Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Friday Night for Myself and Others

One of the reasons I feel weird about being the center of attention for partying is that I'm apparently meant to make decisions for our own fun.  I don't like making the decisions and in any case, most of them get ignored if they don't make people happy. 
Anyway, so we were at our favorite restaurant, and we were thinking of moving on to somewhere else.  But I'm not much of a partier, so I didn't know where to go.  Claire was being particularly annoying about it.  Finally, Jenny stepped in and saved the day and was nice enough to suggest a particular place. 
When we got there, Ruth and I used the bathroom, and we both got a drink from the bar.  We were perfectly happy to just talk to each other.  Ruth was leaving for a while, and I know that I'm going to miss her dearly.  It was our last night together. 
Two men approached our group.  Neither of them were particularly attractive.  The first guy, who has a beard, was a jerk.  When I talked to him about my current employment situation, he was totally judgemental and unkind.  And then he also berated a recent decision I had made.  Part of wished I could explain my decision, but how to even begin?  All of my decisions reach back into my personal history; even deciding where the genesis of a decision came from is hard to decide.  I could have explained about all the reasons, but it would be a long story, and he had already demonstrated a lack of care for my personal feelings.  No thanks.  No way was I going home with this guy.
His friend seemed sweet enough, though a bit naive.  I liked him alright.  If he didn't have such a crap friend, I might have been willing to give him more of a chance.
They were both in finance, which later on made Ruth just cringe and complain.  "Ack!  Finance.  So boring."  I had to concur.  What could girls like Ruth and I have in common with someone like that? 
Jenny and Claire were both really liking these guys for reasons I never quite figured out.  The guys bought us cheap beer, which was totally crap. 
As I was standing there, finishing the beer up, so man at the bar told me I could have a drink that had been left there next to him.  He felt the need to tell me no one had taken it and that it wasn't drugged, which made me disinterested. 
Eventually, Ruth and decided to go home, and off we went, leaving Claire and Jenny.  We walked down the street, Ruth leading the way, as I wasn't totally sure I knew where we were going.  Ruth wanted to get some McDonald's before we went back home, and I reluctantly agreed.  The only time I seem to eat McDonald's is when I am with Ruth, who seems to prefer it as "drunk food." 
This time, ordering wasn't nearly as painful.  Ruth got herself some burger and fries and a massive drink, and we trooped back home.  We went to sit in the lounge.  Ruth didn't want to wake Hayley, her roommate, up, and we ate out there. 
There was a Norwegian girl sitting there when we came in, which surprised me because we usually are left alone there that late on Friday nights.  She talked to us about how much she hated old women, which actually sort of bothered me.  There was nothing about this young woman that I found all that impressive, and why she felt the need to hate on old women and things about them I don't generally find that terrible, really confuses me.  Ruth and I exchanged some of our patented looks. 
Eventually, we went our separate ways to go to bed.  It was around three in the morning before I finally went to bed.
I got about around nine fifteen the next morning, and I was surprisingly okay.  In fact, I felt almost great.   The only thing that wasn't so good was that I was possibly still drunk.  When I first woke up, I still had that swimming feeling that comes with being drunk. 
I had breakfast with Hayley and Ruth.  I couldn't seem to stomach my omelet, so I gave up on it.  Ruth informed me of what had happened to Claire and Jenny the rest of the night.  Apparently, Claire and Jenny went to another bar, and Jane tried to buy pot from someone.  Claire would not allow this to happen and dragged Jenny home.  Apparently Jenny refused to talk to Claire the rest of the way home.  They got home sometime between five and six. 
(Even later on, Jane would claim that she didn't remember any of this, though Claire certainly did.  She also was so drunk that she didn't get up all Saturday.) 
I had to work Saturday.  I usually don't, but as I was walking to work, I was struck by how nice of a day it was shaping up to be.  I walked down the street, admiring the sunshine and the warmth and the air, which felt strangely clear and fresh and almost as if it had never been used before.  It was relatively quiet, but there were people around, already out enjoying the day like I was. 
I ended up at work way earlier than necessary.  It took me a while to figure out where I needed to go, but once I did, seeing my coworker wasn't around, I sat down and waited for him.  As I sat there, being awkward, two other people at the table next to me were setting up.  A few even talked to me, saying nice things. 
One of the nice people was named Craig.  He came over to talk to me.  He said he knew my coworker, that he had seen him the night before.  "He had an empty bottle of wine." 
This particular coworker doesn't strike me as the kind to drink wine, but it sort of put an interesting image in my mind.  Sounded like he a Friday night similar to mine. 
Anyway, that's why he was late. 

