Half-baked ideas

I'm just gonna put some thoughts I've had over the past few weeks. I don't have anything big I want to write out, but a lot of smaller things I've had bouncing around my head. Things I think about when I'm flossing or brushing my teeth or thinking of better ways to beat your mom while playing Words With Friends (seriously, I'm playing 3 friends' moms):

• I posted this on Facebook, and it's to get the thing started: 
• It's pretty cool that there's an out, active, male pro athlete. With time, it won't be a big deal. I like when things that shouldn't be a big deal finally stop being a big deal. This dates me, but do you remember that show Melrose Place? They had a gay male couple that lived together and their only affection shown would be lots of warm hugs. Not even a kiss on the cheek? What type of couple is that? I mean I'm not angling to see two men running their fingers through each others chest hairs and drunkenly making out in the street. But when things are present they become a part of the norm and aren't their to stir up drama or titillate the audience. I mean, do you get shocked by the dead body at the beginning of a Law & Order episode? 
• I knew gay people growing up, but 1) didn't know they were gay, and 2) didn't know what gay was. My aunt hung out with strippers, dancers, their friends (mostly their girlfriends and their gay men friends). The first person I met who I knew was gay was this skinny kid named Kenny when I worked at McDonalds as a teenager. 
• I remember asking him, "What's it like?" 
• He told me, "Being gay?" 
• "Yeah"
• "You know how you feel when you see a girl you really like and you just want to kiss them?"
• "Yeah"
• "It's like that, but it's two guys, so it's so much more immediate"
• "wow..."
• I've been meeting with a prayer group. It's nice: an hour of prayer, conversation, and communion. It feels good to share fellowship with people who are looking for different avenues toward an old friend. It often makes me think about the religion I spent so much time growing up within:
• The religion I've been a part of was unlike any other I have ever learned about. It made big promises and sought its adherents among the lowest of society, while imploring them to remain humble. It relied on the validation of its central myth on prophecies that contradicted it. It claimed the sole right to work magic, denied that it was magic, appealed to its success in working magic as proof of its beliefs, and said magic was unimportant. It revered a founder whose teachings it made no attempt to understand and whose death it had probably caused. It preached love, and said that anyone who did not join it would be burnt alive. But for two things, it was not worth a thinking man's consideration. The first thing was the sayings and stories left by Jesus. They were rich, deceptively simple: they teased the mind. They contained the core of a philosophy that was too easy to get wrong. The second thing was that the leaders, while pretending to deny it, were magicians of a high order. They had obtained their power and led it's earliest adherents, who probably could not even read. The secret of "Yeshua's" power was as mysterious as everything else about him. What seemed certain, though, was that the secret had been passed on, generation to generation, and indirectly, to most everyone I know.
• Enlightenment is a scary pursuit. The best definition I've heard is: It's like being in a plane crash in the Arctic. Your plane crashes into an icy sheet, breaking apart and dumping people into the quickly re-freezing water. Everyone is frightened and panicked, wondering what happened. Somehow, with hard work, you break through the sheet of ice and sit on dry land. Now you can see what happened and where everyone else is. You can appreciate it all for what happened and what can be done.Your choices are to go forward to a self-serving kingdom or to go back and bring others forward into the light. It's so much easier to leave everyone else. The hard thing, the thing you know you have to do is go back down and bring others forward.
• Roommates are a tricky bunch. I've had one almost every year since I was 14. The worst one used to keep his granddad's Nazi paraphernalia around. The best ones I still see on a regular basis. It's definitely different living with two ladies and no other guys. There's hairs on a lot of things, a lot of fragrances in the air, and blow dryers are cooking all the time. It's hard being a lady, but it's hard waiting to use the bathroom when living with ladies. Thankfully they're not bad people. 
• Dating is fun when you know your demographic. See, there's a thing in radio that they call your "P1." It's the demographic that tunes into you. For Rush Limbaugh, it's probably 55 year old white guys with a 9th grade education, who work 3rd shift at a masonry, and sometimes beat their wife and kids.
  My P1 is foxy brown ladies ("Foxies") who are super-cute and smart. My P2 are country bumpkins who, when we meet, I hear a banjo and Uncle Skeeter yelling, "The bridge is out! Those Duke boys'll never make it!" ("Daisies"). I've had way more Foxies than Daisies, so I've picked out some good ones. 
• The downside of spending time with beautiful women is that at the end of the night, there's very little upside if I have no *real* interest in them. Well there's a few upsides, but the fear of having my life ruined for 3 months or *the next 18 years* because I fell for a great body is dungeoning. We're all trying to escape the human condition here through alcohol, laughter, meaningless sex, or *whatever,* But I have to stop being foolish and start looking for great people. Basically, great people in your life either teach you things or make you things. Sometimes it's something as simple as a drink, or mittens, or how to dry your hands properly. You don't do inappropriate things at inappropriate hours. At least not all the time
• I had to shut down someone who had been bothering the fuck out of a family member. It was so satisfying when I finally got him on the line and held him there. I told him, "hold the fuck on, asshole..." and he didn't hang up? He stayed on the line because he knew he deserved it. I told him, "Listen , if I ever see you again, I won't punch you, I'll smack you across the mouth like a bitch..." He got Jules Williams'd
• I spent this past Sunday helping old ladies at the Trader Joes' carry groceries to their cars. It was cool the first time, but the next 5? That shit was daunting. I get conned into helping these old ladies because I'd want someone to do the same for my older, lady relatives, but after a kettle bell workout, my arms are spaghetti. Two of them gave me bottles of wine for the effort, which was nice. One gave me a hug and called me a "good-looking young thing." 70+ year old ladies get their flirt on too. It's flattering, but I'm doing OK in my own demographic. I'm not exactly their P1
• I've been trying to help a friend get his shit together emotionally. I gave him a book I found some wisdom from. What I told him: 1) Don't get in a relationship right after getting out of one. You won't learn shit and you'll make the same mistakes again. 2) Date for fun. Make out with a pretty girl at a bar. Go to the zoo and watch the pandas eat fruit. Just have a good time. Whore it up a little if you want. 3) Get out of the house. 4) More smiles, less frowns. 5) Be *brutally honest* about why it ended. Maybe it's a variation of "I'm an asshole and she's crazy," or maybe that was meant to end like a roll of toilet paper. 6) If you've got a few good people in your life, let them help. Then pay it forward, because someone else will need it. 

I've been busy with school, work, and life, so I haven't dropped serious time into this. They're not all gonna be great. Sometimes you gotta swing the bat with the rubber donut on it to get your swing back. Thanks for keeping your eyes peeled for something new.