Don't take it so seriously... what, life?

"...don't take it so seriously." he said.

To which I have a response.

At what point in time can you stop taking life seriously? At what point can I take my guard down? When, tell me, when will I walk around at peace in my own head?

Will all of this magically happen when I "stop taking things seriously"? I doubt it.

Why am I able to sit behind a computer screen and stare at the words being typed to me, and tell so much about the person on the other side that I've literally scared people before? Their mood, their feelings, their opinions, and their worries - I've read them all... sometimes within a few words. I know it's all intuition, but they think I'm a freak.

Why is it that I can sit on a sales floor and watch other people miss sales knowing full well that they could have made them? All they would have had to do was ask one more time. Yet every day I sympathize with the customer and the sales people around me. I listen to excuses from them, but it all comes down to one simple fact... people lie every day, and they hide those lies behind excuses. Why do I have to feel that way? Why do I have to be the one who can't sleep at night if I convince someone to do something that they, obviously, walked in my store intending to do at some point in time or the other? Why is it if I think I said the wrong word or accidentally offended someone that I have to care? I mean, come on, I didn't do it on purpose. Still, it seems as though I do care - sometimes more than my poor mind can bear.

I feel that everyone around me has all of their own specialized traits and abilities, and they put those gifts to use every day without remorse. Yet everyday I feel a little more guilty about understanding what happens around me. My thoughts freak people out... unless someone wants to know how to deal with someone at work, or how to get that promotion, or who stole money out of their house (with a list of suspects and events) - then everything's ok.

My opinions are rarely popular because, most of the time, they don't fit someone else's agenda. SOMETIMES, my opinions don't fit MY agenda (I can give examplles)!

I like things just as much as the next guy, but I never seem to get them because my mind always makes me feel guitly about having, doing, or saying. With all the things I understand about the way everyone else thinks, my biggest foe every day is me. I don't understand the reason I think. I understand the HOW but not the why.

There are many things that i could have already been successful with. I have proven, without a doubt, that you can visualize your way through any endeavor, and I can easily visualize my own results... I just have a hard time visualizing the steps between.

In all reality, there were merely too many times when the people I Loved came before everything else, and they still do. Their opinions have, so many times, defeated all that I was attempting, that I have since failed them and myself by neglecting to follow through and prove them wrong. I guess i always fear that maybe they won't Love me anymore after I finally get to where I've always said I'd be.

I will be where I've always said I'd end up, and maybe the scariest part of it all is getting there and finding out I'm all alone. All of my support always came from effigies of the people I was looking for support from. It was never cautious optimism... it was always lip service. I knew it and chose to ignore it.

In the end... guess it was my fault.

So, what was the lesson for today boys and girls... hmmm.

Maybe it was to not take life too seriously. I think maybe people are right... maybe I shouldn't. However, I think today's lesson was to use your abilities and stop caring what other people think. I still don't do that well either, but I'm beginning to find that my "support system" is made with low grade materials.

I'm just tired of saying things to people and getting a response of "that sounds great",when they're really thinking "he'll never make it.. don't wanna be part of that." Any one of those things that "sounded great" could have made a fortune a hundred times over someone. Too bad, I guess I listened to the wrong person, and so did they.

Maybe I just need a vacation. Mark it on your calendar. I'm going to attempt to be out of town and in Glen Burnie on July 11th and 12th. I'm really going to try to make plans to go to The Howl At the Moon Saloon on that Saturday. All are welcome...

but don't take yourself too seriously when you're there... I'll be on vacation.

Mo

Thought I gave up... didn't ya? Never give up... just adjust your strategy.

Well, I didn't... and oddly enough, I have been writing a long post about my family, but it isn't finished, and I don't know for sure when it will be. I guess sometimes you need to just step back, walk away, and come back to projects at a later date.

The problem isn't really writer's block... it's more of deciding how upset my family could be vs how happy I could make them. I'd like to talk about things that have never really been discussed, and give credit where credit is due, but people don't seem to understand that the world isn't always pretty, and if someone says something bad about a person it doesn't necessarily mean they're not liked.

I see it every day. Someone is worried about saying the right thing as not to offend someone else, and I am as guilty as the rest. I may be more politically correct then any of them, but sometimes you just have to tell the truth. Sometimes you have to say "Look, this isn't about whether or not I like you. It's about whether or not I like what you are currently doing."

