The Weekly Kvetch: A Very Solicited Advice Column!
Allow me to solve all your problems once and for all.
When the lovely people of Substack approached me about doing this newsletter, they mentioned I would be able to do an advice column. I am, of course, drunk with power about this idea and would be thrilled to help solve other people’s problems instead of dealing with truly any of my own. Since paid subscribers can reply to posts (a troll-mitigating tactic that has made this space incredibly positive thus far!), you can reply to this post with your quandaries and I will answer them in this week’s newsletter. HAPPY KVETCHING!
"Ask a COVID Freak"
You can ask me, an immunocompromised mother of two young children about navigating group/social/travel situations in this weird post-pandemic-but-not-really time we're living in.
“Gift Horse”
Do you need to get a gift for someone in your life? Send me as much relevant information about that person as possible and your budget and I will provide the answer.
“The Mother of All Problems”
I wrote a book about fraught matrilineal relationships which does not qualify me in any way to weigh in about your issues with your mom, BUT NOTHING WOULD GIVE ME MORE PLEASURE.
“This Week in Social Anxiety”
Is there a complicated social situation keeping you up at night? Run it by me and I will try to forge a path through it for you in a way that offends nobody and allows you to breathe again.
Well, since you asked… I too am immunocompromised, 77 years old, fully vaccinated and boostered. I have not had COVID so far, but I’ve stayed away from large groups, restaurants, people I don’t like, and my son in law who seems to have gone full-throttle QAnon. I swear, I raised my daughter to be a liberal. Then she married this anachronism…but that’s another prob for another day. The thing is, I would like to take my family (except the aforementioned SIL, unless he gets vaxxed and boosted and the female uterine fruit unless she gets her second booster) somewhere in Europe. Since there are approximately 65M variants of different breeds of mutated viruses still rampant world wide, I’m wondering if we should even try for next year or wait another year. I’ll be buggered if I want to pony up $30K or so (for 5 people) just to end up with some kind of plague and have to spend my whole trip in quarantine. Would you go in late summer 2023? Have you ever been to Europe? If so, I have other questions for you.
Not sure which kvetching category this falls under, but how can we light a fire under Biden’s ass to bring Brittany Griner home? Can Biden send a 747 with Bill Clinton on it and Bill can have pizza with Putin and schmooze a little and take some photos like Bill did in North Korea?