As promised

Humphrey was a easy going butterfly. He minded his own business, but that isn't to say that he was unfriendly. One day he decided to fly to the neighboring clump of daffodils to check on his friend Jocasta the bumble bee. Upon arrival at Jocasta's door he was ushered in for some nectar tea and pleasant conversation. They talked for a long time about everything and nothing. After Jocasta poured Humphrey his fourth cup of tea she shared some startling information. Her neighbor Lilith the June bug was attacked by an unknown creature, it had tried to suffocate her! Witness accounts said that it had flown on shimmery wings and it was completely covered in eyes. After it had descended on poor Lilith it had fallen to the ground defeated and nothing had been able to rouse it. His interest piqued, Humphrey asked the whereabouts of this frightening beast. Having ascertained its location Humphrey arrived at the scene of the previous days horrible occurrence. Humphrey, being of logical mind, deduced at once that this was no living being. It lay flat on the ground covered with translucent bumps. Having no idea as to the true identity of this strange object Humphrey decided to call upon the knowledge of Nathaniel raven. Nathaniel Raven had a sharp mind and an even sharper beak that may prove useful in this quandary. When Nathaniel arrived he immediately began his examination of the object. At first he kept his distance but curiosity compelled him to inch closer and closer until he was standing on it. The bumps held his weight, but not stiffly, his feet were cushioned above the ground. Nathaniel gave a little hop and the bumps redistributed his weight, "its almost like being help up by air" said Nathaniel. trying to discover what the bumps were made of Nathaniel decided to tap it with his beak. The second the tip of Nathaniel's beak touched the bump air burst out of it with a loud "pop" and Nathaniel flew back in shock. Having no injuries Nathaniel flew back to try it again. The same reaction occurred, the bump exploded and a loud popping noise rang in their ears.

Yvette was playing in the park by her house with her new toy pony. She was startled from her playing by a series of strange popping noises . She went to the clump of bushes where the sound was emerging from and saw, to her utter astonishment and delight, a raven stabbing at a plastic thing on the ground and a butterfly flying around in excitement. Yvette thought to herself "stupid animals, haven;t they ever seen bubble wrap?"

"My life sucks more than yours" and other fun social games

Have you ever been hanging out with people or trying to talk to someone that always tries to outdo you on the "suck-o-meter"? Than you have been part of a lovely game that I like to call "My life sucks more than yours", MLSMTY for short. Confused? here is an example:
Person 1- It's getting late, I should go home and go to bed. I have to work tomorrow from 9-4.
Person 2- Oh yeah? well I have to work form 8-5 tomorrow. So I have to get up earlier than you. Therefore my life sucks more than yours.
(this is not an actual conversation that I have had, just to let you know.)

Granted, I have been known to play this game as well, and I apologize.. This has got me wondering, is this an American thing? Do we as Americans, who are normally workaholics, desire to trump people by having the least amount of free time? Are we just looking for a dose of pity? I wish to understand.

Sometimes when you are genuinely trying to tell people how you have been you might bring up something bad that has recently happened to you or something that has got you frustrated people might play mlsmty. It seems like the more crappy things you have going on in your life the more validation you have.

Maybe if we all banded together to rid the world of MLSMTY our lives would seem much happier. If we spent as much time focusing on the positive side of our lives as the negative our lives would feel less sucky.
I am not saying that you can never talk about the bad things in our lives, just that if someone is talking about a sucky occurrence sit back and listen instead of trying to come up with your own sucky occurence. This way its more like a conversation and less like a battle of suck.

Oh no! this turned out a lot more ranty than I had intended. I swear my next post will be about butterflies and bubblewrap...or not...