6 posts tagged “observations”

One of the utterly useless things I can do is stand by a bank of elevators and more often than not, be the closest to the one that arrives next.

Some would say this is merely coincidence or only seems "more often than not", but I know that it is a directly related to the following fact.

I also can pick the slowest moving line at the grocery checkout.  I can get into a line with only one person ahead of me and the other lines can each have two or more people and they will start to move faster.

This happened last night at Trader Joe's.  It isn't often I get the same wacky cashier at TJs because I don't go with any consistency but as luck would have it, I got the same HipsterChick as the last visit.  She might even think I purposedly choose her checkout because I didn't move to the one next to us each time it appeared that the person checking out was finished.  It just that other customers got into line before I could move my cart.

Finally I got in line and we had a little chat.  Usually the TJ checkout clerks are friendly and chatty but there's no real connection.  For example, they will say "did you find everything alright" and you can say "I couldn't find the frozen aardvarks" and they will, without blinking, say "yeah we must be out of them again." 

Last time, HipsterChick seemed about as interested in going through the TJ required interact-with-Customer routine as I usually am.  And watching her slowy pack her customer's groceries, she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.  But strangely, when I got up in line, she seemed more chatty with me.  I would almost say, flirty.

Not in the "I'm really trying to pick you up" flirty, but more of the "you are the first interesting person that has walked through the door in the last hour please take me with you" sort of flirting.  It could just be my imagination.  Maybe she asks everyone what they got going on tonight.  If she was flirting, I'm certain that telling her that I'm gonna set up my new DVR squashed any remote desire that she would want to let me see her naked.

I sent a couple of friends a photo I took of one of them along with a casual invite to join me sunday at an event. 

Dan, I'm gonna be at the IAHC on Sunday for Irish Fest.  You should definitely come.  Karen, the IAHC is very close to your parent's home so you should stop by too.

The likelihood of either coming is slim; Dan doesn't like to leave his comfort zone of Old Town and Karen lives in the burbs with hubby and children.  I only mentioned it because dan has gone in the past -- back in the day when he was married and happy and not a shell of his former self.

But what I want to gripe about today is Karen's ditzyness.

She writes me back and asks "what's the IAHC".  I realize that it would be a stretch for most to figure out from my email that the I stands for Irish, the A is American and Heritage Center isn't a term that comes to mind.  So I write back and tell her Irish American Heritage Center and hope that is the end of it.

She writes back and asks where is it.  I demonstrate remarkable restraint and don't write back "as mentioned below, it's by your parents place."  Instead, I write that I don't know the exact address but it's at Wilson & Knoxx, near your parents."  Of course I couldn't resist adding "U2CG -- which is one way of saying "you too can google". 

This could have gone on and on, especially after she replied "Oh, you think I understand text-lingo?  YOu're so wrong."  But I just let it go with a "i'll try to remember that."

But it is one that does kinda irk me because I have to modify my behavior to accomodate someone and I find that is something that I've been too reluctant to do in the past.  That probably explains things like why most of my friends weren't jumping on the bandwagon to travel to Europe with me this year.

In about 7 hours I will go to a party that I have been dreading for a while.  The Krazy Guatamalan is having his annual birthday gathering and I'm obligated to show up, at least for a little while.  I'm guessing some people are wondering what will happen when So-Suede and I are in the same room with alcohol after not speaking to each other for two months.  Or not. 

Now that I think about it, there hasn't been a year that I've looked forward to going.  The first year, So-Suede and FWDWM were a  couple and since I had a not-so-secret crush on her, I hated seeing them together.  Last year, it was potentially awkward because FWDWM and I had just had a throw-down of our own.  And now this year I was thinking I would see Judas and Jezebal (aka So-Suede and Angela) all lovie-dovie.

Except she apparently won't be there.  In fact, it seems they are not together anymore.  She IM'd me on Thursday to chat.  She asked if I had talked to him recently and I said not since Christmas.  She seemed surprise, because in her world it's okay to date someone you swore you were not interested in and expect nothing to change.  But I digress.  Other than lunch earlier this week, she hadn't seen him since the superbowl.

It doesn't really matter.  She still likes him and if he would come around, she'd take him back.  It makes me wonder what So-Suede has that I don't that FWDWM and Angela would choose him over me, but I have to stop looking at it that way, if only because it's unhealthy.  There may be no answer and there certainly won't be on that I would want to hear, so what is the point.  Meanwhile, I have to get on with my life.  I also have to find a way to look at this situation and not see myself as the "loser" and him as the "winner." 

