Random, Sweeping Generalizations

Gads!  I hate people who make broad, random, sweeping generalizations.  I say that, recognizing that I am just as guilty of this crime as the next guy.  The only difference between me and the next guy is that I am aware that I am doing it and the next guy isn’t (how’s that for a random, sweeping generalization?). Sigh. 😀

“All women feel guilty after sex.” 

Now, ladies, before you laugh so hard you require surgery or a change of underwear, let me tell you that this is a statement I actually heard from someone within the last week.  He was serious.  He was also very, very drunk.  Drunk or not, I believe that he believes that this is really reality.  I should so recommend a few of my single mom bloggy friends to him to read.  He’d learn a very different perspective very quickly.  Most women in Single Momdom are adults…and we make our decisons, for the most part as adults…not as inexperienced teenagers struggling over the loss of our virginity or purity.  For that matter, I should also recommend a few of my single dad bloggy friends to him to read. He’d learn very quickly that the women they are meeting and dating (and there are many out there) are not a bit guilt ridden over a good time between the sheets with a man they are attracted to. Disappointed, maybe, if the relationship doesn’t progress, however, guilt ridden?  I so think not!  This person is clearly out of touch with the reality of most women his age.  I believe that his is what he hopes is the case, not what is really the case.  But anyway…

Next generalization…

“Any woman could go grocery shopping at (insert the name of your own local bag-your-own grocery store here) and get 5 guys in an instant who would go out with her.”  Same drunk redneck, making this generalization as made the first one.  Now, the first one, I know is not true.  I know this because I am a woman and I don’t feel guilty after sex. (Okay, admittedly there are times I’ve been disillusioned, even horrified, but let’s be clear disillusionment and horror are not the same emotion as guilt.)   Even one person not feeling guilty makes his generalization invalid.  Easy generalization to disprove.

This second one however, is trickier to disprove because it actually requires some research and data collection.  So, in the interests of integrity and wiping out all falsehood and kicking random, sweeping generalizations on their butts, I went to the local bag-your-own grocery store and did my own research.

My inquiry statement was, “Can all women grocery shopping at this store get 5 guys in an instant who would go out with her?”  Okay, remember, it takes only one to dispell this generalization and I chose myself as the one control group specimen. 

Here is what I observed. 

But first, some background.  The excursion was an end of the month quick grocery run with my son to pick up milk, English muffins and a cheap, cheap bottle of white wine.  (Yes, it has  been a stressful back-to-school season. I’m celebrating the fact that I’m not only alive at this point, but that things actually seem to be settling into a routine.  Woot! Woot! for me!) 

Seriously?  Five men that would go out with me? 

Okay, I’m attractive and all, but really?  Five men who would jump my bones in an instant if given the chance?  Easier said than done. Here’s why. They simply wouldn’t want the chance, nor would they be given the chance.  This is what I saw.

Of the 87.6 men that I saw 50.4 of them were wearing a gold band on the third finger of the left hand indicating that they were either emotionally or legally unavailble.  Not a go.

Of the 37.2 remaining men,  10.2 were male children under the age of ten. I simply dont’ think so, sorry. 

Of the 27 remaining, 14 of them were there with another woman roughly about their own age.  Seriously?  If they even tried to come on to me their male organs would be served to them for dinner that night guaranteed.  Not going to happen.

Of the the thirteen men now remaining, and…yes…I am using the term “men” loosely…6 of them were clearly residents of the local assisted care facility.  Sorry, but no can do.  Spent my childhood caring for the elderly and infirm, don’t want to do that anymore. Even if I was interested, I’m not sure they’d remember where they last left the Viagra.  Next.

5 of the remaining seven men were 20-somethings who were there helping their elderly and infirm mothers grocery shop.  I’m not a cougar and they didn’t look once in my direction, let alone twice so it’s all good. No go there.

The final two men, of the original, 87.6 were clearly in a relationship with each other and nothing I could do was going to persuade them otherwise.

So, I just went to said grocery store, checked out the availability, found none. Voila! Said generalization is on its derriere!  Humph! I really hate random, broad generalizations from randomly, generally stupid people.  They can be disproven almost every time. 

In the end, every good research project ends with some observations and conclusions and suggestions for further research.

This particular research project seems to indicate that this particular random generalization of a drunk man who is barely old enough to tie his own shoes is completely unfounded. Just because he’d jump anyone at the local bag-your-own doesn’t mean everyone would or that everyone would want to jump anyone and everyone that crossed their path.

Next.  Finding good relationship is easier said than done.  This is the major suggestion for further research.  Just what exactly does it take for two people to hit it off, make it work far beyond the level of mediocrity and also make it work over the long haul?  These are the questions that were not addressed in this study, which certainly deserve some serious consideration.

Anyone up for this?

Bang Head Here!

