Things I think I think I know...the Runyon Canyon hike edition

MUSIC:
- AMG kills it in his one and only song that everyone knows...seriously I do not know any other song than "B#$%H betta have my money": "It ain't nothing like black p---- on my d---" An amazing intro line combining lust, black pride and misogyny all in one amazing delivery that lets you know where the song is going to go
- This year in rap has been killing it so far...'Hey Muma', 'You be killing 'em', 'Boom' are sick.
- For a rapper that I constantly make fun of I have way too many Waka Flocka Flame songs...But seriously who does not like yelling out "WAAAAKKAAAA"?
- Rebecca Black's 'Friday' has better lyrics than most Lady Gaga and Katy Perry songs, the problem is...she really cannot sing

RANDOM
- I love hiking...I just hate organizing hiking.
- I always feel great after hiking...I feel lousy at the start
- Lenora Crichlow is amazingly hot...the bloody grey sweater just really does it for me.
- Sinead Keenan is sneaky hot too...even with the whole Werewolf thing
- If you are not watching BBC America, you are wasting your cable privileges
- BBM makes flirting ridiculously easy...maybe too easy

- I cannot abide liars...because other peeps lie so much, they expect everything you say in jest to be a lie also
- Girls are crazy...ok that was unnecessary but come on still fun to say
- Men are crazy too...damn politically correct conscience

GYM
- I have increased my Bench Press by 80lbs in one month...I was clearly slacking off the previous year.
- Leg pressing 4xs your body weight feels bloody awesome when others look at your weight stack...trying to step off the sled is not so awesome when you become light headed.
- My boy and I have become gym rats...we realized this when we hit the gym and about 20 different people gave us looks of recognition!
- We try and try not to flirt with girls at the gym, we do NOT want to be 'Those guys' but...I notice that we are slipping into comfortable patterns of talking to the girls we see every day, and just like a work place or a bar you frequent - words get exchanged.
- I got lucky that the girl who teased me that I was only lifting 20lbs walked by just as I maxed out the machine...if she had walked past 5 mins earlier she would have seen my 'warm up weight' which is pretty much TWENTY POUNDS
- Eli is a great lifting partner, helps to push me, watches the weight stack diligently, helps me keep form and understands joint limitations and pains...and that bastard is the WORST person when it comes to making me laugh at the most inopportune time. I bloody know one of these days one of us idiots is going to make the other laugh and drop a weight on a body part...hopefully its something non vital like our hearts
- The Dougie is a bloody fun dance...watching Eli some how managing to reverse it makes it a funny dance.
Zumba
- It is a great dance workout...guys avoid it like the plague
- I thoroughly enjoyed my time in that class...I felt bloody awkward when the girls started to do 'booty pops and chest shakes'
- If you are the only (and this is NO exaggeration) the only man in a class with 64 women (yup I counted, when in awkward situations I take stock) girls tend to forget that you are there...I am used to women wearing just sports bras in the gym, but 40 plus women in sports bras sweating and dancing becomes awkward especially when many have dancers' bodies...what is more awkward is when they forget you are in the room and start tugging, adjusting and comparing - thank goodness I am black, I am pretty sure I was blushing

SCRABBLE
- I am quite clearly addicted...and now having it on my BB is a bad idea
- I love playing my friends, I love the smack talk and the back and forth...I especially love that when my friends hit a big move I instantly know it because I suddenly get questions like "are you going to play?" or messages letting me know its "Ur turn".
- As atrocious as my spelling is (seriously mom thanks for pointing it out and killing my self esteem) I am good at scrabble (really good)...I would be excellent if I could bloody spell.
- None of my exes are willing to play me in scrabble...it might be me?

EXES
- Hahah, hahahah hahahah...hey it is a personal blog.
- So far all are alive...I think, since one has just stopped talking to me!
- I am getting along really well with one...either she is single or she has multiple boyfriends but since we are getting along it is safer for me not to ask her anything like that
- One of my exes is a ho...no seriously she is...I feel dirty - she basically admitted some crazy stuff to me, seriously makes me re-evaluate myself.

