Let’s clear one thing up right away. I’m not writing this to justify my decision to occasionally smoke. At this point, everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. But so are fats, cookies, alcohol, in-laws, carbs, too much TV, and whatever else some new study has come up with. Smoking just gets judged the most. Besides, if you listen to theorists, we’re going to be in a nuclear war in like 10-20 years so why give up something I enjoy. Wow, that was almost justification. Whatever. The point is, I’m not naive so please don’t give me the damn surgeon general lecture in the comments.

The real point though, was to share why this is one of my comforts. First, you have to know that it’s pouring rain outside. This to me is pretty much paradise. I love the rain. I don’t mind that it makes the bottom of my jeans soaking wet or tracks in mud or forces everyone to wear sweaters. If weather can be a spirit animal, rain is mine.

Rain serves another purpose for me. I think best in the rain. Well not directly in the rain, I’m not completely crazy. But those days when I need to just think through life, not necessarily figure out little details or plan out a day, but just to process where I’m at in life, a cigarette on the porch with it pouring down rain just a few feet away is about as perfect as it gets. I’m not completely sure what it is. My only decent theory is that the methodical nature of the rain coming down and the consistent drags on a cigarette keep my mind from being able to psychotically multi-task. It’s a five-minute reprieve from the world.

That last sentence is a good reason for why I, and many of my friends enjoy a good smoke. Taking side the habitual cigarette breaks, sometimes life comes at you fast. It can be in a good or bad way but you just need to escape for a minute afterwards and process. But that’s not the only reason it’s a simple joy for me. There are memories and moments wrapped up in the idea of a cigarette too.

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Oh election years. The debates, fights, muckraking, promises, and handshaking are already in full force. Granted, politicians never really stop campaigning but the year of the Presidential election means everything gets that much more public and very intense. I tend to have a love/hate relationship with election year. I love having the freedom to vote. It’s a freedom more people my age should take seriously. But I hate a lot of the idiocy that comes with it. Honestly there’s very little that pisses me off more than voting for a party. That’s such a terrible way to approach the voting process. But I’ll get to that. In general, I’m not one to really talk about who I’m voting for. I’ll answer if asked, but I find most people just want to hear a name so they can argue with you, rather than understand why you made these particular choices. So I tend to encourage people to vote, rather than on who to vote for. But I thought that this year, I’d at least put my process out into the world. You don’t have to agree with it but this way if you’re like, huh, I wonder how Melissa would vote, this will probably give you a clue.

Before I get into that however, I want to encourage you to vote, no matter what. The United States allows you to write-in names on the ballot so there’s honestly no excuse for you to not vote. You can argue all you want about how your one vote doesn’t make a difference but if millions of citizens would stop saying that, you might actually see things accomplished. And don’t even think about pulling the “I have the freedom to choose not to vote” excuse on me. That’s bullshit and you know it. Write your own damn name on the ballot if you can’t think of anyone you want elected. There are millions of people in this world who would trample you on the way to the ballot box if someone gave them the right to vote. Don’t piss it away. And please remember; IF YOU DIDN’T VOTE, DON’T COMPLAIN.

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Today the diet started. Well, not diet exactly. Just a more conscious decision to pay attention to what I’m eating. Which means limiting the junk food. And if ya’ll are anything like me, the moment you decide to be good in terms of food, you immediately start thinking about potato chips and cupcakes and nachos and butter on everything. Wow, my whole mouth just filled up with saliva.

So I’m sitting at work, eating my applesauce, tuna fish, and crackers, thinking about all the things I’m eliminating. Here’s my basic system. For two weeks, I’m cutting out all crappy food, sugar, bad fats, junk, etc. Like hardcore. Then I’ll add back in a few things but focus on a priority where indulgences are just that and not a daily habit. Apparently this plus exercise is some weird thing called a healthy lifestyle.

But the idea of indulgences (and my mind playing a food parade on a loop) got me thinking. An indulgence is technically the gratification of desire. So I thought, okay if I had to narrow down the foods I love the most, what would they be? And why do I love them? Take potato chips. I enjoy potato chips with either French Onion or Ranch dip. But they have no special meaning for me. Yes, I understand that most people wouldn’t attach special meaning to potato chips. So take tortilla chips & salsa instead. That holds so much more meaning to me. Chips & salsa make me think of long poker nights with all of my extended family during holidays. It brings to mind late fall evenings at Joe T Garcia’s in Dallas. Add guacamole to it and I’m instantly thrown into memories of football games, where my mom always has guacamole whipped up. And getting a bag of Mexican Inn chips in the mail from family is one of my favorite things in the world. So you see, there’s junk food and there’s comfort food.

