The question, My dear..

I originally was going to make this post about time and how much difference a year can make.  But then I was reminded of this line in the Incredibles:

Good ole Edna. 

So instead, I'm going to talk about the now.

In my Gender Comm class on Thursday, we talked about romantic relationships.  My absolute favorite thing to talk about.  The topic that is going to make me a New York Times Bestseller. Maybe even a life-changing author. Who knows. 

Anyway, the thing I want to discuss is this question: Can men and women have strictly platonic friendships, or is there always some sort of sexual tension there?

I'm very curious about everyone thinks, so please please let me know in the comments below! 

In my opinion, we can.  I had a lot of guy friends, especially in high school.  But I never considered dating them or doing anything else.  They were more like my brothers.  Like literally, a couple of us had grown up together and our moms were friends while they were pregnant with us. (And still are.) 

Obviously now, I avoid hanging out alone with males, because I don't want others to get the wrong picture. I know that I don't have thoughts of doing things, but avoid the appearance of evil, right? Also, Blake and I have such little free time to be together, we want to spend every moment possible with each other. And he's my best friend,so no one can compete with him :)

Also in that class, we talked about the major things to making a good marriage (and if you get embarrassed easily or are insanely innocent, you may want to stop reading here)

Anyway.  The two most important things: good communication and great sex.

Not my words, that's official scientific fact. 

I'm actually reading a book by a couple who decided to be intimate every day, no matter what, for 110 days.  Like, they didn't let anything stop them.  Not sickness, exhaustion, their children, work. They found ways to make it work.  I'm not very far into it yet, but I'm curious to see how it affects their marriage.

And I feel like I can't go much more into this topic without getting inappropriate or extremely awkward, so I'll just stop it here. But I will admit we have a great marriage ;)

But really, I'm super curious what everyone thinks about the friendship question. Can we or can't we? So take a second and jot down your thoughts and let me know :)

And as a token of gratitude, here's the Diner scene from When Harry Met Sally. You're welcome.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

I want to take a break (just for today) from talking about relationships as in like marriage relationships and talk about relationships we have with random people we see on the street. Apparently this year there are only around 23,000 students at MTSU.  That's a lot less than the 29,00-30,000 my freshman Design professor boasted about two years ago, but relatively speaking, that's a lot of people.

That's a lot of chances to be really nice, or really mean, or just do nothing like we all tend to do.

So let me tell you a little story.  At my job, we have these things I call "Happy cards" and "Sad cards".  Basically, if a patron things we did an excellent job, they fill out a happy card and we get kudos from our boss. (Like literally, our boos sends out an email to everyone saying "Kudos to *insert name here* who got a card for being *adjective or whatever was written on the card* Yay *name*)

This is a copy of the actual card, which gets put in "The Binder of Awesomeness" with the other happy cards :)

It's great fun.

So, Wednesday night at work after messing around with some of the patrons and being my usual sarcastic self, this girl walked up.  In a seriously cute shirt.  Like, I want that shirt. So naturally, I told her I really liked her shirt.

I think that was a really big thing because she filled out a happy card for me.  (Oh, and she put my name as Zarissa.  I couldn't stop laughing when I gave it to my boss. Baha.)

That made me think.  I got rewarded in the form of public praise just for being honest about someone wearing a cute shirt.

Meanwhile, unfortunate girls are priding themselves on being catty and called the word that according to the movie The Women, "doesn't belong outside a kennel" (if you still don't know what I mean, it rhymes with witch.  And if you still don't know, well, I can't help you.  But kudos for being so innocent.  Also, how did you get through high school?)

I don't know when being called awful names like that became a positive or "cool" thing, but I think it's about time we dropped that little idiotic movement and progress past the point of being barbarians.  Just an idea.  Because I don't know about you, but I prefer to act like a lady.  In the words of Lindsay Lohan circa 1998, "It's because I have class and you don't"

It's not hard to just be nice to people.  It's a part of growing up.  And I don't even mean in a "step out of your way to help someone pick up their dropped papers" kind of way, but really, that also isn't so hard.

Let's talk about Don Ritchie.  Never heard of him? Well. He's called "The Guardian Angel".
He lives near a popular suicide in Australia and when he spots someone about to jump, he kindly invites them in for tea and talks to them.  Of course, people don't always accept his invitation, but he spends his days waiting to save lives.

Compared to that, smiling at people shouldn't be too hard.  Or telling someone when they look nice. Or even just randomly texting a friend, telling them that you love them.

So let's go from being called the bad B-word to the Lovely L-word, shall we ladies?
And men, just be decent human beings.  Which, by the way, includes opening doors for the women.  Like, last week I was trying to walk into the BAS and this guy cut me off and made me hold the door for him so he could walk out! I was not ok with that.

What a Rude Butt.

But anyway, in the method of Mormon Sunday School teacher, I challenge all of you to do at least one nice thing for a stranger today and spread happiness!

PS: here's a story about "Guardian Angel" but if you're really interested in him, googling his name brings up a lot more. :)
Don Ritchie, Guardian Angel