Various

So the prospective Fall Break Fredonia College Democrats trip (October 13-16 or thereabouts) to Washington, DC is now in jeopardy, and I'm not sure if we'll be able to go at all. It's going to cost more than we planned on, I guess. Paul, Tia, Ben, Clayt, Jen (DC area 'peeps') - if this is the first you're hearing about my trip down to your area, it's because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to go, and now I'm less sure than before. Since I've taken the days off from work anyway, maybe I'll come down on my own just for the hell of it. I will have to get that American Century paper done ahead of time though, and that's going to be a challenge. Avoiding procrastination? Yikes.

I think I'm probably missing this week's meeting to go to a Nuremberg - Sixty Years Later conference at Chautauqua Institution. I'm going to be up tomorrow by 6:30am to go, which should be fun. I'm borderline narcoleptic anyway, so this may be pushing it, and I don't want to be seen nodding off at a symposium on the Nazi war crimes tribunals....might be a little unseemly...

I may be missing a midterm in my PoliSci class this Wednesday due to the conference (that I'll have to make up when I come back), and I'm definitely missing my Philosophy class tomorrow...but I think this is a pretty valid excuse.

The DC internship situation is coming along. I finally got around to asking two professors for recommendations (Dr. Maulucci and Dr. Stinson), so progress is being made. I need all the paperwork in by the end of October.

This doesn't really go with the rest of what I have here, but that's why the post is titled "Various." Something recently reminded me of this particular series of events, and I thought I'd share what was on my mind.

In the Spring 2000 semester at JCC (I believe it was late March, early April), I had a Statistics class. I knew a couple people in the class, including Rebecca Ball and Aaron. Aaron and I weren't really speaking at the time, unfortunately. This was the first semester after that whole mess of a situation. That's not really the point of the story, though.

Anyway, there was an attractive girl in the class that sat on the opposite side of the room from me. One day as I was walking down the hall after class, she kind of sidled up and said hello to me. As it happens when any pretty girl talks to me of her own free will, I was quite surprised/taken aback, but not so much as when I heard the next words out of her mouth.

Girl: "Don't I know you from somewhere? You look familiar."

At this point, I didn't even have time to think just how much this sounded like the ever-popular pick-up line. I stammered for a moment before saying that I didn't believe we had ever met.

Girl: "That's weird - you look really familiar. What school did you go to?"

I told her that I had gone to Falconer, and she proceeded to ask me if I knew Pat Morales (sadly, Pat died of meningitis about a year or so after this conversation) and if I had ever been at one of his parties.

I answered that I did indeed know Pat, but that I had never been to one of his parties. Then, in what I know Matt and Ben would tell me now is way too much honesty, I went on to say that I hadn't really been invited to very many parties in high school. For whatever reason though, this girl was not to be deterred. She went on to list a variety of ways in which we might have seen each other, including listing her tenure at a McDonald's in Falconer (she had gone to Cassadaga). I finally relented and said that was probably where we had seen each other. All this time during the conversation, we had kept walking out of the building and were now nearing her car with her asking me if I could possibly find some time to help her with some of the Stats homework.

I couldn't really believe what was transpiring as I got her phone number and walked back to my car with an idiotic grin pasted across my face.

Anyway, my initial euphoria quickly wore off as I realized that Ann wasn't really my type. She turned up at Friendly's, where I was a waiter at the time, a couple times over the next few days. We called each other on the phone and actually talked for hours, although the conversations were less than memorable (I couldn't tell you what the hell we talked about for so long, but I know the batteries ran out in my cordless phone every night for four or five nights in a row). I do remember playing those cutesy games where you can't be the one to hang up first and you have to have several attempts before finally - after about half an hour has gone by - you both count down to hanging up simultaneously. Invariably, you get to the point where you don't think you're ever actually going to hang up the phone.

However, in what seems to be a Seinfeld-esque quality, I found things that I was not happy with. First of all, she smoked, which was a pretty big deal to me at the time (less so now, but never exactly a turn-on). She also tanned. Every day. She had a tanning booth in her house. She wore quite a bit of make-up. She looked good, had a nice body, all that - but I clearly remember telling her that with the combination of tanning and smoking, her face was going to develop a leather-like quality before she hit 40. In retrospect, of course, this may not have been the most tactful way to approach the situation, but as you may know, I tend to be fairly blunt sometimes.

We made out a few times, mostly in her driveway if I recall correctly - but it never went any further than that. The reason? There were a few factors. At that point, I hadn't 'been with' anyone, and she had been with two guys. There was the tanning/smoking thing, too. We also talked for hours, but not about anything that was exactly earth-shattering...although to be fair, I wasn't quite as picky in that particular area as I think I probably am now. The major thing was the ex-boyfriend. Apparently they had broken up less than a month before Ann approached me, and after a little while I gathered that they were not exactly done. After we had been seeing each other for a couple weeks, I found out that she was still "seeing" him, too. Naturally, this made me pretty angry. I told her that she had to pick one, since I certainly wasn't going to share. She complained that she wasn't sure what she wanted, feelings were conflicted, et cetera. I gave her one week to decide. I called her a week later, and she said she wasn't ready to quit whatever she still had going with him, and I said goodbye and good luck.
I couldn't imagine her being amenable to things if the situation had been reversed, and I assume anyone would be pissed off.

I called her that August to see if anything had changed and also because I had an extra concert ticket. I was going to see Creed at Darien Lake on September 1st. (Yeah, I know, I know - Creed?! Save it.) I didn't really find out her status with the guy, but she was considerably cooler to me than she had been, so I dropped it. Four weeks later, I met Destini, and you could say that everything probably worked out like it was supposed to except for the part about me fucking things up.

As an epilogue to the story, I had a conversation with Destini (many months after our break-up) about Ann when I came back from Fort Collins toward the end of 2003, and she told me that she heard a rumor that Ann was claiming to someone that she and I had taken things much further - had actually turned a double into a home run. I don't remember the source of the rumor, although I think it might have been Melinda Centi that told Des that. I laughed quite loud when I heard that, of course. Destini and I were each other's 'firsts,' but that wasn't the funny part. It was that any girl would actually claim that she had been more intimate with me than she had - even under duress or extreme drunkenness. Indeed - the very fact that she would say such a thing seems to prove the claim false, since the few girls that I've actually been with would probably rather forget the experience - ha.

Anyway, I have to wake up in about six hours or less and I should get started on that Philosophy homework that would have been due tomorrow but which I will likely now hand in Thursday. It looks like it's going to suck. The Pearl Jam review is going to require some time, and may not get done now for another few days. I trust that Paul and Tia will enjoy the show in Philadelphia. I should have written that up tonight, but this little story had been on my mind lately.

If you've noticed a cease-fire in regard to the posting of NYT editorials, it's because they're now available only on a pay-to-read basis under the Times Select features, which I'm not happy about. Undoubtedly all my rich benefactors will read this and sign me up so that I may continue to provide good topical material for my faithful readers.... is it repetitive to say 'rich benefactors'? Are all benefactors rich?

Something for you to ponder. Good night.