I had a friend get upset the other day that there was talk about trying to find more inventive ways to take advantage of the abilities of our friend SUPERQUAD. He is disabled... a fact. Once again, in our group of friends, and you know what? This guy may be willing to give more than any of the rest in the group. He's very intelligent, he has a great attitude about the prospects of finding ways to repair the spinal cord, and it's infectious. If you think for one second that there won't be a cure, in a matter of 10 years, after talking to him, then you weren't listening. I'm optimistic too, and I enjoy hearing about the research being done.

Anyways, I go back to softball (I feel that competition brings out the reality of everyone's attitude about life there - so far, I'm right). Sunday, we played a fantastic game. It was wonderful, and everyone literally played at the top of their game to overcome a tough team, and our biggest challenge - beating ourselves. After the game was over a conversation came up about our 3rd base coach SUPERQUAD. No one said anything about him except that they couldn't hear him, and that as much as we want him to play and participate... we can't hear him coming around the bases.

A defense automatically goes up.

"Well, you just have to pay better attention."

What?!

None of this was directed at me, but that's what I was thinking (as was the person on the verge of being accused of being insensitive, I'm sure).

"You just have to watch him."

Umm, uh I don't know if you noticed or not, but uh he's nearly qudrapalegic, he can't really flail his arms like a third base coach normally could.

So, the conclusion is that it's our fault that we miss the signs from third because we aren't mind readers. It's obviously not SUPERQUAD's fault...

... and you know what?

It truly is our fault.

SUPERQUAD, if you ever read this, please know that when an argument breaks out about things like this, it's not because of you... it's because WE have not adjusted our strategies to make you an integral part of the team. Instead, we've done you a huge disservice by trying to place you in positions where you can contribute... whether you'll contribute well or not. We could have sat down and, as a group (including you), come up with a creative solution to the dilema of "how do we include one of our good friends on our team; even though he won't contribute physically?" But, we didn't do that. Instead, we have sat back and second guessed calls, quietly grumbling about, what amounts to, small problems caused by your disability.

That wouldn't normally cause chaos, but it does, because, as humans (and competitive ones to boot) we see a challenge and want to conquer it. We see you make a questionable call, or we don't hear you when we turn for home and make a bad decision because of it, and we want to blame someone for it. "Where was my coach?", we think. We rationalize that the coach did it to the best of his ability... and that small wound festers - til it becomes gangrenous.

It's sad, and everyone wants to jump on the "you're not being sensitive to his needs" bandwagon. They're right, but in the wrong way. We could have had SUPER crunching numbers, detecting patterns, maybe even working the book on a palm pilot. We had all kinds of options, and he may have been doing things that he may have really enjoyed. Things where there was much less risk than him taking a line drive down the left field line because he couldn't get out of the way. (I've nearly done it, and I don't know how well I'd sleep if i ever hurt him. Yes, it's his choice to sit there, but it's still on my head or any other batter on our team's head if he's hit and hurt.) Yet, we were lazy and didn't even ask him if he thought that he could do anything else better... much less if he WANTED to do anything else. We didn't ask his opinion. We have just continued as if his opinion didn't count - that's the really sad part.

People categorize objections as us not wanting him to participate... the objections were always how, and never if. As I said the other day to the coach after feathers got ruffled a bit. "No one ever said that they didn't like SUPER...". And us not liking him couldn't be farther from the truth.

You may wonder why you care? Well, you should, for two reasons.

1. If you have someone with extraodinary abilities and a few disabilities (we are all like SUPER in some things that we want to participate in) that you want to have involved, then you need to take the sentences above to heart. I believe that the best solutions in life are the most creative. An elegant solution to a problem is one of the most beautiful things that happen in our daily interactions.

2. Maybe not as important as the sensitivity described above, but nearly. Don't let things fester. In the end, you will only have a bigger problem when all the little annoyances become a great monster to which you will slay by ending the relationship you have with the person at issue. If that happens, hopefully the terminated relationship is with a tertiary acquaintance, but more often than not... it's your wife (or husband).

I'll tell you right now, If you ask your wife to be honest, she'll tell you everything you've done wrong since the time she's known you. "... and that one time when you wore the checked tie with polka dots to my mother's house at christmas time... well I was mortified, and you didn't seem to care..." Yeah, babe... well there's a reason I didn't seem to care. lol

Just don't let stupid little annoyances like that destroy years of building wonderful relationships in your life. They will if you let them.

Next time... maybe the thoughts on my family, maybe not. I know that I'm going to move on through whether I finish that one or not.

