PMS

Ok, so it probably isn't such a good idea to write about this topic, but I was reading this (congrats on starting a blog, Bees), and had some thoughts of my own. I am probably gonna regret this when girls start sending me nasty hate-filled emails and boycotting my blog.

I should first acknowledge the fact that as a male, I have never personally experienced PMS, and this fact alone will probably severely weaken whatever arguments I try to make. But hear me out, because I have observed this phenomenon at close range and I would be willing to bet that I know more about this subject than the typical guy.

There's no doubt in my mind that PMS exists, so don't think I'm trying to deny that. For the most part, I'm not trying to counter that blog I linked above, but more to add and throw in my ten cents (my two cents is free... yes that's from Eminem sorry but I hear that song like 60 times an hour). She gives a pretty complete list of symptoms: acne, backache, bloating, fatigue, headache, and sore breasts. Unfortunately, she left out the most obvious symptom of all, which is "making everyone around you flat-out miserable for a few days."

It's not my goal to be insensitive here, but I just can't accept the fact that PMS in itself makes it ok to unleash hell on innocent bystanders. It's understandable that hormonal imbalances have a huge influence on your physical and emotional state. Like I said, I've never had the experience of FSH and LH running wild in my own body, so forgive me. What I imagine the feeling of PMS to be like is being sick with headaches, discomfort, etc., and not being able to think too clearly as if you had taken some drowsy cough medicine or something. As a result of being physically and mentally hampered, one is more likely to snap when certain things happen, like if you do bad on a test, chip a nail, or your boyfriend has a Britney Spears sticker in his wallet. Sounds reasonable enough, wouldn't you say.

The thing is, I guess it's ok to expect others to be more reasonable when you're going through hormonal stress - but only to a certain point. It's like when some people get drunk, they are more likely to get into fights, say reckless things, basically do things that they will regret once they sober up. Even though it's probably cause of alcohol, it doesn't make it all ok. Your judgement is impaired, but you haven't completely lost control. Same with PMS, hormones are making you prone to become irritable and angry, but you can't just lash out whenever you want at whoever you want and expect that people will just understand. I realize that some people are affected by PMS more than others, maybe like some people have more control over their temper, but being mean to people who don't really deserve it and laying the whole blame on PMS is like coming home from work and kicking your dog because your boss yelled at you. It's not like you're doing it for no reason; just that it's not a very good one. As for me, I think I do try to be more nicer when I know someone is not feeling well in general, whether it's from PMS or just the flu or they are going through depression or something.

When it comes to medicine, this is one thing where I probably won't be able to diss people for taking something to feel better, because like I said, I've never experienced PMS myself. Also, maybe I should take back a little of what I said before about medicine, because someone has already called me a Luddite (if you don't know what a Luddite is, look up Ned Ludd in Google or something). I am not a Luddite, but I was just pointing out that whenever it's possible to avoid taking medicine, it will probably be better for your health in the long run to do so. Cancer and ulcers were just examples, I don't know if Advil actually causes either. I have a strong inkling that caffeine is bad though, so coffee drinkers should watch out. Since I don't know that much about what causes a lot of things, like cancer, or birth defects, appendicitis, or hiccups, I believe in keeping my life as simple as possible. I used the example of people 200 years ago, who didn't have all these new drugs but did okay. It's still a valid point, but I do understand that in today's world, there are times when you can't afford to lose a couple days to illness and taking a Tylenol is worth it. Just don't get too dependent on all these new supposed-wonder drugs, because everything has a side effect. There was a time when a drug named fen-phen was supposed to help people lose weight just by taking a pill. Everyone thought it was awesome but now we know that it causes heart disease. Not trying to make everyone paranoid, but people should have known better than to trust everything to a little pill. So I'm not gonna say that you should never take medicine for anything, just don't rely on it too much.

Summer

We've all heard that there are two certainties in life: death and taxes (I'm not sure if this was originally said by Aristotle or Ben Franklin). I've recently found that there are two certainties in summer: weddings and moving. During the past couple days, I've attended my cousin's wedding and helped Olivia move into her apartment, thus the revelation. Another stunning observation is that summer is hot. I must have sweated off 20 pounds today.

But actually, the heat is one thing I can bear about summer. It's the construction that drives me nuts. Every freaking year without fail, they are tearing up some major highway and slowing traffic to a near halt for nearly a whole summer. I don't understand, is there some law to ensure that people must be stuck in traffic for a certain amount of hours per year? I could swear that right now on I-55, they are blocking off an entire lane when they probably won't even work on it for another month. Someone, somewhere is laughing at this cruel joke being played on us.

Plus, you'd think with how technologically advanced our society is today, what with tiny cell phones, electric cars, and computer mouses with a wheel in the middle to scroll up/down within a window, they could have found some more advanced methods to pave roads. Come on, you civil engineers out there. All I know is that no matter how pretty and nice they make the roads after construction, in like 2 years or less they are back on the same road fixing it because it is ripped up again. Simply pathetic, and it's almost suspicious. I don't really want to accuse these construction companies of sabotaging their own work so the government will have to keep paying them, but is there really no way to pave our roads with some longer-lasting material? Hard to swallow.

One thing that amuses me about construction is those signs that say "Please slow down, my daddy works here. Signed, Katie." It's cute enough of an idea, but how many people actually think there is a sweet little girl named Katie somewhere who made that sign. Anyways, usually when I see that sign, it's late at night when no construction workers are around anyways. Otherwise, it's during the day and I am moving at 5 mph if lucky. If I slow down, I will be going backwards. Is that what you wanted, Katie, telling me to slow down so I can stop and say hi to your daddy? I really wonder how much good those signs do, but honestly, I hope they do end up saving some lives somehow. Maybe if they are shown to be effective, the government can erect some billboards around the country: "Please don't fly a plane into this building, my mommy/daddy works here. Signed, Timmy, Amber, Nicky, Ashley, Keisha, Jiang-Wen, etc..." Well, probably not. There's really no chance in hell that would ever work, especially because it seems that terrorists are generally meaner than the typical person. Yeah, don't even get me started on terrorists.