Friendship Soap-Box...

Why is it such an inconceivable thought that a guy and girl can be 'just friends'? 

A good bit of my friends are/were guys, one of my absolute best friends is a guy...and yet it seems to me that the mere idea of it is ridiculous. 

From my experience, a lot of people are quick to assume that there's some nefarious hidden agenda beneath any interactions between me and my male friends and, frankly, it's insulting. Now, I will agree that not every friendship is/was 100% platonic...there may have even been some *gasp!* flirting on the occasion...but when it comes to the friendship between me and my best friend, let's call him 'Mr. C,' we've reached a level of friendship that is breaching on that of siblings.

Mr. C and I have been friends since middle school, 7th grade to be exact...that's when my family moved to Smalltown, Alabama. His last name is close to mine, alphabetically, so we would up sitting near each other in many classes. We had home economics together and he sat right behind me...one of his favorite things to do was pretend to blow spit balls at the back of my head [charming, right?]. On one such spit ball chucking day, I happened to have brought a gigantic manga book with me to school...seriously, it was as thick as a phone book! Mr. C was going about his 'annoy the quiet new girl' routine...when I'd asked him to stop a good handful of times, I turned around and smacked him with my comic book! [Yes, yes...we were both very immature...but this was 7th grade, people!] From that day one, he and I have been good friends.

Mr. C and I have seen each other through many break-ups, helped each other move several times, and have stuck with each other through more messes than your typical friendships...but I guess being friends for over 15 years will allow for that sort of thing.

Mr. C and I at my
16th Birthday

He was there for me when things soured between me and my son's father...and I was there for him when things fell apart between he and his last ex, which was right on the tails of his father passing away while he was overseas and culminated in my helping out when he needed to move back to Alabama. 

Yes, there are times when I get frustrated and am less than happy with Mr. C, and I'm sure that there are times when he's not thrilled with me either...but that's why I say with confidence that he and I are more like siblings than friends. And no, there's never been anything physical between the two of us either. Ever. Seriously. [That's the point that seems to get me the most raised eyebrows...but that's the truth. Former Girl Scout's honor!]

All this being said...yes, I will get a bit miffed if someone starts rooting around and trying to make something more of my friendship than there's ever been. And if those that are new to my life choose to persist in pressing the issue, hoping that what must be a facade will crack and that all sorts of gossipy-goodness will come oozing out...I'll probably shake my head, laugh, and then decide that maybe we shouldn't be friends after all if they think so little of me, to insist that I would lie about something that has been so factually innocent. 

Okay...

That probably seemed like it was a little out of left field, but I just needed to put that out there.

/stepsoffsoapbox

Girly vs. Manly Soda Cans...

Tried several times to publish this post, but the iPad wasn't exactly cooperating last night. I'm on a desktop now, so hopefully I'll be able to complete the post. 

This afternoon, my brother and I had a brief conversation about the newest Coke marketing scheme. I'm sure you all have noticed that all varieties of Coke have a "share a Coke with _______" on the label. Well, a doctor that my brother works with made the observation that Coke Zero and Diet Coke are essentially the same product that's been marketed towards different genders. Coke Zero is marketed to a more male demographic and Diet Coke towards female. Now, we both agreed that the two different diet sodas don't taste the same and that changing the label (coke zero with its black label is considered to be more masculine than diet coke with its silver labels) couldn't have that much of an impact on whether a guy or girl would be more likely to choose one over the other. So, to test the doctor's theory, I bought a 12-pack of both varieties of the diet drinks. Turns out, the doctor had a good point. The labels on the Coke Zero cans were decidedly more masculine than those of the Diet Coke cans. Well played, Coke, well played.

"Girly" Cans

"Manly" Cans

So there's that. Kind of interesting, but not very important.

Not even six posts in and I'm already running out of ideas for things to write about! It's harder than I originally thought to come up with topics that I can write about that don't sound overly academic or like selfish whining.../shrug* oh well, I'm sure I'll come up with something. ^_^

*writing in this format is a type of 'gamerspeak' and you'll probably notice that I do this quite often. The '/' indicates an action. Guess typing like that is a leftover habit from my World of Warcraft days.../sigh I miss those days...sometimes.