Friday, April 15, 2011

Dear God

Dear God,

Ruth says she'll believe in you if you create at least two men in the world who are not idiots. 
You know what you need to do. 

Monday, April 11, 2011

Aboligatory Will and Kate Post

Jenny and Elizabeth are so excited about the upcoming royal wedding, and I'm learning a lot just by hanging around them.  Today, however, I came across this article explaining names of the British well-to-do
I can't get over how strange and funny these names sound.  Tiggy?  It really does sound like a character I would have made up for a story when I was younger. 
The other thing I found myself thinking was that this isn't really that different in America.  The upper crust that goes to say, Yale, usually have double names to help indicate their family ties.  If I had to guess, I'd say some of those Ivy Leaguers are related to these people, and "stole" the idea from them. 

Friday, April 8, 2011

It's Too Hot

I didn't sleep well last night.  It's been so unseasonably warm, and I find myself waking up at night, sweating.  At one point I told myself "If I wake up again tonight, I am going to jump in the shower to cool off and then go back to bed."  It didn't come to that. 
They're doing work on my building, so I had trouble sleeping past nine.  I did some writing, I blogged here.  Various nosies were made outside.  It got quiet again, so I slept a little.  Then there was noise in the hallway, and I remembered they were doing on that too, and I cursed my inability to sleep like a normal person. 
Now I'm very tired and don't have time for a nap.  And I am probably going to go out tonight to hang with friends.  And I'm not sure I'll have the energy to enjoy it.  Curses. 

Told You So

Last night, I was sitting in the lounge watching tv when Ruth came in.  She was drunk, and giggly, because her drunk is always giggly.  And she had a problem. 
A few weeks back, she had gone out with a guy over dinner.  And then the next week, drinks.  And then the next week, drinks again.  I told her this was all a bad idea, because he was paying for things, and that meant there were certain expectations. 
Ruth was totally thick when I said that, and I tried to explain to her that going out with a guy multiple times, like this, implied they were dating.  Ruth and Jenny decided this was ridiculous, that's not how it works.  Lavvy, thankfully, sided with me, saying that this guy (Ruth won't even give me a name because she's paranoid I'll track him down, which is so strange, because I honestly didn't even think that until Ruth made the suggestion) probably does think they're dating, and that's the important bit. 
I told Ruth she needed to have a face-to-face meeting, gently tell him she's seeing someone else and that she would like to be friends and drinking buddies.  Ruth never likes this idea.  She doesn't want to meet face-to-face, she'd rather send an email.  (This always causes me to wonder what is wrong with her; who the hell sends emails like that in this day and age?  What is this, 1997?)  Then I suggested that she just not-subtly mention her boyfriend, as a way of indicating his importance to her to this guy friend.  No, she just gives another exasperated sigh. 
So last night, after getting drunk together, this guy tried to kiss Ruth.
"I told you so," I said, as I sat there.  Ruth apparently told him, in her flummoxed state, that she had a wife, which she explained to me and made no sense.  It might have been the drunken state. 
Ruth went into a bit of a rant about boys and how stupid they are and how they always manage to find her.  She told me about this guy named Ben, who is coming to visit soon. 
"I'm going to make Ben and this other guy meet, because then they'll see their stupid behavior within each other and then themselves and then they won't chase after me."
I disagree.  I suspect that these guys are not going to get that they are both being ridiculous, and instead, they will just see that the other one likes Ruth and it'll turn competitive. 
(As a side note, what do you readers think about this?) 
She told me some stories about when her Dad had cancer and she was crying and Ben kissed her, even though he had a girlfriend. 
"Wait," I said.  "I though crying was a turnoff for guys."
"Really?" said Ruth.  "I've found it's a great way to get guys.  It probably makes them feel all needed and protective."
Oh great.  It's not enough for a guy to like me, I have to make him feel like he's being a man and protecting me. 
We giggled for a while, talking about other things like our work, and she complained to me about this essay she's writing and we were relatively merry.  Then one of the spazzier women came in wanting to watch a tv documentary about 2012.  (I'm so not even kidding.)  We let her, even though she apologized twenty times and tried to get us to stay.  I explained to her that we were fine and were leaving anyway. 
I wish Ruth would have listened to me and nipped this thing in the bud.  Something tells me there's going to be a lot more drama on the way, even if she does avoid this guy as she's decided to. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Human Rights and the State

