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I learned a great deal about the nature of emotions this weekend by observing both myself and others. Just for the heck of it, I'm going to share it with whoever is bored enough to read this.

There's a certain amount of sadness that a person can take without even noticing. Little disappointments - not being able to afford something you want a lot, losing a game you pride yourself at being good at, your friends being unavailable. For the sake of a good metaphor, we'll call it a cup. There's a cup that holds sadness and keeps it out of your sight, filling itself slowly with tears you might have otherwise shed. It tucks them away and happy things that happen to you evaporate the tears like the sun on a puddle. Slowly, the sadness disappears without you even noticing you were ever sad. Altogether, you have a pretty good weekend and start monday smiling.

But what if something larger happens? You start the weekend with the cup already filled - you don't feel that sad as long as you're doing something, but it's there. Then the little things happen. You can't afford the beautiful thing you really want. Your friends are withdrawing or unavailable. You get smashed and criticized at something you're proud of your ability at. The cup fills up even more and eventually spills over - you feel angry, frustrated, sad. The overspill becomes tears. Thus, you have a crappy weekend and are touchy and irritable come Monday morning.

No, this is not just me venting, it's analysis. I'm trying to be intelligent here.

And I know very well that other people's weekends were a lot crappier than mine, and if you're thinking I'm a whiny little toad, then... you may be right.

But I'm a nerdy whiny little toad who's decided to learn something through analysing myself and those around me. So that makes it at least a little better.

Really, I'm not usually this much of a downer - I'll be writing happier stuff soon enough. I promise.