Blog Challenge Day 2: Something I Feel Strongly About

Wow…this was a tough one.  This challenge is hard.

I mean, there are so many topics out there that I definitely have an opinion on or feel passionate about:

Foreign policies, Obama, religion in our schools, gay rights are all worthy of a discussion but those are boring.  Important…but boring.

Spring 2014 fashion trends, the Super bowl outcome, Kindle vs. Nook….dull.

Hollywood perverting books to cash-in at the box office…eh?  Maybe some other time.

I guess what I’m going to lament about today is the need to never stop learning, to never lose our inherent curiosity.  I feel strongly about this because ignorance infuriates me.  People choose to be ignorant, plain and simple.  Apathy is a paralytic and a horrible waste of your mind.  I know people learn differently.  I know that some people have legitimate learning difficulties.  However, we all are capable of varying greatness…even if you have a personal ceiling on your intellectual level, why would you not strive to reach it or maybe even try to surpass it?

I love learning and can be quite voracious at times if I find something that piques my curiosity.  I have encouraged this with my daughter, always.  Even after the 4,862^nd question of the day, I don’t sigh and tell her “I don’t know” just to shut her up.  I answer as best I can because she is a willing participant in bettering her mind.  She initiates information gathering and that fills me with a sense of pride.  She is constantly curious, plays with puzzles & memory games daily, as well as possesses an ardent love of reading.  I feel I have laid a solid foundation for her to build on by constantly encouraging her to question the world around her.  I received the same when I was a child and I believe that is why I love acquiring knowledge so much.  I might not have a framed BA or PHD hanging on my wall, but I can honestly say I am not an idiot.  I went to college, a couple of times actually, but never finished.  But, college is not the only way to better oneself.  With the Internet & YouTube & those buildings that contain shelves of books that you probably haven’t stepped foot in since school, remaining ignorant is just plain ridiculous.

I think some people enjoy being stupid though.  They couldn’t care less that they are walking oxygen thieves and, they have no plans to change.  That makes me sad.  Then it makes me angry.  Because the ones usually spouting vitriol the loudest are the most undereducated.  Great!  I’m so glad you have an un-researched, biased opinion…that is the American way after all.  Oh?  You’re going to use FaceBook to enumerate the reasons why we should impeach Obama?  That should really make shit happen…  I just wish people would channel their energy into becoming a force of change instead of bashing what they hate on social media websites.  That is ignorance; that is people discontinuing education and becoming stagnated, who's cumulative effect is crippling our society.  I mean, more people lost their minds and rioted when Twinkies were being discontinued then when military funding for D.O.D. schools was cut so severely that many schools could only be open 4 days a week or had to shut down completely.  AND, all those teachers are now out of work…and they weren’t really banking to begin with, cable installers make more than teachers these days.  What the fuck America?  What.the.fuck?!?  I genuinely fear for our country when the extinction of cream-filled sponge cake treats garner more outrage then children losing education opportunities and countless teachers are being forced into unemployment...which is already retardedly high.

*I just read back over what I had written so far and died laughing, and I'm so not changing a bit of it.  I started off about how we must never stop learning and ended with a rant about FaceBook & fucking Twinkies & how much I hate a large percentage of the American population.  This is an excellent example of how my mind works and what my thought process is on a daily basis.*

So in conclusion, I say put down your snack cakes and pick up a book.  Turn off Keeping up with the Kardashians and visit a museum.  Stop Googleing funny cat pictures and Google images sent back from the Hubble Telescope.  Your brain and the rest of society will thank you for it.

Sorry for the disjointed blog post so here's a picture of those delicious bastards

Blog Challenge Day 1: 5 Ways to Win My Heart

Jesus….

I almost passed on this challenge because this was on the list…even contemplated removing it and adding something about my first pet or some other bullshit.  BUT, I am nothing if not a purist, most especially in challenges/competitions. So, that being said, here we go…it might be against the rules but the first two are requirements & this is my blog and I do what I want.

First requirement:  Don't be a selfish asshole.

There is this myth out there: Women Love Assholes.  Well, sorry to burst your bubble my special snowflake, but women do not lurve assholes.  Women are infatuated by them.  There are a choice few idiot women that truly do love assholes and it is evident by their disastrous dating history, but women as a greater whole do not.  If we manage "to catch" one, their appeal quickly evaporates as reality sets in.  Our desire "to fix" them dies as the realization that our own self-worth supersedes caring for an overgrown man-child who is rude, thoughtless, and lacks compassion due to narcssisstic motivations.

Second requirement:  Don't. fucking. lie.

GOD, I HATE LIARS.  There is little out there, in my opinion, that is more hurtful than lying.  I'm not a saint…I have lied a time or two…but, as I've aged, I've fully realized how pointless lying is.  How much damage it truly does.  Why do people lie anyway?!!  My opinion…fear.  Fear that you will be seen lacking in some way.   I get it.  It's fucking scary telling hard/difficult truths sometimes, especially to loved ones.  We don't want to be viewed as weak, or unattractive in various ways, or ignorant, or whatever.  However, I would much rather be hurt by the truth because after its done, under all my pain, I have a feeling of worth.  That person knew my value and respected me enough to give me honesty.  Telling hard truths, in anything, is a true measure of a person's character.

