March 15, 2002 - 10:37 a.m.

i went bowling last night with my brother (benton), his girlfriend (michele) and his roommate (pepe). an old friend of his from high school, who has quite the reputation for being a lecherous bimbo but was on good behavior last night, also showed up.

once again, i granny bowled and did not lose. i used a fluorescent green, 6-lb ball. it was so light that it couldn't depress the lever to go down the bowling-ball chute and return to me in the seating area. in other words, if i didn't bowl a strike on the first go, the ball would just sit there, to the side of the pins, laughing at me and not going anywhere. the alley manager told me i had to get another fluorescent green ball for backup.

when the boys went to get beer, i asked for a shirley temple with an extra cherry. they can't seem to make a shirley temple in australia. the boys brought it back to me in a giant paper cup (classy!), with nine cherries. i decided to share but soon realized my mistake. pepe handed me his cherry stem after he twisted it into a pretzel shape with his tongue. uh, thanks.

everything was fine until we drove to benton's house. right before we got there, michele asks, out of nowhere, "are you going to have sex after you're married?" i thought the question was more ridiculous than innappropriate. when i asked her why she had asked, the whole god thing came up again. it seems that people don't understand why i have decided to wait until marriage to have sex, without religion being a reason. she assumed that because this was not one of my motivating factors, that i probably had issues with sex itself and was not waiting but withholding indefinitely.

this is not the first time someone has been very bothered/confused by the lack of religion involved in my decision to wait. personally, i don't know why they care because it doesn't affect them.

it's weird to me how so many people my age expect to have sex before/without marriage, yet most of our parents probably are appalled at the idea. it's expected from one generation and frowned upon by the next. a lot can happen in 20 to 30 years, i guess.