A thread for anybody that wants to vent

[NJ Stinks]

I hate, hate HATE people that gossip. My mom is quite possibly the world's biggest gossip queen. Its at the point where when ever I return home, everybody from our mailman to my high school girl friend's parents knows everything from trivial facts about me such as the fact that I put mustard on my chili to important stuff such as how long I've been single. I can't stand it. If I wanted people to know certain things about me, I'd tell them. I don't appreciate when somebody I trust goes behind my back and shares that information with everybody.

I never knew you were single, Forego.  Your mother never told me. 

[forego]

lol, thanks for the laugh NJ.

[BigCountry]

I. Hate. Bug. Bites. With the passion of a thousand suns.

[derby624]

I. Hate. Bug. Bites. With the passion of a thousand suns.

ME TOO! You wouldn't like it here with all the rain and humidity I can count at least 10 bites just on my arms and why oh why do they attack the ankles! I must have over 20 bites. Let me tell you the bug anti itch stuff...yea that doesn't help. 

[ElPrado]

I'm in Tampa, Fl. If I go out to get the newspaper off the driveway in the morning the mosquitos try to carry me away. Plus, there's a colony of wasps I can't reach with spray up in an oak tree that don't like me very much. I need running shoes.

[NJ Stinks]

From about June 20th on I can't sit on my back patio after 7:00pm.  I used to love to sit on my back patio after dinner and watch the setting sun. 

I almost wish they went back to spraying for mosquito's.  Although I'm sure there was a reason why they stopped spraying around here years ago. 

[HuskerPrincess]

I just saw a "get ready for winter sale" commercial.  Ahhhhhh!  Why can't we just enjoy the season we're in without reminding us that colder days loom?

[dustino140]

It's weird...I feel lonely.  Not in like a relationship sense, per se, just in general. 

First of all, it's pretty much my fault.  I get down because I don't have things going on, but when people call/txt to do something, half the time I just seem to ignore it anyway.  So who knows.  So I can't complain too much, when I don't always make the best effort to begin with.  Plus half of the time, when I do have plans, I feel overwhelmed in that I have too much going on and I have no time to just hangout and do nothing.  It's weird.  Half of the time I feel like I'd rather stay at home and not be overly social, but then when I'm actually doing that, I want to be out somewhere.  I'm one of those people that bitches about having plans....until I'm actually doing something, and then it's like "oh this was a good idea!"  Generally I just end up hanging out with the same 3-4 people, doing the same things, and I guess I'm just looking to branch out a little bit.  Not that I don't love those 3-4 people to death - I definitely do - but maybe it'd be good to go out and try and reconnect with some people I haven't seen for a while, and stuff like that.  It can't hurt, right?  I'm actually quite quiet and reserved, so I'm not exactly the type to just go out and start mingling with people, so that hinders me a bit in meeting new people, but hell, maybe I'll try working on that too. 

And then I'm annoyed in the fact that it seems like half of my friends exist on the computer or cell phone, mainly having met them online or way back in school, and having them not live locally.  That's frustrating.  I feel like you can only get/stay so close when you cant even see each other, you know?  Plus I'm kind of selfish and it kind of gets to me a little bit that like...I've gone to meet people from a few forums over the years, but nobody has ever actually come here.  Like granted, I know there are no big, prestigious horse races in Pittsburgh, but it'd still be a fun time!  Plus I don't bite...I promise. 

I dunno...that's just kinda been eating at me a bit lately =/

[DonGuido]

dustino:  thanks for sharing.  I'd recommend taking a trip somewhere you've never been (alone or with a friend . . . from what you say, I'd suggest alone or with someone else who might need a "pick me up") and always wanted to go . . . within a reasonable budget of course.  Something you'll like but different.  Even if you you haven't planned on it of have the ready cash . . . it will rekindle the kind of feeling you think you've lost.

We all get this way now and then.  I speak from knowing an interesting trip to a different place always works for me.

[forego]

I feel your pain, trust me. I seem to go back and forth between being a very social person and big introvert.

First off, internet 'friends'...I also understand how frustrating internet friends are. I think the big test is whether or not they ever visit you. If you've visited them and they still refuse to visit you, odds are its not a real friendship. At the very least, its a very one sided friendship. I don't think a single internet 'friend' has ever visited me which is one reason I doubt they're real friends. I've known some of them for years and I like them a lot but they've never come to visit me so I doubt very much that they're friends. Its not to say internet 'friends' can't become real friends, I've seen it happen but I think its rare.Trust me, internet 'friends' bring more frustration than anything else... Also, if you're anything like me, most of your internet 'friends' are females and I doubt very much that men and women can ever actually become true friends. Sex is always hanging in the background. Even if neither person is at all attracted to the other person,sex still prevents a true friendship from forming. For example, I have no true female friends yet I have a lot of female 'friends'. Some of them are girls I've dated and stayed friends with. Some of them are girls I have no romantic interest in and they probably have no physical interest in me either, yet I became friends with them because there was something going on between myself and one of their friends. Even that prevents a true friendship from occurring. So in general,IMHO, internet 'friends' nor opposite sex friends are good ideas.

