2,000 hits and forgotten things

Photos today by Julie Harris. Feels a little weird, because she seems to know some of these people. Herp derp derp. Not thinking about it too much, and using pictures that look least like portraits, which is what she does at her studio. 

In honour of this fantastic achievement, and the fact that we've only had one blog post of any length in a while, and because I was looking at things on ModCloth, I will now proceed to write a blog post.

Except that I'm sort of cheating because I already wrote this all out in a long rant to the wall, i.e., in a chat while the person I was talking to was out of the room. (Seems this happens a lot.) (I'm looking at you.) (Actually, I'm looking at multiple people at once.) (Unless you're being all literal about it, in which case I'm really looking at my computer screen.)

ANYWAY. ONWARDS AND OUTWARDS.

Something I've been thinking about for a while* is what has happened to the way we do relationships here in the modern world. We've got the Internet and cell phones (thankfully), and we've also got laxer rules on what is socially acceptable. For the most part, this is a good thing. I mean, I would go mad (madder than I am now, anyway) if it was still some sort of taboo to have opposite-sex friends and not like needlepoint and crap. It's also nice to know that I'm not expected to get married ever before I'm twenty-five, nor am I expected to marry the first guy I date (thank god).

At the same time, though, not having a moderately rigid set of rules for what is socially acceptable (and instead having undefined rules that are different depending on the location [go Austin!] and social group [go nerds!] which are sometimes a little ridiculous and impossible to figure out) makes for lots of really stupid guys.

Guys who really don't know what is going on or what to do about it. Because girls are impossible and asking a girl what they want to do is a sometimes exactly what they want to happen and sometimes a terrible idea (because what she really wants is for you to read her mind, obviously).

So they do there best, as that is all we can do. A lot of the time, it works out pretty fine. But there are still things that get left behind when moving forward.

Now, I am not trying to say that I am the authority on this subject. Nor that all of these left-behind things are completely forgotten everywhere, nor that everyone (or even every girl) believes that they oughtn't be. But here's a list of a few things I think have been too far forgotten, and should be brought back**.

1.) Guys buying girls flowers.

What has happened to this? How is this only limited to one day of the year, maybe two if we're lucky? It's not that expensive, and they're not that hard to find. Flowers are beautiful and impractical--thus, by default, romantic. Less expensive than jewellery, requiring more thought than chocolate--and more personal than either. Still, a dude can just walk into Central Market and ask the nice lady/man working the floral counter what he can get his girlfriend for five bucks and I'm sure they will be more than willing to give a suggestion, maybe even tie a pretty bow around it with some twine.

Yet are there stories of guys randomly bringing a flower or two to their girlfriend once a month? No, no there are not.

At least, I haven't heard them if they exist, and you should leave them in comments.

a different angle on things is often just as good

2.) Ballroom dancing.

I know, I know, I can hear your groans now about how it's a good thing that ballroom dancing, and functions in which it exists, have gone down the drain.

I had two little vignettes to lean on outside of my own thoughts, one Auntie SparkNotes post (Do I really read that? You know it! What do you think I do to keep my eyes from glazing over during English?) and one John Green book.

Can't find the Auntie SparkNotes post, so I'll just talk to her point.

What is more embarrassing than ballroom dancing is not knowing how to dance properly. The current style of romantic/intimate/"slow" dancing is two people sort of touching hands one way or another and standing a bit apart, revolving in a little circle of awkwardness. Except, at dances, nobody ever wants to dance, it appears. Because it's awkward. And it takes a lot to ask.

This is what ballroom dancing would do in that situation:

1--Less awkward to ask, because it doesn't mean that much, because it's fun and not a blatantly obvious "I LIKEZ YOUZ" for the dude who has, pardon my French, the balls to ask.
2--Less awkward to say yes to, because rather than revolving in a little circle trying to make (very) small talk, there is something to concentrate on--NOT STEPPING ON PEOPLE.
3--Less awkward if you mess up, because hell, it's hard, and everybody messes up every now and then.
4--If it was taught in school, everybody would actually be able to do it, so nobody would feel like an awkward little loser who doesn't know how to dance.

Oh, and the John Green book reference?

How sexy would it be to foxtrot with a rather attractive snakebitten girl after breaking into a theme park in the middle of the night? You'll never know if you don't know the foxtrot, will you?

3.) People wearing nice clothes and having places to wear nice clothes to.

So maybe in this day and age there's the advantage of not having to worry much about what to wear on a date, because that date isn't likely to be to somewhere you have to be all dressed up to the nines for. Coffee, dinner, fro' yo' (love that stuff) or a movie? Yeeeah, not much to worry about.

However, it is my belief that every girl at some point in their teenage life will want to look pretty for something.

And then, guys, you should have to dress up like Young Carl in Pirate Radio to match her***.

Took me forever to think of where this .gif may be from, but I think it's a scene that could be described as "Young Carl Gets Lucky".

Usually there would be a sweater on top of that vibrantly paisley shirt, but I can't find it one now.

Because, as Ms Young was saying, where do we really have to wear all the lovely things on ModCloth to?

So, guys who may or may not be reading this, hope you took notes. Buy your girlfriend flowers every now and then. Learn ballroom (girls, you too--that'd be embarrassing...). Dress up for her, even if it is just to get a cup of coffee.

Because maybe it's a throwback to the (not necessarily "good") old days, but I think it'd be appreciated nonetheless.

Now have a song. Originally I was going to say "I post this version even though it has lower quality because I WAS THERE", except, the only copy I could find from the show I went to really did suck, because the La Zona Rosa people can be Nazis about recording when they want to be, it appears. So here's an adorable music video instead.



Love-e-l-y-y-l-y yours,
You really gotta be there to hear me say that,
IBI


*since watching Pirate Radio
**an abbreviated list, i.e., the things I could think of in about fifteen minutes
***or just because it's awesome. Also, this is how Pirate Radio links in.