The Life Experience ~ Spring '09

[bloodyrosemccoy]

What I Learned Since The Spring Equinox

• My sister thinks my lack of desire for a mate is weird.
• “Anhedonia” is the medical term for an inability to feel joy.
• Wasps are the god damn SUPERVILLAINS of nature. Now, I knew that some wasps were disgusting monstrous horror-movie-inspirations from the very depths of your worst nightmares, but I didn’t realize the sheer variety of horrifying parasitic atrocities they’d commit against trees, grass, spiders, butterflies, and beetles.*
• Wyoming and Colorado state laws require you to move to the left lane when you see someone on the shoulder.
• While Star Trek TOS is almost entirely made up of homoerotic moments, the winner of all the episodes I’ve seen was “Mirror, Mirror.”
• Octavia Butler is even more rocking than I was led to believe. Took me way too long to find one of her books.
• Mark Hamill can do three different crazy laughs.
• Bill O’Reilly writes kids’ books. I didn’t need to know that.
• When stroked, alligators can be sedated. They also make a hilarious warnk sound before they do.
• Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome perfectly describes my bedtime habits, and is in fact very, very difficult to treat. Take that, people who think I’m just not trying!
• It’s almost nice to find out you have a “disorder,” because at least you know you’re not a one-of-a-kind freak.
• In the world of my aunt, dark wizards and lawyers are apparently always hovering around little old ladies just waiting for them to have heart attacks. That’s why it’s imperative that it be kept secret from everyone, including, preferably, most of the little old lady’s children.
• Your hips have to be forward for front stance in tae kwon do. I’ve been doing it wrong for years.
• Even one stellar job interview doesn’t guarantee you the job.
• There’s a really nice section of Salt Lake City off on the other side of Downtown that I never knew existed—and which I should keep in mind for whenever I want to actually move out.
• I am not the only person in the world who thinks Strunk & White were full of shit! Yay!
• Bad movies based on good books touch a serious nerve in people.
• Uhura’s first name is Nyota.
• Arc flash is an ionization of the air around an electrical system with sufficient voltage and no grounding. It’s an impressive and unfortunate cause of death among electricians.
• Wire-wrap jewelry is pretty straightforward in its basics, but mastering it is less easy.
• There is such a thing as an antidepressant that works without making me fall down
• The life of a Mormon missionary is even more regimented and awful that I could have imagined. You’re never even supposed to be out of sight of your partner. I realize this is probably in order to keep missionaries out of mischief, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

*I am of the strict mammalian opinion that being eaten from the outside in is fair, and the proper sequence of events is 1. Kill, 2. then eat. If that happens to me I’m bummed but figure, well, fair play. But eating alive, and/or from the inside out, is definitely a foul.

Comments

[neintales.livejournal.com]

Many people find lack of desire for a mate to be weird. I get funny looks about that myself, along with lectures of how I can't expect Mr. or Ms. Right to just 'fall into my lap' and how I need to go out and LOOK. Fortunately not from my mother, or my closer friends, but it is eye-rollingly popular for more distant relatives and well-meaning acquaintances to go for such discussions.

Also, yes, wire wrapping has been the bane of my jewelry making existence. I snap wire and waste wire sooo damn much trying to twist it, and my results are always horribly messy. Which of course means I need more practice, but practicing frustrates me terribly and burns through my equipment money so much that it's a complete and utter BLEH.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Bizarre, isn't it? And they don't seem to understand that I find their desire to find someone equally weird--the difference is, I don't lecture people on how sad it is that they prefer something different. I should point out that my sister is cool about it even if she doesn't understand it, but a lot of people seem to be offended that I don't burningly desire a significant other. Or people regard me with pity that I'll be all alone because that is, apparently, Teh Sad.

Have you ever been accused of just claiming sour grapes?

[neintales.livejournal.com]

Hm. I can't really remember being accused of claiming sour grapes as such...

And ditto on the wanting someone equally weird... also my big thing is I want someone who is less high maintenance than me/more stable in ways I'm not. So I tend to crush maybe on someone, and then I get to know them, and realize that things will Not Be Good because they need ME to be stronger than I can be, and I'd need them to be stronger than they can be... objects of crushes always seem to wind up either seriously OCD or depressive themselves, and I back up fast, and also lose the crush...so far since my big burn in middle-schoolish things have never gotten serious.

..well, or I crush on straight girls or gay guys. Sometimes they're pretty stable, but... heh... yeeah. Doesn't work out either ;)

Someone I talked to about it once said they suspect that I'm sabotaging myself a little by always making sure to only be attracted to people I either have no chance of getting (animated characters, Lucy Liu) or that I know I'll have a GOOD reason to avoid (OCD friends, psychopaths)... but no real idea, and so far no real worries about it either.

[shadesofmauve]

But...but if you don't *want* someone that way, then you're not missing them. That's...kind of how it works. It's as absurd as being worried that you'll crave a food you dislike.

The only explanation is they're projecting. High fidelity, intense projection. In technicolor.

(btw, not in your shoes with regard to partners, but have certainly encountered the same thing in terms of other life choices, ie, kids).