My Thoughts... on Marriage

Three of my best friends are getting married this summer. As long as they are happy, I'm happy for them. I'm actually going to be in the bridal party for one of them and it's made me think a lot about the institution and what my opinions on it are. So I started asking myself some questions and this is what I found:

What is my first thought when it comes to marriage?

I think Mae West said it best, ""Marriage Is a Great Institution, but I'm Not Ready for an Institution Yet. "

Do I actually want to get married?

Sure (some day in the very (very, very) distant future)

Do I believe a marriage can last in this day and age?

Absolutely (trust me, if my parents can make it work anyone can)

How will I know when I'm ready to get married?

A co-worker and I were talking about marriage and when I said I'm totally not ready to be married anytime soon because I'm not ready to be tied down or be responsible for anyone else but myself, she couldn't have agreed more. She said that if that's how I'm looking at it, as though it's a burden, I'm definitely not ready. She went on to explain she knew she needed to marry her husband when after years of being together, she couldn't wait to get home to him, to talk to him, to see him. When she couldn't imagine coming home to anyone else. When doing the things she'd never liked before was no longer a pain but a joy because she knew how much it would bless him to have all his socks tucked away properly or that special pie for dessert. When making him happy made her happy and vice versa is when she knew they were ready to get married. I thought that was great, the way she made it sound, you could tell she was married to her best friend and couldn't be happier. I'm sure there is no set way to determine when you're ready to get married, but there are a million ways to tell when you're not.

I personally don't believe that marriage is something that is right for everyone and I definitely don't believe that 'gun-shot wedding' is always (or ever) the answer for certain situations. I think the reason why so many marriages fail today is that people don't enter it with a "failure-is-not-an-option" attitude. It's more like "we'll-give-it-a-try-and-if-it-doesn't-work-out-we'll-get-a-divorce" way of thinking. I'm sure all marriages require work and attention as a key to success. When you start on the right foot of making the decision that you want to spend the rest of your life with this person and have put in the proper time and thought in making that decision your chances for happy marriage can only be increased. When the decision to marry is rushed or something you feel pressured into, I'm positive, that doesn't help your chance for survival. I don't even like to be rushed to place an order at a restaurant, I can't imagine what it is like for people who feel rushed into a marriage. I'm of the opinion that should you and another person enter into a sexual relationship, you should be pretty darn certain that spending the rest of your life attached to them is a possibility. Does that mean if you get pregnant you must marry them? Not at all, it means should you get pregnant be aware that this person may become a permanent part of your life. I simply can't believe that if you get pregnant you must marry the father of the child. I know for a fact that children benefit from having two parents in their lives that love them, but that doesn't mean they have to be married to each other. If someone makes you totally miserable and brings out the worst in you, because you may have made the wrong (and stupid) decision of sleeping with them, you don't have to multiply the wrong (and stupid) choices by now marrying them. I've seen families were the parent's openly hate each other and staying together for the kids couldn't be more wrong.

Okay, I can see I'm beginning to ramble on and because I have a million and a half thoughts, I'll have to continue on another day. If I didn't cut myself off soon I would end up writing the night away and that (trust me) would make me even more unbearable on a Friday, when I know I'm working overtime on the Saturday (is there possibly a sadder occurrence in the world than having to work on a Saturday?? (I think not!))

That's just my thoughts for now, but you can bet that won't be the last you hear on the subject from me!

The F**king Jonas Brothers

My 10 year old sister is in love with the Jonas Brothers. She has decided that she will one day marry Nick Jonas. I've never minded her obsession with them as up until recently they hadn't been all over the place. Since, Camp Rock came out 14 days ago, I've probably whatched the bloody thing 20 times (and believe me it wasn't worth watching the first time). They now have there own television show which basically shows you a day in their lives and to be honest I'm all for reality t.v., but to watch the same episode every single time it's aired, I think is deserving of the Best Sister Ever Award in and of itself. When she found out they were coming to Toronto, she begged to go to the concert, I (of course) stepped up and said if we got tickets I would go with her (simply because I didn't think either of my parents would make it through). I went Ticketmaster to purchase the tickets and was pleasantly surprised to see the price ranged from $20-$50, truthfully, compared to the tickets I buy, I thought it was a bargain. That was until I tried to purchase them and found the concert was completely sold out. Ticketmaster has this link (trying to be helpful as always (major sarcasm there)) to a site that may have some tickets available. I click on it thinking if it's not that bad I'll purchase my 2 tix and be on my merry way. It was fricking $100 for $20 tickets and $500-$600 for the $50 ones. I'm thinking good luck with that buddy if you actually think anyone is going to purchase Jonas Brothers tickets for that price. I've been checking back everyone once in a while see if anything reasonable had came up and every time I went back it seemed to get worse then before. When I checked last night someone had 12 almost front row tickets for $535 or $565 (something like that) and I'm thinking, watch that asshole end up with a bunch of stupid tickets left over. Sure enough this morning I checked the site and all 12 were gone. By the time all the service charges and everything is added that amounts to more than $7,000, some jerk just made over $5,000 (possibly more than $6,000) in profit because other people are just that stupid. It's a sad, sad day when someone pays $600 to sit in Molson Amphithatre seats. Sometimes I think the world is made up almost entirely of incredibly stupid people.

Vegas Baby!!!

Vegas was a blast!!! I would probably need to write a novel to explain just how fantastic that entire trip was. 14 women in Las Vegas for a bachelorette party is not a concept that is easy to grasp or put into manifestation, but when it happens it is definitely a once in a life time experience. We tried to do it all and it felt like we just barely got the tip of the iceberg. I can now say that I am a fully certified stripper (with a stripper license to prove it!) We went to the Bodies Exhibition which was truly exciting for me as I had missed it here in Toronto a while back and was thrilled to finally get a chance to see. I can definitely say I wasn't disappointed. The only thing is that you can't take pictures inside the exhibition (in order to protect the features (which does make sense)). If you're ever in Vegas or any city with Bodies I would highly recommend it. Since no Vegas trip is complete without a show we went to see Alicia Keys (with Jordin Sparks and Ne-Yo). They were all phenomenal!! So good that I saw the show again when it came here to Toronto. Considering that we bought our tickets like 3 hours before the show, we had pretty good seats. There was also a lot of sightseeing and partying (A LOT of partying), but that's a story for another time.

No more pain in the ass!!

So my bottom is almost completely healed and I couldn't be happier. After 6 months of having to wince every time I sit down I can now take a seat (mostly) pain free. If anyone wants to see the scar all they have to do is ask! Apparently what I had is called a perianal abscess and to be honest it was not very fun. Now that it's over and I'm free to enjoy life again (not that I really stopped (I did go to Montreal twice and Vegas for the first time while I was "suffering" from it)) I plan to enjoy it to the fullest (life that is not my ass) starting in Trinidad!!