Sometimes you like to destroy things just so you can rebuild them from the ground up.  Jupiter is urging you to reorganize everything, from your dating situation to your family relationships.

That was my horoscope in the RedEye newspaper one Monday back in early December.  I was so focused on the part about purposely destroying things in order to rebuild them that I didn't pay enough attention to the second sentence.  It's true that I do like to break things down and rebuild them, whether it be my den, my training regime or my personal life. 

I went on a date in early December.  I met Elle at RCYA-friend's birthday.  Like most of the women I met, we seemed to hit it off very well that Saturday.  We had lots to talk about and seemed attracted to each other.  But alas, our date was momentumless and she declared that she was only interested in friendship.  Without knowing what she is thinking, I would guess that the excitement from Saturday faded especially since we both had long days at work and had no new things to talk about since Saturday.  While that should be on both of us, unfortunately, it seems to fall on the guy to entertain the lady. 

Another RCYA-friend who was at the same party -- who didn't catch on at first that Elle and I were flirting -- called to wish me a Merry Christmas.  We were talking and talking and finally I had to ask if she had talked to Elle.  She said she did and heard about our date.  Where you gonna ever tell me this, I wondered.  She said that Elle said that she just felt the friend vibe.  She added that Elle has a work-crush though how much that factors into it is anyone's guess.  RCYA-friend did her best to console me and said that I did all the right things but women sometimes put too much emphasis on things like "connection" and "chemistry". 

And some women simply don't know a good thing when they see it.  Elle, you blew it. 

I went to Cosi for lunch today.  For those who don't have a Cosi chain in their part of the world, Cosi is sort of a high brow salad and sandwich shop.  I only go there when i have a coupon or if i feel i've had too many cheeseburgers in a week.  Today's visit was actually both.

The set up is as follows:  order salads to the right, sandwiches to the left.  At the salad station there use to be this guy who would flirt with all the ladies in line.  With guys he'd just say a "how you doin" and then ignore any attempt at conversation while a lady was close enough to continue flirting. 

There was another guy there who was a bit more balanced.  If a hot lady was in line just before me, when she walked away, we would give each other the "yeah, I'd tap that" look.  I haven't seen either one of them in a long time, so they probably moved on to bigger and better things.

At the checkout counter there are three ladies I've nicknamed Asian_Girl, College_Girl and Slavic_girl.  Asian_Girl is asian and flirts with me.  College_Girl sorta looks like one of the Kims I liked in college.  Or at least reminds me enough of her.  One time College_Girl was being chatted up by one of the guys who worked there.  I had a feeling that she liked him, but didn't want to be just another notch on his belt.

Slavic_Girl started a couple months ago.  It may have been longer, as I said, I don't go there with any frequency. She looks Ukrainian or Czech, or maybe even Polish, though not quite the last one.  I'm usually good at spotting fellow Poles, or more correctly they are better at spotting me.  She doesn't give me the "hey, it's another Pollack" smile, I'm guessing she's just a slavic cousin.

Asian_girl waived me to the front of the line, ahead of two customers who were not paying attention.  She put my salad and bread in a bag and took my coupon, money and Cosi card. 

"I told you that the card is not good after the end of this year," she said excitedly.  I thought she meant that I was trying to use a card that wasn't valid, since I still need three stamps to get my free salad or sandwich.  She explained that Cosi is using a new card system starting next year and apparently the old ones will not be honored.

So I have 11 days to eat three more Cosi meals or lose the 7/10 investment I've made.  Considering this is the only Cosi I go to and tomorrow is my last work day until 2007, the odds are not very favorable.

I always tell people that I like to write because it gives me a chance to think about what I want to say and make my meaning clear and concise.  This is true, but today on the train ride home, I realized perhaps the real reason I prefer to write instead of talk when it comes to telling stories or making a case about something.

I guess I was taught not to interrupt someone when they are talking.  So I listen patiently while someone else is telling a story, or arguing a point, or even babbling incessently.  However, when it's my turn to talk, the curtesy is not always returned.

So I guess while anyone can quit reading in the middle of my rants and raves, at least they can't interrupt and derail my train of thought.