oh, sigh
Good things happened today. I will list them as they reoccur to me.
Got my Arthur paper turned in. Woots and huzzahs. I think it came out okay, hopefully an A- at the least, or I will feel like a douche for putting some much time and effort into an assignment only worth 10% of my grade. What can I say, though? I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things I know I can do if I just put in that time and effort. Anyway, nearly fell asleep working on it last night, so put off the conclusion and final edit until today, and then the time I set aside to work on it, I got sidetracked at that point because of good things that happened...
I heard from Miura-san!!! It was amazing. Best e-mail of the month right there, and all it basically said was the usual vague Japanese letter stuff: "Fall has come to Yamaguchi," "Yamato is well," "Masato is well," "Masato turned three," etc. I wrote back to them right away, and then Shoko came and joined me (we were in Jazzman's), and she helped me smooth out my grammar and such, which was awesome.
Then I ordered some fresh coffee. And as I was waiting for the coffee to finish dripping (yuumm), my crush comes up on my right side and says something along the lines of "Well, hello, S.H." I think I recall him saying my full name. I hope he did. There's something delightfully flirtatious in that, and shows that he knows who I am, which, seriously, is a step in the right direction.
But, oh, the best part of it. The best part. He smiled at me for free. I didn't have to initiate the conversation or try to dazzle him or anything out of the ordinary. I was just waiting for my coffee, not feeling particularly cute or pretty or anything, thrilled about my Miura-san e-mail, but other than that tired as hell and preoccupied with how and when to finish up my damn Arthur paper, and there he came! And he smiled! Just for me without me having to prompt it or anything! It was pretty sweet. I have no idea what we talked about or whether I sounded cute or funny or smart or anything like that, but I grinned at him a lot, and that was all I could really convey at that time.
Oh, lame ass thing I did: he was ripping up his receipt, and I put out my hand and offered to recycle it for him. He asked where, and I said I just put paper items in my backpack and then recycled them later, that it was kind of an anal thing I did. He said, "Little bit?" And I said, "Yeah. Little bit." I'm not sure why the hell this even happened. As I said, I was tired, preoccupied, and quite honestly, entirely astounded that he was even initiating conversation with me.
So then I went back to my table and sat down, and I showed Shoko some pictures of the Miura family, and then we were looking at some of my other photos from Japan, and we were talking about them and stuff, and I was focusing on so many things at once. One, with the unexpected e-mail from Miura-san, I had a sudden desire to relive some of my Japanese experiences and practice my Japanese with Shoko. Two, I wanted to chat with Shoko since we both had some free time. And three, which I'm sorry to say probably affected my behavior the most, Cutey McCuterpants was sitting at the table behind us, and I wanted to sound cool by speaking in Japanese. Ugh, I was totally trying to show off, and...he probably didn't give a rat's ass. It's kind of funny, but at the same time oh-so-silly.
Anyway, it's not such a huge deal. My "ultimate goal" is not so lofty as to date the boy (he's not a boy in appearance, though--oh, my goodness no); rather, my intention is to become friends with him. To become friends with he who is not so peopley as to open himself up to strangers. He who only talks to you if you talk first. He who very much has the asshole exterior, but then he smiles, and you just know that something else is there, and you want to know what it is and how far it goes.
I'm not infatuated. Just curious. Odds of anything happening are pretty small. Odds of becoming friends, though, not too bad. Certainly we could be friendly acquaintances by year's end. And that wouldn't be too bad.
I have dubbed him my project. He is not my first, nor will he be my last, because picking people out to "work on" is an interesting hobby to keep everyday feeling new and in its own minute ways purposeful. I'm not sure if that makes sense--I'm so tired--but I think the gist of the thought is in there somewhere.
I also had a good workout today. When I got back to my room, I noticed that my legs were tingling. I love it when my legs tingle. Makes me feel human.
Anyway, need to get some sleep. Probably won't dream tonight--too tired for it.
But I keep unintentionally dreaming during the day anyway, so it all evens out, I guess.
Oh, and people thought I sounded smart today in Brit. Lit. when I said the Wife of Bath is really Machiavellian in her behavior with her three good husbands. Of course, it's not hard to sound smart in a class made up mostly of freshmen. I've got three years and an abroad experience on their froshy little asses, after all. I like having classes with freshmen, though. Boosts my self-esteem every now and then because my fellow seniors and I don't give a shit what any of us says. Classes are sixty minutes in which to zone the hell out and for which to turn in bull crap papers.
Did I mention I made a 50/50 on the reader response paper for the book I never read or even came into contact with? Yeah. Muchas gracias, wikipedia.
I'm just auditing the class anyway, so the assignments really have no bearing on anything. I just wanted to soak up some info about children's literature and how it's constructed and stuff and other interesting things. Writing book reports and reader's responses and picture book reading journals--that's all the stuff I have to do to pass the audit. That, and participate actively in the class.
Which, I have discovered, I am awesome at doing even when I haven't done a lick of the reading.
My English major is so teaching me how to get by in this world. Heh.
