~Random Rantyness
2004-02-11 - 6:32 p.m.

I have two kind-friends online (who I'd prefer not to identify because on of my occasional readers might be friendish with them). Let's call them...Martha and Bertha. Hehe. OK I'm so amused I want to make them regular characters. Anyway, Martha has this boyfriend, who I've chatted to a few times and is quite nice and funny and intelligent and all that. Very harmless, very easy to get along with. I'm not saying I really hit it off with him or anything, but for me to feel fairly unawkward chatting with a guy (even online) says something about how nice and down-to-earth and humour-minded the guy is. Oooh let's name him! We'll name hiiim....Ron. Not so funny, granted, but the Bertha's boyfriend is now dubbed Don hehehe. Aaaaanyway. Bertha despises Ron, even though she's never met him even once, she's thinks he's a sappy, clingy, spineless type. Now, I've never met, online or in person, Bertha's boyfriend. She's been dating him for a few years and, up til recently,I've felt rather indifferently about him. Over the past few weeks, however, Bertha's told a few insightful stories about him and, while she's still devoted to him, I have to say that he sounds far closer to the narrow-minded male jerk than poor old Ron. Obviously, this second-hand story business isn't reliable. I probably have the wrong end of the stick where Don is concerned, not being able to imagine his manner or personality or anything like I can with Ron. Ron certainly appears to have a better sense of self and self-worth and independent mindedness than Martha's stories portray, but it does seem annoying to have Bertha constantly ranting about Ron when her own Don seems rather more imperfect. I certainly would rather have a close relationship with Ron than Don, from what I know. Don sounds rather old-fashioned guyish in his real inability to understand things. I've lived with Dad and learned to communicate with him, mostly, but it's so frustrating to live with a guy who requires you to make all the effort to change the way you think, behave, speak and deal with situations and differences just so that he doesn't get upset (or so that he is amenable to something that a sensitive, reasonable person would just respect without needing a word, let alone a discussion/argument/5-year-old speak break down of things). It just frustrates me that I should have to be the grown-up when communicating with Dad and people like him, and even more that the kind of people who persist in thinking and acting a certain way because your way seems illogical to them always seem to have the power to make you upset even though you're the one being reasonable and flexible! I'm not saying Ron is perfect, I'm just saying that I haven't heard anything about Ron that make him seem like a weak or annoying person.

(P.S. This is all really none of my business. hehe)