Cringe & Facepalm

I ran up to the grocery store today and threw some sushi in my cart for lunch.

Boomer sees this and comments how I should be eating American food today, because it’s what the troops who lost their lives fought for. Like seriously? I come from a line of Air Force officers (dad, brother, two BIL’s, and a FIL), and if I asked any of them if they fought for hamburgers and hot dogs, they’d laugh in my face.

Just not being in the mood today, I just shoot back, “my brother in law was killed in action, so we have sushi on Memorial Day to honor his memory, because it was his favorite food.”

You could see the smoke coming from his ears trying to think how to backpedal because he disrespected the one thing that they believe should never be disrespected.

He leaves with a, “thank you for your sacrifice.” And then scurries away.

Like fuck off and keep your comments to yourself. This isn’t a happy holiday for everyone.

To preface this, I am SE Asian, with a Chinese great grandfather. I have been mistaken for almost every Asian ethnicity consistently.

As I go to pick up some takeout today, I see that there’s a new shipping/notary store next door. I had questions about notary hours, so I go in and see that the place is empty except for one clerk and one old white lady chatting.

I stand to wait behind the lady, who doesn’t see me. The clerk looks at me and slightly nods to acknowledge me, but the lady is quite chatty so he doesn’t say hello.

She’s asking him questions about himself, and this conversation happens:

Lady: “Where do you live?” Clerk: “Bayside.” L: “Lots of Chinese people there.” C: “Yeah.” looks at me and chuckles nervously

At this point the clerk walks away from her to “look for boxes” since he probably knew what was coming next.

L: “Starting to see them in my neighborhood too. I’m not very pleased about it.”

She then starts talking about how they have big glass plate windows that don’t open (how do you even know that they don’t open!?), and starts illustrating with her hands on where they were, to which she turns around and sees me.

L: “Oh.”

Like a deer in headlights, she freezes up and turns back around, and goes dead silent. The clerk comes back to ask what I need; I ask my question, and leave.

Part of me wanted to say, “It’s okay, keep going, I’m only part Chinese.” just to see where she was going with her stalking story. 🙄

Visiting with the in-laws and MIL asks my husband and I if our daughter (21) likes Taylor Swift. I reply that she likes older bands but doesn't dislike. Husband laughs and says he likes Taylor Swift. We laugh and think it's the end of conversation. MIL asks if we have listened to her lyrics and how they are inappropriate. Again, our children are adults. I laugh again and remind her that she was laughing the night before about an older song about tequila making her clothes fall off. She responds "that's different" so I ask her which song she finds objectionable so I can look into it. She goes on about how she sings about how girls can be boys and boys can be girls and says she's into "being woke". I reply "I'm woke". She whips around and basically yells at me "WELL GOOD FOR YOU."