Time for a mini-post

I suck at posting regularly. I know this. Hopefully I will improve after I get my own pc at the house.

Anyhow, I just have to put this quirk of mine out there.

I am a terminal geek; I insist on using proper grammar in text messages. I even use apostrophes. I never abbreviate know with no or even you with u. Never. You're is always you're, never your.

I just got a new phone. It doesn't have an apostrophe as one of the punctuation choices. I'm dying. I've been spelling out I will instead of I'll, you are instead of you're, and will not instead of won't. It just bothers me so very much to omit punctuation.

I'm pathetic.

I think I need a new phone.

I fear naked men

So somehow or another, I got roped in to attending the bachelorette party of a future daughter-in-law of a relative of a friend by proxy. Basically, someone I've never met, and will probably never see again. Fortunately, several people I socialize with these days got roped in (or volunteered) for this event as well.

The evening consisted of margaritas and Mexican food, followed by a 9 p.m. reservation at Houston's finest (and probably only) male strip joint.

Needless to say, I was a little uneasy. Upon entering the place, a scantily clad man came up to me and said, "Hi, I'm Aidan. Are you having fun?" I responded, "Hi, I'm Flipside. I like girls now."

I was terrified. Grossed out, and terrified. Seriously grossed out. I don't know if it was the men, or the stripper thing, or just the fact that they were simply greasy-ed up men in cowboy boots and thongs with things like "Git 'er Done" emblazoned on the back... but I spent the evening eagerly anticipating my departure.

So I sat and I drank my salty dogs as many of my companions teased the strippers with neatly folded singles, and every time a greased up hardbody came near me, one of the first things out of my mouth was, "I like girls now!"

Honestly, in retrospect, it was kind of a cop out. I don't fear all men. I don't like all girls. I'm just a little icked out by greasy men.

Either way, I still couldn't wait to shower when I got home.

When did this happen?

So I got an invitation to my 10 year high school reunion the other day. I graduated in 1996. It doesn't feel like ten years ago, but I guess it was. I certainly don't feel like I've accomplished what I had hoped I would accomplish by now.

What I thought I would have accomplished by the age of 28 when I graduated from high school:

• Graduated with honors from college in exactly four years
• Immediately found a first rate job with a top rate company (Although I had no idea what I'd be doing... I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up when I graduated from high school... I think I pretty much just figured that one out a year ago...)
• Met the love of my life, a hot and well-paid man, slightly older than my self by age of 24.
• Married said man by the age of 26.
• Put in a good 5 years at my top-rated company before having my first child at the age of 28, 29 at the latest, and staying home to raise my kids while my well-paid husband kept me living in the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed.

What I actually have accomplished by the age of 28:

• Graduated from college with barely a 3.0 in exactly 6 years (I had 6 different majors. Not one of them was education.)
• Immediately found a crappy-ass job at a mediocre company (Ever managed a collections call center? Ever done it for a shitty place like May Company? AUGH! No wonder I was miserable...)
• Got fired. (Laid off. Whatever.)
• Lived on unemployment for 6 months while I got my teaching certification, then sold paintball tickets for 2 months in the summer to pay the bills until I got a job teaching.
• Dated loser, after loser, after loser... (Way too much of a kicker guy, guy far too obsessed with Highlander, the neo-liberal independently wealthy I-read-TheEconomist-for-fun-in-my-free-time guy, the Oakley-obsessed Canadian guy, and finally, the-took-me-for-$4000, left-dead-animals-on-my-car, threatened-to-kill-me, had-to-get-a-restraining-order-guy.... and those were the ones that lasted more than a few months...)
• Started teaching. (love it, want to pull my hair out half the time, but I love it....)
• Fell madly in love with the girls' PE teacher at my school, and am planning indefinite cohabitation with her as we both run up debt... (living, in no way, shape, or form similar the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed.)

But you know what, I don't think I'd be any happier if I'd lived the life I had imagined. I kind of like the way my life is shaping up. It's taken me a while to get to where I am, and think I like it here...