A Shout Out

This post is dedicated to all those people who like to give "shout outs." I was recently reminded of this when a friend of mine was a victim of a shout out in text message form on her cell phone. I was reminded of the good old days of 7th grade when it was so cool to give a shout out to all your friends on your internet profile or by calling into the radio stations. Here is an example of a successful shout out, for anyone who is unfamiliar: "I just want to give a shout out to all my awesome friends- you know who you are, but in case you forgot I love you Billy (you'll always be my baby!), Jimmy, SusieQ, MaryBeth (pb and j lol you know what I mean), Bob, Kelly, Zach, Slater (body building!), Screech (crazy nights in vegas), Lisa, and anyone else I didn't mention you know I love you too and you are always in my heart- thanks for all the memories, I'll cherish them forever!" Upon analyzing the shout out, I have discovered that the best shout outs include:
1. An introduction shouting out to your friends
2. A list of all your friends, usually in order of importance
3. A note attached to certain people's names with some sort of inside joke which is only funny if you are in on it
4. An apology for forgetting to include someone's name, heaven forbid they didn't make the cut on the friend list
5. A cheesy conclusion like I'll never forget you guys

Feel free to use this recipe to post your own shout outs on this blog page.

Coming to Terms

I think I am finally coming to terms with my identity on Provo Platinum. I will admit that I was annoyed at first with our good friend and founder of our lovely blogging community here. Allow me to explain. I'm talking about the question mark: Steffy Pie? I was "kinda mad" at that question mark for quite some time. However, I have been thinking recently that it is an appropriate association. That little punctuation mark could have an infinite number of follow-up questions or comments...which will be addressed sometime in the future. The point of this blog is to officially accept this appendage to my blogging identity and publicly revere it for adding a new dimension to my entire being.

Unavoidable Avoidance

Here's the break down: you like a guy, but you are too scared to talk to him. Then amazingly one day he talks to you. You have a great time with him one night. You still like him. The next day you avoid him at all costs. You know that you are avoiding him, dare I say hiding from him, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. All too often you continue avoiding him until you have totally obliterated any chance of forming a relationship with him. Unfortunately, you have successfully made him think that you are not interested. You continue to like him until he goes for another girl, at which point you convince yourself that you don't like him anymore and try to find another guy that you're interested in. Then the vicious cycle begins again.

While I was writing, I thought of another avoidance scenario: A guy likes you, but you don't know it; you think you are just friends. Then you realize he likes you more than you like him. You freak out. You avoid him, until you feel like you have extinguished any feelings he might have had for you. Eventually you try to be friends with him again, with an incredible feeling of guilt for having treated him so badly.

In both situations, you know you are avoiding him, yet you can't do anything to stop it no matter how much you want to. In the first case, ideally you would talk to him and act like a normal person. In the second scenario, ideally you would talk to him and clear things up. Notice how both solutions require confrontation. Yet regardless of the fact that you know you're not doing what you should, or even what you want, you can't get away from the avoidance stage. It is unavoidable.

There are exceptions of course. But I think I have identified these as outside forces which have to be greater than the natural tendency of avoidance.