chivalry

last night i woke up at 4:05 and was wide awake. just sitting there, letting my mind buzz around and get over the very stressful near-nightmare that had woken me up. (it involved a shoot-out with some mafia-looking men and hiding in a barn, trying to protect bethany from them and waiting for them to find us.)

and i decided this:

i'm okay if chivalry is dead.

i don't want men to get my door for me everywhere i go. believe it or not, i am capable of doing it myself, and so are all the other able-bodied women out there. unless i'm carrying a huge stack of books or a very jell-y jello salad, i don't mind getting the door and i don't think a man is rude if he opens the door for himself and walks through first. not that i'm ungrateful when someone DOES open the door for me . . . it's just not necessary, you see?

one time we were with a couple that felt differently. the man would open the door for the girl when she got in the car (which is all well and good . . . tommy does the same for me) but then she would wait in the car while he walked all the way around the car to open the door for her when they were getting out. and that just seems a bit excessive to me. do people really do that?

the one date i ever went on with someone who wanted to do that, i got out of the car (not knowing his chivalrous intentions) and he made me GET BACK INTO THE CAR so he could open my door for me.

seriously.

so i'm okay if chivalry is . . . decrepit and aged. it's nice to have it sometimes, but an excess of it is just as annoying as none at all.

(i don't know why i thought so much about this at 4 am.)

but i eventually fell back to sleep.