Unwritten Rules...

My girlfriend developed a system that I have seen implemented across many a female friendships across the country, the Warning System. This Warning System was established to warn said friends that there is an up coming geigh moment (a moment of total and utter mushiness about your man, boo etc;) and then there is the TMI moment where more than what a friend should know is about to be blurted out to the receiving party. Though it would be common courtesy to warn some one before you are about to get all mushy or divulge more than you normally would, some don't give that courtesy therefore it has become a rule.

I noticed within the last few weeks my sorority sister has violated this rule to where she would be locked up if this rule were a crime. She has called me gushing all over about a crush or now some one that she "loves". I need to prepare myself for these overly emotional moments so I won't accidentally throw up in my mouth, or accidentally say what my friend Rashad used to say, "f*ck you and your love" (that was a classic line) and keep it moving. In sitting her down and having to school her on these unwritten rules I figured that I would eventually blog about it but never really quite got around to it....until today.

This morning Rashad wrote an entry about reading his lady's Essence magazine before she could read it and I got to thinking about how my girl's and I do when it come to Essence. First let me say Essence is serious, so much so that I my girlfriend gifted me a two year subscription just so I could keep up with everyone else and join in on the conversations that stem from the articles or advice that is often given in each monthly issue.

So every month my girlfriend will ask me if I have received my copy yet and I say, no. She won't say anything in regards to the magazine until I have received and fully read my copy and vice versa. If there was something real good in the magazine that she felt I could benefit from reading or wanted to discussion this will be met with an overwhelmingly amount of pressure to go and check my mail box so I can read and discuss. When she sees that the new issue is out on newsstands and in stores and has yet to receive it in her mail box then she is hopping mad and once again urging me to check my mail box to see if mines has come.

So when I read Rashad's entry my first thought was it is not that serious it is just a magazine but in really thinking about how "we" (meaning us females) do when it comes to this particular magazine I realized that this is some unusually serious isht. This is some subconscious stuff that goes way back to childhood (at least for me). I remember when my mother and sister would get magazines in the mail and as I would reach for the issue they would say, "Don't touch that I have not read that yet" and eventually I was trained to ask if they have read their magazines yet before I even thought to reach for it. Or, it would be tossed at me after it has been read from front to back.

I can say I have once in my life made the mistake of reading an Essence before my sister and thoroughly got cussed out for it. Once again, this isht is serious. It is one unwritten rules that should very well not be broken. Does it sound trivial? Yes, yes it does but it is what it is. I mean what can one on the other side of the magazine really do??


Have a great day on purpose Folk!