The Taiwanese are breaking up from a meeting of having dumplings in the South Rec Room. Now they're running around in small groups, some babbling together in their own tongue, which is completely gibberish to me.
Emily invited me in, said some weird-sounding things when I declined, not being in much of an appetite. Emily's kind of interesting for me. For one, I think her face is incredibly beautiful, and while that in itself interests me, that's not the really interesting thing about her. What puzzles me more is her behavior.
Usually she seems to ignore me, or she seems almost afraid of me, but other times she seems ready to confront me or something, she'll try to ask some befuddling questions or jab a subtle insult ... I don't know. Sometimes she's pretty friendly, sometimes she's very rude, only it comes across maybe as teasing, so I don't get offended.
However, it's not a mystery that seems worthwhile for me to straighten out. At best it's a woman thing that's puzzled me for some time already, and being a "woman thing" is not something I really should concern myself with. (Having decided that I should really try not to deal with such issues.) It might just be a "person thing" - for some reason she treats me weird - she doesn't seem too generally weird, but for me ...
Like I said, low priority to figure out.
I saw "Air Force One" last night. It is a silly movie. I drove a bunch of people out to Savoy in the van. At one point Jennifer observed that I was the white guy, and everybody else was Asian. Well, I wasn't the only white guy hanging out in that group the whole night, but I did notice my traditional role as the token white guy surfacing again.
And I wasn't even running with IV, or AAA.
But, like this summer when I went our with Charlie Changchien and his posse, to play Volleyball, I was last night, again by whatever weird twist of fate, the white guy.
It happens that way, and I don't think my taste for Asian women is really driving it either. Okay, so I really enjoy hanging out with Jenny, Anh and Melissa, sure. This summer though 'twas but merely Nelyn that was the only regularly recurring female in the group ... men or women, it's them Asians I end up with.
I think it's just a general "yellow fever" maybe.
I tend to feel more comfortable in CS classes, where white guys are about 1/3, east Asians and Indians about half, and women of whatever flavor making up the difference. Well, I'm probably overestimating them women, but it's important to emphasize engineering women anyway.
In my English and Rhetoric courses, it seems almost eery to me that there are at most one or two Asians in an entire class! What's with all the white people? Heck, there are often more black people than Asians. Such ratio is in fact a far better reflection of the US population, but to me it seems unnatural!
I suppose it's all attributed to Lincoln Park, where our IB classes were pretty much half Asian, half white. You know, a Chicago Public School, trying to pull in the very best of it's gifted kids? For whatever upsetting reason, few black folks were enrolled in the program, few hispanics too, the remainder were us middle-class city-dwellin' folk who weren't too snobby to attend a public school.
Many of my LPHS alumni like to bemoan how the IB experience wasn't really worth it, or how they wasted time, or it messed them up. I don't really care, but maybe I can complain that it cursed me to desire a life in California or something.
Dannyman, you're a freak.
Yeah, I should shut up or something before I say something offensive.
It's your diary man.
Yeah, but if you aint got nothing good to say, or you're just talking dumb from your butt ... you know ...
Well, I might as well make a theme of it tonight. You know, idea association and all.
I've been "working out" in a way. Stretching! Yes, it's not quite as big as deal as trading in my boxers for tighy whiteys and trying to do something over at CRCE, reenforcing my desires with images of women in tight excercise clothing.
Instead, I've found a simpler path.
Especially when I get some extra time in the morning, I like to get up and stretch underneath some of the trees adjoining Allen Hall. Nothing formal or learned or anything, just stuff that seems like the right thing to do.
I'm working on touching my toes somewhat. I can get past my left ankle now - which for ol' Dannyman is a respectable achievement! My right leg, I'm not so good there ... but I work on them toe touches, and I stretch over to the sides, and the ol' leaning-back-in-a-standing-position-with-arms-outstretched which I think DS Sirois referred to as "action two".
And I get some sit-ups going, and yesterday I threw in ten push-ups for good measure. I mean, after about a week and a half, not doing them so regular as if I'm doing my stretching for the day after a meal I don't feel like torturing my stomach any more, but well, I am up to 60 sit-ups now ... I think I could blow Phase V Army training there, if I timed the two minutes. That's why I figured I should work on my push-ups. If I could work up to Phase V on that, however gradually, that would be very rewarding to me personally. I would, after all, be finally "fit for military service"
I don't know if I'm going to stick to that goal though.
I do like doing the stretching. It's a good ritual, I really do feel somewhat better after such a simple excercise, and the only concern I have is that some passer-by will think I'm doing T'ai Chi and want to relish in my deepness or something. But I think people are more clever than that.
If I keep in the habit though, I'd want to consider enrolling in some formal class like that in the future, for pointers and wisdom at least, if not to expand a personally-developed interest.
In fact, it's about time I got to getting that done for today. That and Anh and Jenny are in the lab right now, and I may be able to chatter a bit on my way out.
2 September
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