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February 15, 2005
what straight friends are for
Hi Hi Hi. So much to write about and catch up, but I felt it was more important to have the picture of the college student vomiting in honor of yesterday's most heinous holiday posted as long as possible.
Last week I wrote about the need to get out of Dodge for some perspective, and happened to get it in an unexpected way this weekend. I had been kind of down from various negative experiences with mean, fucked-up or soul-less gay people over the winter, and was kind of in a "gay people are fucked up and I'm trapped in a small room with these people" attitude. I had been meeting more messed up gays than I had been meeting nice, well adjusted gay people, and it was bumming me out. But perspective came unexpectedly in the form of an expedition out to Sterling/Ashburn (Assburn) in the form of a birthday brunch for a straight former coworker on Saturday, who I need to hang out with more often to maintain perspective.
Said straight married former coworker with child has a very tight group of other straight married friends with children who I know of yet don't hang out with that often. Because I know of these people yet am outside of that circle, straight former coworker likes to confide in me about at long length about their lives. In this case straight former coworker and I were caught in the infernal twisted mazes of Tysons Corner trapped in bad traffic, so there was lots of time for confidential sharing about the sordid messed up lives of straight people. Again, I forget about these stories straight former coworker tells me, but the moral of the tale is that straight people are proportionately just as messed up as gay people. I needed to know that, to know that the rest of America has to deal with just as many messed up people as I do, not just because I'm gay. I know, I know, y'all will say "Well DUH Jimbo!" but I need to learn these lessons over and over again. That's what straight friends are for.
That and sharing loud farting contests in the parking lot of the restaurant.
Posted by jimbo at February 15, 2005 10:31 AM
Comments
Ah, farting contest.
You sure know how to have a good time Jimbo. :)
Posted by: mark at February 15, 2005 11:06 AM
Yeah, I say the same thing about queens in DC vs. other parts of the country? "You think queens in NY/SF/LA/insert gaytropolis here aren't just as emotionally stunted?"
I had a friend move to SF once because he didn't like the DC gay community. I was like, you have to like yourself first, before you can like your "community." [Not that you don't like yourself, Jimbo..I'm just sayin']
Posted by: stebbins at February 15, 2005 12:23 PM
as a mental health professional, I can tell you that fucked up comes in all flavors. it may be that gay people are more flamboyant about it. it may be that gay culture is more accepting of fucked up-edness and so it seems more prevalent. it may be that straight people get more (or ask for more) cover from their families than we do. but there are a whole lot of straight messes out there.
Posted by: windreader at February 15, 2005 12:29 PM
I know, I know people, EVERYONE is fucked up. It's just that my filters for avoiding fucked up people haven't been working properly and I've been exposed to more fucked up people than usual, and it got me down for a while. I know there are less fucked up people out there though.
Posted by: jimbo at February 15, 2005 12:35 PM
say it w/me DYS-FUNC-TION-AL. Its a game the whole family can play!
Posted by: moby at February 15, 2005 8:14 PM