Tag Archives: friends

The One With Ross’s Sandwich

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Thanksgiving leftovers = delicious. Ross thinks so too.

  

“That sandwich was the only good thing going on in my life!”

The one thing Ross looks forward to after thanksgiving is his thanksgiving leftovers sandwich. Monica makes it just for him. He was so excited to have it for lunch at work but when he looks in the fridge it’s gone!! Ross couldn’t believe his eyes and he was beyond upset. He storms into the coffee house and tells everyone the terrible news. “Well what did the police say?” asks Chandler sarcastically. Monica offers to make him another but Ross is still upset. He decides to leave a nasty note for the person who dared to eat his sandwich. Phoebe writes him a note that would scare anyone. The next day at work Ross’s boss asks him about his recent well craziness and wants him to see a psychiatrist. Ross explains that it was all because of a sandwich and his boss recalls that he ate that sandwich. Ross questions whether he saw the note on the sandwich saying it was his and his boss had indeed seen it. He then tells Ross he might find the rest of it in his trash can. This did not go over very well with Ross at all and he has a little outburst (by which I mean his yells could be heard throughout the city). His boss sends him to the psychiatrist and Ross is given a pill for his anger and has to take a leave of absence. After taking the pill, Ross doesn’t even care about his sandwich anymore.

Well obviously our friend Ross has a little bit of an anger issue, but instead of focusing on Ross’s irrationality I would like to focus on the actions of his boss. Why are people compelled to take something that belongs to someone else? I’m not talking major theft but the little things we do maybe everyday. We snag that last french fry off our friends plate without them seeing, we borrow our friends clothes without asking, or we take a movie from a friend and forget to return it. These little things can sometimes get the people we’re taking from more worked up than we  would expect. It was just a sandwich that Ross’s boss took. One sandwich. Ross could have gone and gotten another sandwich anywhere. But this wasn’t an ordinary sandwich; it meant something to him. His boss didn’t realize this and his mistake of eating Ross’s sandwich turns into a large problem than he thought it would. We can’t just assume that the person we are taking from won’t care at all because that thing you took might have meant more to them than you will understand. Bottom line: if you want something that’s not yours either get your own or ask the person to share.

 

The One With All the Football

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I have two words for you: sibling rivalry.

Ross: “Um.. Monica and I aren’t supposed to play football.”

Joey: “Says who, your mom?”

Monica and Ross: “Yes.”

Our friends are celebrating Thanksgiving and Joey suggests to play a nice game of touch football. Well, little did he know. Monica and Ross aren’t allowed to play football and boy is it a great story. Every Thanksgiving in the Geller family had a touch football game.. that is until Geller Bowl 6. As Monica was making the scoring touchdown, she elbowed Ross straight in the schnoz. She claims it was an accident but of course Ross believes it was intentional. Monica recalls that her team won the bowl but of course Ross argues that the touchdown didn’t count due to the “illegal, and by the way savage, nose breaking.” However, neither of them won the bowl because their dad threw the Gellar Cup into the lake on account of his hatred of their incessant fighting. After that incident, their mother banned football. Back to the present, the two discuss and decide that it’s time they play again. So of course, Ross and Monica are the captains and the game gets pretty competitive. There’s name calling, a surprising half-time player trade to make the teams men vs. women, numerous touchdowns and missed passes, and all of this leads to a tie. It’s down to the final play. Rachel, the worst player, is wide open in the end zone while Phoebe is being surrounded by all three men so Monica puts her life in the hands of fate and passes the ball to Rachel and she drops it, no I’m just kidding she catches it and scores the women the winning touchdown!! The celebration begins until Chandler points out that Rachel was five feet short. Phoebe then questions if the ball is still in play and before you know it Monica and Ross are on the ground fighting over the ball. Everyone goes inside to eat but the brother and sister stay outside for the rest of the night, it even starts to snow.

Now I’m an only child but this seems to be the epitome of sibling rivalry. The two are willing to wait outside clenching onto a football until their toes go numb. Neither won wants to admit defeat. I think that this is something all siblings will come in contact with multiple times throughout probably their entire lives. But don’t just rule me out since I’m an only child, I’ve experienced this too with my cousins. There is this unspoken competition to be the smartest, the funniest, the nicest, the prettiest, and so on and so forth. You never feel this way with your friends, only with your family. I think this is because the only people you want to please in life are yourself and your family, mainly your parents. You just want to make them proud. When there’s someone else who could potentially be better than you at something, you feel that your chances of your parents having pride in you get slimmer and slimmer as theirs just inflate. You can’t help but want to compete with your siblings. I also think sibling rivalry stems from your unconditional love for your sibling(s). You know that no matter what happens, or who wins, you’ll still love them and they’ll still love you. Sometimes this isn’t the case but I like to be optimistic and think it is. Ross and Monica were able to eventually get over their rivalry and they genuinely love each other. I think this can happen in any sibling relationship. Not having any siblings, I don’t have to deal with this rivalry at such a strong degree as those with siblings do, but like I said I have dealt with it in other ways. I hate it because I love my cousins and I don’t like feeling like I have to be better than them and getting upset when they do something right that I couldn’t but sometimes it’s hard not to be jealous. That’s it! It all comes from jealousy. That nasty little green monster inside all of us. We want to be the best in the eyes of mommy and daddy, and when we aren’t we get jealous of the one who is. Since I am a only child (for the record I just accidentally typed lonely child– it’s true we do get lonely), I would like to hear from those of you who do have siblings with your thoughts on this topic. I know all of you have probably wished at some point that you could be like me, but trust me, you wouldn’t like it.

PS ONE WEEK ‘TIL BREAK!!

The One Where They’re Going to Party

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People are never happy with their age. Adults always want to be younger, kids always want to be older. Why can’t we just make the best of the age we’ve got? Hell, before you know it, it’ll be gone and a new number will take its place.