Reading this post today about how Syria has recently gotten itself onto the Humans Rights Council.  While I agree that Syria isn't a good candidate for Humans Rights, considering they recently arrested a bunch of kids, all under the age of seventeen, for criticizing the government through street art, I don't think we as Americans should pretend we are better.  The government and the military violate laws and rights all the time.  (The war on terror has a bunch of examples were the U.S. violates the rights of its own citizens as well as combantants and civilians, digging a legal black hole around their recent designation of "citizen combantant.") 
The problem isn't even really one or several or even most countries.  It's the state as an institution.  States are always going to be interested in maintaining power; they'll do it at anyone's expense, and they're not above breaking their own laws to make it happen.  If anything, having states policing themselves is stupid, because inevitably they'll avert their eyes to other council member's violations, especially if money or other deals can be made. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Women Have to Stick Together

I had dinner with Ruth.  She's been off on some socializing stuff, and she told me about how she was at a casino, and a stripper offered her a free lap dance. 
"Male or female?" I asked.  Devil's in the details. 
Lavvy was there, and she awkwardly gulped her food.  Claire started laughing.  "That was brilliant!"
"Female," Ruth asked, ignoring the whole Lavvy/Claire thing.  "There was this creepy man on the other side of the room."
"Oh," I see, I said.  "She was trying to get away from him, and you offered her temporary shelter?"
"Something like that," Ruth said.
Good for her. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Melodramatic

Awhile back, there was a small fire in my building.  No one was mortally injured. 
There's this woman I listen to in the caf every morning, and every morning she rips into the person who started the fire (on accident.)  Every morning, she prattles on and on about how we could have died (almost impossible), how someone could have been hurt (probable) and how they should kick this person out. 
It's seriously the most melodramatic thing I've heard in a long time.  And this rant happens every morning.  Without fail. 
I kind of want to tell her off, because she's totally overreacting, and there's something incredibly negative about her whole attitude.  Yes, it was unfortunate, but now that we've learned our lesson, can we go back to our regular schedules?

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I have been reading lots of poetry lately, and this cool poem struck my eye.  There's so much amazing imagery here.   I really love the line about cushioning someone's misfortune with sleep. 

Monday, April 4, 2011

Cthulhu Comic

One of my ex-roommates sent me this great comic featuring Cthulhu.  The art is so cool and it's a cute little joke at the end. 
Obviously, the only problem is that I'm posting this a little late.   

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Beowulf, Retold by Odd Future

So this medieval blog I occasionally check out posted a link to a retelling of Beowulf, and because I'm a masochist, I looked at it anyway. 
It's actually not as bad as I feared it would be.  Mostly, it's just as crazy and ridiculous as actual Beowulf, but with some humor thrown in.  Honestly, it reads like Odd Future wrote it, except with less rape.  (And I'm honestly not complaining.  All the rape in Odd Future really turns me off.) 
So enjoy.  If you can.  I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to go near the thing.