Maybe I'm a skeptic, or maybe some people just don't get it.

When I went back to Rome this weekend, we decided to pop into Hot Topic to check out the clearance as we usually do. TJ was wearing the Alkaline Trio shirt that we picked up at their show last year, and one of the employees complimented him on it and started talking to us about their new album Damnesia. It is just an acoustic rearrangement of a bunch of their old songs (plus 2 new songs), but as soon as we got home I had to get my hands on that album. I've had it playing in my car ever since. I'm loving it, but two of the songs really got me thinking, especially in regards to the order in which they are on the album.

The songs I'm talking about here are Clavicle and Mercy Me. (Click each title for full lyrics.)

The song Clavicle is this song about this girl that the narrator  met 6 months ago and he’s already writing this song about her and how he can’t stop thinking about her, etc. Then Mercy Me, the next track, is a self-loathing break-up song. I found it funny that this song about this guy going crazy about this girl he just met is immediately followed by a break-up.

It got me thinking about how I’m seeing WAY too many people who are moving way too fast in relationships and it never ends well. I can’t say names because I’m way too non-confrontational for that. But I will say that going through my Facebook News Feed just makes me say “Oh, honey”, to quite a few girls I’m friends with. I’m ashamed to say it makes me question my judge of character of the people I surround myself. I love my friends to death, but gee do I wonder if they ever take a second to think about the things they say to the public. There’s no way that every guy a girl dates for two weeks is “the love of my life”, “the best thing that ever happened to me”, “my everything”, and so on. These same girls need a slap in the head for the fact that they can even hit the Share button after they’ve posted “You’re amazing to me. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, baby!” You can’t imagine it?! Just think about your life three weeks ago. In a week after you break up, after a couple Kleenex and some Ben and Jerry’s, that’s exactly what your life will go back to. Then you’ll forget it ever happened and repeat the cycle.

I don’t know if I was taught differently from other people, but I never abuse the term love in regards to romance, and it really bothers me that girls will be on Facebook telling their boyfriend of 1 day and 14 hours how much they love them and miss them already. It’s not a jealousy thing. It’s not like I’m just bothered by them because they have no problem finding these 3968 men to go through like tissues. And I’m not a bitter woman who doesn’t believe in love. I’ve been with my boyfriend for six and a half years, and even with him we didn’t throw that word around until we were sure. That certainly wasn’t before we had even learned each other’s last names like some of these girls. It’s just that at this point, it’s not love, it’s the excitement of someone actually giving you the time of day.

I guess I just don’t really understand. Do these girls genuinely think that this guy they just met is the one every single time? Or they so happy that they get to change their relationship status to “In a relationship” that they just go way overboard?  Do they really think it’s smart to tell their selves to get so attached and trust these guys when they barely know a thing about them? 

When this kind of thing repeatedly happens – move way too fast, sudden harsh breakup, complain about how much you hate them and say you’ll be better without you – on a regular basis, you really need to start wondering about your judgement. 

Once again, maybe it’s just me, but I won’t just give my complete trust to someone just ‘cause they asked me to “go steady” (I don’t know why  I love that term). But obviously it’s worked for me as I’m not currently crying while watching the Notebook and eating a half-gallon of ice cream with a shovel.

Here’s a crazy idea for a logical series of events: meet, spend time together, start getting to know each other, earn each other’s trust, THEN think about getting serious.

Just for clarification, this is NOT a logical series of events: meet, tell them you love them, learn their last name and age, move in together, go on first real date.

Maybeee then you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into, and your relationship can last a nice long time. And you can appreciate the word love and all the great stuff that comes with it.  You won’t be so damn surprised when you find out how much of a liar and a horrible person he is. Even better, you won’t have to whine about the same situation on Facebook every month. Yes, I’d appreciate that greatly.

</rant>

Okay, so maybe this was all a bit harsh. Let me play nice and just say this: girls, please please please stop jumping into relationships so fast. You’ve got all the time in the world to find “the one”, there’s absolutely no rush.

First post.

Today I learned a few things:
-My Droid X can take some pretty great photos with the right lighting.
-I shouldn't just go grabbing random plants because I will end up with bits and pieces of them stuck in my fingers, just like I did today. Grabbed part of a bush on campus while taking photos in class and my poor fingers are very unhappy.
-I get very frustrated with new computer programs. I had to follow a tutorial on how to make a chair in Google Sketch-Up and spent an hour grunting at my laptop because nothing was doing what it was supposed to. Here is the 8 minute video that made my night oh-so-fun.
     I will admit the work became much easier when I tried using my mouse instead of the touch pad and zoomed in close on the section I was working on. Still, I'm not a fan of this program yet. We will probably end up using quite a bit of it in my 3-D design class, though, so I better get used to it.

It is not even 11pm, but it feels like it's 3am. I have so much to do, thinking about it makes me even more tired. I need to get used to not being able to sleep whenever I want like I did all summer.

Well, this is it for now, I guess. Adios.