Complex Numbers

Invincible

PROMPT January 16th

What are you waiting for?

There are so many ways to answer this question, both light and heavy, so I look forward to reading where you go with it!

Death.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way...

I'm one of those people - yes, those people - who usually answers rhetorical questions literally. And "What are you waiting for?" is normally a rhetorical question. "Will you take the trash out, dear?" "Sure." "...Well? What are you waiting for?" "The sweet release of the Apocalypse."

It's not that I don't recognize rhetorical questions; it's that I hate them and respond with snark. Well, sometimes I legitimately don't recognize them. It's the same for me with sarcasm.

When it's not a rhetorical question, it implies a call to action. "You say you want to go to Belgium. Your passport is up to date and you have money. What are you waiting for?"

Well, for one thing, Not January. I hate being cold, and Belgium is kinda... north.

For another, I still have a reluctance to travel to a foreign country alone. I mean, I did it with the UK, but there, I have a rudimentary grasp of the language, and also I was visiting friends.

But mostly, it implies that I should be doing something other than what I'm doing right now, but whatever it is I'm doing right now is generally what I really want to be doing. In the battle between "should" and "want," "want" wins every time. That's just the way I am. My trick has always been to work toward wanting to do the things I should be doing, and it sometimes works (as with exercise), provided someone else doesn't muck things up by trying to noodge   me into doing it.

(First known use of noodge, 1967? That doesn't make any sense. My mother had a meager knowledge of Yiddish that she got from her mother, and for Grandma, it was her first language. By 1967, Mom knew all the Yiddish she was ever going to know, and noodge was one of the words. I know this because every time I asked for something more than once, I got "Stop noodging me!")

Really, I'm not waiting for anything important. I have a few set plans: there's a wine tasting tomorrow, of Bordeaux wines hosted by an actual French person from France...

...and then next Tuesday the local cinema / drafthouse is going to have a Big Lebowski movie party. I resemble The Dude, so it should be interesting. Also, next Saturday is a winter beer festival, so my Sunday morning blog should be amusing, from a certain point of view. You can wait for that if you want.

But it's not like I'm sitting here just waiting around for these events. I have Netflix shows to binge.

This bloody road remains a mystery
This sudden darkness fills the air
What are we waiting for?
Won't anybody help us?
What are we waiting for?

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It's a do or die situation
We will be invincible