Yep!  I have this sign posted in a visible place where I will see it daily.  Most people find it amusing.  Some want it for themselves because they find it humorous.  I personally think it is a sad statement about me that the sign is not a joke for me…I actually use this sign and lately more so than usual.  It’s back-to-school time again and with it comes the usual transition from lazy (or at least very relaxed and unscheduled) days to a lifestyle that moves at warp speed. 

Add to this, that I’ve just sent my first child off to college which is both a blessing and a hindrance all of which equates to one big adjustment for the family.  As if we haven’t been through enough adjustments in the last few years.

I guess the statement, “The only constant is change” really is more true than not.  I should after all this time be getting used to it.

The reality?  I haven’t written as often nor as well as I’d like here of late. 

Currently, I’m working on a piece about the significance of phallic symbols in post modern society.  I know.  I know.  People think I’m crazy, but while the ancient Egyptians were quite open and unreserved about phallic symbols, we as a more evolved culture are less so or so it seems.  I have some theories about this.  I don’t think we are less interested in them.  In fact, I think, if we just look phallic symbols are everywhere.  But then maybe that’s just me…

Stay tuned.  When I get through this next week and I get time to really research this topic, I’ll let you know what I discovered.  In the meantime, if you’re so inspired and you have any information you’d like to add as I develop my thoughts, don’t hesitate to share your insights in a comment here.

Gotta Love the City!!!

Okay, I really don’t know what to think of this one. 

On the one hand I think, “You gotta love the city!  It’s this kind of stuff that makes the city experience, well, the city experience!”

On the other hand I totally empathize with those who are being visually assaulted.  I mean, aren’t cities supposed to further civility not erode it? 

Something to think about while you are viewing this:

Where Do We Go When We Go From Here?

Do you ever stop to think what happens to you when you leave this place, when you breathe your last, when you finally, due to the failure of vital bodily systems to keep pumping blood, pushing air and firing synapses, cease to exist in this physical world we call Life?

Do you think a person with thoughts, energy, vibrant enthusiasm, humor, intelligence, emotion, passion and spirit ceases to completely exist altogether or do we simply continue our existence elsewhere in a different realm or a further, deeper, greater dimension?

Do we really become food for worms, mulch for the cemetery garden, dust returning to dust?

Or is there more, another reality, an eternal existence and, if so, have you ever pondered the nature of such an existence?

What have you wondered when you’ve wandered in off the busy, hectic, chaotic activity of your life filled days just long enough to find some silence, a bit of solitude and a nagging question that irrespective of religious leanings must sneak in sometimes if ever so fleetingly?

Have you ever stopped, silenced your soul, your spirit, yourself long enough to entertain the little question, “Where do we go when we go from here?

Bad Luck Comes In 3’s?

Here’s a genuinely random musing of The Wild Mind:

If bad luck comes in 3’s and you are in a relationship, does that mean that your bad luck now will come in 6’s? 

Something to think about.

Will Men Become Obsolete?

Articles like “Will Y Chromosome Go Bye-Bye?” really get me thinking.  Actually, articles like this give me a headache.  My ADD tendencies just want to go crazy with this one  by tossing out ideas and questions without the discipline to think clearly and follow any to their logical and usually flawed conclusions.  Add to this that my multiple personalities begin arguing amongst each other as  to who is correct and you have a migraine that requires a month’s supply of codeine to put down. Even so, the article is interesting and in spite of the headache I’m going to attempt to deal with this one in some fashion. 

In the most simplistic analysis the article discusses the discovery that Chromosome Y (the chromosome responsible for everything male including the reproductive paraphernalia that men sport in one particular area of their bodies) is losing genes at a far faster rate than the X chromosome is.  That’s alarming! 

One I instantly thinks thought, “So that’s how God has planned the end of the world!  He’s just going to eliminate men on a gradual basis so we all think it is evolution!  One day it will be a world without men, no sex, no babies, no further human race once all the women die out.”

Okay, other than being over the top silly (remember what I said earlier about “flawed conclusions”) this just not going to happen for so many reasons. 

The first reason is that we now have the technology to reproduce human beings without either of the two biological parents being present.  All we really need is a few well maintained cells and a warm healthy uterus.  No men needed if the sperm bank’s accounts are full.  For some of us, “No Men = No Problems” so this kind of existence would be a welcome one and as near a Utopia as one could want.  I personally, have a difficult enough time dealing with three females in the same household at a certain time of the month, I can’t imagine an entire female only planet.  If nothing else, men are at least different if completely incomprehensible and often smelly.  They at least add comic relief to our world.

Oh and don’t go all funny on me here and say “Well, without men how would we have and enjoy sex?”  Peeps!  Do NOT even go there! No!  Not with modern technology and alternative lifestyles.  It is simply not a discussion that needs to happen. Women have gotten around this one for ages. 

The article stated that evolution favors survival.  It also stated that the genes the Y chromosome is losing are genes that are no longer needed.  The evolutionary process and all, I guess.  If we consider that as our daily existence changes over time and that existence impacts the human body, how it operates, functions, survives, deals with the changing environment then, okay, the genes that make up that body must necessarily change or adapt over time.  The ones that aren’t needed go bye-bye and other ones stay.  Whatever.  What would interest me would be knowing which genes exactly are disappearing and what they were specifically responsible for in men. 

