Note: Usually, around this time, I write about my son and his death and my struggles with this time of year. It hasn't gotten any easier, even 7 years out. This year, I am taking a bit of a different approach and will be writing a more lighthearted post. I'm well known to use humor as a coping mechanism (see: me barely avoiding giggling like a school girl cause the chaplain at the hospital kept referring to Gabe as she and Charles kept trying to correct him to no avail...) so I figured that this year I would give that a shot. If you are interested in reading about Gabe, there are posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
There comes a time, in everyone's work day, when you just know that you aren't going to be productive anymore. It happens to the best of us. It happened to me today. Now, mind you, I was staring down the barrel of a 4 day weekend and was antsy to get the hell out of the office. One of my coworkers came by, and we started to discuss various emergencies that we have worked on together. We then tried to dissect the mind of people who deliberately try to commit their loved ones when they get mad at them. We were unsuccessful. Hell, there are days when I wish Charles would go to court and probate me to the psych ward. I could use the break. But only if I go to a swanky one. Because you know, that is totally how the system works.
(FYI, it's totally not.)
This conversation then proceeded to devolve further into the wonders that we had seen while doing in-home therapy. Mostly it revolved around the whole people wanting to do therapy in various stages of undress. I mean, I am all for being comfortable in your own home, but for the love of God, therapy requires pants, people.
This then moved to the idea that pants were not optional in the office, except for strippers, but that they probably wanted to put their clothes ON at the end of their shift vs taking them off, and then to people sending penis pictures using company e-mail. Again, the logic that goes into this was beyond us. As my coworker said, "Sending someone a picture of your penis is like the opposite of romantic. In fact, I think you may have skipped at least ten steps one would normally take before you get there. Minimum."
Then, the conversation moved to serial killers keeping heads in their fridge because they accidentally decapitated them in the midst of their psychosis because they just kept killing people when they did not mean to. We both agreed that it was a little frightening that we could follow the logic of keeping heads in the fridge because of accidental removal of said head from the body but not of sending penis pictures or feeling that pants were optional in the work place. However, the conclusion that was reached was that both being pantless at work and decapitating people, accidental or otherwise, are probably no-no's in the scheme of life. Additionally, being in a relationship where your go-to move when mad is to involuntarily commit your partner is probably not healthy.
I guess the take home from this conversation? (Besides the fact that mental health workers are pretty disturbed in and of themselves?) Apparently I understand the psychosis that leads to serial killing better than I understand misogynistic thought processes. I always knew I would make a disturbing psychotic person vs a happy one.