Oh, and by the way, congratulations to my sister and MINORSTOTHEMAJORS. They'll be happily wed on Friday.

Until then... take care.

Mo

New start(er)s...

It wasn't a big deal... go to work, get some dinner, get my car, get dessert, and go home. ...and go home. ...AND GO HOME!

Okay, so maybe it was a bigger deal than I had thought. The car wouldn't start. It started 20 mins before, but now... not even turning over. So, I call my dad (I'm not very mechanically inclined). "Dad the car won't start."

"Well, what's it doin'?"

"That's just it - nothing."

"We'll be down."

He was referring to himself and my brother, HTRN. I was also sure HTRN would bring my niece too. I was near work, so I was about 1/2 hour away from home. I knew it would take time for them to get there, so I decided to figure out what I was going to write tonight (hoping I'd be home in time to beat the 12am mark so that it'd still technically be tonight). I was thinking about how, under prior circumstances, I'd have been furious. Tonight, I was frustrated, but nowhere near furious. I've noticed lately that there are fewer things to be furious over. Most things I just laugh about.

(I think my family thought I'd gone off the deep end when I'd found that my ex wife was pregnant, and laughed til I nearly cried. For all those who don't know... we've been separated for 9 months - she's not due for another 4 months - if you do the math, it isn't mine. More on that later.)

It's kind of a different approach for me. I go through phases where I feel like this, and it honestly feels great. Nothing really bothers me. I can be slightly annoyed, as noted in my first post, but otherwise, I'm happy.

I think a great deal of this has to do with the fact that there have been many major changes in my life over the past year. All, in retrospect, for the better. Sometimes we do not know what is best for us. They've culminated into this period of time where I'm finally feeling like I'm advancing.

It's really been a long haul. I feel like a prize fighter going for the belt right now. I haven't gotten it yet, but at least I'm in the arena. I'm not even to the locker room yet, but that's irrelevant. I'm going to win the belt. I'm going to have to fight hard, and I'm probably going to get hurt some more, but it will all have been worth it... the black eyes will go away, but the hardware stays.

With things the way they are now... I have a lot to be happy about. I truly didn't realize just how unhappy I was with life. Maybe not life as much as the situations which life threw my way. I believe that people get into a bit of a funk when life gets tough, and they begin to drop into a different attitude. Sometimes people don't feel that things are fair (I was one of them), and they'll have those feelings validated by those who Love them. Your support system is there for those reasons specifically, yet they don't help in that aspect. Realistically, though, your support system going the other way and telling you that life is completely fair; could send most people into a worse funk. I feel my support sytem was just about right in the fact that they were helpful, but not unrealistic.

It took my own experiences to get out of the funk. I found things that were fulfilling activities vs. going to bars... being disappointed...and going home. The same process was happening at work, you see, I can't figure out which person took advantage of me more at this point, my ex-wife or my former boss. They both did a pretty good job. At least I still speak to the former boss without venom.

So, when I finally got out of both situations, and got things squared away, I decided to put a smile on. I make decisions as to what I'll do, and turn people down for invitations to do things where I never would have done that before. I look at the future with much rosier glasses. Strangely, there was never a time when I didn't look with rosy glasses... I think the problem was the jaundiced eye.

I'll be moving, from what I hear from my current employer, before August 1st. Another opportunity for an even better lifestyle in a somewhat more progressive town. Do I want to leave? Not really, but sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do in order to be able to finally do the things we do want to do.

I plan on taking my kids on a Disney cruise next year (the invitation's open to whomever wants to join us). I can't do it where I'm at right now, but with a few changes in life it'll be simple.

The beauty of all this is that everyone get's a new start in life everyday. Some days we need new starters... as I do now. Luckily, new starts are exciting and if you'll just decide to smile instead of worry life, will take on new meaning...

Just ask KAYA KING and BROKEN RULE, (by the way - nice to meet you yesterday BROKEN).

Take care.

People I've Never Met, that I care about more than I would have imagined.

It was tough to finish the post last night the way it started. You see, I started that blog in a certain mood. I wanted to make a point... with an edge. I had it (the edge), but then what happens? That's right, you start messaging with someone across the country and they completely change your mood... for the better. How dare they? ~gasp~

Some of you know who they (she) is. You may also know that I have never met anyone like her. As a matter of fact, I haven't officially met her. I haven't officially met several people whom I gladly call friends. They are people in the digital world. I may know what they look like CALYN, GRIN, MISSING, PHILLY, and THE VET, but I've never seen them other than a picture here or there. As a group, those listed above have had an affect on my life in ways that I could never have imagined.

