Hi

A most amazing thing happened today. I girl I didn't know said "Hi" to me. Smiled and said "Hi" to me. Totally unsolicited. When you're single little things like that can really make your day. Of course, I was too much in a daze after getting off the bus and the weather was quite disgusting so I didn't end up saying much to her other than "Hi".

Uhhhhhhhhhhh

Well, just when I thought it's impossible to be single AND busy at the same time, things got really busy. Rest assured, however, I am still single. I will be leaving on a long trip again this Thursday, so don't expect any updates for a week or two.

I did have an interesting run-in with the "Kinkos girl" today, however. She is short, skinny, blonde, no rings, broken nail polish .. and she helped me with my printing and copying needs. For the lack of a better word, she is "cute". I even made her laugh which is definatelly unusual for a girl I don't even know. The question is how (if it all) to take this further; this is definatelly something for me to ponder on my upcomming flight. I noticed during flights I'm "on the edge", for example last year I came up with a comprehensive and daring plan on how to ask a girl from my class out. More importantly I was syked enough to actually follow through with it. Can I do it again? We shall see.

Post-Collegenism: Chapter 3 - My Life, My Bus

I have taken the same bus for 4 years. I've taken it too school, to work, to dates, to graduations, to formals and social events. I've been in 2 accidents while on the bus. I've traveled the route in as fast as 23 minutes and as long as 3 hours (on a particularly bad day of traffic). I know where to seat so that I won't feel guilty about not giving up my seat to a woman. I came up with a "bus rules" set of rules that make bus riding more effecient (my now-ex is the only one who saw it; she thought I was nuts. I will publish it here some day). I know everything and anything about the bus. I AM THE BUS.

So an obvious question is: what is the value of the bus in finding a date? To an outsider the answer is clear - the passenger community is 70% women. However things are not so simple. Here is why:

1) The first rule of the bus is that you do not talk on the bus. It's not posted anywhere, but the bus ride is entirely silent except for the occasional cellphone call. Sometimes two passengers who know each other ralk, but talking to a stranger is unacceptable. A lot of people sleep, read, or listen to music (like me), further adding to the silence.

2) You don't want to become a bad customer. There are a few folks who do talk to stangers on the bus. Once is a mentally insane women. The other is a happy-go-lucky 70 year old grandma. Than there is the guy who tries to hit on women "across the isle". Nobody like these folks and does everything in their power to seat as far away from them as possible.

3) The odds are good but the goods are odd. Unfortunatelly I'm afraid most women on the bus may be 25 or older. OK, I'll be honest, some of them do look 21. Let me do a quick life of whom I ran into recently:

a) Strabery girl - she got on somewhere in the middle-end of the station sequence and sat next to me. There was a sit in front next to a nice grandma with definatelly more room than next to me, yet she shose to sit here. Throughout the ride she kept playing with her hair and putting on lip gloss that smelled like a strawbery. It was quite a turn on, actually.

b) Blondie - a lot of messed up blonde hair, a stupid blue sweater, dirty sneakers and a white skirt. I found that quite hot! She was reading some sort of a fantasy book, fell asleep on the bus, her hair got even more messed up. There is something that attracts me to people like that, I'm not sure what.

c) No-name girl from my stop - as the name implies she gets on at my stop. She is good looking, and also kind of tall. One thing she has going for her is that I get on at the same time as her every day. 2 days ago the bus was almost empty, yet she took the sit diretly behind me. Today I repeated the favor. We'll see where this goes. This is the type of communication that goes on on the bus. Nothing more, nothing less.

Oh, and one last thing, what all these girls have in common is - you guessed it - no rings!

God is a prankster ... And he owes me $80.

If you are wondering how we dorks end up being so .. dorky, here is a nice example. Actually it's quite easy, we don't look for trouble, trouble finds us.

Today I had an important meeting. So important, in fact, that I decided to skip lunch for the fear of accidentally making a stain on my shirt. I get my Outlook reminder 15 minutes prior, pack up and go. It's a nice sunny day, nothing to worry about.

And then it happens. It's one of those things that happens so fast you only have time to think to yourself "OH SHIT". I was walking about 4 feet behind another guy, and as I looked down I saw a ketchup packet (the kind you get at McDonals). The next thing I saw was him stepping on the packet in just the right way, completely unaware of the impending disaster. And then the thing explodes in my face spraying me from head to toe with gooey red chunks of ketchup. The crotch area took the brunt of the ejecta; additionally there were at least 50 small (1/8") stains on my pants and about 10 stains on my shirt, including a nice blob on my right sleeve. All this happened in less than a second.

