Did you hug your mother today?
I wish I could, alas, I’m away at University.
If you can’t be with her, at least give her a call to say how much you love her.
Monthly Archive: May 2005
All the fun without the commitment
It’s spring. Animals are in estrus.
After a very productive IEEE meeting, we went over to a chinese restaurant to eat and socialize. I’m pretty proud that we didn’t mix any business with pleasure as we ate. Anyway, as we left the restaurant, we spotted two ducks chasing each other. They flew out of my sight. As we continued walking, we spotted the same two ducks off by the side. The mallard was starting to mount the female, after which, they started going at it very vigorously.
Wings were flapping, beaks were quacking. At the same time, the group of us just stopped in our tracks and stared. A couple of other people stopped their conversation when they saw us staring at something, and they joined in. The watching, I mean. :p At one point, the mallard even used his beak to pin the female’s head down. I started laughing at that point. Soon enough, they finished their business and went on their separate ways. Rob commented, “Oh, look at the male strutting around like he got some” or something like that. Out of nowhere, this guy getting into his car replied, “it’s all the fun, without the commitment.” That, my friends, was the punchline.
Awkward social situations
How do you deal? Some people seem to take care of it all so very gracefully, while others kind of fumble their way through.
Two examples happened today.
I was scheduled to meet Lisa at 10 am, which, for all intents and purposes, is rather early, considering that I don’t have any classes that I’m scheduled to wake up that early for on Tuesday. I stumbled across campus towards the Engineering buildings, when I ran into Samir. He was one of the members of FOC 2004 representing the Math Faculty (I was part of Engineering). Anyway, he has now taken over the role of…hmm…committee organizer guy. I wish I knew the formal title so that I could give him full credit, but I’ve already forgotten. Anyway, I wanted to ask him all about his new position and how well he was doing, but all I could muster were a few incoherent phrases.
“So…how’s that thing…with the groups, and the people…”
“FOC?”
“Yeah, that’s it”
I think I must have seemed stoned or something, because I seriously could not connect my sentences togehter. Beforehand, while walking, I was feeling alright; perhaps lost in my thoughts. Then, all of a sudden, I was spewing out nonsensical crap.
How do you deal? I wanted to leave the conversation, but I tried to keep the pleasantries up because I genuinely wanted to talk to the guy (he’s a nice guy). In the end, I just excused myself to go meet Lisa. I wasn’t mortified, but really just relieved that I didn’t have to use stress my brain any longer.
Second example happened later in the afternoon. Now that I’m back at MKV, I recognize a few familiar faces. In particular, there’s Terri the cleaning lady. I see her around often, and we always greet each other. I haven’t been in the building for a long while, so seeing her again was pretty cool. Anyway, I was walking down the stairs to meet someone on the main floor. As I was heading down, another guy was coming up the stairs. He was running. Or, it looked like he was running away from something. As I continued down, I found out why. He must have let a big fart go, because it was stinking up the stairway. As I continued down, I run into Terri. Now, geez, here’s this rotten smell, that will probably be attributed to me.
How do you deal? I wanted to disclaim any responsibility. However, instead, Terri and I just greeted each other as always and exchanged a bit of dialogue, not really acknowledging the stench. I just kept on walking, pretending like nothing happened. Meh. Whatever, man. If she thinks it’s me, so what? It’s not like she’s going to hold that smell against me for the rest of my stay here. She’s not going to look at me and think, “oh damn, look, it’s the guy who farted”.
In the end, I’m under the belief that I’m a normal well-adjusted guy. These two situations haven’t done anything to disprove any of that. Still though, it makes me second guess whether I’m making an ass of myself, and whether my presentation of “self” is being changed by these odd situations.
Then again, if no one else really cares, why should I, no?
A new reality
It’s now May. It’s the start of a brand new reality for me. Here I am in my apartment room on campus, with three strangers who are now my roommates. It’s very much like some sort of reality television experiment, except we’re probably a whole lot less interesting than some of the psycho characters you might see on television. Oh, but that’s not to say that this apartment is devoid from any nutzoid characters. Frankly, it’s too early to tell. Who knows? I may be the oddball. It’s highly unlikely, but you never know, eh?
So far, I’ve really only had a few brief moments to talk to these new people. Even so, I’ve already made some snap judgments about these people that may colour the way I interact with them. There’s one guy who’s left the place and joined his friends to play foosball downstairs. There’s one guy who’s been in his room with his girlfriend. There’s me who took a good nap once everything was unpacked. There’s the last guy who left his cell phone, and land line phone at home, and whose computer is quite toast. I really can’t consciously judge yet.
I’ll be sharing a bathroom with the guy who forgot everything. Seems though that we have a few things in common. For instance, he has an interest in Japanese language. He also has 15 lb. hex weights with him. Lastly, he seems interested in getting to know his roommates.
Well, only time will tell how it will all turn out. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to last for the next 3.5 months.
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