Sometimes their affect was as simple as hanging out and playing games... til 4 am falling asleep at the controls: MISSING. She's great. May be the best girl gamer on the net... right CALYN? lol. And, for those who read and don't know... when you're getting beaten down... she isn't an overweight, geeky gamer girl - she's actually really cute too. There is currently a line forming to get beaten down - I'm sure of it.

Others gave me self-esteem when I may not have been at my highest points in history. The first 5 of the last 9 months were the toughest in my life. A lot of nights I'd hang with GRIN and she'd help - a lot... apparently she deals with adolescent head cases everyday... I was an easy exercise. lol

She was there nights when everyone else was asleep and I could have called any one of them, but I didn't need too. I was at my wit's end. I'd had kids non-stop for a couple months by myself - all still fairly new to me at the time. It was also the worst time of the year for a jeweler, not to mention the worst time in a lifetime for a Dad. The stress really mounted sometimes. She helped make it bearable. So, HEH8ME, you and some of the others need to thank her for at least one extra night's sleep (GRIN if you work on them, you may get flowers). I've thanked her before, but it doesn't hurt to do it again... Thanks, I may owe you everything.

As for, PHILLY and THE VET. One is my favorite stalker... the other, well, I almost blush to say, but I've never had a marriage proposal online, you are definitely an original. I think I'm going to turn you down for now. You have a good alternative right now anyways.

The two of them basically came out of nowhere. I was just chatting with a few people and all of a sudden I have new friends... that want me to actually come visit. Well, I have yet to take either of you up on the offer, but you never know when I'll be in your neighborhood... maybe next week - for a diamond cert. meeting.

Now, as for CALYN. Some know this story but, I really don't think she has heard how it truly goes. I have told people that I associate with, that I have gotten to know a girl online... with rousing ovations of "...that is amazing, wonderful, and perfect." "...I'm sure she's honest, beautiful, actually female, smart, and has a great personality to boot."

I wish.

It's actually been a great deal of the exact opposite of what's above. The people I have around me are... cautiously optimistic. Their initial reaction is something like this: "...well, uh, do you think she might be a psycho, stalker, killer, fatal attraction type person?" She'd find it comforting to be lumped with serial killers I'm sure. lol.

Let it be known, I'm glad I have a support system like this. They've seen me through tough times, and that's why they are skeptical of anyone around me they don't know... implicitly. This story is funny though because of the shear beauty of the story itself. You see, I met CALYN... on the phone. That's right - I MET her on the phone. I can't say that I've ever met someone on the phone that I continued speaking with afterwards. Normally, if I meet someone on the phone they've screwed up my insurance and I don't particularly want to meet them. They probably don't want to meet me either - I don't blame them.

She didn't help me fix my email problem... turns out it was my fault in the end, but she still didn't fix it - and probably still got paid. lol. Her fatal mistake was that she gave me what appeared to be a personal email addy to test my settings. I'm sure she's done it 100 times. It just so happens that this time someone caught on. Or at least i thought i did.

I took a chance, did something I've never done before (KAYA KING thought it was unbelievably brave, I thought it was out of character in a good way. More on him later.) I emailed her. I mean, we hit it off on the phone, we were laughing and talking. It seemed like it'd be fun to get to know her better. I already knew she didn't live in the same country... so what could possibly happen? We talk via email, and tell our friends about the crazy girl/guy who I met on tech support/at work on the phone, afterwards, and drift back to anonymity enjoying a couple of funny stories and a short-lived, pen-pal-like relationship.

Then, I didn't get a reply for a few days. I had told my friends what I did, and I don't think any of us honestly thought she'd ever reply. Why should she? "What if he's a psycho? It's a lot easier not to reply then have to deal with him." So, she probably wouldn't, no big deal. There are lots of other ways to meet people... too bad, she was pretty cool.

Day 4: I get an email from an addy I don't immediately recognize. Hmmm... she did reply:

Dear Mo:

I can't believe you actually emailed me you psychotic lunatic. I'm changing my email address directly after sending this to you so that more deranged people won't make any attempts to accost me outside of work. I have called the proper authorities and the FBI (lol) will be knocking down your door any minute - FCC violations.