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Breaking the rules of blogging with 2 entries! Kidding. There are no rules for blogging. Except spelling. Gud speeling iss importan. Anyway…

I was reading through Thomas Galvin’s recap (which ya’ll should do because they’re hysterical & also Neville the Corgipire is now featured and he may be the greatest addition ever. ) And he (Thomas, not Neville) made a mention of how the Gilbert’s and Bonnie’s mom knowing that Elena was the doppelganger all this time opens up a host of possibilities. So he basically ended by saying “ I was wondering how they were going to top this season. Well, I think I have my answer. Next season is the Season of the Humans … and no one knows who they can trust.”

Which sort of reminded me about this thing I mentioned on the I Heart TVD radio show last week (be sure to listen & discuss this week!). I’d been kind of appreciating this for awhile but it’s one of those random things that doesn’t really have an easy way to mention. I also don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way. Basically, we started S1 of TVD with Damon as the Big Bad. Then it was the Tomb vampires (sort of) though the underlying worry about Katherine was there. So in S2, we got Katherine. And she was the Big Bad. Until Elijah came along. And then Klaus.

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Okay. Before you all start crafting your offense or defense against that question, read my thoughts. Where I’m at is kind of a new revelation (I guess) on an ongoing thought process. At least the revelation is new for me.

So first off, let’s go with history. I’ve always been more about online activities and social media than a lot of my in-town friends and family. But it was around the early end of 2006 that it went from other fairly anonymous people to the beginning of talking to people I would consider friends. My first thought on the reasons for that is the lack of social media at the time. Things like MySpace still had a stigma of being a site for predators and dirty old men pretending to be teenage girls. & honestly, those stories might have been talked about more and I’d never say someone was asking for it but there is a difference between the girl keeping her profile public, putting up half-naked photos and talking to everyone who replies and the kids who acted like normal kids. Internet safety is certainly important but I think society’s response to a few did a lot more to create a stigma on the internet and any relationships formed there.

But over the years, more people became okay with the idea of making friends with people on the internet. It was easier to find friends who loved similar TV shows, music, movies, art, authors, or hobbies. And dating sites definitely helped make society more at ease with the idea of online relationships.

But I was struck by a comment made by a friend to me the other day. (An in-town friend). I know she didn’t intend to be mean about it. She’s just not the type. But we were hanging out & she said “isn’t it nice to get away from the internet and talk to real people?” Before ya’ll freak out, I told her that ya’ll are real people and not unicorns behind a twitter name. (Well some of you are unicorns but in the best ways possible). Her response was: “well yeah but you know what I mean. Like real friendships, the ones that matter.”

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I get frustrated with people I follow on twitter from time to time. If I’m being honest, RTing everything to do with a celebrity ( no matter how much you love them) or voting for something bugs me. But I’ve come to realize that if you’re my friend, I can get over that. After all, I talk about stuff you don’t care about so it seems fair.
But I’ve come to a decision on another factor all together. I’m sick and tired of fans who rip apart a show, but more importantly rip apart the writers, because they didn’t get what they want. Let’s get a few things straight.
1) You are not the writer of the show. They made you fall in love and they can change that couple if they want to.
2) There’s no way in hell you would tell someone in person that they should die or rot in hell or whatever because they didn’t give you the scene you wanted.
3) This is an ongoing story. Trust me, at any given week, there will be something onscreen that you won’t like on various shows. That’s the nature of the beast.
4) These are FICTIONAL characters. For the love of all that is fantasy people, get this through your head. Laugh, love, swoon, cry, rage or what have you but at the end of the day you all need to get the fuck over it.

So here’s the deal. If you turn around in the next few days and I’m not following you, it’s probably on purpose. Fuck that. It is on purpose. We can talk about other stuff if you want but I enjoy talking on twitter. I REFUSE to have my timeline cluttered with comments that disrespect others.