Differences

Have you ever noticed what an extremely diverse group of people we college students are? Of course, there are some general observations that tend to be true- such as sorority girls all highlight their hair blonde while engineering girls never even look at theirs. Frat boys only go to class on Wednesdays- and all they talk about in class is the parties on the weekends. Engineering guys go to class every day and every other opportunity they get (study sessions, office hours, etc.)- and all they talk about at parties is their classes during the week. But even though lumping people is easy, there is still so much diversity. I'm not talking about cultural- I have those kind of lectures pouring out of my ears. Nope, I'm talking about how all of us are approximately ages 18-25, we all attend Purdue, we are all college students. But within that group are tons and tons of sub-groups, until you narrow it down to the realization that you are your own unique person. (I sound like an inspirational tape.) You are you- and no one else is just like you. (Of course, the only difference between you and the person across the classroom may be that you like to run barefoot in the snow and they don't- but it's still a difference.) Once again, a rambling thought that wandered it's way into my mind. I just like people watching...

Just for fun, here are some observed differences between the two groups: male and female.
1. A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

2. A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream,razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

3. A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

4. A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

5. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. (heehee!!!) :)

6. A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

7. If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara. If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

Today has been rather normal. If you can call a heinous Spanish test, a paper, and over-sleeping normal. Which it often is. But normal is fun... I am always amazed at all the non-normal things I observe on normal days. For instance. Today, while studying in the Union I saw something that made me vow never to sleep in the Union again. (A vow I will probably break in my next slew of exams, but anyway....) There, curled up in one of the vinyl chairs was an Oriental guy. He had his shoes off, he was barefoot (and needed to cut his toenails), and with his head thrown back was gurgling and snoring synonymously. Number one- I've never seen a guy curl up in a chair. Nor have I ever relished the long-toe nail look- some of us wear socks when we don't have time to groom those extremities. (But then again, they might have clashed with his white pattent leather sandals.) But to top it all off- HE WAS SNORING!!! It apalled me for this simple reason: I snore. And upon hearing him, it came to my attention that during my dozes in the Union I probably snore as well!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I will never ever sleep in public again! (Until I am exhausted and bored.... like as in next week.)

I observed something else while strolling through Stewart Center. A guy and a girl stopped and looked in one of the display cases. They liked each other. Don't ask me how I knew, I just did. You can tell these things. I became certain of her regard, however, shortly after getting close enough to listen to them. (I was just walking by, not snooping- I haven't stooped that low- yet.) Every word that came out of her mouth was very wooden. Now, I don't know, maybe you guys out there can tell by a guy's voice whether or not he likes the girl he is talking to, but I can't. I can only tell with the very obvious ones- and I think that's more because they are blushing. But girls are a different matter. I can almost always tell. They are either very mean, or very fake. I'll explain the mean later. But today I observed the fake. This girl was talking as though she was an under-paid actress reading from a very poor script. Every line was stilted and fake. She liked him- oh boy (!) did she like him. It was so obvious that I had to grin and chuckle under my breath. I can't even reproduce what it really sounded like. Just that it was very fake and very stiff. Poor girl. He probably thinks she needs speech therapy or something, and all it really is is that she adores him.

On the adoration/emotion line it has come to my attention that guys and girls are very different. It's very hard to explain and I could never put my fingers on it until a fellow female gave me this helpful analogy. Guys are like waffles. Their life is like a bunch of compartments and they are able to section off parts, focus in certain areas, etc. while ignoring the rest. Although they sometimes are unable to partition their emotions/relationships they often rise to the challenge and block them off. We ladies on the other hand are like spaghetti. There are all these different strands in our lives, but they all over lap and inter-twine and are all tangled up in each other. When there is a problem in one area it affects all the others. You have academic difficulties and your relationships are affected. You have guy troubles and everything else goes down the tube too. After having that explained, I felt the relief that only an answered question can bring. Thank you, dear friend, for the analogy. :)

Well, Cognitive Psychology is approaching. And I still need to finish a Spanish paper revision. Today is a beautiful day because tomorrow is Thursday! (WHOO-HOO!!!) And I love this Thursday. I only have two classes, and only one paper due. I'm meeting Cammy for lunch, and I get to do acoustical analysis in the Audiology lab and then...... then it's Passion Play time!!!!!!!!! (which makes me excited for more than one reason... but I won't go into that now. My girl friends are laughing at me.... :p )Gotta go!

Toodles!