Saturday, February 24, 2007

MIL Spec

Lately I've been thinking about how I'm always saying I'm madly in love with this woman or that woman. The reason I'm thinking about it is that recently I said that I'm madly in love with a couple of new possibly-real people in this web log and I'm sort of curious what they think of this. For one thing, it isn't certain that they know the back story.

I started using the expression in the earliest days of writing this blog. This is because I actually say this a lot in conversation: "I met a woman yesterday named Suzanne and I fell madly in love with her." I think the reason I started using the expression at all is because a) it's always true, and b) I think it sounds funny for a guy (me) to actually say those words. Us hirsute and gruff manly-type units often get stereotyped as being unable to express our feelings, particularly using the "L" word. Because of this gender profiling I think I started out saying that I'm "madly in love" with lots of people just to be perverse. Plus it's always true.

As I write this, however, I just realized I'm the only adult male I've ever heard actually use these words in a casual conversation with someone else. I don't think I know of any other guy who ever says "I'm in love with so-and-so," joking or not. Maybe we really are unable to express our feelings with the "L" word. Hunh. Guess I'll have to think about that some more. Well, I already strongly suspected that I'm not a typical guy so no surprise there at least.

At any rate I started out this blog using the phrase "madly in love" in bold type -- Margo Timmins was the first I believe -- and have been using it ad nauseam ever since -- and it's always true. As I said long ago by way of explanation, "falling madly in love is something I do about every twenty minutes when I’m out in public and not at the YMCA." This has become a Hulles blog tradition that I've come to cherish. In the good old Mythos I started a section for women I'm not madly in love with and so far Jennifer Garner is the only inmate of Cell Block Not.

So that's the back story. But, for example, LaCosta (Lollie) doesn't necessarily know this, so what is she to think when she sees me say (in bold type!) that I'm madly in love with her? Probably something like this:

Oh my God, what is this guy saying about me now? He just wrote that he's madly in love with me in front of God and everybody, everybody being maybe three or eight other people besides me. What the fuck? For one thing he's a creepy old white guy and I wouldn't have anything to do with him if he was the last man on erf. For another thing, even if he is actually madly in love with me, the jerk, why would he say it smack dab in the middle of a blog post? Next time I see cK I'm going to beat the snot out of him for letting Hulles follow my back trail to my home page. And if I ever meet Hulles in person I'm going to ram a pointe shoe so far up his ass that he can taste for himself whether or not there's wood in the toe.

Or something like that. I get the feeling Lollie doesn't take much shit from anybody, which is one of the reasons I like her so much.

Perhaps you noticed earlier that I kept insisting that when I say I'm madly in love with someone it's always true. You should have noticed, that's why I kept italicizing it. Well, it is always true, dammit. However, being "madly in love" has traditionally implied that you could only attain this state with one person at time, and I've said that about 3,283 women so far in this blog, so what's up? Glad you asked. I suppose I'm being sort of poetic when I say that I'm madly in love with someone here. What I probably actually mean is that, were I to hang around the woman I'm speaking of for any length of time, I really would fall madly in love with her and only her and change the oil in her car for the rest of the days of our lives. This is because it's my nature is to wear my heart on my sleeve, as they say. Actually, the way I like to put it is that "I wear my heart on the sleeve that I sneeze into."

But enough penetrating and unflinching self-analysis. In the course of thinking about all this, I came up with the idea of actually ranking the women I am madly in love with, from the top (someone I would immediately have babies with before even letting her get the words "Who the hell are you?" out of her mouth) to the bottom (someone I admire from afar, possibly even fantasize about, but wouldn't actually want to talk to if she was the last woman on erf). Wouldn't a numbered list be a good idea? I could have whats-his-name's class at Wellesley go through all my blog posts and make a list of such women, then I could sit down and rank them.

Of course it's not a good idea. One advantage to being the world's oldest adolescent is that I'm finally starting to learn about women. It's not so much that I understand them, mind you, but more and more I'm able to predict their behavior in a given situation, no small feat as any man will tell you. And I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that an ordered list of women I'm madly in love with is a really bad idea.

If you happen to be a woman and you created a list of men that you desired and I found myself ranked, say 11th, my reaction would be "Hunh, she's delirious, I should be El Numero Uno, but that's a woman for you, probably fried her brain taking too many Cosmo love-compatibility quizzes, what are you gonna do?" then go flirt with a twenty-year-old barista with big hooters to make myself feel better. Or just get shitfaced with a Mexican Windbreaker and blow the whole thing off, so to speak.

But a woman? I know for a fact that if you're a woman and you see me write in this blog that I'm madly in love with so-and-so, some part of you thinks to yourself, "Bee-yotch! I can't believe Hulles could write that about that skanky hoe so-and-so. I feel slimy all over just being in the same solar system as her." The weird thing is that this is true even if you wouldn't have anything to do with me if I was the last man on erf! It's about competition I suppose. I have female friends I've known for fifteen years who would rather be disemboweled with a wooden spoon than get down with yours truly, but just let me say in their presence that I'm meeting, say, a steamy young esthetician named Jen for coffee, and all of a sudden it's "That tramp! She's no good for you at all. She's only after you for your money, or would be if you had any money. Who's Jen?"

