Tag Archives: rude comments

anecdotes

Try it… you might like it!

Last night, George Takei’s page shared an AITA post about a German woman who was upset because her American boyfriend refused to go to an “all-nude” spa with her. If you follow this blog, you might already know that I am an American, and I am a fan of the German “all-nude” spas. I’ve written about our experiences a few times, and based on the hits I get, I know that this topic is interesting to people all over the world.

It took me a long time to work up the courage to try a nude spa. Once I walked into the Palais Thermal the first time, though… (my very first nude spa experience), it took me very little time to join in the fun and bare it all. My very self-conscious, modest husband, Bill, soon followed. We both quickly realized that being nude in a German spa is no big deal. Everybody is nude, and no one cares what your body looks like. The focus is on wellness and health, not ogling and gawking. I was VERY proud of Bill for trying it, by the way. I thought he never would, but once he tried the spa and didn’t die of embarrassment, he became a fan.

I want to ask this guy… Why go to Germany as an exchange student if you don’t want to embrace the culture? My guess is that she got tickets to Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden, which is NOT cheap. However, it is a very nice experience.

It was with that truth in mind that I decided to leave a comment on George Takei’s post. I noticed several Germans “liked” my post, but one person– name of Sasha– decided to berate and insult me for posting that the American boyfriend “doesn’t know what he’s missing.” Sasha started by saying my comment was “ridiculous”, because just because I like something, that doesn’t mean everyone will. Then he (I’m assuming it was a “he”) continued by leaving uncivilized and insulting comments about everything from my intellect to my appearance.

The dude in Takei’s article later followed up with this conclusion…

She should have asked him before buying the tickets. BUT– by not even considering her proposal, he’s missing out on an interesting experience.

I finally shut down Sasha after he said I “wasn’t very bright” by “agreeing”, with a laugh reaction and the comment “Whatever you say!” He “liked” it and fucked off, much to my relief.

I wonder what that was about. Was he looking for a fight with a stranger? Was his goal to try to humiliate me? I don’t think he got what he was looking for, because I just laugh reacted at him repeatedly, and resisted the urge to comment with annoyance or nastiness. I did advise him to keep scrolling or simply fuck off, if he didn’t like my comment, but his reaction was to continue being rude, rather than having a discussion.

I will agree that not everyone likes nude spas. However, this guy has obviously never even been to one, and would never even consider going to one. It kind of makes him a wimp, in my book. If he goes and doesn’t like the experience, that’s one thing. But by just giving in to the idea that nude spas are weird and make him feel “uncomfortable”, he’s definitely limiting himself. I wonder why he’d want to be an exchange student if he’s so afraid to try new things.

Put it this way… what’s the worst thing that might happen?

He’s not going to die. If he started to die, he would probably quickly be rescued. Germans are mostly great at rescuing people who are in medical trouble.

Does he think people will laugh at him?

In all the times I’ve been to nude spas, that has never happened to me. And I have a body that might inspire laughter. In fact, the vast majority of people who go are there to relax. They are focused on themselves, not you. The one exception is the time we went to the Mineraltherme near Stuttgart, and there were American teenaged boys there who had probably gone there thinking they’d see “hot” women in the nude. I am sure they were sorely disappointed.

Is he afraid he’s going to be “grossed out” by other people’s bodies?

If so, he might want to think about his attitude toward other people. We were all born naked. Everyone has “parts”. It’s not really a big deal if you see someone else’s parts. You can avert your eyes. Most people stay in the water, anyway, when they’re nude. When they get out of the water, they wrap up in a towel or a robe. In fairness, though, the Friedrichsbad isn’t really like that. The time we went there, we were nude pretty much the whole time.

While I understand that a lot of people are embarrassed and self-conscious about their bodies, it might be worth trying a nude spa. Personally, I find them quite liberating, but that’s probably because people take spa culture very seriously in Germany. The focus really is on HEALTH and WELLNESS, not sexual attraction, shame, or humiliation. It’s one very pragmatic aspect of German culture that I love. In fact, I am way overdue for a visit to our local spa. Almost all of the ones I’ve been to have been beautiful, peaceful, heavenly places. I’ve always left them feeling relaxed and wonderful.