Like, I wonder, is intelligence implicated here? Or is the gene for discussing bowling, fishing and hunting and the best brand of chew or microbrew replicating itself in exponential proportions?  Personally, if science wants to contribute to humanity it should make the Nascar gene  disappear. 

Is courage and the ability to walk up to a woman and ask her out on a date implicated or has that gene been lost?  Now all men are able to do is give out a number and hope a woman calls or tell her, “Hey, when you get some time and want to do something call me!”  If that gene hasn’t been lost, I suspect it is disappearing.

I suspect that over time, with the overwhelming aversion to body hair continuing into the next several centuries we might see the body hair gene disappear in both sexes.  That would save so much time in the shower and pain at the spa!  Maybe science can figure out a way to speed that process up a bit. 

What I really believe is going on here is that the human body, like everything else in our world is downsizing.  It, like the rest of the world, is moving toward a simpler more efficient existence.  Therefore, to adapt to this more efficient world the irrelevant is being discarded and the human body is simply adapting. 

Simply put, men are already obsolete and evolution is just cleaning up the riff raff. 

Something to think about anyway. 😉

Just A Little Update

I’m just exhausted tonight.  Single parenting, like everything else in life has it’s moments of being really great and not so tough as well as moments where you feel like you’re sludging along up hill pulling a heavily loaded cart with no wheels.  My single parenting experience of late isn’t so bad except that it is so very solitary. I’d elaborate on this, but I’m just too tired.  Even now, I’ve typed and rewritten words three or four times already.

I had a full and fast paced day at work then errands after work.  A two and a half hour end-of-the-year concert  with my two oldest daughters performing ended the day.  I just walked in the door and it is after 9:30 p.m. 

It was a great day but it was a busy day. 

I would love to post some things tonight. I’ve been thinking about the directions I’d like to head with this blog, but I’m too tired to give anthing any good thought right now.  I’ve got a couple of projects I’m working on, but I’m falling asleep at the computer, so it will have to keep for now. 

That’s my update.

Dream Journals

Some people keep a dream journal.  I am not one of those people.  Here’s why:

Have you ever had one of those dreams where your first thoughts upon waking were, “I’m sooooo NOT telling ANYONE about THAT dream!” 

Then the next thought is, “Why did I dream about THAT with HIM (or her,  if you are a guy)?”

The third thing you think is…?

Yeah, that’s about all I’m going to say about that!

Spiritual Journeys–Stay Tuned

Alright, I admit, that title is a bit overdone for this particular post.

But give me a break, I am tired, it is nearly 1:00 A.M. and I just pulled in from my conference…and I still have to work tomorrow…at o’ dark thirty.

So what am I doing here now?

I really have no idea.

Except to say…

for my own benefit and accountability….

that that was the best thing I’ve done for myself in a long time.

The escape, the networking, the rejuvenation, the time to just take a freaking step back from my entire world and look, think, reflect and consider the possibilities from here on out was amazing.

Can’t spend any more time than that on it right now.  I’m exhausted.

But really very content and happy.

You’ll hear more about it I’m sure.

Stay Tuned.

What Do You Do When You Procrastinate?

Top 10 Things I Do When I Procrastinate:

1. Something, anything else.
2. Blog.
3. Check email.
4. Clean house.
5. Read a book.
6. Nothing.
7. Putter in the yard.
8. Re-arrange the living room.
9. Go browsing.  I can’t shop, I have no money!
10. Write about procrastinating.

So what am I avoiding tonight?

1. The Dinner Hour chaos
2. Grading papers
3. Working out…but I’m going to do it really I am!
4. Laundry
5. The paper pile on my desk
6. Making the kids clean their rooms (that’s always a fun experience)
7.  Cleaning my bedroom (why does it have to be the depository for every unwanted or undetermined possession we have?  Isn’t that what the garage is for?)
8. Grocery shopping
9. Cleaning
10. Following up on kids who are procrastinating on chores, homework and room cleaning.
11. Maybe a little bit of life (I’m kind of in a little bit of a funk, I guess.  Not sure why.  I’m not really unhappy about anything, though.  I mean, I ended last month with a $6.28 balance in my checking account which is pretty awesome considering it took me a year to catch up from making payments on two homes  (this one and the travel trailer I evacuated to before the ceasefire was ordered).  It’s also a good thing since last month was Christmas and well since I’m on a cash only basis that made everything much tighter.  To some that might be deplorable, but to me, it just means I’m not starting the year out behind or further in debt and that’s a very good thing for me.  So, I don’t get the funk, or the procrastination other than to say that it might be a bit of a minor collapse after the tense week I had last week.

Okay, so enough about me.  You know you procrastinate too.  What do you do when you procrastinate? And what are you avoiding right now?