There has always been controversy surrounding whether being straight or gay is a “choice” or biological. I was interested this past week to be reading several articles regarding recent scientific evidence that supports that sexual orientation is a biological event. One such article was in Time.com, which talks about what the gay brain looks like. Another, similar article was in the US News and World Report.

My personal feelings have always been that it is nature, not nurture that determines sexual orientation. I wish that people would just “get over it” and treat gay people with the same respect that they treat straight people. I know that some of the larger objections have simply been that they take offense at those who go above board with public displays of affection, but to be fair, that offense is committed by a lot of straight people, too. I can hardly walk down the aisles of the local Wal-Mart without finding myself walking behind a straight couple where the man reaches behind the woman and pinches her butt. I find that very offensive!

Don’t you just hate it when you give out your email address to someone, hoping that they will use it with some commonsense and only contact you when they really NEED to communicate with you and then all you ever get from them is those stupid “chain” letter emails? I find that to be a constant problem and I really hate having to send those people polite replies asking them to NOT do that! I like to think I am a nice person; I KNOW I’m a busy person, and I HATE getting those kinds of emails “forward this to 8 of your closest friends within five minutes or something bad will happen to you.” I DON’T forward it; I reply back to it and then delete it. I don’t know anyone who likes getting those kinds of emails, and it surprises me how many people are so superstitious that they are afraid to “break the chain” by deleting the email.

I can’t remember what day it was, but recently I was watching a morning news program for a few minutes and they were talking about healthy food. The expert of the day was telling the audience that the 100 calorie snack packs were not good for you… I don’t remember what the reason was because I immediately started remembering how a couple of months ago on the same show there was a different food expert who was raving about the 100 calorie snack packs. I don’t know if they are good or bad, I’m no expert, but I don’t make a habit of buying a lot and eating a lot of them.

Having said that, I DO keep some in the house for the rare occasion that I have the craving for a small snack. I know the unit price is more expensive, but in the long run it is better than buying a large bag of something and then only eating a little bit and throwing the rest away because it goes stale. And it’s better for you than opening a large bag and eating the whole thing because you don’t want to waste food by letting it go stale! So, I think that the 100 calorie snack packs are a good thing if used in moderation. I just enjoyed a 100 calorie Hostess carrot cake snack pack. It was yummy and I don’t feel guilty at all!

I was reading an article in the Time.com website about the myth that boys are better than girls in math. It reminded me of an anecdote my aunt told me about when she went to high school back in the early ’70s. She signed up for a class in functions, one of the most advanced math classes her school had to offer. She had already aced Algebra I, II, and Trig. The next course to take was functions. So she signed up for it. Her teacher was a man who announced on the first day of class that he believed that girls should not be in his class, that they were taking up seats that boys should be in. He warned them that he had never passed a girl in his glass, and never WILL pass a girl. He told them all to drop his class immediately or they would flunk. He said he would never answer any of their questions and never grade their tests – they would be given automatic “Fs” on everything.

Well, my aunt went to the school counselor and the school counselor said there was nothing they could do; he was the only functions math teacher they had. She was advised to stay in the class. She had a step-brother taking the same class and they did their homework together. They turned in their homework (with the same answers) and her brother got “As” and she got “Fs.” The teacher DID give her “Fs” on all of her tests, even though she had the same answers as the ones who got As. Going back to the counselor, again she was told there was nothing she could do but drop the class!

Can you imagine? To this day my aunt is bitter about this; that jerk ruined her GPA which ruined her chances to be the class valedictorian and a fully paid scholarship to the college that she wanted to go to. She will never get over how that jerk ruined her chances to pursue the career of her dreams. I don’t blame her, I’d be bitter too! People say not to let these things “ruin” your life, how CAN you NOT let them ruin your life? How CAN you let go of this kind of resentment that someone ruined your chances to have the ONE career you wanted to have? I don’t know the answer to that, do you?

Healthy foods make me ill
I’m a paradox. If it is supposed to be good for you, it makes me ill. I can’t tolerate olives, or olive oil, consuming either makes me ill for days on end. You would not believe how hard it is to go out to eat nowadays because of that – so many restaurants now are trying to convert to “healthy” cooking, which involves cooking with olive oil! There have been times when I’ve been out with friends and we’ve gone into a restaurant they all want to try out and there turns out to be absolutely not one single thing on the menu I can eat – every single thing has been prepared with olive oil! And it is embarrassing to go to church pot-luck dinners and have to ask everyone if any dishes had been prepared with olives or olive oil. Of course then EVERYONE wants to know details of EXACTLY what happens when I eat it – very annoying.

And don’t even get me started on the smell of lavender – the plant that is supposed to relax you and help you fall asleep. One whiff of that and I’m running for the bathroom to toss my cookies!

Sometimes I think my body hates me!