Couch 157: Fair Value

That was one smart beaver! Does he eat fish? (I think thats a recurring couch theme question...)

Of course you don’t have to.

I’ll just sneak up on you later with a bucket of ice-cold water.

Ah...for a minute I thought you walked out on Info (I missed the 'for' in the first part of the sentence) and was wondering how you were sounding so okay!

Yay! If you end up liking Strayed's writing, she's also got a collection of her Rumpus columns in 'Tiny, Beautiful Things' -- the writing is simply superb.

As for current T -- ah, where do I start on her insularity? I sometimes feel like I'm flung back to some Victorian era morality of How-Women-Should-Be when I'm in session (she actually uses the word 'wild' in a pejorative way to state her opinion on things women do [such as riding motorcycles] that she most certainly disapproves of).

Last night i dreamt i took a bath - how come it counts for artie and not for me?

OK—I’ll sneak up on art with a bucket of ice water too. Fair is fair, after all.


Ooh, ooh, I have a brilliant idea!

Therapist cage matches.

We’ll start with current t vs. Dr. Biker Chick. My money is on DBC.

I wouldn't be so sure.

Anyone who does this much judging at the ripe old age of 46 has surely been in a cage match or two due to said judgments?

(Don't mind me -- am back to my 'rageful' state.)

Currently killing time in the grocery near Info’s. There are now Hot Cocoa Oreos.

Please. She probably pays people to fight her cage matches for her.

Can’t see her working up a sweat except while playing court tennis.

I would definitely watch therapist cage matches, and probably also volunteer mine to participate.

She did say she was taking her tennis racquet to the Bahamas along with compression balls because.......tennis elbow.

And, after enlightening me about compression balls (I'd been blissfully ignorant about their existence), continued rattling off about how she goes sailing on sunfish boats (I had to look it up) and snorkeling and jet skiing and windsurfing and then asked me what I do for 'play' because she considers 'play' very very very important (I must've looked appropriately befuddled, I suppose).

I tried very hard to not respond with 'Umm...did you just miss the last 1+ year of therapy with me?'.

Haha, AY...

Your current T sounds as though she'd have got on well with P, who was very concerned about my missing the beauty of the turning leaves if I continued to feel the way I felt...That worked out well.

Me as well.

Artie, I thought, "What the heck is a journey circle?" so I Googled it, and there's one in my town. And it meets in a yurt! Journey circle sounds like a yurt kind of activity.

It sounds kind of intriguing but I'd probably feel super self-conscious since my uptight un"woo" suburban Mom self would stick out like a sore thumb. I already don't fit with the tie dye-dreadlock-man bun folks in my yoga class, but I go anyway because my sister goes. (Maybe she'd go to a journey thing with me...)

I'm glad it was powerful for you. Thanks for sharing.

Dear T. Please do not rub my nose in your wealth. (Would now be a good time to talk about a discount?)

Not P. I see her as a cocaine user.

Thanks. I share about this stuff sometimes. Probably will be more again since I'm planning on going back sooner rather than later!

Oh, and I didn't know what a yurt was until on here... and I had to google it, too....

you almost snuck right past me!

You know, it's weird but I actually didn't realize that those were signs of wealth in the US (my lack of a cultural reference point can sometimes seriously throw me for a loop) until she pointed out that she feels uncomfortable talking about her life because she didn't want to draw attention to it (all I'd asked her was where she was going on vacation and I'd found it weird that she hesitated and then I wondered if she thought I was out to stalk her or something).

When she told me the Bahamas (last year apparently it was Cancun and it seems the only foreigners she managed to talk to all that time in Mexico was a Canadian couple staying at the same resort -- the whole thing struck me as mind-bogglingly different from anything I could conceivably think of doing with my time / money) all I thought was "Oh gawd, how stupendously boring". I can't imagine spending $$$$ only to go and hang out on a beach and do little else except possibly the activities she mentioned.

But, clearly, I'm the one in need of therapy and not her. So, who am I to say anything?!

Info’s helpful suggestion of the day: “Could you take your cat to court with you?”

Fall wood nymph again. With some kind of weird feathered shoe.

Other than that, lousy lousy lousy lousy session. Talking about No. 3 was a mistake, at least the way Info did it. Almost ran out early, left in tears.

AY—the client before me was of your culture. Wonder if Info is more useful to her than current t is to you?

Something like that has never stopped me from saying things.

I'm not sure how I would feel about a therapist who had all the trappings of a so called good life. I would focus too much on the "trap" part of having it all.

I have a good friend who, on the face of it, has it all--rare success in a creative field where only 1% earn a living at it, husband since high school, kids, grands, two homes, travel, huge awards...it goes on. I am fascinated by how squeaky clean she is, how her strongest foul word is darn. And yet, she has also had a lot of struggles with her health and family, so I don't actually think she has a perfect life but I am drawn to the perfectness of it. It gives me a strange comfort in a way. I couldn't have someone like that as a therapist, but for me there is comfort in that kind of life when viewed from the outside.

what was that yoga thing somebody was talking about recently? i was gonna look it up again more seriously and i forgot the name - i think it said you could stream it on chromecast? anybody remember?

can you bring your cat with you to court?!?

sorry you had a lousy session, @@.

“Could you take your cat to court with you?”

This is her notion of support / "walk thru this journey with you"?

I dunno, ATAT -- given Info's current run rate with you (much as I find her fascinating), I'm not sure how useful she is anyhow....culturally similar or not.

Info never ceases to baffle me, but this time I'm not amused. Taking your cat to court may be the dumbest therapy thing I've ever heard.