Category - Friends
Something new
Tue Jan 31, 2012 22:19 (UTC -8)
The date: Friday, December 30. Kate and I walked to the beach from our host’s house. On the way, we stopped at a Walgreens to use the facilities and pick up some snacks. I happened to see a digital photo frame that could play video with sound, and I noticed that the demo clip of unrealistically happy and attractive women walking by themselves on beaches was accompanied by Brad Sucks‘ song “Dropping Out of School.” I would have expected to hear cheesy instrumental tunes, but someone out there has good taste in royalty-free music.
Anyway, we made it to the beach, and, as usually, I didn’t feel much like going into the water. It was just too cold for my blood. I really tried to go in, but I couldn’t stand it, so I was sitting on the sand again in no time (we didn’t bring a towel). The previous night, Kevin had told us that Broward County had launched a bicycle-rental program with stations in various places, and we found out that we’d be right near one of the stations, so when we were done at the beach, we checked it out.
There were some bikes locked up, and you could unlock one after swiping your credit card in this machine that was next to the bikes. So Kate and I each got one to ride around. The first thing I noticed was that the bikes were small and low to the ground; even Kate, who’s probably about average height for a person, found hers to be uncomfortable. The second thing I noticed was how sturdy and fully equipped they were. Each one had a basket, a bell, a lock, a light, fenders, three speeds, and other frills my childhood bicycles would have envied if only bicycles could feel. (I’ve always preferred single-speed bikes, so anything more than that seems lavish and unnecessary.)
But the best-equipped bicycle in the world can’t prepare you for a cruise down the bike lane of an American street. I had never actually ridden next to traffic before, and it was slightly unnerving. After we had gone a short distance, I proposed we turn back because it looked like the traffic next to us was only going to get worse. So, we brought our bikes back to be locked up again for someone else to use, except I guess I didn’t push mine into the locking thing all the way because I got charged an extra ten bucks on my credit card later.
That evening, our host made spaghetti for dinner, and then we all went out to a local bakery for coffee and light noms.
And then it was December 31. We were flying out from Miami International Airport, which I had never actually flown in or out of before. Early, early, early in the morning, we left our host’s place and took a taxi to the nearest Tri-Rail station, and then we took the Tri-Rail to the station before the airport because the station at the airport is closed, and then we had to take a connecting bus to the airport. Because the Tri-Rail doesn’t run very much on Saturdays, we had no choice but to get there very early. We were so far from MIA that I don’t even think we could have taken a taxi the whole way.
At the airport, I had time to dash off most of 2011: The Year in Review, and then we flew to Chicago. We had a long layover at O’Hare, but I didn’t want to go out into the city because it was cold and snowy and I didn’t want to have to go through security again. We managed to kill some time just by walking around and having a meal. And then we took good old Alaska Airlines back to Seattle.
Eventually, we were back at my place, and I was getting ready for guests to arrive for New Year’s Eve. I had been looking forward to this night for months since I knew I’d have one of the best views of the city’s fireworks show. Kate, understandably, wanted to enjoy the view of her eyelids, so she retired early as a few of my friends showed up. I tried to make sure it was nice and quiet for Kate (which was difficult, since several of the guys had already been partying), but Kate later said she didn’t hear a thing.
Three of my friends and I stood on the balcony and watched as dazzling fireworks erupted from the Space Needle for a good six or eight minutes. And so it was the new year.
Kate and I spent the first few days of the year buying things that she needed for cooking that I didn’t have. So now I actually have mixing bowls and pans and things like that. I had January 2 off because New Year’s Day was a Sunday, and then it was business as usual on January 3. I went to work, while Kate did her own thing. That week I had lunch with her every day, usually at home, but once she met me at work and we went to nearby 13 Coins.
Saturday, January 7, was the last night of Kate’s visit. In the evening, we went to see a foreign film (nothing romantic, just some boring movie about a kid) and then had a romantic dinner at Amore Infused. Since Kate wanted to make mulled wine after dinner and I didn’t have a corkscrew, we brought a bottle of wine with us and asked the waitress to uncork it. After our meal, we stealthily brought it home. (It was a good idea to eat there. I had never been there, it was great, and there was a fire in the kitchen a week later. It’s been closed since then.)
