The Dominoes

Being the day after Valentine's (or SAD, applicable to your personal situation), there is an interesting phenomenon that is occuring within the Autonomous Collective. It has to do with those in like with those of the opposite gender, and those who are not. Sensing the strong feelings throughout campus and society on this matter, it serves as a microcasm of this conflict.

So, about 2 months ago, I fell in like with a certain lovely lady from my ward, who shall hereby be known as Linky. This was accompanied by the usual groanings and needlings from the roommates. Long before, in a post-midnight conversation, that the first one of us to fall would be harshly ridiculed by the others, mainly from jealousy than from anything else. So, I'm in like with said girl, and the predictable buggings happened. They like her, though, so it wasn't so bad. It wasn't a "Your Girlfriend is Monopolizing Your Life" situation, and we weren't smoochy or lovey-dovey in public presense. I think that's dumb. Yeah, we would hold hands and cuddle during movies, but we have never been the couple on the couch, gazing into each others eyes, whilst the world and our friends bustle around us, trying not to gag and having to blow an airhorn to get our attention. So the conflict was just them giving me a hard time, and since I have been known to give others an equally hard time about such things, I wasn't annoyed.

But then, the unthinkable happened. About a month ago, Piano Man (roommate) started flirting a lot with Diva (girl who liked Piano Man a lot). That then led to long conversations and mall excursions, and the next thing I know, I had a cohort in likeishness. Then, another series of events occured and another roommate, Nemesis, fell in like with a friend of his cousin, who had liked him for quite sometime. I couldn't believe it. One of our more astute FHE sisters coined the events as "The Domino Effect," which they made into a pretty good short film. I'm the president, of course. Now this is where things get interesting.

It's now three on three, Dominoes vs. Bachelors. Needless to say, the needling and joke making have taken on a whole new level. Valentine's Day was the perfect opportunity to judge the volitility of said situation. It's not violent or vicious, but there obviously is a bit of contention. It's an odd situation, and there isn't much we can do about it. We're not jerks about our girlfriends, and we don't spend every waking moment with them, but all of us dealt with frustrations with girls over the year (and I'm sure we've caused some, as well), and so for some of us to be doing ok and the others not so much doesn't always bode well. Last night, we triple dated and went to dinner, came back to the apartment to frost some cookies and watch The Italian Job. During movies. . .well. . .you can't just SIT there, so we were all cuddling with our SO's, and making commentaries and having a good time.

As we are watching the movie, the other three kept coming in at various times to get things, to eat something, etc. They were all at other apartments. The most comical (and this has happened a number of times) is that Hulk will open the door, look in, then shut the door like he had just walked in on someone in the shower. Then Da Vinci will come in and make some kind of joking commentary about how we're breaking the law of chastity or something. Then Kiwi will come in and probably go and gossip to the other girls about what he sees. All these are fine and dandy, but sometimes I wonder how much bite is meant in their actions. Probably a lot, knowing these guys. That's the hardest thing to judge, because I don't want them to be mad or annoyed, but at the same time, I can't read their minds or not do anything with a girl that I really like just so that they don't get offended. I respect their wishes, and like I said, I hope I'm not being one of those obnoxious couples that makes everyone want to vomit. I don't like it when people are annoyed with me, or when I'm bothering them. I'm sorry that not everyone has found someone that they're in like with, but I don't try and rub it in anyone's face.

I guess this is just hard for me because it's scary. These are my BOYS. All 5 of them are awesome and we probably have more fun than we should. We look out for each other, we help each other, and at the end of the day, we can all hop on the Interrogation Couch and talk for hours about all kinds of crazy stuff. We're our own MST3K Show with every movie we watch (which is frighening in itself). I don't like it when we're divided, even just superfically. And there's always that scary "M" word somewhere floating around. I'm sure THAT would help the situation. I'm not asking for total freedom from the jokes and the needling, but I just want to know how deep the root of it is. There's that point where the joking gets too personal, and someone gets hurt. That line has already been crossed a few times, and it just makes things all too awkward. Is there anyway that the Dominoes and the Bachelors can peacefully co-exist? I sure hope so.