Taking on Harry and Sally

When I first saw when Harry met Sally, I was soooo mad at that movie. The premise of that movie was that a woman and a man can not have an intellectually and emotionally intimate friendship. That in the end, the only way a woman and a man can relate is through a romantic relationship wherein they end up getting married and make babies.

I have thought about the nature of love, relationships, and the people in my life for a very long time now and have come to the conclusion that things are much more complicated and varied than what that movie (or others like it) present. I have very deep and intimate friendships with both MALES and FEMALES and I am married to only ONE of them. Also, even in the world of romantic relationships, one doesn't always want to get married and make babies with the other person- and that DOESN'T mean that the relationship is any less of a relationship.

Additionally, why are hugging, kissing and exhibiting physical contact such a weird thing for people! Why is physical intimacy with people you care about such a taboo thing? I love my husband, but I don't want all the meaningful hugs I can get to only come from him. When I was in undergrad, at a women's college, I used to get lots and lots of hugs and other physical contact from my friends. Now, it seems that the only kind i can get are from some really close female friends and males. Why are women so afraid of hugging each other? Are heterosexual men only doing it to cop a feel? I don't understand this whole gendered relationship thing.

I tried for a while hugging people that I was happy to see as my way to subvert the no-touching paradigm. But then I realize that some people were uncomfortable with having their physical space invaded and I needed to respect their discomfort. Sigh. I need a new approach to bringing about my touching revolution.

Maybe I should get a button that says, "hug me." Oh, if anyone knows how I can get the t-shirt that says "hugs not drugs" (or better yet, "hugs AND drugs"), I'd be very much indebt to you.

sleep deprivation

There is a strong correlation between diabetes and sleep deprivation and obesity and sleep deprivation. Apparently sleep deprivation screws with your metabolism and sugar processing. It is common for those who don't sleep much to also eat lots and eat lots of junk food.

I didn't get enough sleep last night and can tell that I just want to eat more. Obesity I am not too worried about. I am a long ways off from bring obese but diabetes doesn't sound like fun. though severe cases of diabetes is linked with obesity too.

Okay, that's my public service announcement for the week.

midwestern cultural experience

For the 4th of July, I went home with a friend of mine for a bit of cultural education. Her parents live on a non-working farm in Ohio. I got to ride a motorcycle, drive a tractor, eat some jello-concoction that involved pretzels and pillsbury-dough wrapped milky-way bars, watched fireworks, sit by a bonfire, and pick lots of wildflowers. The digger/bulldozer was out of commission this week. Oh, and I have learned the all important rule "If you pass a yard sale, you must stop!"

I never really thought there was much to get excited about with regard to motorcycles. Tractors I can understand because they are big and noisy; motorcycles just seemed like death traps to me. But riding on one, well, once I got the hang of starting it and easing it into gear (I don't know how to drive a stick), it was super fun! It is a lot like flying. I was driving around in their front yard terrorizing the groundhogs that were popping up every so often. I have heard that about segways and am now really interested to check one out.

Side note: So it seems that the cops in DC have segways too...I saw a police officer on a segway chatting with another officer in an SUV. I guess the fad of cops on bikes has fallen by the wayside.

dinner?

Last night I went to dinner with two fellas I knew from school. One was a pale skinned brunette from Arkansas and a blonde fella from England. The restaurant was an Saharan restaurant in my neighborhood that I had been meaning to check for a while now and we went with the intent of checking it out and getting a chance to gorge on a lot of meat (everything on the menu involved meat of some form).

When we walked in, the restaurant was pretty empty, except for two African males sitting at one table. The waitress came out from the kitchen and I said, "Three, please." She just stood there looking at me and so I said, "Three, for dinner, please. Can we just sit anywhere?" This prompted her to respond with a somewhat hesitant and confused look, "This is an African restaurant." I said,"Oh yes, I know that."

In any case, the food was great. We ate goat with various kinds of sauces and stuff on it. Some of it turned out to be super spicy. In the end, we were the only folks in that restaurant of non-African descent. In fact, I think that everyone in there was at least one or two degrees removed from Africa.