When we got home, Kate made mulled wine (I’m including the Wikipedia link since I had never heard of it), and we drank it out on the balcony. Even though it was cold outside, the mulled wine kept us warm. I didn’t think I would ever like hot wine, but it was pretty good. I managed to drink half a mug (I don’t have wine glasses), and I would like to have it again, when hopefully I’d be able to stomach more.
We slept for a few hours, and then it was almost time for Kate to go to the airport. I helped her pack (she’s a last-minute packer), and we headed there together. We arrived early, so we had a few minutes to kill before she had to go through to security. We savored those minutes, though I knew there would be many more soon.
Kate has quit her job in Russia and is coming here again on Friday. She’ll be staying with me for almost three months. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m excited for what the future holds.
Winter wonderland
Sun Jan 22, 2012 23:06 (UTC -8)
Last Sunday morning, I woke up and it was snowing outside. And I was like, whoa.
This was my first time seeing snow anywhere I’d actually lived. I’d only seen it on trips to DC and Russia. Seattle only gets 5.9 inches per year on average, so anytime it snows, it’s a big deal. A lot of the city shuts down because there aren’t a lot of snowplows and people don’t know how to drive in the stuff. Some people grumble and insist on going about their day as usual, but they seem to be the minority.
Anyway, as soon as I realized it was snowing, I went out on my balcony and took some pictures. I went out to breakfast at Top Pot with my friend Nick, and the snow had pretty much tapered off. But as soon as I got back to my apartment, it started coming down again. It snowed harder and harder and harder. Then Nick and I decided to go for a walk downtown while it was still snowing.
Phil Spector Christmas songs looped in my head. I was giddy. Snow makes me giddy because I missed it in my childhood, you see. It’s fun, and it’s funny—to see all these familiar sights frozen over and covered in snow. I’m not afraid to say that I made and threw snowballs. But I wasn’t the only one who was enjoying the snow. I saw three or four snowmen. Oh yeah, I also took a lot of pictures.
On Monday, most of my co-workers worked from home (that’s the great thing about having a computer-based job), so I followed suit on Tuesday; there was still a lot of snow around and nobody wanted to drive in it. On Wednesday, it snowed all day, so I worked from home again. Then, I realized that I didn’t have much of an excuse to be working from home since out of all my co-workers I’m the one who lives closest to work. So on Thursday and Friday, I was one of the few people to show up.
There was still a lot of snow around on Thursday night when Nick and I went out to celebrate his birthday, and the snow was all melty on Friday. But that night it started to get warmer, and by yesterday morning, almost all of the snow had disappeared.
It might not snow again for another year. The child in me is sad, but the adult part of me thinks it’s good that everyone will be back at work.
Here’s an interesting Lifehacker article about how to make better spending choices: The Comfort Principle.
Going south
Sat Jan 21, 2012 17:36 (UTC -8)
And now, as previously promised, kittens.
So it was two days after Christmas, and my aunt was taking Kate and me around Gainesville to see and do stuff. Before lunch, she took us to her work at No More Homeless Pets, which shares a facility with a couple of similar organizations. We passed by a room with some kittens in cages.
I would have been content with just looking at the kittens, but Kate wanted to go into the room with them. So, we went into the room. Then she wanted to hold one of the kittens, so my aunt opened one of the cages and let her pick one. Then she wanted to hold all of the kittens, so she picked up each one in turn. Also, I ended up holding some of them.
Later, we went to the bat houses on the UF campus to watch the bats fly out at dusk. Except we were really early for that, so we first checked out the nearby Baughman Center and watched the gators swimming around in Lake Alice. We also took a brief detour to my old apartment building because Kate wanted to see it. Having visited me there during her first three trips to the US, she had a rosier overall image of the place than I did. When she wasn’t there, I would spend most of my time avoiding strange roommates, eating pizza by myself, killing fleas, and not cleaning anything.
