Women's Circle

First and foremost, someone hacked my last account so this is a new blog.

Starting fresh and it's about damn time!

I have finally crawled back into my own skin. No longer do I feel naked with only a mask.

I am a member of the American Women's Club, here in Helsinki Finland.

We have a monthly meeting with a guest speaker.

Now due to unforeseen circumstances... I'm making this up. I have been unable to attend a few of the meetings. (School, depression, I dunno. Making excuses.)

Well this evening I finally saddled up, went out the door and crossed treacherous patches of ice...

I made it to the meeting with this fabulous woman from Wisconsin who discussed "Women's Circle", a discussion of how women ought to treat each other versus how we actually do treat each other.

It got me to thinking about dozens of things.

Competition was a big topic. It occurred to me that it's true.

Things of competition popped into my head: So what if I'm overweight, at least I'm overweight in all the right places, unlike some people* I know. / I am a way better hair dresser. At least I'm brave. At least I know what I'm doing. / So what if she's skinny, at least my husband is handsome. ETC. Yes, I AM guilty of these sorts of things. There are many more but I will feel guilty for opening up old cans of back stabbalicious spam. Things I still feel competitive about prance through my brain but I at least keep it to myself and understand that it's wrong to act upon those impulses.

I am a very competitive woman, and I know it.

I gossip, I know it, but even before this meeting I caught onto my problem and now I shut my mouth when I realize I'm gabbing too much.

It gets difficult for me though because I have a cohort who does NOTHING but gossip about her "friends" and their husbands. Albeit she tells the same damned stories over and over and makes me want to hit myself with a bus to get her to stop...

She IS the one who opened my eyes to a problem I had, although she doesn't realize it. I did point out that she shouldn't talk about her friends like that and she laughed and said she knew and that other people tell her the same things but then she continues.

It could be for many reasons she does this. I do wonder if it's a way to block me out because unless I'm talking bad about my life, complaining about my significant other, she doesn't care. If I'm in a good mood and happy with how everything is going, she listens for a minute and then goes on about her and her friends and their husbands and yadda yadda. Tries to one up me I reckon.

I realized that was bad behavior and not behavior I wanted to partake in, although I fail at not partaking because I come home and gossip to my significant other about what he said and she said and how they feel and what they said.

There is SO much animosity with the girls I know and I guess it's based on the job we're going into.

Hair dressing. Isn't that like the home of Gossip?

I guess my idea is that the gossip is between the hair dresser and client. But I don't know yet. We'll see what the real world has to offer me.

Now, as I can recall, I was rather raised by my books than my parents. When my dad could afford the time, I spent every moment trailing him around the house, if I wasn't watching TV (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) or reading books (mostly fantasy). I saw my mother on the weekends a few times. But I spent those days playing with the neighborhood children.

I personally feel that it was my books that raised me, although I was influenced by my siblings and eventually my parents' influence showed up.

I guessed my way around things and figured out what was right and what was wrong.

Being from the South is tricky though, because I am Finnish, and I haven't picked up on the Southern Hospitality thing. I would like to, but I fear it would scare my Finnish friends. So I am a little uncertain.

I wandered off topic.

So the whole theory of the meeting was that women, all women, should treat each other like sisters. Good sisters that is. Ones that don't gossip. They braid their hair and stuff. I am NOT a public speaker so you're getting the toilet paper of the speech.

Had my sister and I not made up and forgotten our differences and tossed the past into the past and opened up to each other, I think I may have scoffed at the whole speech, really.

It takes time and patience I believe to be close to one another as we are.

For someone who used to hate babies, she sure wants to be an auntie real soon. NO BABIES YET!

I am a terrible writer... I stray off topic all. the. time.

I'm just too excited. And easily distracted...

*This most likely does not refer to you, because I'm not THAT bad. Ok, I don't really know people I feel that way towards, except once in a blue moon when she gossips my ear off and I just want her to shut. up.