Cereal Monogamy

I discovered recently that it doesn't pay for me to try new cereal. The new just isn't as good as the tried and true.
CoCo Wheats will never be as good as Chocolate Malt-O-Meal.
Store brand quick oats are not superior to Quaker.
Marshmallow Matey's beat Lucky Charms, both on price and sugar content.
And there simply isn't a substitute for Cinnamon Life.

So all you other shiny seductive cereal boxes - give it up. I'm not bringing you home no matter how big your advertising budget was.

Still waters

It's a truth of my life that when there are many things of high importance occuring in my private inner circle of life -- the outer circle of my life becomes livelier with humor and mischief. It's a neat trick of emotional misdirection.

Oh look - funny things! Nothing see here, no need to worry! Move along, folks. No dilly-dallying.

The people closest to me already know the worry or the crisis. The people on the periphery don't need the added burden of care, and so can just appreciate the humor of my own self-distraction.

I've given up trying to decide if that makes me strong or weak. I recognize it as my own method of coping with the parts of life I can't control. I would rather share laughter in hard times than enter a game of one-upping the misery.

Snowblind in August

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnbYsUIO3ic

I think we're snowblind, we've had a hard time, and we can't see where we are.
Spending our whole lives walking in straight lines, and it doesn't seem to stop.

This is our life, it's all that we get
the days are all numbered, and the nights are all spent
losing our focus, and we're starting to drag,
we're running in circles and we start to feel bad.


Snowblind - Rob Thomas - (C) Warner Music Group

-----------
The poetry of this lyric speaks to my heart, in ways that are not easy to explain. I know what it is to be snowblind, and the metaphor is so very apt for what I experienced when my marriage was failing. Everything swirling around you, until it's impossible to see anyway forward. Eventually the storm passes, but the landscape looks nothing like it did before the snow.

There's wisdom, and pain, and beauty in this song. It's almost hard to share it. My own story doesn't end the way this song does...

oh, but when the night falls down on this place
i will be the one to hold you
when the tears run down your face

but for a long time... I hoped it would. I no longer expect that reconciliation to occur in this life. And perhaps every August 26th, I will remember the frostbite from being snowblind.

Genetic Humor

I'm telling a deep dark secret here - no, not really. Duh. This is the internet.

I think fart jokes are funny. All gaseous humor, really. Until now, it's never been something I'd share with more than my friends and family. It's just a funny sound. And slightly embarrassing. And it happens to everyone. It's just funny. I give up trying to analyze why it makes me giggle. It just does.

Guess what else? I get to laugh about it A LOT. My children recently discovered their own joy and humor at pretend farts and burps.

AAAAAAAAAARP!!! followed by "excuse me" and raucous laughter. Or
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBPTTT , I tooted!!! excuse me.
and more laughter.

Truely, is there anything more fun than sharing silly dorky humor with your children and laughing together until your sides hurt? I think not. I'm so glad that trait got picked up in my kids.

Trainwrecks

Anyone who drives knows about "gawker slow-down" - that phenomenon where if there's an accident, people feel the need to stop and look.

I feel that way about Craigslist personals. I can't help myself, I have to stop and look. It's my own version of gawker slow-down. And of course, I can't keep this knowledge to myself - no, I must share it to save you from having to learn the painful lesson on your own.

Craigslist is all about categories... putting things where they belong so visitors can easily find what they want. In the personals, visitors apparently want lots and lots of acronyms. M4W. W4M. M4MW. W4M. FWB. SDM. SBM for BBW. DDF. Until all you can think is WTF? Don't these people know how to use words? Sadly, the answer is no.

And then there's posts involving pictures.... which I have also learned to categorize:
- Not a real person
- I don't know you, and I don't need to see that.
- Is that supposed to make you seem romantic?

Then there's the people who post. I'm sure some of them are very normal people, with normal and busy lives. But there's also these people:
- I want to get laid.
- I'm bitter about my ex
- My spouse can't find out
- Not from around here

There. You now know what I know about Craigslist Personals. Which leads me to the conclusion that it's better suited to finding furniture and garage sales than potential partners. I think I'll stick to meeting people at IKEA, or the coffee shop, or the library.