Sunday, March 25, 2012

Chances and Gardens: What incredible growth!

Anyone picked up on my theme yet? ;)

Well folks a solid week has passed, and alas, the count falls short at 11, and for this reason I am sad.
Sad? Really? Dramatic much? I'm sad, because I know for a fact that former co-workers Stu, Vanessa, and Kim and my cousin Stephanie all read my blog. Voila! 15! Not to mention the long-lost Vance who was one of the people who so strongly supported - nay, proposed! - the blog idea in the first place.

Oh well. Guess the videos will have to wait.
This week I'm going to preach a little bit. It's an episode that goes out to all you ladies out there who can't seem to figure out why they can't find a nice guy in the world. I'm not gonna lie: I know how to preach, but I'm not so great at stopping. You have my word, though: I will keep this as brief as I can.

Ladies.
Honestly.
What's the deal?
I hear over and over again one of two things:

1- All the guys I meet are assholes.
or...
2- It's so hard to find a good guy these days!

Line two is usually followed shortly thereafter by comments like, "Most of them are either taken already or outside my age limits." I'm not going to argue that point - I'll simply amend it: Many of them are taken and many others are outside your age limits. Most? No. Difficult to find? I suppose that depends on where you're looking and how open your eyes are.

Listen up opposite gender: we aren't that few and far between. In fact, I would wager that nice guys outnumber jackasses five to one in any given part of the world. We're respectful, polite, gentlemanly (key portion of that word being "...manly"), and some of us even know how to cook. Granted many of them probably won't be virgins like me, but I don't think that's something you should hold against them.

"So Samuel," [the collective female] you inquire, "if there really are nice guys out there, why can't I find any?"

I'm probably going to come across as an ass here, myself, but it must be said: ladies, it's your fault.
Now before you go tearing out my throat and spitting down the hole, please hear me out.
This past week while I was busy waiting for the number of followers to increase, I conducted a survey amongst women of dating age. My survey was comprised of one question and one question only, and any conversation held outside of that question was directed by the girl.

I asked women, "Have you ever been on a date with someone who you didn't think was worth your time or energy or maybe someone you weren't initially attracted to?" I may be a little biased here, but I think that's a very fair question, and it's yes or no, so answers came quickly and usually without hesitation. I didn't start asking this question until Thursday, so my sampling was limited, but of 25 women (youngest being 19 and eldest being 63), surprisingly each and every one of them answered, "Yes..."

Wait for it...

I would have no point if that's where the story ended... obviously.
In every circumstance, after the girl answered the question I said absolutely nothing in return. I simply allowed the silence to continue until she broke it. The girls could've talked about the weather, about fish (since many were asked while I was working), about Maui, about anything, but nope. 19 out of 25 women continued their answer with something along the lines of, "I did it, because I was being nice" to which my gut instinctively responds, "Oh... were you now?"

Read that statement two or three times and tell me how it's not dripping with conceit and judgement. You were being nice to the guy you didn't want to go out with in the first place even though you really didn't have a reason for not going out with him? You just didn't think he'd be worth it? How is that nice in any skewed version of the word? After the said 19 women continued their statement, I usually asked something like, "Did he know you were just being nice?" to which the response was always "no." And now we come to the heart of it: after that I asked each of those 19 women if they noticed anything different about their pity date and the dates they usually go on wherein they wanted to be with the guy. Results?

2 Couldn't remember the date at all (drunk)
2 Couldn't recall any differences
1 Never saw the guy again, because he figured it out halfway in
14 Enjoyed themselves more than they typically do
=19 Total

I suppose it's worth mentioning, too, that of those 14, five actually ended up marrying the guy whom they didn't believe would be worth their time. That being said, ladies, I know it's not the most fun in the world just waiting for the right guy to come along and sweep you off your feet, but you need to understand that loads of nice guys are alive and well out there, and - speaking from personal experience here - a good chunk of them are terrified to ask you out, because we know you don't think we're worth your time. All I'm saying is that wait might not be so long and difficult if you get out of your own way first. Try something new.

That being said, LOOK AT MY GARDEN!!
Here's the close-up.ish view.

Here's the plot. As of 11:00pm tonight, I lost count at 112 different shoots!




 Left: This is one of at least 3 hibiscus I'm nurturing back to health after being nearly destroyed.


Right: A beautiful aloe plant that was butchered by the landlord. I'm also working on nurturing it back to health.
This was a big surprise for me today. I woke up and as per the norm, I headed outside first-thing to water all my lovely plants and plant locations, and I found that ALL my morning glory sprouted 3" above ground overnight! Everything grows so effing quickly down here!

Yeah, I've definitely geeked out where my garden is concerned. I don't think I've gone a full 24 hours without planting something new! I've officially added rambutan, lemons, blood oranges, asian pears, jalapenos, habaneros, and star apples to the repertoire, and I can't wait for them to grow! I tell ya what... in three years or so, I'll never have to go grocery shopping again! (Oh, I also have plans to plant spinach and arugula, and I'm debating whether or not I should plant a cocoa tree... what do you think?)

This week's challenge: Hold a conversation (at least ten minutes long) with someone you wouldn't normally have talked to otherwise. Feel free to talk about anything you want, but you have to learn that person's name and be able to tell me where they're from (interpretation of "where they're from" is up to you). After the conversation, tell us about it and what you learned in a comment on this episode.

Well I think that's going to do it for this episode.
Next week on ...Still Got It: Video blog for sure... vlog? What a stupid word. There are cool word hybrids and lame word hybrids: Vlog is a lame word hybrid. I only have one day off this week, so it may be short and pointless, but it'll be video for sure!


4 comments:

  1. The garden is looking awesome!

    But as far as the rest of your post goes... I can't say that I agree with everything you said. What a surprise, right, considering your lady-bashing? ;-)
    Do I agree that some women are narcissistic and hold their noses way too high? Of course. But just as some men are jackasses I don't think all women can be lumped into that category.
    Couldn't you also argue that women ARE being nice by going out with a guy that they weren't initially attracted to? Thereby giving them a chance past the first impression? Which is something that I don't think many men would do.
    Also, I don't think women can be blamed for the fact that there are no nice guys out there. Is it the woman's fault if she turns down every guy that asks her out cause she's too much of a snob? Sure. But I don't think women collectively can be blamed for the lack of nice guys in the world.
    um.. that should be it for my rant.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not lumping all women into one category here even though it may seem that way. Everything said here (just like everything I said about virgins in episode one) assumes the understanding that these are not by any means blanket statements.

      Per the actual niceness of the agreement to go out, I think that depends largely on the motives of the woman. The girls I'm "preaching" to are specifically those who are sitting high atop their pedastals whining that no one can reach them.

      Make more sense?

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    2. I also want to add... er... amend... something like that... I want to say that while these statements are not blanket statements saying "all women are this way," I do make these statements - more or less - as a challenge to all women to examine themselves to determine whether or not they truly are the girls my preaching was focused on.

      Genuine and focused introspection can teach a person a lot about oneself.

      Delete
  2. yes. that does make more sense and makes me feel better about your confidence in womankind.
    and yes, i suppose a little introspection wouldn't hurt anyone :-)

    ReplyDelete