Don and I don’t consume enormous amounts of adult beverages but on occasion we do find ourselves enjoying a few brews and I’ve learned over a rather lengthy amount of time that alcohol has a tendency to give my brain filters the night off. Most often, the result of my filter-less brain situation is pretty harmless. I tend to elaborate on my love for Don and we laugh a lot but every once in a while something will rub me the wrong way and I can almost hear the sound of my “soap box” sliding across the floor and positioning itself in front of me. The other night our girlfriend-less friend was over. He’s a very pleasant 49 year old man that has never been married. He has a tendency to make both Don and I laugh on a regular basis and we enjoy his company very much. Every once in a while we’ll get on the subject of what he is looking for in a woman and up until the other night, his responses rolled right off my back. Last night, however, his preferences stuck a hypothetical fork in me and I was “done!”
When he talks about the women he has interest in, he almost always uses an assortment of “perfect” words like gorgeous, smokin’ hot and sexy to describe them. Perhaps I should have left well enough alone as it’s not an incredibly preposterous mindset for a typical guy to have, right? Well, unfortunately, last night, that mindset wasn’t so right in my eyes. I pondered for a minute and then I said, “In your opinion, what are women like me good for? I represent millions of women that don’t fall into your “categories” and I’m just curious if we even exist in your world.” I probably shouldn’t have said anything but after years of dealing with the scrutiny I have faced in my “far from perfect” package, my slightly altered brain said it was time to start sending some rather direct messages to the shallow mindset that encompasses a vast assortment of some very narrow minds. I guess it’s safe to say my brain slipped him into that “group” and it wasn’t long before he knew he had traveled to the wrong place at the wrong time!
He made some very nice comments in an attempt to calm the fire that began blazing in my filter-less brain and then he went home and got his camera. He and Don connected it to the TV and we watched some videos he took of a dog that had just had 7 puppies. I am here to tell you, puppies squelch fires…it’s a fact.
Don didn’t say a lot during those tense moments when I was on my soap box. I admire him for that. Neither he nor I are perfect and we both have things we don’t like about ourselves and each other but love is bigger than that. Sam shows all the signs of never occupying a space in that place which is his business but if he ever does, I think he’ll handle things just fine!