Girlfriends

Women I Love to Love

Today I think I’m going to write about girlfriends.  And I don’t mean the girls you take to the movies, and to dinner, and then try to sneak a kiss with in the park later.  I’m talking about women who are friends. 

I had a few girlfriends growing up.  I would always laugh when a lot of these girls would tell me that they don’t have many, if any at all, girlfriends themselves.  I was always told this was because women are catty and jealous of each other and they always create too much drama.  I would have to agree with this statement a lot of the time.  Males don’t create as much drama.  There are always the exceptions to this, take the guy off in a corner crying because someone didn’t like his new hat.  Yes, those guys are out there too, and no I never had any male friends like that.

But getting back to women, the world wide web has changed a lot of things including how many female friends I now have.  I have quite a few that I’ve never even met in person.  I have met quite a few women through Facebook.  They’re friends and live all over the world.  I have some girlfriends in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, I think one even lives in France somewhere.  I love seeing pictures they post, and making fun comments when they post something.  And for the most part, these women understand that I can be sarcastic and silly and accept me for what I am. 

Some of these women are married, some have kids, some are even married and have kids! *chuckle*  Anyway, the point of all of this is that they are friends.  I didn’t make friends with them because I thought I might get lucky.  I never expect anything from any of them.  We’re just friends.  So why am I writing about this?

Because some guys don’t seem to think this way.  I’ve lost track of how many times I see one of my female friends posting on Facebook that they ARE NOT AVAILABLE AND THEY DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE PHOTOS OF MALE PRIVATE PARTS!  … … … I sit here thinking to myself “What the hell is this?”  Really?  Some idiots are sending photos of their private parts to my friends?  Who the hell does this?  And more importantly, WHY would anyone do this?  Are they thinking that once these women see their equipment they’ll do anything?  What the hell is wrong with the world?

Some don’t get pictures, but instead get messages that say things like “I think you’re my soulmate” or “you’re so beautiful, I need to be with you”.  Some of the men sending these kind of messages are hundreds, even thousands of miles away from the women they’re sending them to!  What do they honestly think they are going to get for a response?  “Oh yeah baby, I love the pictures of your hairy ass, I want to be yours now!”

One friend solved this very nicely.  She took a photo of her husband’s junk and sent that back to the guy.  He was smart enough to leave her alone after that.  I’m not sure how to handle messages from idiots like these guys other than to laugh about it and block them, but women aren’t like that.  They aren’t wired that way usually.  Things like this really upset them and when a friend of mine is upset, I’m upset!  This sucks!

Moving onward, some girlfriends I’ve had have just disappeared.  That’s quite a trick considering they’ve had a large internet presence.  How do you just up and go away?  I love the internet and would really miss it!  I wouldn’t even begin to know how to wean myself off this magical thing!  Without giving away names, I met one girl online and was stupid enough to travel hundreds of miles away to move in with her in Minnesota.  Things didn’t work out and within 6 months I was back in Las Vegas.  She had always been online.  Now I can’t find a trace of her.  Maybe she’s dead?  That wouldn’t surprise me at all.  I haven’t seen her in 10 years and it is entirely possible that she either died, or ended up in prison.  Yup, she wasn’t the smartest person and may be in prison. *chuckle*

Another one became quite a surprise.  The first one, the possible prison woman, I had met and left probably over fifteen years ago so the internet really wasn’t the size it is now.  Facebook wasn’t even around.  I met her through MySpace if you can believe that!  Moving on I had another friend just about two years ago.  She was another author and lived on the other side of the country.  Eventually we began talking over the phone, texting, and emailing each other all the time.  I thought we were pretty tight.  She decided she was going to marry another guy and one day I receive a message saying not to text or email her anymore.  So I stopped.  And then she just dropped off the internet.

Now this wasn’t instantaneous.  She disappeared over the course of months, but she just went bye, bye.  I finally figured out that she’s still around, she didn’t disappear, she changed her name.  At least her last name.  She had written a number of books and they’re gone now, too.  That’s a long story that I won’t go into, but how do you just turn your back on friends? 

A few of you who read this might know who I’m talking about.  If you do, don’t mention her name.  If someone wants to leave my life, they’re more than welcome.  It’s just so surprising to me when I get treated like one of those guys who sends out pictures of his junk.  I don’t do that and never treat my girlfriends with anything but respect.  Getting married shouldn’t mean you can’t have me as a friend anymore, especially if you live hundreds of miles away.

Ok, I’ve ranted long enough for this morning.  Disappear if you want to, I’ll find more friends somewhere.  Until tomorrow…Ta!

War

War.  Wars start because one idiot doesn't like another idiot.  World War One was started after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated.  And yes, I looked that up.  It doesn't say who assassinated him though, or even why.  Did he not invite someone to a party, did he make fun of some guy on the street, or was it truly a political thing?  It doesn't really matter, because I'm not actually going to write about WW I.

I'm just...confused about a different kind of war I'm seeing now.  Some people might call it a war of information.  Just like most other people, I'm a member of Facebook.  And I post things on there once in a while, like this blog.  Recently, I've been seeing some people post some really nasty things on there.  Not just nasty, but sometimes aimed at other people!  People that they have on their friends list!  So...now they want a war of words with a friend?  I don't understand...

Herman:  I think people who eat cheese are stupid!  Cheese sucks!

Wally:  I actually like cheese.  There are all kinds, maybe you just need to try a few different kinds?

Herman:  You're a moron, you cheese eating, slimy, communist!  

Wally:  I just thought you might have gotten some bad cheese, or something?

Herman:  Screw you, cheese sleaze!

These are friends?  Now obviously this isn't a real conversation on Facebook.  You can probably tell because it's just written in red and blue and doesn't even really look like Facebook posts.  But you get the idea.  And no, there isn't really a fight going on about cheese!  At least not that I know of.  But it's the general idea.  Someone posts their political theory, someone else bad mouths it, and then we have a war of words going on.  I don't want to read this stuff!  What the hell?  I have enough animosity in my own life to keep me occupied, why do I have to read about why Herman hates people who eat cheese?  (Wow, here I am back at cheese again...I must be hungry.)

I want to read the pleasant posts.  A post about how my niece is doing in collage.  See a picture of my friend's horses, or the goat next door!  (I actually meant a goat.  Some friends live on farms, I didn't really mean an old man.  *chuckle*)  We're supposed to be friends on here!  Now people are getting offended by something someone writes and then the "de-friending" starts.  

Wally:  I de-friended someone because he called me a cheese sleaze!

Herman:  I had to de-friend this cheese eating commie the other day!

For crying out loud!  You know, I actually signed up for Facebook to promote my books.  And while on here I've made some really good friends, and reunited with some people from way back, too!  And for the most part, it's been pretty damned nice!  I've even made one, or two business connections for my writing.  But enough with the war of words, ok?  

Stop the bullshit and let's all be friends again.