Time is the Fire in Which We Burn

In great contrast to the last post, this one will consist entirely of me complaining angrily.

There are many things in the world which I acknowledge and accomodate but don't entirely understand. For instance, if someone says to me "It's really annoying that you know everything," I am aware that I am not allowed to reply "Yeah, well, it's really annoying that you don't know anything" but I don't entirely understand why not. I receive these complaints often! Sometimes I consider hiring someone for customer service purposes. I tell you, I am the eye of the goddamn storm.

Something else. Why is it that whenever I am about to make a transcontinental move, immediately legions of women emerge from the woodwork, suddenly quite hopelessly interested in me, each demanding my sole attention apparently for the purposes of engaging in soon-forgotten hystrionics? My last couple weeks here seem doomed to consist entirely of making frustrating, overpriced travel arrangements, and having pointless fights with angry women. Can't we just have a drink and then a manly handshake, like I do with guys? Why can't we deal with things like adults? Was there some sort of orientation class I missed? Is this mandatory? Do I actually need to be present, or could I just like put a bucket on a mop and draw kind of a frowning face on it, and they could shout and cry at that?

You know what else bothers me? Gender-segregated evenings. Always has. I have never understood the appeal of these things. I mean, I might go out with a few friends and realize that they're all guys and therefore we spend more time talking about interesting things rather than shoes, but the reason I went out with these friends wasn't simply because they're all guys. I have never understood the attraction in exclusion based on things outside of someone's control, I guess. I don't want to have a "Guys Night Out," and you know what? I also don't want to have a "White People's Night Out." All I ever really want to do is sit around, drink tasty things, eat unhealthy, greasy food, and talk to people I find interesting. I don't care in the slightest about virtually any other trait those people possess, so long as they're interesting. And if they're not interested in the conversation or want to do something else, then I trust them to be self-sufficient grown-ups and go off and do something they like instead, but the choice is theirs. This often seems to be linked to another thing I don't get: people who feel threatened by people who are smarter than they are. I love people who are smarter than me! They're almost always interesting, they have stuff I can learn (and thereby--gasp--become smarter, perhaps even as smart as they are) and I recognize that coddling myself is intellectual cowardice and isn't going to develop my personality or my intellect at all, so I try to seek out these smart people as best I can. I consider this a rational policy. Am I alone in this? Why do so many people like to hide in their insular little comfort-bubbles? I don't understand this!
Anyway. I got in trouble recently because I was sitting around drinking and chatting with these people I know and they told me to leave because more people were coming over and it was going to be a girl's-night thing, and I said something like, "You're probably right, I wouldn't want the stupendous weight of my intellect to shatter their frail minds like so many eggshells on the anvil of their own mediocrity." I maintain this statement was a paragon of rationality.

Yeah, so as I'm sure you can tell, I have nothing interesting to mention at all. Down to eight more days here. Actually getting to be about ready to be home for a while. Going to eat so much food, I tell you what.