If you ever want to see the "Real" me, put me in water. No, I'm not kidding. I have always loved swimming, and putting me in water is just true to my nature as a Tiger. Responsibility and stress shed, and my personality shines through. There's no pretending and no masks to hide behind. It's all me. And I am very much at heart a playful cat, even though the Real World demands so much of me.

I spent 4 or so hours on Sunday in the pool and had a lot of fun. Though I was physically tired (and not even as much as I have been in the past when swimming), I was mentally aware and my mind was clear. It was an amazing feeling to just not think about anything that normally stresses me out, especially after the week I had at work.

But, man, when I was driving home, I don't know what the hell happened there. I crashed, and hard. I was a mixed-up jumble of feelings. Everything that got pushed to the side while swimming came roaring back, and at the crest of the wave was the feeling I always get when leaving my boy's place. It's the same feeling I've felt a multitude of times before with other people that I have opened up to -- Kiwi, JJ, Lira, Kitten, Youko -- where I'll miss them as soon as I leave them to return to my daily life because being with them is a departure from the norm and makes me forget everything else that is bearing down on me.

Which brings me to another concurrent point, actually.

A few relationships back, I had a partner tell me that, although they loved me, they weren't in love with me. My brain and heart, they do not compute this. If I tell someone I love them, then I do unconditionally. My brain and heart, for as often as they fight, are in agreement upon that. If you love someone, it's unconditional. It may be different types of love (familial vs. friendly vs. romantic), but you still accept someone with all of their faults, challenges, and elements that made you fall for them in the first place.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on love and the unconditional nature it thrives in. If I have told you I love you -- and I mean truly told you, this is what I mean. It means that I take you as you are, postive, negtive, and in-between.

Mr. Hensley, my former Drama teacher, had a saying: "We should all love each other for who we are; not who we want each other to be." He wrote it in my yearbook one year in Jr. High or High School, but, more importantly, it's a saying I've carried with me for the past several years. I try not to change my partners, but to accept and understand them as they are. That's the way I've always been in my relationships, and that's how I'll always be.