Saturday Spotlight - Birthdays!

Fun Birthday Celebrations !!

Last night was such a fantastically fun evening. It was spent celebrating the birthday of a friend with a great group of people; a few I met for the first time. What a pleasure it was to have spent time with this gaggle of goofy, intelligent, free spirited, accepting and somewhat uncensored souls. It certainly was a gay ole time. I am looking forward to having more adventures with this bunch, should they include me in their reindeer games :-)

Despite a rough patch, ok......... a REALLY rough patch in the friendship of said birthday boy, I think we have come out it fairly well. When relationships (friends, family, etc...) go though tough times, when it gets resolved in its own way and time - obviously the dynamics change and shift. Even though it has been almost a year since we rebuilt our friendship, at times I still have that "walking on eggshells" feeling. I guess it's only natural given the decidedly unsettling circumstances that led up to our falling out. Still, I am very happy (and proud) for the huge first step that was taken last year to re-connect. It took a leap of growth, awareness and setting aside of pride to do and I am thankful he did.

~~ What are you doing? Are you delivering mail or are you delivering dick and nuts? ~~

My Superpower

With the exception of one person lately - Apparently more and more, it seems my super power is being invisible. That is unless, I act first. It's getting old. Really old. I want a new power.... I'm really tired of this one.

Maybe it's the migraine I have right now, or maybe thinking about this caused it... who knows?

Here Today.... Gone Forever

Why am I still amazed that there are people who haven't learned life lessons and continually get off on engaging in mob mentality lead by little people who have nothing else to do with their time/energy/empty lives than get a thrill out of getting relative strangers "on the bandwagon" about people and situations they really know nothing about? It's disgusting and has detrimental effects on those ACTUALLY involved in very emotional situations.....

It's interesting... no... pathetic, that innuendo and gossip have taken the place of facts and that real communication between people is disappearing. There are choices that can be made... ignore or engage.

Ignore is especially useful if your personal knowledge of someone's character leads to you rationally determine "well, this doesn't sound like something XXX would say or do", so maybe I should just ignore it or talk to the person directly. Automatically believing something said in the context of gossip with no direct knowledge is mindless and for people who can't make actual judgements for themselves.

Engaging and getting caught up in that is dangerous and almost always leads to failure - not to mention not so secret little hypocracies. Such as, privately voicing utter destain for someone, then publicly fawning over them. It's actually laughable in some ways. If you don't like a person don't engage them and don't pretend. It's not being true to yourself. I fully understand that this is not always possible in real life social situations, like a party, etc... but you can find a balance, be graceful, and socially mature in a situation like that.

Can people change their minds as circumstances change and not be considered hypocritical? Absolutely. The difference lies in being true and consistent. For a lot of people, it just does not seem possible.

Aretha Franklin Has A Point

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

I've been thinking a lot about that word lately. It comes in different shapes and forms. There is the respect for parents and siblings, partners, pets, children, co-workers/bosses, friends, and the human race in general, etc... They are all significant beings in our lives. The concept can be broken down even further yet all tied together at the same time; Respect for feelings, opinions, boundries, and the relationships we have with those beings.

So what happens when it is taken for granted and morphs into lack of respect, apathy, rudeness, lack of manners and consideration for others? You start to question and examine your value and place in those relationships and theirs in yours.. Not a pretty thing to have to do.

I've realized that in order to achieve some sort of peaceful balance in life, you have to ask yourself some tough questions, find the answers within yourself and make decisions that work for you to achieve the best peace of mind and control.

I've struggled with, and made a lot of those types of decisions over the past several months and have been working towards that goal of balance. Learning how to get through the tough parts, knowing how to identify your own issues and separating them from those that are not yours and how they affect you..... is a continuing process.

One of the hardest parts is knowing the right reasons for deciding if a relationship is worth keeping... or is it time to give up and let it ride itself out?

Sometimes - it's hard to tell.