At first I wanted to scream "FUCK!!!" but instead I just burst out laughing. I ran back to work, cancelled the meeting, and went to the bathroom to wash off. Fortunatelly I didn't run into any coworkers and didn't have to explain what the heck happened. After some unsuccessful attempts to clean the stuff off I went to The Gap and bought a new set of panths and a shirt.

Could this have happened to anyone else but me? Absolutely not. Obviously I have become too serious and this was somebody's way of telling me to chill out, relax, and never, ever skip eating lunch because of work.

My Idea of Fun

It has recently occured to me that my idea of fun is nowhere similar to what most people consider fun. For example, I absolutely hate big parties, clubs, and bars. I hate meeting new people, especially in those types of situations. I don't like extreme sports (except perhaps rock climbing). I would never try something like skydiving and rollercoasters make me puke (both literally and figurativelly speaking). I like to travel but I'm not especially keen on it. I don't like most of the stuff on TV, in fact I probably watch less than 2 hours of TV every week.

I DO like small parties with 3 or 4 close friends. I like spending time with a girlfriend somewhere quiet and romantic. I don't view driving a car as a chore, I see it as an adventure. I like to watch unusual and non-mainstream movies. I prefer thinking over talking. Deep inside I don't like people whose idea of fun doesn't match my own, and if there is nothing to loose (i.e. I'm not going out with them), I most certainly will get into an argument.


I think this pretty much explains why I don't get along with people. I definatelly inherited the cynical and hostile attitude towards people from my dad. Of course, I don't plan to change. All I need is to find someone who has a similar outlook on life. Unfortunatelly, it has so far proven more difficult than I expected.

Post-Collegenism: Chapter 2 - Beer, Pizza, Wrestling

Ever wonder what makes men tick? There you go: Beer, Pizza, Wrestling. That is the foundation for all the important decisions men make. And many important decisions are on horizon:

1) To rent or not to rent: seriously faced with the prospect of paying as much as $2000 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment, I have began to question my priorities. While I could easily afford this, I still don't want to be throwing so much money away. Heck, if I were to live in a place like PA I could get SIX appartments for the same money. There are only a few options left:

a) Get a roommate. While the obvious choice, it does little to solve the "throwing money away" issue.

b) Buy an apartment/house. A better idea, but I would have to live with parents for a few months to save up enough money for a down payment.

c) Get a rich girlfriend. Not realistic and purely imaginary. But I can't help but to think what would happen if I and Ally were to start going out. Afterall, her family is very well-off.

2) Graduate school: I have looked at catalogs for MBA programs and found one that I really like. I also know my employer would pay 100% of the tuition. Here is the thing - the average age of students in the program is 27. Not only will I be "the little kid" there, I can most certainly forget about finding a girlfriend while I'm at it. How pathetic: I evaluate an educational program based on my chances of finding a girlfriend there.

3) The Ally Situation: I just don't get her. I could-have, perhaps, maybe, would-have considered asking her out if she would just stop acting weird. After knowing her for 4 months I still can't predict what she will do or say. So far I can describe her as: not open minded, an air head, slightly delusional, independent and indifferent, totally lacks any understanding of relationships. On the other hand, sometimes she shows a more caring and softer side, but again that is rare and unpredictable. She says she is a "hopeless romantic", but I think she is just as much a "hopeless romantic" as I am a German fighter pilot.

I don't think there are any options left but to wait for the next weekend and perhaps more beer and pizza to sort all this out.

The Profiles Series: Zee

I have decided to document some of the more interesting women I met in my life. Zee didn't really do all that much, but I consider her very important. Zee was my last big crush and also the first girl I officially asked out. She was also by far the most mysteroious girl I met.

Why I liked her: Well, first of all, she was just beautiful. No, not in the supermodel kind of way. Her simplicity was beautiful. She would wear flip flops, an old jacket, jeans, her short hair in a pony tail. I don't think she put on any make up. She had red/blondish hair, green/gray eyes, about 5'6. But really thats nothing compared to her personality. The way she behaved was just asking somebody to fall in love with her. For example, it was a cold fall evening, we were sitting on a bench in a park. She just was staring into the distance, and then she turns to me and asks something like "have you ever had a best friend?". So far I have not run into any woman that was as nearly as romantic as her.

Why I didn't like her: She said "no" :)

Why she was important: Zee started it all. I was so depressed by her rejection, I knew I had to turn my life around. I started working out and lost about 40 lb. A few months later I even asked my future ex out (hmm future ex .. that doesn't sound quite right). Of course more about her in the next post.