Yes, awkward questions *are* FREAKING AWKWARD, why do you ask?

Seriously, if you ask an awkward question, no matter how noble your intentions or how much you've steeled yourself for that brutally honest answer you're counting on, you're still going to get an awkward answer. Especially if the ask-ee doesn't do brutally honest. You're just going to get the run-around. And around. And around. And the roomates of the ask-ee (and probably the ask-er, too) are just gonna get annoyed watching the drama from the sidelines. (Because you're clueless if you think we don't talk about it. We're girls. We talk. Mostly we try to help, or commiserate, or happy-dance together, but we definitely spill.)

If you really want brutally honest answers, you're going to have to ask a brutally honest person, and not that friends-with-everybody sweetheart who feels guilty for being in the same room with someone who's upset, much less for making someone upset. It's not gonna work. Stop trying. Seriously.

What is an "awkward question"? Well, if you have to ask that, I'm currently offering a correspondence course in Tact 101. (Which, as you can tell from this blog post, would be the blind leading the blind. But at least I occasionally have a clue.)

And while we're on the topic of awkward, everybody loves an awkward situation. Right? Yeah, right. So here's a clue: if you think a situation has gotten awkward, you're probably right. In fact, you're dead-on by definition. If any member of a group, large or small, is feeling awkward or uncomfortable, then obviously something is awkward. Can I be any more redundant? (Probably, but we won't go there.)

So if you find yourself in such a situation, fix it. Change whatever it is that's making life awkward for you and/or the group. If it's your very presence, the solution is simple enough. (Harsh, I know. ;) ) But really, who of us hasn't been a third wheel at some point? I know I have . . . and it's even less fun for the third than it is for the couple, so you're doing yourself a favor more than anyone by just finding something else to do for a while. Don't worry about it, mushiness comes and goes, and the best friend will still be there later, with or without the bf/gf, when they're done canoodling. :P (On the other hand, if they're never done canoodling, then you are no longer the one to blame for the awkwardness. So long as you're doing your part and giving them their alone time, they can do theirs and be regular people in public. Am I right? Of course I right. *channels Fiddler's Yenta*)

Of course, the main thing to remember is that everyone is horribly, irretrievably awkward some of the time. Especially between ages 13 and 30. The thing to do is to recover from it, and avoid making the same mistakes again. DON'T intentionally make the same mistakes again - that's just dumb. And don't listen to me if you don't want to. I'm just a crazy person, anyway, who feels better after that nice, lengthy rant. Congratz for reading it all the way through, ya crazies.

I'ma talk to you later.
Buh-bye.

Wa-a-a-y too much fun . . .

I'm playing with blog skinning lately, and I'm having way too much fun with it, and staying up rather too late. :P But it's exciting! I'm learning so many cool tricks . . . :D For instance, you may notice that I've removed the top NavBar from most of my blogs, because it really doesn't match anything, ever. That's the super easy part, though--hundreds of forums show various hacks to accomplish that. (And yes, it's legal--Google has officially that while they encourage people to keep the NavBar, they don't require it.)

The tricky part was retaining some of the buttons like the "new post" and "customize" and "dashboard" links. That hack was much harder to find, and while I can't take the credit for creating it, I'm still uber proud I found it and fitted it to my purposes! Of course, non of you can *see* my triumph, because "Blogger Buster" taught me this nifty way of making an "admin toolbar" that only shows up to the blog owner (me) when I'm signed in. It disappoears for you guys. Isn't that NEAT? :D
Yeah, yeah, y'all probably don't care. But I'm having a great deal of fun learning these tricks!

A couple of blogs I've skinned are in my bloglist to the right (Tryn's stories). They're also the intros to a couple of my stories, if you care to read them. I plan on actually working on the werewolf one for a while in the near future . . . I also plan to pop up any of my other story starters that I feel like sharing, just so I can design new skins for each of them! ;D
Yeah, way too much fun.

Most of the skins I've "created" so far are actually just modifications of layouts designed by others, who are still credited at the bottom of each blog. I'm just tweaking each one to fit my tastes. For instance, I hate a blog that's too skinny, and almost everyone's layout is too skinny. I need at least 900 pixels to feel comfortable. :) (This one's probably an exception right now--I'm still working on it.) The skin on "Tryn's Crow Story" is more or less mine, though. Not sure where I stole the image from . . . I guess Apple uses it a lot? I'll have to see if I can find a credit for it . . . Anywho.

That's what I'm up to the last few days. Blog skinning, and mostly keeping up on my homework. (hooray!) Oh, and starting a writing group with Merry. :D Huzzah, werewolf story!