First way:  There has to be laughter.

I'm pretty sure this is the surest way to win my heart.  Like, you could totally tank at everything else and I would still give you consideration and/or further thought.  There is nothing more important, more beautiful to me than laughter.  Having the capacity to laugh at oneself and having the ability to find humor in those low points is key to a happy, fulfilling life.  Laughter heals.  Laughter unites.  Laughter ignites desires and can be a beginning because love stories start anywhere.  A person not only has to make me laugh, but they need to accept my twisted sense of humor and constant sarcasm.  Because, winning my heart, my whole heart, means I have to be able to make you laugh as well.

Second way:  You have to be interesting and find interest in me.

I think there is no higher compliment one can receive than to be thought interesting.  Everyone is beautiful.  Anyone can be nice.  But to capture someone's fascination?  To be the reason for their unwavering attention?  Your thoughts, words, actions become craved for by another?  That is truly unique and cannot be achieved by the masses.  It doesn't interest me what you do for a living, I want to know what you ache for.  It doesn't interest me how old you are, I want to know if you are willing to risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.  I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine.  It doesn't interest me where you live or how rich you are, I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and be sweet to the ones you love.

Third way:  Know your place.

I desire a man who knows that his place is not in front of me, constantly leading.  A man that knows that his place is not always beside me.  A man that knows his place is not behind me riding my coattails.  I desire a man that knows that his place is all three.  I need a man that can read any given situation and ascertain the best possible position he needs to take which will benefit us and our relationship.  Sometimes I need support not saving.  Sometimes I need solidarity and teamwork.  Sometimes I need strength when my own fails me.  At the end of day I have to know that I have a true partner...not a misogynistic, egocentric douche or an man-child.

Fourth way:  Knowing the value of simplicity.

There is so much out there distracting or detracting from love these days with the advent and advance of technologies and the increase in societal vanity.  Love is simplistic by nature…and that is what makes it the most savage monster by far.  We over complicate it. We pervert it.  Relationships are hard, not love.  When two distinct, unique personalities try to coincide, it is not always harmonious.  Love is the control in the experiment and will always remain, many times buried beneath confusion, loathing, or tears.  I need a man that knows this and does not need to rely on grand gestures to fuel love.  I need a man who will have dinner cooked by the time I get home, without prompting, because he knows how hard I work and he knows its nice to surprise me from time to time.  Its a validation that he sees me and sees what I do.  I need a man to let me sleep in a few weekends even though he works just as hard as I do.  A man's answer to the question "What do you want to do tonight?" is "Don't worry about it, I already made plans for us" instead of "I don't know, what do you want to do" is a certifiable panty-dropper.  Feel free to write that down.  I don't need diamond bracelets or fancy restaurants.  Folding the clothes from dryer while I grocery shop or take my daughter to the park so I can organize the closets is a much more powerful way to show love.  Acts like those, show respect and appreciation.  They show your partner that you have compassion and gratitude.

Fifth way:  My kid has to like you.

Well, I'm a mom so this was a no-brainer.  If you stand any chance at winning my heart you have be loved by my child because she is my heart.  


Well, that's it.  That's the list.  Easy-peasy right?!  Truth though:  falling in love with me won't be a Disney-version love story and it's only fair that I go all "full disclosure" on you so you know who you are falling in love with.  You are falling in love with my insecurities, and my obsession with trying to figure out how to be better than the person I was yesterday.  You are falling in love with my immaturity, my constant need to feel loved and appreciated, my overactive tear ducts, my internet obsession, my tendency to be too introverted.  You fall in love with my troubled past, and my hopes & dreams, and how I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. If you fall in love with me, you fall in love with my self-hate and all my imperfections and my perception that nobody could ever love me the way I need to be loved.

But, you are also falling in love with the way my eyes will smile when I'm with you, the way I'll text you really inappropriate, yet hilarious, internet memes/pictures because I know you will chuckle.  You're falling in love with the always occasionally thought-provoking things I say or really weird shit because my mind is a strange place sometimes.  You will fall in love with the way I will blush when people ask me about you and the way I will begin to covet the warmth of your embrace.  But to me, the most important thing will be that you would be falling in love with me, despite my thinking that it is impossible.

Blog Challenge Time

I've been kind of disconnected from so much lately...friends, family, blog, the laundry.

In order to rectify this I've decided to do one of those blog challenge thingies:

I might regret this decision later.

Most of these things start with a photo and sort of biography. However, I think by the end of this challenge, people will know who I am/what kind of person I am better than if I just describe myself and talk about my love of french fries and disdain for Miley Cyrus.

This is going to be good.  

There is no way this will end badly… right?