While I might agree that the German girlfriend shouldn’t have bought tickets before talking to her American boyfriend, I also think he should get over himself and give the nude spa a go. He might be surprised by how positive the experience can be… and if it doesn’t turn out that way for him, nothing says he ever has to do it again. I mean, I tried going to a gynecologist and hated the experience, so I don’t go anymore. No harm, no foul. 😉

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anecdotes, Champagne Bucket trips, rants

Our 21st anniversary wasn’t unlike our wedding day…

21 years ago today, Bill and I got married at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. On that day, we had rain, a bitchy florist, a caterer who packed things up before my mother-in-law could say goodbye to us, a fainting spell from my father-in-law right before our vows, a photographer who took pictures of the fainting, and an unlucky visit from Aunt Flow. The good news is, our marriage is thriving regardless… and it will continue to thrive after today’s craziness, too.

This morning, I told Bill I thought it might be a good day to visit the Hrazdan Gorge, and maybe the Genocide Memorial. I used to live near T’sitsernakaberd (Genocide Memorial), which is close to the Gorge and has a nice park around it. When I lived here in the 90s, I used to walk through the Gorge somewhat regularly. At least when I lived near the Genocide Memorial, anyway. Maybe not so much during the first year.

Anyway, our hotel is also near the Gorge, but from Mashtots Avenue, which is in a different part of Yerevan from where I lived. I thought we could walk through there from Mashtots and work our way to the other side of the Gorge.

We went to breakfast, and things got off to a good start. The food and beverage manager noticed I speak some Armenian and asked me about it. I told her it was our anniversary and I had come back to Armenia after 26 years. She sent us a bottle of red wine as a congratulations. It was waiting for us after our weird day. Maybe we’ll enjoy it today.

After breakfast, we got on our way. All was fine until we started heading down the crumbling steps leading to the Gorge. There weren’t many people there. Suddenly, a man wearing sunglasses and a hat showed up. He was right behind us as we started to descend. It made me nervous, so we stopped to let him pass. He passed, went down to the bottom of the steps, and turned left. We waited to see if he would keep walking, but he soon turned the other way, and kind of loitered for awhile, as if to see if we were still coming. It seemed kind of sketchy, so I told Bill I didn’t think it was a good idea to go down there. He agreed, and we made our way back up the steps. Later, we noticed the guy who was following us also came back up the steps. He wasn’t subtle at all, and seemed to be up to no good.

The Gorge is also near the Yerevan and Ararat Brandy factories. I thought maybe we could go take tours or something, rather than walk through the Gorge. We headed over to the Ararat factory, but thanks to a faulty light at the crosswalk, we weren’t able to cross the street safely. The light would turn green for us, but cars were still spewing through the intersection. So we decided to walk toward the stadium. That was okay, until some guy pulled over and urinated in front of us. That’s nothing we haven’t seen before many times, but we never relish seeing it.

We walked for awhile along the Gorge. I thought maybe we could figure out a way to get to the Memorial. But there was construction going on, and the sidewalk kind of ended abruptly. It didn’t seem like a good idea to keep going. So we turned around and said hello to a couple of very sweet and friendly looking street dogs. Then we walked back up toward our hotel…

I should mention, something not having anything to do with Armenia also happened today. I got a rude comment on my latest video.

I made this video last week for Bill, as part of our anniversary celebration…

Some random asshole left this comment (copied and pasted exactly as he left it)…

Don’t give up your day job

Joke’s on him, of course. I don’t have a day job. Nevertheless, I left him this response.

Thanks for the hit! 😉 In your profile picture, it looks like you’re taking a dump. That must be where you do your best work.

