am scared. Despite growing up in a very manicured cookie-cutter middle class suburb my parents did not allow me to go outside to play with the many neighborhood children, not even in the backyard, for fear I would get raped. Not kidding. My siblings and I are first generation Americans, and my parents very paranoid and conservative. No walking to the school bus stop alone. No shaving of legs. No playing outside. And therefore no learning to ride a bicycle.

Looking back at it from adulthood it's not such a big deal, and if it wasn't for the upcoming travel plans I could have lived the rest of my life happily unable to peddle a two wheeled vehicle. Now I realize I'm terrified of falling. I never learned how to play.