So if I made a list of women with whom I was madly in love and ordered it by most MIL to least MIL, imagine the vitriol, even if absolutely no one on the list really wanted to be there. The only person who wouldn't be muttering and stropping the edges of her razor-sharp nail file would be whoever was number one on the list, and she'd be all worried that I was going to actually pursue her or something: "Eeugh! Yay, I'm number one, but eeugh!" All the rest of the listees would be snapping viciously at the ankles of the ones ranked above them and cruelly taunting the ones below them. And every woman jane of them would be pissed at me. I'd have to start reading the spam and deleting the emails from real people, the reaction would be so violent. "Man Found Stabbed To Death By 3,283 Nail Files; Police Seek Really Pissed Manicurist."

And the women who weren't on the list? Yikes. They'd be lurking outside my blog, and when anyone came by to read it they'd stop them and say, "Hey, you don't really want to go in there. The guy's an alcoholic level-3 sex offender and barking mad besides, and if you have a border collie you might think about keeping it indoors from now on if you know what I mean." Hell hath no fury as a woman unlisted. Even my own grandmother would be slightly pissed that she wasn't on the list and she's been dead for several months now.

So no, I'm not going to make a list of the women that I've said I was madly in love with in this blog, and even if I did I most certainly would not order it. Besides, I'm madly in love with all of them (you) equally -- that is to say, utterly and completely -- so ranking the the list makes no sense at all. Thus you women can all breathe a collective "Eeugh!" and go back to thinking about window treatments or whatever it is that you do when you're not reading the Hulles daily drivel.

And if you're a man, you're probably thinking, "Holy shit! Is that agile footwork or what? I can't believe he said all that stuff about women and came out smelling like a rose. I thought for sure he was gonna get killed off by Lollie before he was done with the fifth paragraph!" Well, guys, remember that I'm a trained professional in this field and a pretty decent sprinter besides. Please don't attempt this sort of thing at home. If you absolutely must try it out for yourself because you're making your own Jackass movie and have already rented the dwarves, remember to hide or destroy your girlfriend's manicure set first. "Police Baffled By Yet Another In Series Of Nail File Murders; Governor Orders Salons Closed Across The State."

-- Hulles

13 comments:

Lollie said...

One: Bad Idea Jeans on the MIL list. Women can be evil, especially when they think they are threatened by the other be-yotches...don't give them any extra fuel.
Two: Brilliant idea on the not creating the MIL list
Three: Since I don't fit into the MILF category, I'm happy to languor with the MIL title
Four: Hulles, you're the bombdiggity. Snap! Beat you to it!

Casti said...

Madly in love in Brazil means to admire a person, to like it and this is very good, very positive. Hulles and its mills of thought, taste to come here!

Bj do Brasil!
Casti

cK said...

But I can hear Lol threatening to ram a pointe shoe up your ass so far you can taste whether there's wood in the toe or not.

She doesn't need dire provacation either. She just might say that for the shear joy it can bring.
-cK

Jenifer said...

...a steamy young esthetician named Jen...

You're damn right! :)

anne frasier said...

holy crap, that was funny. and so on-target. i wish you'd write a weekly column for citypages.

Kristen Painter said...

Wait. You know a place to rent dwarves?

Hulles said...

Lollie, you did beat me to it,and I so like being beaten. And languor away with the MIL title, you earned it.

Casti, I was trapped by snow here this past weekend. I'm ready to pack up my mills of thought and show up on your doorstep! Bjs do Minnesota!

cK, why do you think I'm madly in love with her?

Jen, duh, there are certain things I never lie about and steamy youngness is one of them. (Wonder what that means exactly? Not sure, sounds good though.) XO.

Anne, thanks lots. I'm working on the gig as we speak. That's part of why I stuck a brag page up. I'll keep you posted. And XO.

Why Ms. Painter, how nice to see you! (Heh heh.) As far as dwarf rentals. sure, but they only work locally so you'd have to come here. And it just so happens I'm free that weekend...

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I have been too tired (in a good way) to respond the past couple of days, but all I have to say is that I can't believe you are MIL w/Jennifer Garner! I'm not MIL w/Jennifer Garner, but I loved her in "Alias". Maybe you could at least be MIL w/her character, Sydney?

Erin

Anonymous said...

I meant that you aren't (instead of are MIL w/Jennifer Garner). Jeez- brain isn't thinking clearly yet.

Erin

Hulles said...

Erin, you need to blog, it sharpens the mind, clears the eye, and will cut years off the time you spend in purgatory.

I'm sure you have been tired; no doubt your brain and other organs are still sorely lacking in sleep.

As far as Garner, I said in an earlier post that the only reason I'm not MIL with her is because "mostly because she doesn’t seem to be the kind of person that would like me." I stand by that, and Sydney, well, she looks a lot like Jennifer Garner, I'm not sure I could get past that. XO, and in your case ZZZZZ.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... cut years off the time I spend in purgatory? Don't you know that with all my virtuous traits that I'm going directly to heaven? I would like to interview Mary and find out what it's like to have a body up there, in case I get to ascend body AND soul.

Erin
Erin

Hulles said...

If I have a chance to interview Mary I'm going to skip the body thing and go directly to the virgin birth; I have lots of questions about that still. But yes, you have lots of virtuous traits and saving that woman's life the other day probably paved the way to heaven for you without blogging.

Hulles said...

Besides Erin Erin, if you have a Blogger account you can have a little picture show up in my comments.