The next day, we set off for South Florida. My dad took the day off from work to drive us to Lakeland, and we took Amtrak the rest of the way. I had only taken Amtrak once before—namely, the express service between DC and Orlando for you and your car—so I didn’t have much of an impression of how it was. I knew that in Europe, you get assigned a seat when you buy a ticket. In the USA, or at least in Lakeland, they tell you where to sit when you get on the train, and they group you together by destination. They also write your destination on a piece of paper and stick it above your seat. It’s shameful.
It was time for a late lunch, so Kate and I went to the dining car. We lingered there for quite a while, and when we came back, some other people had been given our seats, so we had to find some other seats that were empty (though maybe they belonged to someone who was in the lounge car or whatever). Finally, we arrived in familiar old South Florida. I hadn’t been there in almost a year and a half.
Since none of my friends nor anyone on CouchSurfing could put us up, we fell back on the Passport Service. Count that as a perk of being an Esperantist; I was this close to dropping $400 on a hotel. So this Esperantist picked us up from the station and introduced us to his husband. We spoke Esperanto with each other, even as we went out for dinner at a pizza place. I hadn’t spoken it in a while, but it came rather easily.
The following day, Kate and I had a late lunch with my friends Nick and TJ. We went to this place on the beach that Kate had a Groupon for. It was nice to catch up with them. I wanted to spend more time with them, but they had to split because they both had to work that night. So Kate and I hung out on the beach for a little while, and then I called up my friend Kevin and asked if he wanted to hang out. He picked us up, and we went to take a stroll in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
None of us had ever been on the Water Taxi before, so flagged down one of their boats from the banks of the New River and rode the entire route, down the river, up the Intracoastal, and back. On the way, we got to see a lot of rich people’s huge houses, still decorated for Christmas, and unfamiliar views of familiar bridges and buildings. I’m very glad that we did it. It stops near some convenient places, like Las Olas Boulevard, and once you have a ticket, you can use it to get on and off for the rest of the day. Protip: tickets are $10 per person after 5 PM.
Possibly related link: Why Do Russians Smile So Seldom? For what it’s worth, I think Kate is smilier than the average Russian.
I’ll be home for Christmas
Mon Jan 09, 2012 22:58 (UTC -8)
Happy New Year, everybody. Hope it’s going well so far. Now gather round and I’ll tell you a story about how I spent the holidays.
Way too early in the morning on Saturday, December 24, I took a taxi to Seattle-Tacoma International Aiport. After a layover in Phoenix (spoiler alert for those who haven’t been there: the landscape is all brown), I found myself at good old Orlando International Airport, waiting for Kate to fly in and my family to pick us up.
After a long wait, Kate arrived and so did my parents and my sister. We set off back to my parents’ house, where we had some light noms for dinner and decorated the Christmas tree. Some people always decorate their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, but in my family we normally do it super early, so it was nice for my family to wait. My dad and/or mom had actually cut down the tree themselves since they live out in the relative wilderness now, near Christmas tree farms and things like that.
The next morning was Christmas morning, and, still jetlagged, I slept way in. By the time everyone woke up, it was time for a late breakfast, so we decide to eat before opening presents. Then we exchanged gifts. It was such a familiar feeling to me that it was hard to remember that I wasn’t home for Christmas the previous year. I normally dread giving gifts because I never know what to get, but this year I felt like I’d picked some winners. (I was really happy with the stuff I got, too. I’m surrounded by good gift-givers.) Later, other friends/family came over for a turkey dinner, and after that, more gifts were exchanged. It was a great Christmas.
The day after that was a pretty lazy day. My parents had the day off, so we all went for a hike nearby. It might have been pretty cold by my previous standards, but I found that after living in Seattle for less than a year, I could withstand the Florida winter a lot better. We probably did other things that day, but I don’t remember what they were.
On Tuesday, Kate wanted to explore nearby Gainesville, but my parents had to work. Fortunately, my Aunt Sandi volunteered to take us around, and we even visited some places I had never been to before. After going to Bealls Outlet (one of Kate’s favorite stores), we tried to go to the Devil’s Millhopper only to find that they were closed on Tuesdays. Nearby was a musical instrument store I had never been to, so we checked it out. We plinked around on a steel drum, surely to the delight of everyone who was working and shopping there, and I strummed some acoustic guitars for Kate.
