I just don't understand men/women/martians
Current mood: good
Category: Romance and Relationships

Probably the most cliche'd concept in American society is the battle of the sexes, and our lack of ability to understand one another. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Women must follow 'The Rules' men should live by 'The Code'.

Here's the thing my friends. There IS no understanding of men or women in a larger general sense. You can't pigeonhole every man or woman together as a gender and hold them all accountable for the same type of behavior.

Men are dogs, women are manipulative. Bullshit. Allowing yourself to believe such a thing is going to perpetuate a cycle of loneliness and misery that you really don't want to indulge in.

No one is special, no one person is entitled, but each person is unique and should be judged individually without all the baggage one has acquired from past dealings with their gender.

If you're consistently being treated poorly or improperly by members of the opposite sex then I submit that the opposite sex might not be the problem. Look to your own behavior. Might be something there.

Well, thanks for reading my rant. If you're gonna disagree let's go ahead and get a comment war started. I know I'm right and am prepared to defend my position.

MTFBWY

Vegas baby, the aftermath
Current mood: tired
Category: Life

Well, that was fast but alot of fun. Next time I think I'll try to stay for longer than two days. The craps tables at New York, New York were very generous, and I'm not really that good a player. Pretty conservative. But the thing with craps is you always go up at some point. I'd play for an hour or two, only risking about $200 and when I'd get up another hundred or so I'd say hey, I think I'm gonna go to the piano bar and grab a beer, or coyote ugly and watch the over rated bartenders be coy and attempt to be rude.

There was ALOT to see, and alot of being seen. I'm not Mr. Fashion, but I could tell I was out of place in my midwest cargo shorts, camp anaconda t-shirt, and new balance tennis shoes. So off to 'Fashion Show Mall' I went and thanks to some very nice sales girls at Macy's my craps table winnings went into some very nice brand name clothes. ($44 for a t-shirt?). But at least I know I looked good. I'm hoping women were staring because my arms and shoulders looked good in the tight t-shirt, not because I had something hanging from my nose.

I ate at the required NY NY eateries, Il Fornaio, Nine Fine Irishmen, and Starbucks. I wandered all OVER the strip. Unfortunately on my first night there my brain made a decision my feet couldn't back up. I walked about four miles up the strip from NY NY to Treasure Island in my flip flops. I've got blisters that would make a Ranger School student grimace.

After that I discovered 'The Deuce' which is a double decker bus going up and down the strip. Lots easier to sit on the second floor as the bus moves around and decide where you want to go next from there.

There will be another Vegas trip, and I will have more fun. But I think I slept maybe 4 hours the entire weekend, and one night of hard crashing at home has not yet helped me catch up.

So that's it in brief. Many little details I'm forgetting once more. I really need to take notes of all the odd little things that happen.

Oh yeah, I have a garage so the Ducati has a safe, dry place to sleep. And I promised the girls in the leasing office they could have a ride tomorrow.

Back to work on Wednesday, I'll let everyone know how that goes.

MTFBWY

A warrior no more?

Let's be upfront here at the front. I was not some iconic, steely eyed, larger than life warrior with bronze cuirass, shield, and spear. I was an average to slightly below average example of the typical American combat soldier in Iraq. But even that was fulfilling in its own way.

Now I'm home, and with any luck won't be putting on the uniform bound for a combat zone anytime soon if ever again. Now that I'm safe, and comfortable, well fed, and showering indoors I'm of mixed emotions about this. Iraq was hot, dirty, uncomfortable, and very occasionally dangerous. But despite the complexity of the overall mission, we had clarity of purpose. Defend our position, find the bad guys, protect those under our care, and take care of our soldiers.

I love my regular civilian job. Problem solving, research, helping people utilize the technology available to maximize their productivity. I can't wait to get back to it, especially after a good meeting with my boss yesterday morning.

But I'm going to miss that clarity. The danger, the excitement, and the comradeship. I wonder if this is something all veterans experience. Or are most of them just happy to be home and that's the end of it?

Well, I need to get some laundry done, and maybe go buy some new clothes for the trip to Vegas tomorrow (alone, my date canceled on me).

Take care, and may the force be with you.


Murf

Chapter 'the next'

Wherein our hero attempts to readjust, has some fun, spends alot of money, and has yet to kiss the pretty girl.

Today's July 4th. We've been home for a little over a week now.

I'm getting pretty good at driving around without poopin' myself everytime there's a bag or large chunk of trash alongside the road.

Fireworks are....interesting. During the daylight hours it's not really a big deal. Firecrackers don't really sound anything like small arms fire, so I thought it wouldn't be a big deal. Then I was standing outside last night with all the fireworks going off and that kind of got my attention a little bit. When I'm nervous or whatever I tend to put a wall directly to my back and get kind of hyper-vigilant. I was fine again as soon as I went inside. I wouldn't call it a disorder or anything, just a readjustment.

What else have I done with my time at home? My best friend Scott drove down from Chicago to hang out and kind of drive me around. He also brought me two kick-ass Motorola cell phones. It's funny about those friends you have from when you were young. We sat down and started talking and it was like no time had passed.

I've driven my motorcycle around quite a bit, and yesterday I went and invested in a 'passenger' helmet. It's not as fancy as the Arai that I wear over my bean, but it's still a good safe solid helmet. And it should fit over the pretty girl's heads when I start giving rides.

I also (brace yourselves) started the process to buy a house. I got my mortgage pre-approved for an excellent rate (way better than I thought I'd get with my checkered economic past) and no down payment and the payments while more than what I'm paying in rent aren't really all that bad.

I was planning on hanging out at the pool today, but it's 10:20 and I'm still kind of sitting in bed. I think I'm gonna go grab some starbucks and see what develops from there.

So many things I'm leaving out. My mom threw me a great homecoming party and I think everyone in Lincoln showed up. A very good buddy from Iraq now lives two doors down from me in my apt complex, another lives a couple miles away. So I've got friends in the neighborhood, which is very comforting.

I'll close this up for now and go try to enjoy my day.

Thanks all, and may the force be with you.