a diatribe

so this post has been a long time coming. i actually talk about this post and how i'm gonna write about this topic ALL the time. it's my most self-publicized post and it hasn't even been written. until now.

why text messaging is the downfall of the modern relationship.

it is apropos to be writing about this now seeing as last night i got a text message from none other than the library adonis! "yo sexy homeless girl, ha" was the message, verbatim. i erased it immediately to try to prevent any long-term scarring of my near perfect image of him by the poorly worded, poorly punctuated text message.

when i met the adonis while studying for the bar i would text all day. friends checking in to see how i was doing. other friends scattered about the library looking to take lunch and coffee breaks. he scoffed at my constant text messaging, referring to his older looking phone and acted like he didn't mess with such communications, i liked him immediately. he also conformed to this by consistently calling. i never felt the desire to text him, he never texted me. we had real contact. i had real (and really sweet) voicemail messages to save on my phone and listen to on repeat.

until last night. i was in a movie. i debated writing back. i would have rather called but i got out of the movie late. i wrote back, "how's the packing going?" i probably shouldn't have but thought that if he responded right away that i'd call. at 2am (long after i was in bed) he sent, "yo, ok, u at?" ladies and gentleman, i challenge any and all of you to try to decipher what the fuck that means. take your best shot. he may just be the worst text messager ever. maybe that's why he never used to do it. because he knew he'd never hear from the girl again after she read the nonsense coming across her phone. i'm no longer replying. i will call him tonight. the buck stops here.

i hate text messaging for the same reason i hate e-mail with someone you're romantically interested in. it's the pussy way out. it's fake and easy. it ruins everything! let me explain. over e-mail and through text, you have plenty of time to think of something witty, to give off a persona, to pretend to be cooler or funnier than you really are. It's also less scary than picking up the phone, dialing, and trying to have a normal conversation with the person. it's safe and entirely unexciting. these electronic messages make people think they're compatible when, in reality, they don't have enough to sustain real conversation with. it's easy to text instead of make that first phone call. it's also easy to drunk text in the middle of the night. it's quick and one-sided. it makes it easy to do stupid things you regret later.

just don't do it. it is THE worst sign when you meet a guy at a bar and he doesn't ask for your number (after which he'll probably text before call...fucking hell), but asks for your e-mail address. ladies, run screaming. this guy is a loser who is going to waste your time. you offer your number, get his, or give him nothing at all. and this isn't one-sided. ladies, you should stop the texting too. suck it up and call the guy, for the love of god. yes, it's scary, but you'll save time if you realize that he's a crappy conversationalist, or can learn about him early and ditch him if, say, you find out he's a republican.

and while i'm in a diatribe post...

what the fuck is wrong with this government that those who actually evacuated (i.e. are still alive and not waving white flags from their roofs in utter dehydration), are dying from hunger because the government support can't get food and water to them. the pictures on the news make the southern coast look like a third world country and, to be honest, a third world country would likely be getting better support right now than our own people are getting down south. i was talking with my brilliant friend jesse yesterday who was quick to point out that republicans stand on their soapboxes and talk about how they stand for the fact that organized government sucks, that taxes suck, that we shouldn't have this system in place and should be able to make our own decisions, that people can take care of themselves. you know what? that republican ideal is why we're in this mess. because national catastrophes can't be taken care of on a state level. the system is supposed to take care of these people. where's the help now? the government's response (and i'm not even going to tackle bush's totally inappropriate comments which put a band-aid on a severed limb) has been nothing short of amazingly inadequate. 65% percent of people in this country question the scientific reality of evolution. what the fuck is wrong with this country?

also, in case it hasn't occurred to you to do so yet, DONATE!!!! i always give to the red cross myself. give to any legitimate organization you fancy.

note also in the NYTimes today: an editorial decrying the Republicans and their tax cuts (you might not be able to read this past today without registering) and also Dowd and Tierney's Op-Eds. according to Tierney, only 1/3 of new orleans residents had flood insurance. that's nuts. Dowd's article says that people knew the levees were weak, but Bush redirected the money to strengthen them to the war in iraq. iraq is also where 30% of the national guard and half it's equipment also went. she continues:

"Michael Brown, the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA - a job he trained for by running something called the International Arabian Horse Association - admitted he didn't know until Thursday that there were 15,000 desperate, dehydrated, hungry, angry, dying victims of Katrina in the New Orleans Convention Center.

Was he sacked instantly? No, our tone-deaf president hailed him in Mobile, Ala., yesterday: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It would be one thing if President Bush and his inner circle - Dick Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming; Condi Rice was shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue and attended "Spamalot" before bloggers chased her back to Washington; and Andy Card was off in Maine - lacked empathy but could get the job done. But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.

When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

Who are we if we can't take care of our own?"