As for real life friends, I also feel your pain. I've felt like I needed new friends for several years now. Either they've outgrown me or I've outgrown them but it just seems like a drag hanging out with them. All I know is, its never easier to make friends than when you're in you're early twenties. When you're young you can go out whenever you want, move around as much as you want and meet as many new people as you want. The older you get, it seems like you get stuck. Stuck in a job, stuck with a circle of friends, stuck in a family. Maybe all that stuff is great but it limits how many new people you meet. So trust me, if you want to make new friends, now is the time to do it. Join a random club/rec sports team. Go to a party with people you only vaguely know.  The easiest thing is obviously to find a corner bar that looks inviting and  that you've never been to. Corner bars are great for people on the wrong side of 25. Just stay off the internet between the hours of 8 PM and 8 AM. You know the saying, nothing good happens after 2 AM? Well, nothing good happens on line once the sun goes down...But really, know what you want, if you  want to be an introvert that hangs out on the computer all the time, go for it. If you want to find a new group of friends, get out there and do it. Nothing worse than going around life not knowing what you want. Its a place I know real well and I am getting pretty frustrated with it.

Anyway, Don's advice to you is great, take a cheap road trip. Sometime you have to break your routine to figure things out.

[Funny Cide]

As for real life friends, I also feel your pain. I've felt like I needed new friends for several years now. Either they've outgrown me or I've outgrown them but it just seems like a drag handing out with them. All I know is, its never easier to make friends than when you're in you're early twenties. When you're young you can go out whenever you want, move around as much as you want and meet as many new people as you want. The older you get, it seems like you get stuck. Stuck in a job, stuck with a circle of friends, stuck in a family. Maybe all that stuff is great but it limits how many new people you meet. So trust me, if you want to make new friends, now is the time to do it. Join a random club/rec sports team. Go to a party with people you only vaguely know.  The easiest thing is obviously to find a corner bar that looks inviting and  that you've never been to. Corner bars are great for people on the wrong side of 25. Just stay off the internet between the hours of 8 PM and 8 AM. You know the saying, nothing good happens after 2 AM? Well, nothing good happens on line once the sun goes down...But really, know what you want, if you  want to be an introvert that hangs out on the computer all the time, go for it. If you want to find a new group of friends, get out there and do it. Nothing worse than going around life not knowing what you want. Its a place I know real well and I am getting pretty frustrated with it.

Ditto ditto and more ditto. I spent 4th of July with one of my best friends from Elementary school. By the end of the night, I realized that we are so much different now then we where back then. It wasn't that we outgrew each other, it was rather that our interests went completely different ways. We'll always be friends, but we will never be as close as we where. It doesn't help that she also lives 2 ½ hours away in NY.

[NJ Stinks]

Damn it, Forego.     Do I have to come up and visit you?  Because you know what, I'm just the kind of "Internet friend" that will!  Of course, I can't at the moment.  But if I could, I'd come up for a big weekend at Woodbine where the schedule looks something like this:

1. Fly in Friday afternoon.  Dinner at a great French restaurant and a few drinks too.

2. Saturday afternoon at Woodbine.   Dinner Saturday night too, naturally, and perhaps a few more drinks.

3. Sunday I catch an early flight home and you get to watch the NFL in peace.

Hell, I'd love to come up this October for Canadian International Day but I can't because of stuff I don't want to get into here.  But if I could get away, I'd buy my airplane ticket today if you were free that weekend.  Does that separate me from most of your "Internet friends" here and elsewhere?  I doubt it.  It just means I have the time and can afford to go.  (Ten years ago when I was 50, it may have been iffy that I had the time and the bucks to just get up and go.)  Of course, at 50 or 60 I still need my wife's permission.    It would just be our luck that she would want to see Toronto too!  (Just kidding - she's my better half for a reason.  And she's probably more fun to hang out with.  Dammit!  )

   

[forego]

lol you crack me up NJ. I'd be happy to meet you and Mrs. NJ Stinks in Toronto anytime,lol. Its a great city but good luck with that family thing in October! BTW, I hope you're fantasy baseball team is heating up. My team is in second place currently. If my guys stay healthy I could be in a real good position come September. Fingers crossed, I've never finished better than 5th.

I've had a lot of real life friends and family visit me in Canada. My point was just that internet 'friends' are generally a waste of time if you're looking for an actual friendship. Cyber buddies are great sounding boards, like that job thread, it was great getting feedback from real people without having to worry about seeing them the next day. But I was just making the point to Dustino that if you think internet 'friends' are real friends, 99.7% of the time, you're fooling yourself.

[Somnambulist]

Oh money, why can't you grow on trees?

[dustino140]

Hey guys, I just wanted to say thanks for the kind words and advice.  You guys are the best 

Big weekend this weekend with a baseball game and then out drinking Friday, then WV Derby on Saturday, and then a ballgame Sunday afternoon.  Should be fun