151 - When people laugh at you when you simply want to look good

I have no time to do everything I've been wanting to do after high school finishes. I could only manage to fit in so much in the last 24 hours, but I still haven't gotten round to reading a single blog, or a single page of any book considered a classic. I've caught up with tons of people on Facebook, I've watched a lot of TV series, downloaded an album or two, gone out with my friends, slept in this morning, etc... etc... but there is just not enough time for me to sit back and read, to go to the beach, to write on my other blog, to see other people, and the list goes on forever...

Anyway, tonight I'm going to a banquet. It's funny because I don't know what the banquet is for, what host I'm going to be a guest to, where this thing is, or why I'm invited. To be entirely frank, I don't even know what a 'banquet' is and what you do there.

But my grandparents and my aunt are going, and I'm invited to go. I figured, I haven't been out with them in a while, and I haven't made dinner plans yet. A spontaneous free dinner from a random host I don't know the identity of yet?

Sure.

I tried to dress up nicely, but my aunt was snickering at me when she saw me leafing through my button-down shirts. She thinks it's funny that I wanted the blue shirt at first, then I switched to pink, then I changed my mind to the white one. Truth is, I was trying to match them with a particular pair of shoes.

I don't understand why she was laughing at me, though. I just want to look nice. God knows she's not fashionable, and I'm sorry if I don't want to dress up like I'm from the 50s. I will dress my age. So what if girls fuss over makeup, or if guys fuss over their hair? People need to be presentable in, and dress appropriately for, the given event. Do you want to look like an idiot in photographs? Do you want to be stared at by everyone around you?

You see, I was leaving you alone to dress up all old-fashioned, but if you want to laugh at me, I'll... I'll... I will...

I will BLOG about you. Humph.

139 - Alternative motives

Alternative motives can usually be discovered where someone does something that seems good for you, when truthfully, they're doing it for unknown reasons of their own, and not because they want to be nice.

It's like the husband that comes home with gorgeous sparkling earrings because he did something wrong, or wants to have sex. It's like the parents that tell their child the house pet's gone to live on a farm to keep the kid from mourning over their pet's recent demise. It's like the kiss-ass at school, or in the workplace, that sucks up to the people in charge just to get ahead. It's like the older sibling that smokes and drinks to look cool in front of the younger sibling. It's like the friend that tells you he/she likes the style of your horrible clothes, or your tragic mess of a hairstyle, only to make bitching about you with others a helluva lot funnier, and juicier, afterward. It's like Jennifer Aniston showing up at the Oscars to show Brangelina that she's okay.

From what I see, it seems we do things with alternative motives everyday. We always want to keep up a reputation of being civil, funny, amiable, helpful, polite, loyal and cordial, and so we do nice things for people, we tell jokes, we make an effort to ask how people are when really, we don't care... not that much, not as much as the beneficiary might be led to believe.

And it's dangerous. Who knows who really cares? Are people just doing it because they feel guilty about something? Are people doing it because they pity you? Are people helping you to impress a girl, to impress your friends? Is your mother, or your sister-in-law, or your son, doing things to look good in the eyes of the rest of the family? Are people calling you up because they're just bored? Are people offering you aid because they want/need to feel wanted/needed themselves? Do bloggers around the world really mean it when they compliment you?

Do they, themselves, know they have alternative motives attached to their actions?

Am I being paranoid, or merely doubtful? Pessimistic, perhaps? Cynical? Distrusting? Or is all of society really this conniving?