Pass the respect, please?

"Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to be as mediocre as possible." -- Margaret Mead

I have standards. In particular, I have standards when it comes to men in my life-- be it friendship, dating, or a relationship. These standards are simple and clean-cut. They are founded on really basic aspects of human decency. Call when you say you will. If you say you'll be somewhere, be there. Be honest. Be decent. Treat me with respect. Make an effort. Make time for me. To me, these seem very reasonable.

This does not mean I expect anyone to be perfect. We're all human, we all mess up. The last point-- making time-- is one I'm pretty lenient on. I understand being busy. Its been a long time since I've been in any type of relationship where I spend all (or even most) of my free time with the other person, so I certainly don't expect that.

I think I'm fairly clear when it comes to expectations. And I that think standards and expectations are so important for women to have. Without them, we buy into a notion often reinforced by society that we are worth less than that. And without them, we reinforce that notion by telling men it's okay to treat us like that. I don't mean for this to be a post about how much I hate men. I certainly don't. I can name many men of integrity in my life, though at the moment most are related to me.

To a certain extent, I believe it has become socially acceptable for men to treat women like crap. And for me, this means that I've had to stick to my standards in ways that have made my life painful, even lonely at times. The idea of ending friendships is a new one to me. I'm big on loyalty, and consciously disconnecting from anyone in my life regardless of the circumstances is something that's really been difficult. But slowly and surely, it seems that the number of men in my life that I've had to disconnect from has grown. I've never, ever done this without good reason and without the consultation of good friends. I've never taken it lightly or ever enjoyed any part of it.

So, on I go with a strong set of beliefs in standards that have caused me to lose a lot of friends, especially as of late. I guess my hopes are that I will eventually meet more men in every facet of my life who will treat me the way I deserve to be treated.

200th postiversary

Welcome all, it's my 200th post! This blog has chronicled my life through many ups and downs, and I've grown to love the unique self-expression that it affords me. Here's to another 200 posts!

As an affordable way to avoid breaking my entertainment budget I recently joined Netflix. It's also propelled me toward a documentary binge of sorts. I feel in a reviewish mood, so here are some of the recent documentaries that I've seen, and my rating out of 5 stars:

the Eyes of Tammy Faye: All about the life of Tammy Faye Messner, former evangelist and now hero to alternative lifestyle communities. This is a great portrait of her life (she died last year). She is a wonderful woman who overcame a lot of pain and was never bitter about it. She held tight to her faith and refused to judge others. I definitely recommend it. Plus, RuPaul narrarates! It doesn't get any better than that. (4.5/5)

1940s House: This PBS documentary takes a modern British family and gives them the opportunity to live as if it were the 1940s. They build a bomb shelter and must do bombing exercises, face food and water rations, and generally learn to live with war-time hardship. These kinds of shows fascinate me-- I've never been a fan of history but it's an interesting concept to put aside modern conveniences and understand where we came from. (4/5)

Globe Trekker: California: I love this series! I own one on China, Northern Australia, and the World's Greatest Festivals. They take you through the ins and outs of traveling up the coast, aren't usually too touristy, and often have good budget travel tips. This one wasn't as informative as some of the others in the series I've seen, so I was slightly disappointed. (3/5)

Next up in my queue:

Methadonia: A look at heroin addicts on methadone maintainence programs-- beneficial to me to watch not only because of my job, but because I seem to be close to a disproportionate amount of recovering heroin addicts.

Fall From Grace: All about Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist sect of Christianity that preaches that the economy and September 11th are due to America's sexual deviance and God's subsequent anger with the nation.

The Business of Being Born: Acclaimed documentary about maternity care in America and the growing popularity of alternative birthing options.

Call me what you will... I like documentaries! I like the learning aspect of it. I like not feeling like I've lost brain cells after watching something. Don't get me wrong, I watch plenty of mindless TV. Ever since we got cable, Bravo reality shows have become waaay too appealing.

On a more painful note, I think I've started to get migraines. I had a dull headache all day yesterday, but last night it turned into something completely different. There was piercing pain from the bottom of my neck to the top of my head and through both of my temples. I couldn't do anything, not even mindlessly surf the web. I took Aleve, which didn't work, and then I took Tylenol PM. In the meantime, I put icy hot on my neck and lay in bed with the lights out and tried not to cry. This has happened to me one other time when I was at work, but it wasn't quite this bad. Can anyone explain to me the difference between migraines and regular headaches? Well whatever it was, it sucked. And I feel much better today :)

Once again, Happy 200th post my friends! Hope you are all having a good week.

Stir fry, anyone?

I officially have very little to blog about, but at the very least wanted to inform all two of my readers that I am still alive.

A friend of mine joined match.com and convinced me to join as well. Interesting things may be in development. Then again, who knows. Such is dating.

I saw Juno with my roommate on dollar beer night at the New Hope Cinema. Beer + movies = brilliant.

I'm planning a trip to Jamestown, ND to see a co-worker of mine get married at the end of the month. I'm excited to have a weekend off and get out of town! Matt will be coming along, and so far our plans include seeing the world's largest buffalo. Much to his dismay, our plans do not include a ridiculous, cheesy, expensive themed hotel suite.

I bought about 20 lbs of vegetables and made stir-fry tonight. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I still have no concept of how many servings I'm making when I cook. I now have enough stir-fry to last me quite awhile.

The end. Does anyone want to swap for my boring life?