guest blogger #1: sir william j. fleming

due to a recent lack of inspiration, i decided to let someone else pour their creative juices into my blog. i couldn't think of anyone in the world who has more of these juices than b.j., one of my dearest friends. so here ya go:

guest post #1:
Except that I do and I do

Shannon is a gem. Let's just get that right out there. She and I were at high school together and formed several organizations of note during our tenure including but not limited to H.U. Intl. and a non-union construction company focusing primarily on cotton-poly blend units. Tehe. I said "units."

Anyway, recently, I was all like "Yeah, motherf-er," when Shannon was all like "I want to start a blog." Then we started brainstorming blog names and I had some really great ones like RoboBlogfromtheFuture, and Shanimatron 10069. She, however, opted for idontlikeyoubutiloveyou.

And, I guess that's good. I'm much better at ignoring emotion than Shannon, so it makes sense that her blog would be a little more serious and heart string-snipping than mine (which doesn't technically exist (my blog not my heart. I have a heart. Shh.))

Which is sort of why I like this blog, sort of why I like the title especially, and a little bit why I'm guest-writing on it.

I don't like you but I love you is something, thankfully, we've never said to each other (see title). But the tension in it rings roundly and loudly to me.

Shannon (and me, sometimes) are pretty good examples of one of my favorite concepts of all time which is the romance of self destruction. Obviously sometimes this is more true for each of us than others, and certainly we're not the most self destructive kids out there, but it's a huge part of our life like the time warp on third street before we ate a giant bag of chocolate chips.

We constantly surround ourselves with fun things that are god awful for us. On at least a few occasions, these things have included each other. On paper, her friends (myself included) are easy to hate. I certainly hate many of her friends.

So, why don't I punch her in the face? Mostly because she prefers to be bitten. And, concomitantly, I've had my fair share of scratches that've drawn blood from her. But why haven't we destroyed each other?

Well, we might. And that's fine. Being around Shannon is like being spirited away for a threesome in a minivan. It looks like such a dirty, reprehensible idea at first blush, and sometimes it is. But, more often than not, you can't wait to feel damaged again.

-Beej.