The Past Few Days

Oh dear! My poor blog is so neglected lately! I have had lots going on, but it's been hard to find the desire to put everything in to words lately.

Yes, as you can see I changed my template. Time for spring... although the one thing that is annoying me right now is that little search bar up in the left hand corner. I don't know enough about html to remove it!

So hi everyone. :) Can I tell you guys a secret? I really appreciate you all being my listening ears (eyes?) on occasion! I've been so frustrated lately, and sometimes I feel like I can't talk to the people around me about it.

My presentation went well... I gave a very heartfelt, personal account to the audience, for which everyone praised me for afterwards. Immediately following the presentation, I felt elated. Of course, later on in the evening I felt anything but elated! I felt more exposed and vulnerable than anything. Did I really just tell a very personal story to a roomful of strangers? There is a part of me that kind of wants to bury my head in embarrassment now. I don't fully understand where these feelings are coming from, but I almost wish I hadn't been asked (forced) to present.

Ah well. I can't understand my own emotions most days.

Moving on, I went to my friend Andrea's birthday dinner on Thursday. She's been getting on my nerves as of late (I'll explain that in another post), but I was more than happy to go to her get together. We had dinner at this local Mexican restaurant called Tia Helita's, and she not only invited our friends, but a lot of her family was there as well. Everything was going great, except for the fact that our friend Shannon felt it necessary to bring her husband along with her. Shannon's husband is what we all refer to as being a bit "special." He grew up in this very sheltered, "not a minority for miles" community outside of Flint, and he feels the need to pretty much bring this up at any occasion. Only he doesn't say it like that, instead he'll make jokes about finally having friends who aren't white. Okay so fine, whatever. You're pretty white bread, we get it. If only he could end it there.

Instead, he is always making inappropriate jokes! It's like the only thing he knows how to do is put his foot in his mouth. For instance, Andrea was upset at her party because her fiance ditched her birthday to go to a boxing match with his friends. Andrea used to be very thin in high school, but over the years has struggled with her weight. So, when Andrea mentioned to us that she was going to forget about her fiance by having another piece of birthday cake, Shannon's husband felt the need to say "Better slow down on that cake. Your fiance already ditched you, and let's face it, no one wants to date a fat girl."

Yes, this is what the jerk said! We all were sitting with our mouths gaping at him, while Shannon started elbowing him. And we would have been lucky if that were the end of his remarks... but oh no. Andrea is Mexican, as was the rest of her family that was at her birthday dinner. She happened to ask one of her cousins (who was somewhere around 14 or 15) if he needed a ride home. Shannon's husband then thought it would be appropriate to say "What, you mean you all didn't ride together? I thought that's what Mexican people did... squeeze in to one car together."

I was so beyond irritated! Everyone else just looked at him in horror, like they didn't know what to say to him. Most of Andrea's family did not hear this remark, thankfully! I couldn't just sit there and let him say it, thought! Before I could even stop myself, I said to him "You know what, you really need to stop talking because you're being a real jerk right now! I know you think I'm kidding, but I'm not. You're kind of showing your ass right now."

Which of course he laughed at! I swear... he is so dense! I can not for the life of me see what Shannon sees in him. She is completely the opposite... sweet, nice, smart, and very open-minded. Where her jerky husband came from, I have no idea.

So yes, these are just a couple of my latest frustrations. Believe me, I can probably post four more blogs on everything that is irking me lately!