8 February, 1998

Weekends

Sun Feb 8 16:54:30 CST 1998

That picture is from earlier this morning.

I haven't gotten much studying done at all! And there's plenty of it to do ...

But I have had a sweet weekend. I took the car out to a transmission place, and the guy said he couldn't determine anything without it acting up, and given that things otherwise check out okay, the only thing that would be wrong with the transmission is internal, which requires an $865 rebuild. He suggested that it may very well be the engine losing power, and that as he was a transmission specialist, there's nothing he could say without me getting it run up enough to start exhibiting problems.

So the car found gainful employment, and worked perfectly, taking friends out to see The Replacement Killers Friday night, and to ice-skating on Saturday.

The movie was dull. I mean, just guys running around shooting each other for a feature-length movie. There was a plot in there, but that just seemed like an uninspired throwback to the days when movies had plots. Everyone else liked the movie. I feel old.

The line at the end was pretty good though. I don't think I'd spoil anything by retelling it here, but some people might actually have been in suspense. I just can't tell for people nowadays.

Anyways, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love action films too .. creative stunts, nice effects, a hero, some bad guys. I love Jackie Chan, coz there's stunts, acrobatics, comic relief ... the Replacement Killers had a hard-on the whole time, like I really was supposed to give a shit about the importance of this guys marksmanship abilities. Boring!

There were lots of Asians in the theater too, which was cool. I mean, that's the audience you most wanna target with John Woo and that guy whose name I'm not even gonna try to spell ... I saw one gal who I swear was pushing six feet tall! Six-foot Asian women, now that's a keen idea ...

Ice-skating was pretty cool. Like the night before, lotsa people went, it was just a different crowd. But both nites there were more than ten folks packed into the van, sitting on the floor, praising dannyman. While it's kinda neat, I just liked the opportunity to hang out with so many different folks ... it most mostly ground-south crowd at the movie, but they just have no athletic inclination whatever to do ice-skating. So Saturday it was Don and a lot of other guys from One North, Carlos, Yanna(sp?) and other assorted freaks.

Friday night though, Ben got left behind. He'd a pizza comin' anyway so he enjoyed that hot instead. I made sure to apologize. It's a bitch to get a bunch of clumps of different people to pile in on short notice. Some day I may plan these sorts of things out.

Women Women All Around

I was thinking a good analogy to me and the women situation is a new driver in suddenly heavy traffic. On the one hand, there's the excitement given by a challenging situation, and the rewards one will feel in navigating well through the mix, but there's also that dreadful feeling you might not move quite right and end up crashing and hurting someone.

Well, it's really not that bad coz I'm not exactly flooring it, but I am unused to all the sort of success. Flirting, pretty much, for the most part, so nothing at all dangerous yet.

The key is to pick a direction, and push it, that's all unfolding slowly, as if one pushes too hard then the transmission might act up. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

What is dannyman talking about?

Okay, Thursday I was figuring I'd talk to the gal in my section who I've kinda exchanged eye-contact with, sitting in the area of lecture where I expected her to sit. She was a no-show, which was cool, coz I got enough patience not to be going nuts anyways.

And Maggie ... Wednesday I had dinner with her. She's pretty cool, I think. Friday she invited me to IV at the last minute. Normally, I'd decline IV, but figured it's been awhile, and it might be good to talk to Maggie some more. Well, IV sucked, but the company was alright. I don't go for that worship stuff, but rather it is nice to touch base with folks I don't know so well. Casey was there. Long time ... Met a few other nice faces too.

And as for Maggie ... well, there's a limit to what I feel it fair to say about anything regarding other people. I like Maggie though, and I think it's clear she likes me. the concern I have is that we're kind of from different sides of everything. She's pretty straight-laced and I'm a raunchy d00d, to sum it up shortly. She's a great gal though. I'm just lettin' that relax and see how it goes.

I also find Maureen entrancing too. This is a different Maureen from Don's crowd. I met Maureen sometime in the past week by being a good geek. She's pretty quiet, but friendly to me, and we get along. She seems to posses certain personality traits which I would find attractive in a girlfriend. I'm not holding out hopes there neither. Just to be cool. I think she could also make a nice friend, so I wanna try to be cool, and let come what may.

Reminiscent of Maureen was the gal I met ice-skating. After giving a little advice and whatnot, as with Maureen, she introduced herself, as did Maureen, and we shook hands. Sara is a new skater, and was having trouble with her boots being loose, which Tsoni helped her fix. I just accompanied her a few times around the rink, and chatted a bit. She's an MBA student from Korea. I think what might have impressed her most was my asking if she was from Korea.

How did you know?

I've got a lot of International friends. I live in Allen Hall. My friend Carlos here is from Mexico.

Anyways, she and her friends left early, but were pretty friendly, and as they left, they lingered a wee bit. I hated to pass up the opportunity, so I took off the ice and asked Sara if I could have her email address. She was happy to share, saying something to the effect of Whatever you want to do, let me know!

So, when she checks her email again, things may brighten. I included my phone number in my message coz she apparently doesn't check email a lot, if finger is any indication.

I have this thought, with that traffic analogy, that Valentine's Day could mean some sort of reckoning. This Saturday, if I recollect correctly;

   February 1998
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Yah ... and damned if I'm going to be alone! Just keep it cool ...

Distribution

Sun Feb 8 21:03:22 CST 1998

Back from dinner. The X-Files was pretty dumb tonight. I left halfway through to proof-read this here, and to do a little censorship.

Okay, so as with all great holidays, we should acknowledge those less fortunate. I was chillin' with some of my guys that weren't doin' so well with the ladies last night, trying to explain whatever it is that I think I might have figured out to help them. In either case, it was relaxing. It is only with that little calander there that I now thought that this concern with reckoning on my front might have explained in part why my buddies were so bummed out.

Ouch. I know what a lonely Valentine's Day is like. Hopefully I had something helpful to say. I'm not remembering what it is I did have to offer, but it seemed to be making sense, to some extent, to those present.

I know that I did offer that the whole courtship thing is a complicated mess of what if you think about it involves some degree of fucking with other's minds, or perhaps merely fucking with one's own mind, changing one's inner expectations, and that to make things work at all, you just had ta swallow the bitter reality and learn to make it work for you.

Perhaps that is too grim a way to look at things, but I believe it's all too true. There are those of us that ask why it can't just be simpler - I like you, do you like me? Let's get together! In a way, things sort of are that way, but given at least that girls tend not to go for guys they already know, you have to get these questions worked out before you really know each other so well, with lots of subtle sign-language, the trickiest part of all being how you say I like you, but it's not like I'm desperate or anything ...

Women can sense if you're hungry. Quoth Sgt. Esquibel, my Army recruiter, and mega-stud.

Be smooth. It's all too bizarre, but you learn to handle it anyway. Just don't become an insincere jerk, I would hope.

Well, enough journal crap. Time for hw!

6 February, 1998 << Journal Index >> 12 February, 1998
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