better yet

[fox]

Dudes, it's not like ninety bucks is a trivial amount of money, but it's kind of not an awful lot if it means you can party with Nate and the gang.

No, seriously. This is a thing the night before the Inauguration. Who wants to come?

Comments

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

...maybe? Possibly?

I dunno. It sounds loud.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

It does sound loud. No denying that.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

Yes, which means I wouldn't be able to talk at all, which means I'd just go and stand there and feel guilty about not having a good time.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

I'll put you down for "no, thanks", then.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

...put me down for, "If enough of my friends go, I might be persuaded."

I don't know; I want desperately to be the sort of person who would enjoy a shindig like that, and I've been conditioned to second-guess my assumptions that Things Will Be Terrible enought that a perky little voice in me keeps insisting that maybe if I went into it with an open mind and the conviction that it would be fun, it would somehow magically turn into fun.

I think this perky little voice is dead wrong, mind you. But a lifetime of associating with optimists means that I can't get it to shut up.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

You know, even before I got to the last line, there, I was thinking, "But that's wonderful!" Not that I think it would necessarily be fun, mind you; I just think the fact that there is such a voice is a huge step in the right direction. ;-)

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

No! No, it isn't! It's just my reflexive self-doubt; I have it about everything, including my pessimism!

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Right!

(ETA: W-A-T-E-R! It has a name!)

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

That doesn't mean that the pessimism is wrong. It means I lack the courage of my convictions.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

(ETA: W-A-T-E-R! It has a name!)

...if there's been a breakthrough here, it's not on my side, because I have no idea what, besides The Miracle Worker, you're referring to.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

The little voice making you doubt your pessimism hasn't always been there. (And it doesn't mean you lack the courage of your convictions; it means you are always wondering if there might be more to learn.) Ergo, we are (or something is; it may not be us) getting through to you. Hence, The Miracle Worker. Am v. best Annie-Sullivan-type heroine.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

No, actually I've had that little voice since childhood, and it's been proven conclusively wrong more times than I care to count. And yet it won't go away.

[pocketmouse]

Closet optimist. :)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

(Actually, the mere fact that you want to enjoy it is a step, as far as I'm concerned. Pity wishing doesn't always make it so.)

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

(And, no; wanting to enjoy it just makes me feel even more wretched when I don't. Also guilty, because then I've set out to do something-- to wit, have fun-- and Failed, which makes me a great big failure with failsauce.)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Well, that's where the self-awareness has to kick back in. There are times that you have to know that just determining you'd like to have fun isn't going to be enough to do it, and cut your losses ahead of time. See above re: Fox not going to cons. Right? So in this case, the failure would be a failure to respect your own limits.

In short: another big step is the one where you realize that brute force, determination, willpower, whatever you want to call it, can't get everything done. Given that you have on more than one occasion described me as the possessor of more willpower than anyone else you know, perhaps you will take my word on this point.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

I know I can't make a situation pleasant just by deciding it should be.

But if I'm going to cut my losses and stop throwing effort at trying to make myself into the sort of person who enjoys that sort of thing, I should also be able to extirpate the desire to be that person. Sighing wistfully and regretting that I am simply not capable of that sort of fun accomplishes nothing, and I should at least have the willpower to be able to knock it off.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Ah, well. Again: speaking as the Dean of Willpower around here, no. Alas. It takes so much willpower to be stoic and play through that sort of thing; I don't know how much more it would take not to need to. (Tread carefully, because the next thing you'll say is that I am some sort of failure for not having the willpower to quit wanting the things I want, and if I don't have enough willpower, then who on earth does? ;-) )

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I'd just go and stand there and feel guilty about not having a good time.

Sounds like me at Escapade, and most other social functions...