A Lesson in German

My dog will come running (or tumbling) like mad from any room or level of the house to the kitchen if someone opens the peanut butter jar (or in my case, nutella). He's just that crazy for peanut butter. Speaking of crazy (and being completely out of context)... I got twitter! Click here for sound-bite (un)worthy ahfew goodness. I'm not inferring that you'll all be Pavlov-trained dogs salivating to each and every word that rings from my twitter-bell but hope rather it becomes a part of your regularly scheduled ahfew programming.

No matter how many times I do it, coming out to people has still not become an enjoyable experience, let alone learned behaviour for me; I don't think I know how to do it properly. However, the most recent time was bordering closely on a textbook example of schadenfreude (if you don't know what this term means let Avenue Q, the sesame street for adults, enlighten you through song here).

I met up with one of my closest guy friends last year (a few days ago) for dinner after a failed attempt with another close friend to see the King Tut exhibit at the AGO. After completely annihilating a huge korean-made meal, I ended up taking the bus together with him where we had a long, deep discussion regarding our friendship. Not only did he inform me that our friendship wasn't how it used to be, he also said there were many misunderstandings that served to hinder our once close friendship. These misunderstandings I thought grew through the lack of communication we've had over the past few months, but he related that they all started and were allowed to fester because of rumours.

According to him, the main rumour centred around my very tight relationship with his current girlfriend and her fidelity to him. I felt upset and depressed that there were and still are many malignant rumours circulating about me, without my knowledge of them existing at all. Apparently, "girls" have told him that his girlfriend and I are more than just friends because we often hang out and sometimes without informing anyone else...

In my mind I had to laugh, laugh so hard that it was nearly impossible for me to maintain my serious disposition. What negative feelings I had regarding the rumours for the time being vanished. I couldn't help but think how little I must value the unknown people who started the rumours because of how little they actually know of me. Whatever, eh?

Of course I had to clear up these malformed accusations, as I am the least likely person to ever consciously lure someone into adultery... and what a perfect way to out myself in the process; as they say, "kill two birds with one stone"! I looked him right in the eyes and replied, "You should be more scared of me luring you away from your girlfriend than me taking your girlfriend away from you". It was an almost "I want the truth!" and "You can't handle the truth"-esque moment, because he'd finally gotten his answer, but did he really want to hear it? Seeing the look of painful shock on his face gave me a pleasure that I have not felt in a very long while. Luckily, (for the sake of our friendship, though I wish I could have indulged more in schadenfreude), it was soon replaced with what I read as understanding and acceptance. I had to get off right after that, as it was my stop. I left him on the bus hoping he'd be able to move forward and be able to reach a destination where we could be what we once used to be: Bros.

Glückliches neues Jahr!!