For lunch, we went to The Jones, a local-type restaurant that I had wanted to go to with Kate during one of her previous visits (that time, we went to an Italian buffet instead). The food was great, and I’d love to go there again.
Well, that’s all I have to time to impart right now. Next time: kittens.
You probably know that certain societies (ours not being among them) have a lax attitude toward drinking alcohol. So it seems that the effects of alcohol are a self-fulfilling prophecy. The author of this article for the BBC suggests that if we make alcohol seem boring to kids, they’ll stop binge drinking and engaging in other drunken shenanigans.
2011: The Year in Review
Sat Dec 31, 2011 20:28 (UTC -8)
It wouldn’t be New Year’s Eve without my annual Year in Review! And of all the years I’ve been through (which isn’t really a lot, but bear with me), 2011 was definitely the biggest one yet. This Year in Review will be especially useful because in the past twelve months, I’ve presented many important happenings out of chronological order and/or much later than they actually happened.
In the days leading up to 2011, I had arrived in Russia to see Kate, first spending a few very busy days in Saint Petersburg before actually visiting her. Once we were together, she showed me around her hometown, and then, more relevant to this discussion, 2011 happened.
As you can see, I haven’t written much during the latter half of this year. I haven’t done very much during that time either. In 2012, I resolve to do more interesting things and to write more. We’ll see how that goes.
Happy New Year!
Stream of consciousness X
Wed Nov 23, 2011 23:23 (UTC -8)
Last week, I saw a pretty cool deal on a daily deal website: tickets to a comedy/music show featuring Rainn Wilson (from TV’s The Office) and special guests. It was $37, half off from the normal price, and included a copy of Rainn Wilson’s new book, Soul Pancake, for free. And it was at the Paramount Theatre, not far from my apartment. How could I say no?
I rounded up everyone I knew who wanted to come (i.e., a couple of people), and we went. Well, first we had a brief board game night at Mark’s place, and then we set out for dinner and then went to the show after that. It was pretty cool to be handed a free book along with our ticket, although the book wasn’t particularly interesting. I mean, I guess you would love it if you dig philosophy (paging Peter). It basically consists of a bunch of philosophical questions, and you’re supposed to ponder the answers and fill them in yourself, or something like that. There’s also a great deal of art on every page.
So that was something to look at as we sat in our seats. I wouldn’t have bought it, but yeah, it will look good on my shelf. By the way, our seats were pretty bad. We actually were given tickets for seats in the very last row, right in front of the sound people. Apparently the people giving out the daily-deal tickets were giving them out randomly, so if things had been different, we could have gotten much better seats just by coming earlier or later. (Or we could have gotten seats in the same row, of course.)
Anyway, eventually the show started. Phoenix Jones, Seattle’s (in)famous real-life superhero, talked about the bad press he’d received lately and decided to unmask himself… as Rainn Wilson! The real Phoenix Jones came out later and shared some of his more amusing missteps in his history of fighting crime. Of course, he kept the suit on and didn’t mention his real name, although it has been revealed in the press.
There was some music, including this band that was playing its second-to-last show, some pop guitar guy (you know the type), and the singer from the Decemberists (who played some sad country songs). In between those were monologues and dialogues with Rainn Wilson and others, including Mindy Kaling (also of TV’s The Office—she read from her new book) and Anna Faris. And in between those were videos: several by this foundation that the whole show was put on for, and a couple of blooper reels from recent episodes of The Office.
There were also raffles during the show. Prizes included gift certificates to local businesses (I think) and a Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson’s character on TV’s The Office) bobblehead signed by Rainn Wilson. (He humorously dismissed it as a meaningless prize.) Additional lulz were had when the impromptu decision was made to raffle off Mindy Kaling’s Seattle gear (she appeared onstage looking, in Rainn Wilson’s words, as if “grunge threw up”). A few minutes later, Mindy Kaling appeared onstage again to ask the lucky winner for her BlackBerry back; it had been in her ugly sweater or something.
So, what was the point of the whole thing? Well, apparently Rainn Wilson is from Seattle, and the purpose of the show was to draw attention to this group called the Mona Foundation that promotes education for kids (mostly girls) around the world. All the proceeds from the show went to the foundation, so I paid them half as much as I could have. That’s kind of amusing.