 

“So what if I like to go home, throw on some Kenny G, and take a bath!” -Ross

“We’re 29, not women.” -Joey

Ross and Chandler are expecting their friend Gandolf to come for a visit and you know what that means. Whenever Gandolf is around everything is spontaneous and wild. They always have some sort of adventure leaving the guys with great memories and stories to tell. Joey is skeptical of Gandolf’s greatness. Ross and Chandler are so excited and try to explain to Joey that the best things happen when Gandolf’s around. They meet strangers, go to unexpected places, and end up on a boat! Unfortunately, Gandolf suddenly cancels and Ross and Chandler are devastated. All they do is sit in the apartment and watch tv, balance Ross’s checkbook, and name all the foosball players. When Joey comes in and sees the two lazy bums, he convinces them that they don’t need Gandolf to have fun and that the three of them are plenty spontaneous and fun. So they head out! They later take a breather at Central Perk and when Joey brings up going back out Ross and Chandler admit that they’re exhausted. Joey was relived because so was he. They realize that they don’t like the things they used to when they were 21. They’d rather do things that 29 year olds do like having coffee, watching tv and going to bed at a reasonable hour, hanging out in a quiet place and talking to friends. The guys came to accept their age and learned that when you grow up you leave your past self behind and become a new person that suits you better.. for now at least.

Birthdays are a happy day for children but when you pass that certain age, 21, it becomes a day filled with remorse and self-loathing. Adding another wretched year to one’s age is a terribly melancholy task and no reason to celebrate. But being born is a reason to celebrate! You should celebrate that you lived another year because that is a great enough feat. People just hate growing older. We don’t want to become those wrinkly, shrunken old cuties (I love old people) who can’t drive their own car anymore. People past 21 wish they could revert, you know like Benjamin Button, and be young again. They miss their childhood, high school days, and college years. No one wants to grow up and face the real world, work a job, go through a mid-life crisis, get married, etc. For kids, it’s the exact opposite. They long to be teenagers who can drive, go out without their mommy or daddy, have cool clothes, and are in high school. Of course teenagers wish they were college students and college students are pretty happy where they are until it’s over and they want to be freshmen again. It’s a cycle. We always want to be what we aren’t; we want what we can’t have. We want that youth and innocence or we want the freedom and power. For me, I wish I could be starting my freshmen year in high school again. I long to be young again and not have to worry about the now more eminent future after college. I’m happy where I am but there’s always that part of me that wishes I was younger. I think everyone, myself included, needs to realize that we already had our chance to be that age and hopefully we enjoyed it and have memories of it to keep. We have time ahead of us and we should look forward to the future. I’m not saying we can’t look back on the past, because I sure love to, but we should try to enjoy the present too. Take a hint from our friends Joey, Chandler, and Ross, it’s okay to be happy with where you are; it might not be as good as when you were younger but it’s still good.

The One With The Giant Poking Device

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Everyone is afraid of something. It’s impossible to be completely fearless; there’s got to be something that creeps/freaks/grosses you out. But when do these fears become irrational?

Joey: “Ugly naked guy looks awfully still..”

Phoebe: “My God, I killed another one!”

Poor Phoebe has a toothache that prevents her from eating Rachel’s delicious brownies. She is advised by Chandler, Ross, and Rachel to go to the dentist. Phoebe is astonished that they would suggest such a terrible thing. She claims that there a curse on her which makes someone she knows die every time she goes to the dentist therefore she’s scared to make an appointment. Later at Central Perk, Phoebe tries to eat an apple and when she can’t she decides she’ll just have to take her chances and go to the dentist. After her appointment, she rushes to Monica and Rachel’s to find that they are both still alive. She then proceeds to use Monica’s phone to call everyone she knows and make sure they’re still alive. After all the calls are made, Phoebe does a little happy dance because no one was dead… or so she thought. Joey stares out the window at ugly naked guy and realizes he isn’t moving. Phoebe freaks out thinking she killed him. Joey notices the window is open and hatches a plan to create a poking device so that they can find out if he really is dead. The friends use a bunch of take-out chopsticks and create a pole that just reaches in ugly naked guy’s window. They start poking and luckily a few seconds later ugly naked guy starts swatting at the stick. The curse was lifted!

Sure, like I said we’re all afraid of something. Whether that something be spiders, the dark, dying, skydiving, or whatever doesn’t matter. There’s fear in everyone, but sometimes we can get caught up in fear that shouldn’t really exist. By this I mean, most of us have that one fear of something that we would would never happen or would never be true but we’re scared anyway. Take for example a zombie apocalypse, the end of the world, Phoebe’s fear of the dentist, my fear of haunted houses- all of these can be considered irrational. We know that the world won’t end any time soon, that zombies aren’t real, that going to the dentist won’t kill someone you know, and that haunted houses aren’t really haunted and no those people in costumes aren’t going to eat you. Yet even though we know all these truths and see the holes in our fears, we’re still afraid. You may not agree with my definition of an irrational fear and that’s fine- these are just my ideas. Even though these fears are irrational, I think they contribute to our personalities and that they aren’t necessarily bad to have. I’ve always had the fear of someone coming in my room at night and killing me. Every day I wake up still alive. I consider this to be my irrational fear because even though I know there is a very slim chance of me being murdered in my sleep, I’m still scared it could. I don’t think this irrational fear is bad. Sure it makes me paranoid, but my paranoia is good in my opinion because it means I’m cautious of myself and my surroundings. Phoebe’s fear is irrational as well but it’s a part of her quirky and compassionate personality. She loves everyone she knows and doesn’t wish death upon any of them. So in the end, irrational fears may not be the scariest thing in the world because that honor goes to ugly naked guy.