CONVERSATIONS:
- I am too sarcastic...that will probably not change
- People really admit too much to me...I am still not sure what it is, I think it is the deep voice and the poker face (that part does not work on the phone)
- The things I hear scare, excite, confuse, encourage, depress and leave me speechless...that is just monday night.
- "Tiffany box for a BJ, did you really say that?" That was my reaction to a girl telling me what she expects from the guy she is currently talking to...he is married
- EVERYTHING MY DAD SAID IN OUR ONE AND ONLY CONVO ABOUT WOMEN WAS RIGHT...problem is we had that convo this year
- Yau is right it's cool to make friends at any age.

Biz markee sing the hook for me

"You, you got what I need but you say he's just a friend
And you say he's just a friend, oh baby"

We all sing along to it, we all chant it, we all love it. But damn it sucks when you think it fits your situation. I have a friend who is in a bad situation, he has a girl, he likes the girl, they seem good to the outside world, she seems to miss him when he is gone BUT, she has a friend who keeps calling/texting and basically creeping.

Now I do not know what to tell him. Violence is not supposed to be the answer but I am almost inclined to tell my friend to smack around the guy that is supposed to be 'just a friend'. Whenever my friend leaves his girl for even a few days, she has dinner with the other guy. He hit on her once he found out she was dating my friend (she shot him down), but it gets better: he hit on her WHILE trying to get with her best friend. It seems wrong, like me my friend is not the jealous type, but I suspect that maybe we are too lackadaisical when it comes to relationships. In fact, maybe my boy's girl should no longer be friends with the sleazy guy. And yup I dub him sleazy, looking back at all the things he has done, I feel slimy just typing about him so I cannot imagine meeting him in person.

But, I could be wrong, maybe all of my suspicions are because I am only hearing my friend's side of the story...maybe! However, I do think that if a girl were hearing about a girl doing all these things to her boyfriend there would be HELL to pay!

I at least hope he got some good pictures out of it...that's right, pictures!!!

Thanks Tiger, now I trust no one

Granted I am not a very trusting person in the first place, with good reason since people just suck in general when it comes to keeping secrets. But now thanks to the whole Tiger-cheating-saga I trust everyone less. When a phone goes off I wonder what is happening. Heaven forbid someone has to leave the room to talk on their phone you cannot help but wondering what is going on.

I have taken to jealously guarding my Blackberry and I do not even have anything to hide. It just seems like the safer plan. For instance in my case I get weird messages from my friends, no need to have any misunderstandings like why does that text say "Hope to see you soon I have missed you". And since a few of my male friends have names that sound like girl names it could just get more and more complicated.

I never read text messages over shoulders or emails that are being read in front of me. That just leads to trouble. A friend of mine was visiting a girl he was 'daggering' and she received a call while he was there from an Ex. He then over-heard snatches of the conversation and relayed them to me via IM. To me the conversation seemed completely innocent but because he was the one who was 'dating' the young lady every little thing was misconstrued.

I wish I could mock him but...I do the damn same thing. If I hear the wrong thing it sends me into a bit of a quandary. Should I blow up, should I laugh it off? Why is the call at this time? Of course the time that is bad fluctuates. If it is 8am, why is the call so early? If the call is mid-day, are they trying to pull a lunch time fast one? If the call is in the evening, is it a dinner meet up? If the call is mid-night, well come on you know what the thought is then! But of course this is not triggered by every call. I am not a crazy man, I am not even a jealous man. But I do favour the lyrics from a song from ages ago (please do not look it up I am already embarrassed enough I ever listened to that group) "I'm not suspicious, I'm cautious"

So when I see suspicious phone activity: like too many texts messages then followed by phone calls, that lead to whispered conversations or people waiting for me to leave the room before returning calls...I do begin to wonder what is going on.

Then again, someone might just be planning a surprise party for me, yup that might be it. Either way, I still never eavesdrop so I will never know what the call is about. Hahahah damn you Tiger, I never used to care!

“Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage” (though, the horse and carriage concept is a bit outdated…I’m not saying, I’m just saying

So this is dangerous territory, writing about the fairer sex at a rapid pace and not pausing to think about your words can never be safe (rarely PC) and can lead to fun interactions, but oh well, LETS DO IT!!

