Sunday, October 28, 2012

Single Adult Activities...

I recently attended my first single adult activity.  I decided since I couldn't get anyone to go with me that my first event (all by myself) would be a fireside.  I thought that since I'd be going alone it wouldn't be too bad to sit alone in the chapel.  I deliberately went a little late so I could go into the chapel after the meeting had started and miss the pre-meeting socializing, but not so late that I missed the opening prayer and would be REALLY noticeable.  It worked like a charm.  I walked in and the only seats available were next to men sitting alone or on the "widow's pew"....I opted for the widow's pew, didn't want to give any men the idea that I was interested without first determining if they were worthy of interest, if you know what I mean!  The one thing I hadn't counted on was refreshments.  When everyone started filing out to the gym for refreshments I had a dilemma...go in all alone and try to find someone to talk to or just head for home.  I sat in the pew watching people leave and looking for someone I might be able to make friends with, when I realized the woman in front of me was doing the same thing.  When she turned my way I introduced myself and told her she was my new friend, like it or not. She said that would be great!  We went into refreshments together.  They had arranged the seating in the gym in circles and all the circles were full except one, where a man was sitting alone.  We sat with him....oh my....he was bitter, negative man.  We have nicknamed him Ned because of his negativity.  When we headed to the parking lot we stopped to visit in front of somebody's truck, I assumed it was Sharee's and I think she must have thought it was mine, but eventually a man came out to drive it away and stopped to visit for a few minutes, he was very friendly and positive and restored our hope that there might be some interesting single men in Idaho.  Sharee and I visited for quite awhile and found that we have a lot in common, so we decided to tackle the single scene together...it's so nice to have a friend to go to the meat market with, I mean, single events!

The next event we went to was a dance...oh my!  I was worried I'd be a wallflower but I danced a lot...with old men.  On the bright side, old men can really dance and I'm learning some new dance moves!  Ned was there and we watched him follow around a couple of tall blondes, and may or may not have formed some opinions about what kind of man he is.  We met a man named Larry who drives an old limo with American flags on the roof and in each window, along with Romney/Ryan signs...how do we know what he drives?  Well he took us out to see it of course.  Sharee and I agreed, there was NO WAY we were getting in that car if he offered us a ride! So Larry was a little odd, but a decent dancer, however after Jennifer danced with him (Jennifer is another new friend) she told us he'd been telling her about conversations he'd had with Michael the archangel (one of the reasons we will not get in his car).  I have tried to find a photo of a car like his to post, but no luck...drat.  Poor Sharee danced with a man named Kevin who didn't want to let her go (who can blame him?) but unfortunately she wasn't quite brave enough to say no so she ended dancing about 6 dances in a row with him.  Jennifer and I met a couple of men while she was dancing and Jason was kind enough to cut in and give her a chance to break free!  When  Jason and Paul came in we thought they looked a little weird and well, maybe they are a little, but very nice and we had some fun playing games on Paul's tablet (he's a gamer).


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Wanna know what I think about homosexuality?

I think calling it a choice oversimplifies the matter....technically being fat is my choice, but it's not like I woke up one morning and decided to be fat.  It's something that I've been battling (more or less) for most of my life. Of my four sisters, two of them happen to have a different mother, and those different genetics seem to make it easy for them to be thin.  The two sisters who share my genetics more completely struggle with weight....does that sound like it's a choice?  When I applied to BYU as a psychology major over 20 years ago, they sent me a copy of the psychology department's newsletter which had an article I have never forgotten.  It was about a study with pregnant mice, the result was that when the pregnant mouse experienced stress (electrical shock), the babies were more likely to be gay.  That doesn't sound like a choice to me, does it to you?  Where the choice is then, is in how we live our lives, we are what we are, fat or gay or maybe alcoholic, or whatever....we must choose to either fight our natural instincts (the natural man) or give into it.  Today I read this blog post by LZ Granderson, which reminded me that I've been thinking about writing this post for a long time so today is the day!  I also like to read Josh Weed's blog.  You should check it out.  I grew up with three kids who all came out of the closet as adults and I was surprised by none of them...how would their lives be different if their parents had been as supportive as Josh's?  I hope that all parents of gay children can follow their example.

So that's my soap box speech for today...hope you enjoyed it!