In desparate need of Bob Mould

You know, the world can be so exhausting and disappointing sometimes. As I woke on July 7, happy to be finally freed from my final paper for my summer class, I heard about London and the bombings and...ugh. I've read the disapppointment and sadness that so many others have expressed in their blogs, and while I identified with it, I also found myself feeling numb and without too much to say. The news coverage I heard throughout the day was at times was a bit disturbing, but not just because of the atrocious nature of the crimes themselves, but because of the extreme short term memory when it came to discussing London's history with terrorism. I actually heard one person say that these were the first attacks on London since World War II. Excuse me? Have we forgotten in our eagerness to connect Al Quaeda with all things evil that there were Irish terrorists not ten years ago who were also performing similar acts? I'm all for giving those who committed these acts what they deserve, but let's at least wait until we know who those people are before coming to any conclusions.

In more personal and semi-tragic news, it appears that I have lost a couple of my newer guy friends, or guys that I thought were my friends. Both of them fell victim to my terrible habit of being very late with responses, which tends to happen during periods in which I am very busy. (The month of June falls into this category.) One of them, after I had not gotten back to him in two weeks, sent me an email demanding to know why I had not told him my true feelings, since it was so "obvious" that I didn't like him since he hadn't heard from me. The second one attacked last night, sending me text messages over one of those friend-connecting websites that I'm a member of (Friendster in this case). Because I had fallen asleep early and left my computer logged into the site, I didn't respond. He chose to interpret that as my being offended by him, wished me luck and signed off (in more ways than one).

Although I realize that not getting back to people quickly can annoy them, I've been on the receiving end of that from some of my friends and I don't usually jump to the conclusion that the problem is me. I mean, I may think it could be a reason, but I usually deal with things like that by either waiting to hear from the person or sending them a note simply asking what's up. So my quesiton is this: Why does it seem that so many guys seem to take this personally? Is there something about these guys in particular that would make them more likely to take offense than others? And why does it seem like I have this problem more with guy friends than girl friends?

Sigh. I found myself this morning, after receiving the instant messages, yearning for the lyrics of Bob Mould. He always had this way of looking at the world that would make me realize that things aren't so bad. I was happy to discover that he will be coming on tour in Boston this fall, so hopefully I will be able to finally see him live after trying and failing for so many years. But, that's another story for another post, another time.