A couple of my really close male friends are getting married, and they have both asked me to be in their weddings…it shows the state of my mental deficiency/incapacity/reluctance to accept that friends would get married or that they would want me in their weddings that the first words to both of them were not congratulations but “ARE YOU SURE?” Now do not get me wrong, I went on to congratulate them (sadly Greg had to prompt me on his…My Bad!), and I do think they are doing the right thing (I kid you not I actually wrote wrong thing and had to go back and change it…even my fingers will not come around to the idea) getting married, I just still have moments where marriage seems like an immense leap.

I applaud relationships, I think they are ‘great I think a man is not whole until he finds himself that special someone. But for some reason I still pause when I hear the word marriage…especially amongst my friends!!! Does it say something about the circle I am in? Does it say something about me? For instance, if Assassin right now told me he was getting married I would immediately ask him “When is the baby due?” That is WRONG, yet, 100% predictable.

As a group my friends seem so incapable of staying in lasting relationships that I guess I find it hard to believe that any of us are capable of doing the right thing…but, (and depending on the girl that could be a BIG BUTT [sorry cannot help myself]) I find myself in a relationship and I THOUROUGHLY enjoy it, she is a wonderful girl, treats me right (sometimes) great cook, witty, smart, sexier than anything you have and willing to put up with me (bonus), may it last forever.

How did this happen? I know I had no control over this, in fact I was floored to find out I was in a relationship and that too is part of what inspired this blog: MEN ARE BLOODY IDIOTS, REALLY WE ARE MORONS. I never understand guys that act like they are God’s gift to women, in reality we are LUCKY when they choose us because never mistake it, they choose us. Yeah there might be that random moment when some random quick fling daggering occurs, but when it comes to a long term relationship, they CHOOSE us, we might think we are ‘settling down’ but nope, she has made us stay home.

Is this why men cheat? Are they trying to break away and assert independence, kind of like that docile dog that one day just bites someone? Are they just trying to prove that yes you dressed me up in a pink sweater even though I have fur (you made me wear that sweater vest) and yes I allow you to walk me with a rhinestone studded leash (I went shoe shopping and kept my mouth shut) and yes you gave me a poodle cut even though I am a bull dog (yes I think it is awesome when you tell me how much of a ‘slut’ my ex-girlfriend is) I still have teeth (I have the ability to hook up with others). I swear as I type this I got this IM from Assassin (we are discussing that some cute girl is visiting his home and I called him an unflattering term for promiscuous persons: “ meh... she's here with her bf... eye candy only” - - The leash is on but he is fighting it.

My old roomie, settled down and is happy, I envy that. I want that, I like that he and his wife are making it work. Love is important, it is necessary it is hard to attain. Don’t believe me? Read on dear friend read on. I have a really good friend who seemed to have it all, his girl was making bank, he had a decent job, they had a house, they were together for years (anything over than 2 to me feels like a de facto marriage) the marriage seemed like it was inevitable but, it did not happen. Now when I first heard they broke up I thought to myself, “Dating for over 3 years, why bother to break up now?” Problem is, he was cool with how things were and ‘she’ wanted more. A relationship cannot work if one party is just ‘ok with the status quo’. In her words he needed to ‘get it together’ and while I want to disagree with her…I cannot. After three years I guess you really have to walk down that aisle or walk away from each other.

Amantes sunt amentes (lovers are lunatics):
“It's fine all of the time
Like sex on the beaches,
What else is in the teaches of peaches? huh? what?” F the pain away by Peaches (other lyrics too raunchy)

I like asking my friends this very simple question: “HAVE YOU EVER HAD SEX SOBER?” Now this does not mean blind stumbling drunk just whether the first time they had sex with someone, some alcohol was involved. The results are rarely pretty. In fact (since I am a huge fan of train-wreck theater) the results are awesome. One friend replied with, “I cannot have sex sober”. Think about it in your own life, I am not asking you about the 20th time you and your significant other engaged in sexual congress I am asking about the first time. One of my colleagues (momentary discretion here, no names) has had sex with at least 18 girls and has never had Sex Sober! Strange world we live in, that an act that comes naturally to many, and is desired by many seems to require alcohol as lubrication to grease the wheels. (Some of you can substitute high, for alcohol here and the premise remains the same)

