The Genius of Mixing Emotions

Saw Gran Torino last night and really enjoyed it... quite the entertaining flick.

I read a few reviews before I went to check it out, mostly because I had no idea what movies were playing at the theaters. One of them I read was quite scathing, it complained that the movie was written so badly that the viewer kept laughing during the tense scenes.

In my opinion, that was the point, it was written so well that the tense scenes gave you humor as a defense mechanism. It's Eastwood's character, who he is, because he's learning to feel as the movie progresses; he's learning to love what he formerly hated. If we were to get waylaid by each difficult moment, then we would have been spent by the time we got to the grand finale.

There were times when the crowd giggled so loudly that I missed the next line... it was great. We all need a good, hearty laugh and Gran Torino had plenty of them.

If I have one complaint, then it's the character of Thao and his scene where he reaches the apex of his anger... it felt like he left a lot on the table and didn't do a good job with it. It was superficial compared to what was supposedly inside of him.

I recommend checking it out! Dirty Harry made several appearances!

There's No Going Back, Unless...

I've decided this past weekend that there's no going back.

With no intent whatsoever to rekindle lost love or even engage in sex, I saw two exs-turned-friends last weekend while I was traveling. They are both wonderful women and timing is the most logical reason why we didn't work together in a relationship. Timing is also one of the big reasons why we, as humans, think about going back... to see if the timing is right.

As many of you know, I've been writing a book about a man's journey to find true love. One of the major realizations that I've made while writing this book is that the man keeps doing the same thing over and over and over and over... and over. His belief in true love and a huge, romantic heart lead him to believe that any hurdle can be overcome, even those from his past.

But, in reality, you're never on solid ground when you go back. There's always something that is off balance to begin with. I left her. She left me. I was an ass. She was a bitch. I needed to chill. She needed to chill. Most of the time, these things just can't be overcome. And most of the time, I've never realized it until we were sleeping together again.

Then, it just gets ugly.

One or the other soon realizes the imbalance and how it can't be overcome. Suddenly, sex-kinda-like-love is just sex. I'm too emotional for just sex. I need the emotional bond to go with the physical one. Try as I might to be a real "guy," that shit just doesn't work for me... I wake up in the morning feeling like a complete ass.

So, there's no going back. If one of us fucked it up the first time around, then it's fucked up no matter how many more times we'd like for it to go round again. Deal?

Deal.

However, there is one place where you can always go back. I'm a pros and cons guy and the longer one goes away, the more the cons get forgotten. You forget about when things were stormy, unhealthy, or lost. Oddly enough, with the one place that you can always go back to, I've historically harped on the cons and not the pros.

After 18 years, I finally came home--a place that I can always come back to--and I love the storms, the biscuits and gravy and the new roads more than I ever did while I was gone.

Welcome home.

"Someone Said to Me..."

"... you should write the male perspective in women's magazines, there's such a shortage of men who are willing to talk about who they are and what they think!"

And so, my new mission in life, is to provide my wit to the women of the world. I've started with the Glamour blog, Smitten.

Too shy to talk to guys?
BBB says: You could do something that flies in the face of the world and simply admit the truth, "I think you're cute and I'm kinda nervous to say so, but talk to me and I'll warm up."

Yeah, like that'll ever happen... as I man, I sure wish you ladies would just spit it out!

So, in lieu of this world changing phenomenon, just giggle and say, "If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?" By asking him a thought-provoking question you immediately have the upper hand because you've already got your own answer (right?) and you can measure him up by his answer. BTW, "in your arms/bed/pants" is a bad answer, but "holding your hand as we walk through the Louvre" is quite a good one. Good luck!

Do men like it when you wax?
BBB says: Balance is the key to so many things in life, if not everything. I want to walk hand-in-hand with my gal to tackle life's challenges even when that challenge is our individual shrubbery. And in that too, shouldn't we be balanced? If I trim and little and she trims a little, would that mean that we both get more trim together? Of course it does... and if you get daring enough to trim each other, then life really gets more fun and silly. *wink*

Did you miss me?