🙂 I will never understand what compels people to leave rude comments for those they don’t even know, on things they don’t have to read or watch. Especially when they, themselves, aren’t exactly any great shakes. Fuckwad, here, barely has any content on his channel and has just six subscribers, so I don’t know what qualifies him to harass me on my channel. In any case, I hope he falls into an open manhole.

I was still kind of ruminating about that comment– and no, it’s not that I care about the guy’s opinion, or even that it ruined my day. I’m kind of proud of my zinger, after all. I guess I just don’t get the psychology of such a thing. If I don’t like someone’s video or post on social media, I simply keep scrolling. But some people like to shit on others, and I’m afraid that’s what happened today. He didn’t even downvote me or anything. Just left a crappy, stale, and lame comment for my video on my wedding anniversary. I guess his time on the toilet has led to a creative block that has kept him from coming up with more original insults toward strangers.

We ended up at a restaurant called The Garden. It wasn’t a bad experience, although the service was kind of inattentive. We didn’t care, as we were just having snacks and beer, in anticipation for tonight’s meal, which we expected would be good. After we went to The Garden, we went back to the Opera House to see if the guy who sold us art the other day was still there. He wasn’t, and Bill really needed to pee. Fortunately, there is a toilet near the Opera House now. It costs 100 dram and is worth every luma. The unsmiling woman who tends it keeps it super clean and stocked. It’s a handy place to know about if you’re ever near the Opera House in Yerevan and need to pee (or whatever else).

Our reservations were for 7:30 PM. As the time went on, I yawned a bit, and wasn’t really in the mood to go out. But since it was our anniversary, I put on makeup and a dress. I curled my hair… and I even shaved my underarms. Off we went, and the whole dinner experience was a disappointment from start to finish. They had to search for our reservation, and sat us next to the kitchen, which was loud, and put me in the line of heat from the kitchen and a draft from outside.

The sommelier was a bit oily, and upsold the wine to Bill, then went through an elaborate wine service. We ordered dinner, with the anticipation that we’d have dessert. But as we sat in the restaurant, I noticed people having wedding and anniversary celebrations. Even a waiter got a flaming dessert. I didn’t care so much about having a flaming dessert, but when we mentioned it was our anniversary, no one even wished us a good one. They were playing super loud music and setting cakes on fire for other people. Did I really shave my armpits for THIS?

And when I finally went to pour my own wine, because the wait staff was weeded (or fucking around), a young man suddenly raced over to me, grabbed the decanter from my hand, and poured the wine. Bill thought maybe he was afraid I’d break the decanter, but I think this was supposed to be his idea of “good service”. It was anything but, and I was extremely annoyed, especially when the guy poured the wine, but didn’t bother to clear the table of dirty dishes. I finally scraped my plate clean and moved it to the other side of the table, after he poured the last of the wine.

Adding to the chaos was the very loud music, later provided by a female singer and what sounded like backing tracks. She was a good singer, and the tracks weren’t terrible, but her singing made it impossible to have a conversation, and it was not a whole lot better than karaoke.

I finally said to Bill, “I’ve about had enough of this shit. Let’s get out of here and have dessert at our hotel.” So that’s what we did. Bill paid for dinner and we got the hell out of there. We went to the restaurant in our hotel, had lovely desserts, fine brandies, and listened to much better jazz music played by real musicians and another female singer (who seemed to be channeling Adele). The excellent staff at our hotel restaurant saved the evening, so we made a dinner reservation for tomorrow night.

We have two more nights here until we get up in the very wee hours of Sunday morning and head back to Germany. I think we will still enjoy the rest of our time in Armenia. It has, overall, been a magical trip. But today was definitely a bit weird…

On the other hand, no one died, no one got robbed or raped, and when I get home, I can make even more videos for people like the fuckhead who told me to “keep my day job.” Too bad that guy’s mama wasn’t, instead, working at her day job on the day he was conceived. 😉 And the people at the hotel restaurant really did help us save our weird ass anniversary.

Time to close this post. Got to go to bed. Here’s to 21 years. Tomorrow will be a better day.


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