"What?" You may say. "I thought you liked these people", and I do. You see that's exactly what I THOUGHT the email would say.

Turns out she was very nice and actually invited me to email again. So, I did. Then again, and some more after that. I learned that she likes the vikes, and has a lap dog that weighs what she does. Sounds pretty cool, but I'll never actually meet her.

What?

You're coming to D.C.

Washington D.C.?

I know that's the only D.C. in the free world. (I'm taking liberties with the actual convo for comedic effect.)

Do you think we could meet? (Here's where you get shot down Mo... cringe)

Yes?

As in, yes we can meet in D.C.?

Awesome!

Now I'm going to spare you the details of the rest of the convos, but I'll say this. I have never met anyone quite like her. If she's half as funny in real life as she is online my drink will undoubtedly shoot through my nose. And, if she's half as tough as she'd have me believe then I'm definitely not going to give her a hug in D.C. without lots of warning. (call it self- uh preservation). She's had a tough couple of weeks, and I could only sit back and hope she was well. Seems that she'll come through this as others... even stronger than before.

GRIN asked me what I liked about CALYN, and I gave a few things, but it was easy to sum up...

CALYN likes jazz. On CALYN's birthday she went salsa dancing... on a leg that was broken the week before... while playing tackle football.

The moral of the story:

Keep your eyes open... you may never physically meet some of the greatest people in your life, but you NEVER know where those great people will be digitally or geographically.

Take care...

Moranic Monday. It's a lot easier to be the good guy...

Hi. Maybe you know me and maybe you don't, but I'll tell you this... I'm gonna write the way I speak. It won't always be punctuated correctly. It may not be spelled correctly. It may not have correct sentence structure. It may not even be something you agree with, but I'll promise you this: I will always say what I believe is right. I'm always going to be taking up for what's fair, and I'll give you a piece of my life... a genuine story from my everyday affairs that could probably help yours; as long as you just take it in and look at life from outside of your head.

If you're wondering - I'm 28. I'm male. I'm seperated soon to be happily divorced. I have two kids - one boy and one girl. I'm not technically dating... yet, though I have nothing against it. lol. (I'll say lol a lot because I smile a lot... so I want you to know when I am.) I live in the east. I spent a couple years in college without the degree. I've read a great deal since I've been out of college. So, in essence I have the equivalent of a high school diploma with lots of life experience (sounds like I'm interviewing for a job. Although, I'd never say that in a job interview. More on those later). Now, stick with me here. Don't let your mind wander just cause i don't have a sheep skin. I hope you might learn something from this "uneducated" schMoe. you'll learn more about me in the coming posts but let's start with this...

I figured out something just yesterday. It was one of those eye opening thoughts that when you apply it to everyone around you, you realize just how a great deal of people think. It allows a person to split others into two categories and really gets to the root of motivations. The thought was this:

It is much easier in life to be "the good guy" than to always try to appear to be "the good guy".

"Oooooooh, Mo your first post. That's a real winner." ~sarcasm~

It is, trust me. If you look at everyone you deal with today and say, "Is he good or trying to look like he's good?" you will, first off, probably laugh if you come to the conclusion that he's trying to appear to be good. Then, you'll quickly adjust strategies to dealing with him.

I'm going to give you the example as it happened. I play softball with some great friends. I pitched and we had a girl catching that is not very experienced at the game. I have gotten into the habit of covering the plate on plays at home, over the past season and a half, when there's someone back there who has less experience playing. The coach (we'll call him HEH8ME), one of my dearest friends, had given the order to cover the plate on top of my already instinctive desire to do so.

The problem arises when the catcher becomes somewhat insulted that I'm doing her job. (In all reality I'm doing MY job and that is to get us back off the field as quickly as possible.) That's when her spokesman comes to me, not the coach - me, to tell me that I don't understand her situation. "Hmmmm", I think to myself, "I truly hope that he's going to impart some amazing wisdom about human nature and the ability to play softball. Because otherwise I don't see where this is going." Then, I figure it out. As he's telling me about how she "...doesn't hit very well, you know." and "...well she doesn't run real well.", but "...you're taking away the only part of the game where she may be able to redeem herself." It was difficult not to laugh. "...MAY be able to redeem herself. I thought." - he's trying to APPEAR to be the good guy here. This guy, who, admittedly, is a very good friend of mine (we'll call him LONEGUNMAN), is standing here for no other reason than to try to make himself look better because he's supposedly looking out for the little guy.

