First Bad Blood

Wow. I had my first altercation with someone in Tallahassee this weekend. It was with J & L, a couple who are engaged. You see, at my (luau themed) party this past weekend, I was wearing a grass skirt and no shirt. L gave me a titty twister. I told her that it is my policy to retaliate in kind in that situation, save for the first one (girls get a warning, guys don't). I don't know if she didn't believe me or what, but she did it again, so I grabbed a hold of her nipple-area and turned. You'd think that she might stop then, realizing that I was serious when I said I'd do it back. She didn't stop. Nor did I. During this time, I was holding a beer in one hand (or I could have maybe used that hand for defense), standing next to Ashley, while J was in another room.

The next morning around 8am, I got a phone call from J that went something like this: J:Do you remember what you did last night? Me: When? J: -refreshes my memory on the incident described above- Me: ya. J: That's unacceptable. I can't believe you would do something like that. I thought we were cool. I don't know what to say. Me: Apology along with explanation of my policy. J: I don't care about your policy, you just don't do something like that. Further expressions of anger and disappointment. After that phone call, I couldn't get back to sleep for about an hour, even though I was exhausted after being awake until 6:20 that night.

I would think that after being with J for 7 years, L would know that he would react like this and that she wouldn't have initiated a nipple grab, let alone kept going after I warned her that I do it back.

Monday after school, I went to J's office and L was in there too. I apologized in person. J told me to "keep my distance." I told him that I would honor his request until he told me otherwise.

I checked later on Monday and found that L had un-friended me on facebook. I think that's the first time I've noticed an un-friend.

Nipple-retaliation has ALWAYS been my policy, and I've NEVER had a problem with it before. It never crossed my mind that something this grave could be the result of minor horse-play. I guess I've never hung out with a bunch of engaged/married people before coming to grad school. It's something to consider.

Handicap Haters

This sign was at a state park. It was letting people know that there was rough off-road terrain ahead and that you couldn't pass in a wheelchair...but it's hilarious when taken out of context.

Pick #20

Tenacious D - Fuck Her Gently

wow, throwback to freshman year. still funny.

Best Night in a Long Time

Last night was pretty incredible. I came home from school, took a nap (turns out the nap was very important), and went to pick up Ashley for the FSU Circus. The call the FSUC the "Greatest Collegiate Show on Earth." It wasn't professional, and there were a couple errors made by the performers, but I think they did a fantabulous job. After the circus, we stopped by the baseball game across the street in time to catch the final out of the game with FSU winning 14-2. Then we walked around campus. Saw the picture of the streaker guy. Went to the union to check out the artwork and they were having Casino Night! I played roulette and taught Ashley how. We were both winning bigtime when her phone rang. Danielle said that she was locked out. I was having such a good time that it didn't matter that we had to leave. Ashley and I gave our chips to the guy next to us (who really appreciated it) then took off. When we got to her place, she opened the door to a dark suite and then turned on the light and

SURPRISE! A birthday party for me. I just laughed. I was planning on studying. That didn't happen. There were a good bunch of people there. I feel loved.

Lunching Lizard

Love to Hurt

When you get upset by somebody else, it is probably because they occupy some real estate in your heart. I'm not talking about that ass hat who cuts you off in traffic or the guy who's rude to the point of pissing you off. I mean internally upset. I mean the way that you don't cry at strangers' funerals, but you do at friends' and family's. I mean how you realize that you didn't care at all about a girl if you don't care that she left you. In order to feel hurt, there previously must have been caring in its place.

Continuous v. Quantized Age

Some people have a perception of age as quantized. Either you're 22 or you're 23. No in-between. I think they like to quantize age in order to rationalize the concept of age in their head. SO, on your birthday, you are all of a sudden one year older.

I like to think of age as a continuous concept, not a discrete one. I do fall into the trap of saying that someone is 54 years old, etc, but that really does make it easier to rationalize. For my personal life, though, I don't think that I turned a year older on my birthday. I turned a day older. Or even less than that. You get older with every breath. Time only moves in one direction (around this part of the universe).

When people try to make you "older" aka more mature/with more life experience as a result of having a birthday, I think they are just using an expectations operator...they are saying that at a certain age, you should have had this many of that sort of experiences (on average). If there weren't such a high information cost, they could much more accurately pin down what they're looking for by knowing all of your accomplishments, failures, and other life experiences (travels, deaths of those close to you, exposure to violence or culturally enriching experiences, etc).

So, maybe you do get older with every breath...but more importantly, you get older when you do something or when something happens to you. When you experience something. You grow up a bit after the first time you ride on a plane by yourself. Or after your first kiss. Or after your 100th test this semester is over.