“You have an extensive vocabulary” does sound an awful lot like “me not know many words. What you say?” At least to the cynical part of my brain, it does. The cynical part is the majority of my brain, though.

Ever feel like you know why Charlie Gordon was a whole lot happier without the bonus IQ points? LOL. The world must be an easier place if you don’t realize how many stupid people surround you. I was reading one of those military life jokes in Reader’s Digest last week. A guy said he was on leave from the army took his kid to school. When he was dropping the kid off, the second grade teacher asked him what he did in the army. When he said “infantry,” the woman said it was nice to see men working with infants. I was kind of more horrified than amused. This woman is teaching children!! Yikes!! No wonder everybody’s so freaking stupid.

I seem to get that a lot lately, people meet me and make a comment on how smart I am. WTF? Shut up. (present company, who knows me, excepted of course)

Being smart has never done me any fucking good in this life, only made me miserable and discontented. Well, in my crankier moments that’s how I feel.

But seriously, at a party the other week I had a guy make a comment on the fact that I have an extensive vocabulary. What IS that? It almost feels insulting, somehow, given our current anti-intellectual culture. It’s like I am called out for being myself (including my normal vocabulary which includes many multi-syllabic words) because it’s seen as pretentious. At least that’s how it feels. And let me tell you, being so smart that other people experience you as pretentious when you’re just minding your business is not any fun. But what do I do? Holler “pass the beer bong, motherfuckers!” and lose a few IQ points?

Anyway, suffice it to say that you’re one of the few people from whom I would accept a comment about being smart as a compliment, these days.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love you for knowing the difference between “affect” and “effect?” I’m so used to no one knowing the difference, that it actually made me smile to see someone use one correctly. Sad, but true. So, in honor of you getting involved with too many people who only give a crap about themselves, I’m telling you that I love you because you’re a smart person, and that I noticed. *hugs*