It’s really cool to live in a big city where big-name events like this are practically in my neighborhood. I look forward to many more (and hopefully more of my friends will want to go with me next time).
And now, here’s a mesmerizing time-lapse video of the Earth as seen from the International Space Station.
The Oregon trail
Thu Oct 20, 2011 22:45 (UTC -7)
After we graduated from high school, I stayed in Florida for college, and my friend Luke went to Oregon. Over the next three to four years, I hardly saw him, although we kept in touch. Now that I live in Washington, we’re a lot closer to each other, so recently he invited me down to visit. This past weekend, I took him up on his offer.
On Friday night, I went from Seattle to Eugene by bus, with an hour-long layover in Portland (where I was surprised by the pleasantly large and well-kept station). I arrived in Eugene at about 2:30 in the morning, and I called a cab company that Luke had given me the number for. It was taking a really long time for them to answer the phone, and I soon figured out why: it was 2:30 on a Friday night, prime taxi hours. But eventually, they picked up, and in a few minutes a taxi was there for me. So I made it to Luke’s place, and we chatted for about an hour. Then I went to bed. I was so tired that I almost wasn’t tired.
The next day was a typical Oregon day: the sky was solid white. Luke and I walked to the city center. At the Saturday Market, he introduced me to a guy called Frog, who showed me the array of joke books he had for sale. I bought one as a souvenir. And then, since it was already early afternoon and we hadn’t eaten anything, we went to a place called Bagel Sphere for a meal. I had a chicken salad sandwich with a bagel as the bread. It hit the spot.
After that, Luke took me for a brief hike up Skinner Butte, which overlooks Eugene. From there I got my first glimpse of the University of Oregon campus, and it was in that direction that we decided to mosey next. It was game day, so there were lots of people wearing the school colors, green and yellow. Later, off campus, Luke introduced me to a couple of his friends, and together we had dinner at a restaurant called Cornucopia. Then Luke and I headed back to his place for the night.
The following day, I got to meet Luke’s girlfriend, Carmela. Though it was already the afternoon when we went out, we felt like something breakfasty, so we went to this breakfast-type restaurant that’s supposed to have the best hangover food in town. I’ve never had a hangover, but I believe it. I had eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, and it was all delicious. Next, we went to a fancy but empty bar on a quiet street and drank mostly breakfast-type drinks at a table outside. Unlike the day before, it was perfectly clear and sunny, and by then, the sun was low in the sky. It was beautiful.
After that, as we approached the bus station, Luke was hungry again (maybe he didn’t eat a lot at the first restaurant, I don’t know), so we each had a slice of pizza at this pizza place. At that point, I had to get going. I thanked Luke for his hospitality and Carmela for her acquaintance. And then I got on another bus and was off.
I arrived back in Seattle after 1 AM. It was very cold, and the streets were completely empty. Everything seemed slightly alien to me, even my own apartment. But I went to sleep soon enough.
I’m glad that Luke and I aren’t so far apart anymore. Hopefully he’ll visit me in less than three to four years!
Want to pay more taxes? Uncle Sam accepts donations! The BBC has more info about “gifts to the United States Government” in case you’re interested.
My first vacation
Thu Sep 08, 2011 23:04 (UTC -7)
I just took an extra-long Labor Day weekend to visit my family. It was my first trip back to Florida since I moved to Seattle in May; it was also my first vacation as a full-time worker.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel once I finally got there, but everything ended up feeling really normal. It was as if I had never left and my life in Seattle had just been a dream.
I flew to Orlando on Thursday. My grandparents picked me up and took me to their house; I couldn’t remember the last time I had been there. Later, my parents arrived, and after we all had dinner at an Outback Steakhouse, I went with my parents back home, or to their house, or whatever I’m going to call it.
The next day, my sister joined us for Krishna Lunch at UF. I had alerted some former co-workers/friends that I’d be there, so they met with me during lunch. It was fun to catch up. After we were done eating, I went back to the office where I used to work so I could talk to my former supervisors and let them know how I was doing.
