It didn't start out as a tirade...

I have long been comfortable with the fact that I am a fuddy-duddy.  Let me clarify- I in no way think I am boring or that the life I choose to lead is in any way less than someone else's (except maybe in the area of romance, but I don't really want to get into that today).
You see, I don't like to travel.  I don't want to go to Europe every year or explore foreign lands and try new things.  Yes, I like to try some new things, but I prefer to do it at home.
My parents travel.  Boy, do they travel!  In the past fifteen years, they've gone more new places than I have ever had a desire to go in my entire life.  But I'm not like my parents.  In fact, sometimes I'll jokingly ask my mother if she's sure no one switched me with her real baby at the hospital. 

It's something I've gotten accustomed to defending, actually.  People hear about all of my parents' wonderful trips and ask me if I'm jealous or if I ever wan to go. 
I don't.  The only time I even get a little excited about traveling is when people bring up New Zealand or Ireland.  Otherwise, I'll keep my travels domestic, thank you very much.  I'm a homebody by nature, and an introvert.  I don't need the foreign travels.  My imagination (as well as the photos my parents inevitably bring home with them) are enough for me.  I love listening to their stories and I love it even more listening to their excitement as they tell those stories.
Just because I'm not out there going to other countries or meeting new people or trying new foods in those other countries does not mean I am not living my life.  Just because my life is different from theirs, or from yours, does not mean my life is less full or less complete than theirs or yours.
It just means I choose to spend my money on things closer to home.

Life is a book written by someone else

You know, when I read a book- and not even only the first time- I often wonder how characters can act so stupidly. As a writer myself, I know perfectly well that it is, in fact, the characters' own faults and not the author because I've been in that position, of desperately trying to keep up with what they're doing. We have much less actual influence over their lives than others might believe.

But anyway, sometimes my ire in the face of the stupidity of characters who seem otherwise intelligent is stronger on the second or third reading because by that point, I know that they're going to make stupid choices and I can't do anything to stop them.

It's like Rumple said in OUaT: "When you see the future, there's irony everywhere."

But it made me think about something; this is what life is like. We act- and react- to what we know. And sometimes our choices as a result are good. And sometimes our choices are bad. And sometimes our choices- if we even survive them at all- make us wonder how we could have possibly been so embarrassingly stupid in the first place.

Hindsight is, as they say, the only vision that is 20/20.

We are, in a very literal sense, these characters that sometimes make me want to chuck my book across a room.

It's a lovely sentiment to say that "I am the author of my own life story", but the truth is, I'm not. And neither are you.

God is the Author of every story.

I'm just a character. And probably the kind that makes the reader want to chuck the book across the room.

Singlehood is no less important to a person's identity than being in a "relationship"

Here's something I find annoying:

Even Facebook considers single people to be somehow less than married, engaged, or relationally occupied people.  Not only does a single person's single status not appear on their feeds or profiles, people aren't even notified of a friend's single status when they break up or end a relationship.
There's something intensely wrong about that.  You know what?  I love being single.  I've noticed something over the past however many years.
I'm actually happier and less stressed when I am single than when I am in a relationship.

So why doesn't my singleness get to be shouted to the world like other people's relationships or engagements?

At the very least, it should show up on my profile.  That's only fair, really.  Marriage isn't the final goal of everyone's life, after all.  God can use single people often more effectively than he can use married people, since married people have a commitment to each other, whereas single people don't need to focus on loving and honoring anyone but God.

Just saying.

It's like an adventure for my soul

My reaction to reading a new book by one of my favorite authors (this all occurs over the course of several hours):

• Haha!  I totally get it!  It's because they share a bloodline!
• Ooh!  Ooh!  I think I know!  She was the first Ellcrys!
• Dude, he's totally in love with you.  Stop being an idiot!
• Aw, man, you didn't see that coming?  Seriously?  He's a freaking politician, what'd you expect?
• Oh, no, don't die!  Why did you kill him?  He was like the coolest character ever!
• Okay, the prince is a turd.
• Nope, it's the boy.  It was all a set-up.  Why am I the only one who sees this?
• Wicked shot.  I'm totally in love with him now.
• Ha!  I was totally right!  She became the first Ellcrys to make up for her bad love decisions.
• Fly, my pretties!
• Uh-oh.
• Whoa, okay.  Did not see that one coming.  Even though I cheered.  A lot.
• I've got a bad feeling about this.
• Heehee, I like the green mist monster of Paranor.  It makes all the bad guys scream and wet their pants.
• Can anyone spell TRAP?!
• No, stupid, don't walk through the mysterious curtain of light!  That's what they want you to do!
• Ooh, a dragon!
• How am I the only one who realizes that this is the same trap Grianne fell into a hundred years ago?
• See, I told you.
• Well, at least you're not dead.  Even if you are so stupid I can't even see why you're still alive.  Idiot.
• Stop being such a whiner-baby and man up!  Or woman up.  Whatever, you know what I mean.
• Your mom is totally possessed.  Or maybe she's evil.  Or maybe she's possessed by evil.  Well, those are your options unless you want to accept that she's really that cold-hearted and bitchy.
• Well, of course they're chasing you.  Did you expect this to be easy?  Amberle did it a thousand years before you and she had a worse time of it, believe you me!
• Stop whining and get over yourself.
• Oh look, they're still following you.  And you're surprised by this?
• Don't do that, they'll find you.
• Didn't I just say-
• Run!  Run, you idiot, don't just stand there!  It's your own damn fault for not listening to me in the first place!
• See, I told you he was in love with you.
• When he says 'everyone's going to die', does he mean, like, everyone everyone?  Because this isn't supposed to be a George Martin book, you know!
• OMG, kill it!  Kill it!
• I'm totally going to marry an Elf!
• It's a trap.
• See?
• Why doesn't anyone listen to me?
• She's creepy.
• Aw, man, come on!  She's just using you!
• Well, that was dumb.  
• Eew!  Okay, massive death count and now heads on pikes?  You are not turning the Four Lands into Westeros!  Not, not, NOT!
• Well, that was unnecessary.
• And that was even more unnecessary.
• Stop killing off all the cool characters!  Especially when you do it with stupid decisions instead of assassins and massive violent epics and magical battles!
• Aw, that was sweet.
• Ugh, and that was not.  Gross!
• Run!  RunrunrunrunrunrunRUN!

And when I finally finished the book...

• Man, am I exhausted!  I need a nap.