He tries to appeal to me with comparisons to others on our team who have struggled, and that "we're all here to have fun." Oddly enough, right then i look around at the bench and no one is smiling. I point that out. I've pointed out a great deal of the time that just because people are at the game it doesn't mean they are necessarily having fun. There is no way, in life to gauge why someone should be having fun because those reasons are normally very personal. Truth be told I have fun when I feel like I can affect the outcome. Call it control, call it what you want, but it's fun for me to affect the outcome of a situation... even better? To affect the outcome indirectly.
There are some great ways to determine "fun", but overall, even winning isn't always everything nor a gauge to determine what is actually fun.

So, this guy continues with my point that everyone on our team is having a great time, but not smiling. He says, "...we lost every single game last year, yet we got EVERYONE back." Good point, I'm sure that everyone wanted to come back just so that we could lose every single game this season. I'm, as a matter of fact, absolutely positive that everyone re-upped because they wanted to enjoy the humiliation of defeat 22 more times this year. Isn't that why we play?

I agree, a pretty thin argument.

The real reason everyone came back is this: ALL of my friends are very competitive. Anything we've ever done together has quickly become a test to see who can improve the quickest. It has, sadly, ruined nearly everything we've enjoyed doing together in the long run (namely Magic, and Halo) because eventually we'd have all had to turn pro to get any better than we were. The activity already consumed all of our free time, and we did nothing but think and talk about it at work. There was nothing wrong with any of that. We all loved to play those games, but, eventually there came a breaking point at which we could not continue to keep up with the compeitition, whether due to finances or time. It seems as though whomever in our group has the most of which ever commodity that affects their talent level at that game is needed; is the one who is also the best at it.

Softball, is a different kind of animal for us. It's a team game. So, we can't dramatically improve by ourselves. So, being all-consuming (like other things we've done), is nearly impossible because there are so few things that we can do by ourselves. We then have a controlled rise to the top levels of competitiveness, instead of meteoric like it normally is. (A lot of times we used to play Halo together weekly, and players would gain so much ground on others from week to week that we'd have to pick new teams every time because the talent level had shifted from the previous games.) THAT is what everyone shows up every time for. If I could show my friends that playing marbles would be a fun, rewarding and competitive experience they'd buy the best set of marbles they could find.

Sidenote: Inherently, HEH8ME would buy a great masher marble that looked amazing, but may not be the absolute best. Another friend (we'll call him 'S BIG BOY) would buy the absolute best masher he could find, based on what the salesperson at the masher marble store would tell him no matter if the salesperson was a complete idiot - he normally does well with that strategy though. As a matter of fact, after they read this, there may be a rush on good blogging software.

Now, back to LONEGUNMAN's propositon that we are there to have fun. (This is the moral of the story) The reason that he thinks just showing up is fun is because he's not the best at the game - yet. If he was, then it'd be all about us winning because that's what it turns into when you get close to the top of any activity in our group and in life. You want to see success because you are close to it and can nearly touch it. It has nothing to do with how you feel about people personally. It's about the way you feel about what the true goal is in what you do. LONEGUNMAN's goal was to detract from the real issues of his own desire to be out there playing 100% of the time. Since he wasn't going to get 100% playing time it'd be easier to pander to other players who weren't getting to play... just as he wasn't getting to play in the way he wanted.

The challenge in dealing with people like this(especially ones whom you'd consider one of your dearest friends) is not insulting them while calling them on what they say. You have to think quickly because they'll say anything to APPEAR to be "the good guy" whether it's the truth or otherwise. They've also, more than likely, been preparing their speech and reasoning as to why they are right and you are absolutely wrong. Your best defense is history, trends, and seeing through the dark veils of what people say vs. what they think and do. Then, after all that, you might suggest they try BEING "the good guy" instead of just acting like him.

To all who don't know my friends, you'd really like them. They just have to have some sort of excitement in their lives. I'm no exception. Some call it drama... I call it character amongst an entire group. I Love them dearly. One of the greatest parts about them is I can say things like this, and we'll still be good friends... they might be disgruntled for a couple of weeks, but we'll be fine. They know, in the end, I'm fair and I truly do care about them, I justget frustrated sometimes. I know, in the end, I could ask them for the shirt off their backs in a Frostburg "... BITE INTO A YORK PEPPERMINT PATTY..." snow storm and they'd give it to me. No questions asked.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed it. Next time, something dealing with people I've never physically met...

Take care.