After that, we went to the Devil’s Millhopper. I had suggested going there simply because I had never been. It’s basically the remains of a giant sinkhole that you walk down to the bottom of. It’s more beautiful than it sounds like. And it’s pretty cool… literally!!
On Saturday, we went tubing down the Ichetucknee River and then got home in time to watch the Florida Gators’ first football game of the season. Sunday was a day for staying home and relaxing with a homemade brunch and all that good stuff. We didn’t go out.
On Monday, we went out for a little drive. Our first was stop a pottery gallery down the road. We met the artist and decided to buy a few of her works; I got a handmade mug. After that, we stopped at a few parks along the Suwannee River, one of which included a spring and an underwater cave. (No, we didn’t swim or dive there.)
Back at my parents’ house, I was looking forward to having s’mores over a campfire, but since it had been raining, we had s’mores over the grill instead. My sister suggested putting peanut butter on them. I did, and they tasted like Tagalongs! We’re on to you, Girl Scouts.
That evening, my grandparents came and spent the night. On Tuesday, while my parents were at work, my grandparents took me back to their house and then to the airport, where I was whisked back to my new life.
So yesterday was my first day back from work after a six-day weekend, and it felt strange: “I’ve been doing this for the past three months?” It’s been sinking in, though. Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out when I’ll go back next.
The BBC enumerates 10 Strange Ways Tudors Died. Life was dangerous back then, apparently.
All dressed up and nowhere to go
Sun Aug 28, 2011 23:20 (UTC -7)
Real life isn’t like TV. Either that or real life is just playing a trick on me, but I don’t know anyone whose life is like this: You have two best friends, one of the opposite sex, the other of a different race, and every day after work (if you even go to work), you all meet at the bar or at your house, and you have wacky, hilarious adventures. No, I’m pretty sure no one has ever lived like that at all in the history of anything ever.
Having friends around all the time: what an attractive idea it is. Well, is it really? I guess it depends on the kind of person you are. Society tells us we need to go out and interact with other people if we’re to be worth anything. Maybe they don’t say it outright, but I hear it. I can’t always be like that. I need to be alone sometimes. Sometimes I just don’t want to do anything. I think that’s normal.
I’ve been told, and I guess I believe, that here in my new city, I’ll slowly accumulate a new group of friends. I can see it starting. I’ve done a few things with some guys who graduated from my program at the same time as I did. They all came here to work at Microsoft. Through them I met another guy who also graduated from the same department at the same time. He lives in my apartment complex. We see each other at least twice a week, I’d say, and do fun stuff. He’s the only person I see with any regularity. Well, there’s also my friend Mark, but it’s not quite convenient for us to meet up as often.
People have been asking me if I’ve made any friends at work. I haven’t. I mean, my co-workers are great (well, were great… I’ll have to explain that one later. Oh, screw it, I’ll explain it now. A few weeks ago, I was moved to a different team that needs the help more. All my co-workers are different, and I’m doing different stuff. My job on this team involves working with other teams for a few months at a time. It gives me a chance to get a better idea of the various things that the company does, but it doesn’t do much for my friend-making prospects.), but yeah, there’s that thing I just mentioned. I guess I’m down with the interns, but one of them has already gone back to school.
Work isn’t like school. It’s really easy to make friends in school. You and your classmates are all pretty much coming from the same place, generationally, educationally, and socioculturally speaking. Being at work, it’s like I could be a first grader and everyone else is in sixth or above. That’s what it feels like sometimes (and probably actually was in 1995). To be sure, everyone I’ve worked with has been cool (including my manager), but I wouldn’t want to risk my professional relationships by having an innocent trip to the bar turn into something that would make morning greetings awkward. Hey, It Could Happen.
So, I know some people who work for Microsoft. That’s a start. I’ve gone to a community blog meeting, and I’ve patrolled the neighborhood with old and pseudonymous people, but it’s not enough. I’ve started a mailing list at work for people who live in my neighborhood, but I don’t know what to talk about. (My “Hey, let’s go to a bar,” which I was sure would get others to come out of the woodwork, turned into “Well, okay, I don’t really know what a good place would be… Okay… Tonight? Maybe that’s too short notice… Sometime next week, maybe? Maybe not…?”) Oh yeah, and I don’t have any hobbies… I mean, I wouldn’t really want to meet anyone with the same hobbies as me.
