Candy association

One of my roommates works at the candy counter in the bookstore here on campus. This semester she's been working the close shift so that means any candy that was spilled or couldn't be sold, she gets to bring home.

I sit here this fine evening, not doing homework because I've basically finished all of it, eating some of this fabulous candy. And I realized tonight how much I associate certain candy with certain people. For example:

The only package I ever sent a missionary was to my lovely Jordan. He's serving in Scotland. I sent him Reese's Pieces because he was so subtle in one letter at expressing his love for them. Today's bag of candy Stacy brought home is full of Reese's Pieces and as I began eating them I realized how I automatically began thinking of Jordan.

My friend Chelsea and I love the MadTV skit that goes something along the lines of, "Can I Have Yo Numba'?" We quote it often and have for the past few years. Ergo, whenever I eat Mike & Ikes, which I happen to love, I automatically think of that skit and then of Chelsea.

At the beginning of last semester, one night Hank and I went to the grocery store and bought candy. It was his idea. (He is very much so a child in the fact that he loves sugar.) It was quite a good idea, though. We bought, rather, he bought for us, Swedish Fish and those fruity flavored Tootsie Roll dealios. (Does anyone know what are they called exactly?) Swedish Fish already held a special place in my heart because my friend Brooke loves them so much. (She registered for them when she got married.) Now it's double memories since Hank and I had a great time hanging out that night.

My dad is a fan of those Milky Way Midnight bars. Therefore if I am having one I think of the time when they first came out and he said he liked them.

Perhaps my favorite candy memory comes from Matthew. We went on a date in November of 2009. Before going to this improv show, we stopped at the grocery store because he thought he wanted a snack. So we're looking at the candy aisle and there's a king sized Kit Kat bar. He decided we'd just get something to eat after the show, which was fine by me, so he didn't get the Kit Kat, but for the rest of the night he kept going on and on about that candy bar. And not just for the rest of the night, for the rest of forever. We still talk today about the date we went on when he didn't buy that giant Kit Kat bar. I'm pretty sure I mention in most of my letters to him whether or not I've eaten a Kit Kat bar lately.

And those are just the beginning. Candy is something special in my book, apparently. I like that idea.

Last YouTube video I watched: George Watsky - Go Big, Young Friends
(Okay, so technically it was the "Can I Have Yo Numba" skit because I just had to watch it after mentioning it. But I did watch George Watsky before that. I've been on a gwatsky kick lately.)

The truth resists simplicity

So my friend Hank always asks me why I blog and everything I tell him is never sufficient. Or he always says I'm not answering the question. Or he just asks more questions why after I give what I consider to be a legitimate reason. So I figured if I wrote down why I blog, maybe it would make more sense. (No guarantees, Hank.) [And for those of you who happen to watch Vlogbrothers, is it sufficiently confusing yet that one of the brothers Green shares a first name with my friend? I imagine it might.]

He and I have already determined that I blog because I like writing and I like sharing my thoughts/experiences through writing. But when I say that, Hank always asks, "Well, why post it on the Internet?" And that kind of leads into the fact that I like "connecting with people." Whatever that means. (I really think it could mean any number of things.) One pretty specific reason I write on my blog is so I can share things that happen to me with friends from back home/friends in general who go to other schools or who I don't get to talk with often. Perhaps the most obscure reason I like to blog is because of a few very personal reasons/thoughts. I suppose you might call them "ulterior motives," though I wouldn't consider them quite that cynical. (It's the kind of stuff I've never shared with anyone, and I doubt I'll be sharing any of it anytime soon.) There just isn't one answer or reason in my book, even though Hank wants there to be.

So yes, despite all of these "reasons," Hank still asks why. Well, you know what? I blog because I want to. I blog because I can. Why post it on the Internet? Why not? Those are the simplest answers to that question but that doesn't make them the truth. They embody part of the truth, but definitely not all of it. The Vlogbrothers always say the truth resists simplicity and this is definitely a situation in which that quote applies.

Hank tries to get to "the core," as he calls it. Here's the thing: there is no one or simple answer to his question of why I blog. I'm pretty sure it annoys him a little bit that I can't give him a straight answer, but the fact of the matter is, there isn't one. It makes me laugh when he gets frustrated over the fact that I'm not answering his question in the way he wants me to but such is life. As much as we like to think of ourselves as simple creatures, we're really not. We must imagine each other complexly. Yeah, I could water myself and my decisions down to a few words and reasons, but would those few words and reasons really explain who I am? I don't think so. It's kind of like those little biography boxes on social networking sites. How much can you really tell about someone from those boxes? You can write any number of things but those few lines really don't do anyone justice. If people based who I was strictly off that box and nothing else, they wouldn't know me very well at all. From my "About Me" on this blog, you'd know that I like sports and that I drink a beverage most people associate with The Christmas Story. You might also think I'm Canadian. Yes, that one biography sentences describes a few things I like, but it's not who I am. Not really.

So the moral of the story is that even though we must try our very hardest to understand each other, sometimes we have to accept that we don't, at least not fully. Or that we won't, at least not yet.

Last YouTube I watched: The 5 Worst Typos Ever