Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The General Specific

Welp, after a long blog vacation I'm back on my love seat listening to the rain and pondering my inevitable mediocrity. You can already tell this is going to be a good post.

Truth is, I'm not really in a funny mood, and I'm listening to David Gray which isn't helping. I'm going to have to use some personal anecdote to get me back on track. For those of you (and me) who don't know what "anecdote" means, I just Urban Dictionary'd it. It wasn't really interesting.

I shaved today for the first time in over a month. I'll be honest with you, it was pretty gross. I realize that my beard/crazyfacehair was patchy, but it was really long. I kind of don't like thinking about it, but at the same time I have a strange sense of pride about it. How weird is that? "That's RIGHT! I'm the sorta guy that if I don't shave for a while hair begins growing on my upper lip and chin. Don't you wish you were like me, little pre-pubescent guy??" Because we all know that guys who can grow facial hair are the most manly. I think it's hilarious some of the mindsets our society subconsciously promotes.

Some changes in life are pretty good, but there's one that I really struggle with these days and that is the fact that I suck at basketball. In high school I was pretty decent and it was like the one thing that I put a lot of effort in to. Somehow I have reverted back to about a 6th grade skill level. Today me and a couple guys played 3 on 3 against a guy that weighed 300 lbs., a guy that weighed 180 and should have weighed 150, and a guy with sideburns the size and shape of hockey sticks. We freakin lost. And my teammates weren't even bad. I missed so many shots. Even though it was probably the least important game I've ever played in, it still put me in a really bad mood for a couple hours.

I don't think I've mentioned this before. I know this guy at school and every time I talk to him I immediately get confused. Every single time I say "What's up man?" he says "Doin pretty good." It's so hilarious. Seriously, 100% of the time, every time I've ever talked to him. One time I said "You have a good weekend?" and he said "You too." I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? I think he does it on purpose. It certainly ensures that we never get past one sentence each. Every time he says it my brain just freezes and I don't know what to do. I really want to ask him about it but I'm not sure how to pose the question. Here's how I picture the conversation playing out in my head:

Me: "Hey man."

Him: "Not too much."

Me: "Ummm, ok. Hey I was just wondering why it is that every time I ask what's up you say
'doin pretty good'?

Him: "Doin pretty good."

Me: "Hm. Are you being serious, or..."

Him: "You too."

Me: "Alright. Well I'm completely disoriented now so I guess I'll talk to you later."

This is obviously an exaggeration. Pretty sure.

Some people are just so funny. There's this one older girl who always tells me how hott I am and how she would marry me if I was older and all this stuff. She's pretty out of control in general and I realize the humor in it, but at the same time she gives it just enough sincerity so that it's really encouraging to me. I really like her. One time I had this random inspiration that I should secretly be a super hero named "The Encourager". All I would do is just walk around and be really encouraging to everyone and try to brighten up their day. It sounds a little ridiculous right now, but I remember thinking it was pretty profound at the time. I'm embarrassed at how often I fall short of this. I think encouragement is one of most tangible ways we can affect people, yet I find that I have a selfish/competitive edge that continually keeps me from attesting to people's great qualities. I hate to think that pride is more important to me than making another person feel good.

See this is what happens when I don't blog for a while. I come back with a 20 page smoothie of random. I'll try to be more consistent.

Oh yeah, I meant to mention that I spent a couple hours today with my friend Lauren recording auto-tune raps about glaciers for our Geography class. My academic and professional careers are increasingly bleak.

Speaking of encouragement, thanks so much to those of you that read my little blog. So many people have said stuff to me about it and it always makes me happy. You guys are neat.

-Joshua










2 comments:

  1. number 1: you are anything but mediocre

    Number 2: you do not 'suck' at basketball (as you know, i hate that word except in proper context). i have attended 99% of your games over a lifetime and know that you are an excellent basketball player. you had an off nite. so did tiger woods.

    number 3: i'm glad you shaved.

    number 4: you are an encourager and you have a really good heart.

    By the way, this is from mom.

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  2. dude, i really liked this post. i love the random stories most maybe. and i love that you want to be...duh duh duh...THE ENCOURAGER. thats why i like you. because you actually are that, and you encourage me all the time. true story. and even though you shaved your beard, which was both relieving and saddening, your hair still rocks. lets go see a dollar movie soon

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