“I hate my girl man, I am going to break up with her”
“Dude I am going to marry her, I love her man”
“Man, I need to leave her”
“She is such a bitch” [2 hours later] “Ok everything is ok now, I love her”
“Should I break up with her?” “Why won’t you tell me what you think?”
“She wants to live together” [she had previously planned to leave the city]
“You just do not understand man, she is just bitchy sometimes, otherwise we are cool”
--All of the above came from one friend over a 6 month period about his girlfriend. This is why I sometimes wonder what has become of my life, if my friends are this crazy, what does it say about me that I am still friends with the lunatics? Like clockwork every week he and I talk about how much he hates her or how much he loves her and yet he will never leave her…this cannot be healthy!

Can a girl stay in a relationship if she does not control all of it? I do not know, I am not trying to spout off, I just do not know. I watch my female friends and they seem to become flustered if they are not fully in control of the relationship (not controlling the guy, that is something else). I joked with a friend and asked her “How is the hubby?” when inquiring about her bf and she freaked out, apparently others had been making that joke recently and she was not prepared for such jokes…hmm Why? I know this blog is filled with questions, but I am just free flowing here and I realize just how little I know about a creature that I have hunted for the last 16 years of my life.

I am friends with all of my exes, I may not talk to most of them, but I am at least friends with them. So many people I know cannot abide to be anywhere near their exes and I find that strange, because at some point you must have been attracted to them, have been compatible with them, what went so wrong that you cannot even be around them? I have an ex that I even think cheated on me (may she R.I.P.) but I have never actually confronted her with it, preferring to go with the Mario Winans “I don’t wanna know” attitude.

However, (and you have to say that aggressively) I cannot abide hearing about any of my exes dating NONE OF THEM, even the ones that I just dated for a short span. So far none of my exes have gotten married; none have become pregnant (well…) or acquired kids. I do not want to date any of them again, yet I cannot stomach the thought of any of them getting married????? I am a weird guy, I am not naturally jealous and I am not selfish, in fact I have a hard time saying no (and friends use this to their advantage, I might as well open up a pro-bono moving company). Yet for some reason I do not want to think of any of ‘my girls’ with other people. I am not naïve and I even understand the science behind the body, but I still pretend that all my girlfriends are virgins, long may they remain pure!

A colleague mentioned to me that he recently re-connected with his ex-wife and he was torn about the fact that she had produced seed and was dating a guy that did not look as good as him (his judgment not mine). I could tell that he was torn up by it, and he came to me for advice, the thing is, I completely understood it, even though it was his ex-wife he still did not want to see her changed.

So many guys hope for their exes to become fat and ugly after they break up, that is the last thing I want. I would never, ever want someone I dated to become ugly, I want to always look back with no regrets, and if ‘she’ ever became ugly I would have to wonder what I saw in her.

Finally, believe it guys, we have no control, NONE, the moment you accept that, you will enjoy your relationships more. Girls dress for each other, not for you. You are barely window dressing on the house; when they take you shopping, you are not there to approve outfits you are there to either talk to them or to make you feel like you are included and have a say (you have none, my girl actually told me that to my face…I already knew it).

I should re do my business cards and on the back put:
“To all male clients please practice saying these words:
- You are right, I am wrong
- Those look great
- Anything you want
- Sweet, I would love to do that
- No, this game is not that important
- I think your sister is pretty [use for an escape moment when you really, really want to get out of the relationship]
Selah,

Happy Valentine's Day!

"What do you call it when Bill and Hillary get together for Valentine's day? --A fundraiser" from The Tonight Show. 2/14/08 (thanks DVR)

I love my downtown clique:
Cali J: Sup G, bringing a girl out tonight for V-day?
N: Nah, not really, I will be taking a girl with me but it wont be a date.
Cali J: Taking a girl out with you on Valentine's day...and it is not a date...smooth G, real smooth.

I love that most of the peeps in the clique manage to deny that they are ever in relationships. One of my boys has dated his girl for 2 years and still denies that they are in a relationship. Just amazing the commitment phobia that we all seem to share. Something tells me that is part of why we are such a good group, we all understand each other.

Hey Baby girl; "You remind me of my jeep!"