6 - 'Clinginess'

You know who I'm talking about, right?

I'm talking about the clingy type. They constantly ask to hear about your opinions and your life. They follow you everywhere you go like a puppy. They tell you about their life because they think you care about them enough to listen. They find every opportunity to talk to you at school or at work. They try to sit next to you when you're at the movies or when you're eating in a restaurant and worse yet, they calculatingly forbid others from taking 'their' place. Even in the privacy of your own home, they call you up, they text you, they talk to you online, they comment on your blogs, they come over in the morning, just to be with you, just to talk to you, just to live alongside you.

I'm talking about the clingers.

So, the inspiration behind today's thoughts. On Halloween night, I went out with a few friends of mine to have a few drinks and a bit of dance. Within our little group of friends was one girl and five guys, one of the guys of which was the girl's boyfriend. He wasn't much of a dancer, probably insecure for whatever reason, and he stood there, stiff as a rock, while the loud music played. I asked him if he'd like to go have a drink with me at the bar if he wasn't going to dance with us, but he said he was going to stay with his girlfriend. And I just found it really weird. He was a clinger.

I've known several couples in my time, and there's always a few couples where either one of the partners is clingy. I can also think of a clingy friend or two, and I can sadly say that I know I have been clingy on many occasions. While it's very kind and affectionate to get so attached to someone so deeply, one still needs to find the balance between treasuring a relationship and over-treasuring it.

The brutal truth is, it's only annoying when the feeling isn't mutual; when one starts to cling on to the other with a significantly greater intensity. My most loyal friends and I, I reckon, have formed a variety of different systems that work for us, in order for us to interact smoothly and avoid the least arguments. Even though I am deeply satisfied (and incredibly fortunate) having them to brighten up my world, I at least try to keep an open mind toward those that try to lay the brickwork for a new and friendly road into my heart. I try to look at the good side of people (that's irony for you on this blog) and I find that bonding with other humans is the most humane thing people do in the world (as I am, again, ironically trying to do with you, using this blog).

In my experience, however, I have had a few clingers and it has been difficult rejecting them, not rejecting them per se, but just trying to incorporate my feelings of you're coming on a bit too strong into my everyday body language, by intertwining my arms across my chest to barricade myself from them, slouching as a sign of boredom and averting my gaze to demonstrate disinterest. It isn't easy telling them to take a step back and turn it down a notch using honest words, but I guess clingers are simply something we all have to deal with at some point in our lives, advisably in a friendly and humane manner for the sake of human compassion, or perhaps in fear of karma biting us in the ass.

3 - Yawning

This is not attractive:

Neither is this:












And no way in Hell can this ever be seen as nice:


*shivers* (I'm going to get nightmares about this post.)

To allow others to see the contents of your mouth is just incredibly horrifying. Surely there are civil laws that say that one reserves the right to sue for that sort of social disturbance. And are there any religious scriptures that urge their followers not to yawn openly so as to cause others displeasure? I mean, look at the utter monstrosity, sitting beside Tony Blair, in this photograph:













The yawn is a strange physiological reflex that just doesn't have an explanation. Researchers hypothesize that yawning might be a method of cooling the brain physically, or perhaps calming the mind psychologically. Yawning might also be due to a lack of body sugar, or a lack of oxygen, or on the contrary, an overload of oxygen.

We yawn when we're tired, and when we're sleepy. Some yawn when they're stressed, but I've never been overworked to the point where I yawn. In my yawning experience, I do it when I'm bored and a lot of people, as I'm sure you know, believe that yawning is contagious. I actually yawned a total of seven times while I was doing a lil' research for this post. Yup, reading about yawning can cause you to yawn too (those of you who did, please say so in a comment :D)

The infectiousness of yawning can prove to be a bit annoying. I was having dinner with my family tonight, and just as I dug into my soup with a spoon, I looked up to see my lovely aunt yawning like a lion. The oh-so-transmittable yawn hit me, and, oh, yes, a little soup dripped out of my mouth.

But my goodness, the way she shut her eyes so intensely as if she was shone on with the light of a million fairies, created this effect of time passing by so slowly, to the extent where I could've counted the number of teeth she had.

Oh, but I did see her uvula, and you don't get to see another person's uvula everyday. That's special. Well, I think so.

Anyway. I like to cover my mouth with both hands when I yawn. I don't think any of us have exceptionally pretty guts, and I mean, the mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract if you think about it. So conceal your oral cavity because somewhere out there, there are millions of people suffering from those nightmares I mentioned earlier on. Well, maybe not millions. But you just never know.