Aggressive

I had lunch today with Vicki and Sharon.  Vicki and I were, at first, alone together, and we chatted amiably about nothing important. 
Then Sharon sat down.  She has been spending the past few weekends going to plays and ballets, and she told us she felt kind of guilty about spending money on things like that. 
But then we got talking about men, and I mentioned how frustrating it was sometimes, because guys were far more likely to react negatively towards my aggressiveness than women. 
"Well, it's because you're so intelligent," Sharon said. 
This again? I thought.  My ego so doesn't need this. 
I tried to direct this conversation away from that and onto the larger issue. 
I've been thinking about it since then, and I'm wondering if women don't react negatively to aggressiveness because they are used to men acting aggressively toward them anyway, so it's nothing they don't already deal with every day.  Men only deal with aggressiveness when it is in a fight or as an intimidation, so even well-intentioned, non-antagonistic aggressiveness automatically rubs them the wrong way, and they can't distinguish any difference in kinds of aggressiveness. 

Assorted Antics

I had dinner tonight with Rachel and later Jenny joined us.  We had a nice chat.  Rachel indulged in some complaining about a roommate she once had who smeared a open plastic packet of ham all over the bottom of a refrigerator and other assorted antics. 
Jenny talked about her officemate, who she really likes, even though she is a little nutty and entertaining. 
I spent the rest of my evening catching up on emails and other things.  Emily emailed me to say she might be coming up for a visit and would I like to hang out.  Of course I told her I'd love to see her again (I would.)  So maybe we'll visit.  And then Ashley emailed just for a general chat, catching up about what's going on. 
Elena didn't come home until 10:30 tonight, which is pretty late for her.  She came home while I was in the shower.  I admit it: I was singing.  I only sing a couple of times a week in the shower, and I try to limit it because I'm not good.  I heard her leave loudly. 
Also got a text message from someone saying that I was texting the wrong person.  I was totally shocked.  Was I doing the same thing as that woman who wouldn't stop calling me?  But I looked back in my file of sent texts, and I've only texted that number once in the past few months, and I suspect even less before then.  The text was kind of rude, and I have half the mind to text them back just out of spite.  But I got everything straightened out, so it's okay now.   

Black Gold

I watched this movie called Black Gold, which is about the coffee market. I actually dislike coffee, so watching all these people drink coffee made me want to throw up, but I thought that the ideas of the film (how free trade fails to provide adequate income for so many farmers, how unnecessary aide would be if there were fair prices, the ignorance of so many about what they consume) were all really good points.
I really liked learning about the film's main character, a man who represented a coffee growers union in Ethiopia who was trying to get a higher price for their coffee. I thought the movie did a good job of showing what was possible if certain forces worked. It was so hard to see the opposite of this, where they had to set up nutrition stations, which determine which children get food aid to prevent malnourishment. (They turned away children who were only kind of sickly because they wanted to try to help the desperately bad.) Also heartbreaking and sad was the tour of Pike's Place Starbucks (where two young baristas discussed Starbuck's success) and a barista championship (where a Canadian contestant came off as a total tool.)
I would have liked a little more information about chat, a narcotic that many coffee growers turn to because they are so desperate to feed their families, and about how food aid operates. The film also randomly flits back through time near the end of the movie, which was confusing. But, overall, it is a well-written film that does a good job of explaining how free trade works, who benefits, and what the alternatives are.