Remember Troll dolls?

When I was a little girl, I used to have these dolls that were generally described as being, “so ugly they’re cute!”  They were called Troll dolls, and here’s a pic. 

I used to play with their hair because it was fun to comb and you could kind of make it do silly things, like stay in a big curl.  When I was little, Troll dolls didn’t really have clothes – at least not that I can recall.  They weren’t good for dressing up, since they had such little arms and legs, and neither could bend.  Eventually though, the Trolls got put in the give-away box, and at some point so did the rest of my childhood. 

Guess what?  Childhood has returned, with a vengeance!  My Troll dolls came back over the weekend, and decided to visit my blog!  Specifically my “Why I Think Chicago Sucks” post.  I’ve had so much fun playing with them.  But, they’re not as cute as they were when I was a kid.  See that little smile in the picture?  They don’t smile anymore – it’s more of a snarl.  Now Trolls like to stir up trouble and hurt people and just generally act like jerks. 

It’s difficult knowing how to deal with a Troll.  They’re rude, and the recoil instinct is to deal with them in the same way, with language they’ll be familiar with.  At the same time, you don’t want to lower yourself to their standard.  But man, when I get my Irish up, it’s really hard to keep my cool!  Just ask my husband! 

And I was getting my Irish up over these Trolls, because they were going after my commentors – not after me so much – and that was really pissing me off.  Now, whether you love Chicago or hate it makes little difference to me, but the folks who’ve come to my post and left their comments have been venting their frustrations all over the place.  They all tell me they’re so happy to have found my post because they feel like they’ve finally found someone who will listen to them without calling them names or insulting them.  It’s become a forum of sorts, a meeting ground for like-minded people to hang out, have our bitch sessions, and commiserate with one another.  It’s a great feeling to have, that other people feel like you do and it’s okay to breathe.  You don’t feel so alone anymore, when you find others who’ve experienced the same things you have.  And I basically have the attitude that, if you want to insult me, fine, bring it bitches because bigger a$$holes than you have tried and failed.  But when you start leveling insults at the nice folks who’ve come to visit me, well then, that’s a different monster entirely.  As my BFF Raga said, I “went all mama-bear” on this Troll.  She was sweet and made me feel better, that’s for sure.  I always struggle with how to unleash “whup-ass with class.”  I’m not sure if it’s solved my problem – it’s been pretty quiet over there in this interim though.  If they come back, WordPress has this wonderful blacklist feature, and I can block IP addresses, and lots of other things as well. 

In the meantime, childhood must go back to it’s place.  Dishes must be washed and laundry done, but it was fun to play for a little while.