My cats knocked my depression meds into their water dish and I was completely unable to do anything about it, because it’s a heavy ceramic fountain. So not ONLY did they ruin half my monthly supply, they poisoned their water. Assholes. Insult to injury, it was the day after my friend Lizzie had come over and thoroughly cleaned the fountain out while she was helping me with cleaning the apartment (we love Lizzie a lot). She expressed dismay that she’d JUST cleaned the damn thing out, and I told her that it was okay, I’d strongarm J into helping me.
She replied in an email, “If you had strong arms, you wouldn’t have to ask J!”
And I laughed a lot.
She had replied in email instead of comment, because she wasn’t sure it was too far. It wasn’t. Gallows humor keeps me able to deal with this, and I realize that sometimes even my own jokes are ‘too far’ for some people – like recently when someone asked me how my new tattoo’s white ink was going to fade, and I told them I’d be dead before I had to worry about it.
Some day, someone will say something that goes too far. probably. Maybe. I dunno. I’m pretty fucking dark. It’s beyond gallows humor…guillotine humor? Firing squad humor? Saying it out loud a lot of times as a joke makes it easier to take it seriously. The concept of your own mortality is a bitter pill to swallow, so I need to wash it down with humor.
At least for as long as I’m able to swallow.
It’s SO unusual to find someone with a really dark sense of humor. I couldn’t count how often I’ve said something to find my audience staring back at me, mouths agape. I guess other than pedophilia or animal abuse, everything else is fair game. Maybe serious, sick abuse of others is where I personally get queasy. But death? No! Why? It’s not like anyone’s getting out of here alive.
I love that you ended with a lovely, and funny, sample.
Cats! Gosh they can be asses! How’d you fish the tablets out? Or are your cats now just super chill, in a corner, rockin a high? My cat, Sharky, is 14 but will still bap things off the table he finds interesting.