I thought that if I lived downtown, I’d have a lot of fun because there would always be things to do. I actually knew it wouldn’t be that easy, though. I knew I was going to have to force myself to get out there before it could become a normal, fun thing, and I just hoped that that would actually be possible. What I didn’t realize, I guess, is that it’s easier to do these things if you already have a lot of friends.
Don’t think I don’t like the friends I have here. I definitely do, and without them, I’d probably be an emotional wreck or something. It’s just that I don’t yet have as many friends as I’m used to having. Maybe I need to meet my friends’ friends. Maybe I need to—(a pause as I try to gain the composure necessary to utter this word without puking)—network. I hate that word, especially when it comes to making friends, because it’s sleazy and artificial and it has the word “work” in it. Making friends should not be work, but here I am overanalyzing it. Or am I?
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: I’ve been here for three months. I have a few friends. I feel like I could use some more, but I don’t know where to find them. I guess I do have to go out and look for them, although it seems hard. I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do to make that a little easier.
I could have sworn I’ve posted this link already, but I guess not: Literally Unbelievable, a blog featuring stories from satirical news site The Onion as (mis)interpreted by dummies on Facebook. Warning: This may cause you to lose faith in humanity if you haven’t done so already.
Tea for one
Thu Aug 25, 2011 23:10 (UTC -7)
The first time I had hot tea (outside of Chinese restaurants), I was with my friend Andy at his relatives’ house in suburban London. One afternoon, they switched on the electric kettle—the likes of which I had never seen before—and each of us soon had a mug of hot, leafy water. I put a some milk in mine, and then it tasted like milky, leafy water. I didn’t know how they could stand the stuff.
Later in my European travels, I met Kate. Since then, she’s visited me from Russia several times, and each time, she’s had lots of tea: Russians love it too. When she first asked me to make some for her, I didn’t even know how. That’s because I didn’t know a single person who drank it, and it’s not like people make tea on TV (otherwise it would be called Tea-V or something, I’m sure). When I visited her in Russia this past winter, her tea breaks became our tea breaks as I reluctantly picked the tea that tasted the least like tea (because it wasn’t technically a tea) and actually ended up kind of liking it.
So, I was in my apartment on an unseasonably cold Saturday six or eight weeks ago when I realized I could really go for a hot drink. That’s when I remembered the tea bags that were left over from Kate’s last visit. I got out a pot in which to boil water (because I didn’t have a kettle) and a glass (because I didn’t have a mug) and made myself a cup. It tasted pretty nasty, but at least it was hot. And that made my day a little better.
A few weeks later, I was at work, and once again, I felt like having a hot drink. It came down to coffee or tea. I try to avoid putting sugar in things, and I can’t stomach coffee without sugar, so I opted for tea. And then, a few days after that, I actually had the weird sensation of wanting to drink tea. I actually started liking the taste. I never thought this could happen to me, but it did.
Since then, I’ve been drinking two to four cups of tea every day at work. It’s great if I’m cold, or if I’m looking for a quick break, or if I just need a pick-me-up (inasmuch as tea actually picks anyone up). The kitchen at work has 17 kinds of tea, but I’ve mostly gravitated toward the black teas, in particular Bigelow English Teatime, Cinnamon Stick, and Constant Comment. I’ve also bought a box of each of those for drinking at home (having run out of the tea that was left over from Kate’s visit), as well as a kettle and some mugs. At home I sometimes drink it with milk, but there isn’t any at work, so I’ve learned to do without. (I’m not sure if half-and-half would be quite the same.)
So, there I am. I drink tea now. Have any of you ever fallen into a habit so unexpectedly? I’d like to hear I’m not the only one.
In the meantime, I’ll be thinking about the next time I get to see Kate. I imagine there will be lots of tea.
And now, here are The Best Obnoxious Responses to Misspellings on Facebook. Although they claim otherwise, teenagers apparently don’t have strong feelings about Hippocrates.