So today well fairly well. I was supposed to play golf with the Ark guys at 6:30am, but I couldn’t wake up so I then proceeded to sleep in until 10:30. That was actually really good because I needed the rest. My day was starting out fine.

I had to go to a suprise 50th birthday party for Rob, one of the pastors at my church. Again, everything was going well. The party was fine and I got to see some people that I haven’t seen in awhile. I was nice. My day was still proceeding fine.

My stepdad and sister had their birthdays last month and so we went to dinner and saw a show. Again, dinner was pleasant and we got to see Beehive, a 60’s-ish revue style show, it was actually pretty good. It was at Manoa Valley Theatre. Everything was going well and I thought that my day was going to end well. We only had the drive home.

Of course, if there’s ever problems, it’s always on the ride home. So this was the big problem. Apparently my cousin Joel, who doesn’t really do anything, went to our last youth camp. It was his first camp and he didn’t really know anyone. On the last day there was a game that involved fish. I wasn’t there so I don’t know all the details, but apparently he hit Mikey with a dead fish. Mikey then proceeded to wrestle him down and made him eat the fish. This incident was mentioned to my mom from his mom (my Aunty) and it bothered them. Of course, they had to ask my opinion.

I said, I didn’t see anything wrong with what Mikey did. I then told them that I would have done the same thing and that I thought that most of the guy youth leaders would have done the same thing (except Gabe). My mom and sister thought that Mikey went “too far” because he’s a leader. I said that I didn’t think so. For one, Mikey wasn’t mad, he was just playing. Secondly, Joel is not any worse for this happening and now he knows better. They said that this embarrassed Joel so it shouldn’t have been done. I explained to them that the theory of retaliation and escalation. They said why does Mikey have to retaliate or escalate?

I have come to the conclusion that we were just on different wavelengths. I asked, how far is too far? My sister started getting all worked up and claiming that Joel didn’t expect any of this. I told her, Joel is a guy, I know he expected retaliation. They don’t understand. It’s kind of a pity. They’ll never understand that if a guy punches me, I will punch him back, and yes, it will be harder. She thinks that I can punch him back, but only as hard as he punched me. I have the feeling that she will never understand and she will just get worked up.

It really is too bad that they don’t understand how guys think otherwise they wouldn’t have made such a big deal about it. I told them to ask Joel, because I bet he isn’t dwelling on this one event (because it really isn’t a big deal, they just are making it a big deal). Hopefully he’ll talk to them and straighten them out.

As for me, I have bigger things to worry about…