Anyway, for the second time (or maybe third time?), really need to go to bed. Good God, I can't even think straight. Nearly fell asleep on the toilet. What a Mom thing for me to do. heh heh heh
Got my Arthur paper turned in. Woots and huzzahs. I think it came out okay, hopefully an A- at the least, or I will feel like a douche for putting some much time and effort into an assignment only worth 10% of my grade. What can I say, though? I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things I know I can do if I just put in that time and effort. Anyway, nearly fell asleep working on it last night, so put off the conclusion and final edit until today, and then the time I set aside to work on it, I got sidetracked at that point because of good things that happened...
I heard from Miura-san!!! It was amazing. Best e-mail of the month right there, and all it basically said was the usual vague Japanese letter stuff: "Fall has come to Yamaguchi," "Yamato is well," "Masato is well," "Masato turned three," etc. I wrote back to them right away, and then Shoko came and joined me (we were in Jazzman's), and she helped me smooth out my grammar and such, which was awesome.
Then I ordered some fresh coffee. And as I was waiting for the coffee to finish dripping (yuumm), my crush comes up on my right side and says something along the lines of "Well, hello, S.H." I think I recall him saying my full name. I hope he did. There's something delightfully flirtatious in that, and shows that he knows who I am, which, seriously, is a step in the right direction.
But, oh, the best part of it. The best part. He smiled at me for free. I didn't have to initiate the conversation or try to dazzle him or anything out of the ordinary. I was just waiting for my coffee, not feeling particularly cute or pretty or anything, thrilled about my Miura-san e-mail, but other than that tired as hell and preoccupied with how and when to finish up my damn Arthur paper, and there he came! And he smiled! Just for me without me having to prompt it or anything! It was pretty sweet. I have no idea what we talked about or whether I sounded cute or funny or smart or anything like that, but I grinned at him a lot, and that was all I could really convey at that time.
Oh, lame ass thing I did: he was ripping up his receipt, and I put out my hand and offered to recycle it for him. He asked where, and I said I just put paper items in my backpack and then recycled them later, that it was kind of an anal thing I did. He said, "Little bit?" And I said, "Yeah. Little bit." I'm not sure why the hell this even happened. As I said, I was tired, preoccupied, and quite honestly, entirely astounded that he was even initiating conversation with me.
So then I went back to my table and sat down, and I showed Shoko some pictures of the Miura family, and then we were looking at some of my other photos from Japan, and we were talking about them and stuff, and I was focusing on so many things at once. One, with the unexpected e-mail from Miura-san, I had a sudden desire to relive some of my Japanese experiences and practice my Japanese with Shoko. Two, I wanted to chat with Shoko since we both had some free time. And three, which I'm sorry to say probably affected my behavior the most, Cutey McCuterpants was sitting at the table behind us, and I wanted to sound cool by speaking in Japanese. Ugh, I was totally trying to show off, and...he probably didn't give a rat's ass. It's kind of funny, but at the same time oh-so-silly.
Anyway, it's not such a huge deal. My "ultimate goal" is not so lofty as to date the boy (he's not a boy in appearance, though--oh, my goodness no); rather, my intention is to become friends with him. To become friends with he who is not so peopley as to open himself up to strangers. He who only talks to you if you talk first. He who very much has the asshole exterior, but then he smiles, and you just know that something else is there, and you want to know what it is and how far it goes.
I'm not infatuated. Just curious. Odds of anything happening are pretty small. Odds of becoming friends, though, not too bad. Certainly we could be friendly acquaintances by year's end. And that wouldn't be too bad.
I have dubbed him my project. He is not my first, nor will he be my last, because picking people out to "work on" is an interesting hobby to keep everyday feeling new and in its own minute ways purposeful. I'm not sure if that makes sense--I'm so tired--but I think the gist of the thought is in there somewhere.
I also had a good workout today. When I got back to my room, I noticed that my legs were tingling. I love it when my legs tingle. Makes me feel human.
Anyway, need to get some sleep. Probably won't dream tonight--too tired for it.
But I keep unintentionally dreaming during the day anyway, so it all evens out, I guess.
Oh, and people thought I sounded smart today in Brit. Lit. when I said the Wife of Bath is really Machiavellian in her behavior with her three good husbands. Of course, it's not hard to sound smart in a class made up mostly of freshmen. I've got three years and an abroad experience on their froshy little asses, after all. I like having classes with freshmen, though. Boosts my self-esteem every now and then because my fellow seniors and I don't give a shit what any of us says. Classes are sixty minutes in which to zone the hell out and for which to turn in bull crap papers.
Did I mention I made a 50/50 on the reader response paper for the book I never read or even came into contact with? Yeah. Muchas gracias, wikipedia.
I'm just auditing the class anyway, so the assignments really have no bearing on anything. I just wanted to soak up some info about children's literature and how it's constructed and stuff and other interesting things. Writing book reports and reader's responses and picture book reading journals--that's all the stuff I have to do to pass the audit. That, and participate actively in the class.
Which, I have discovered, I am awesome at doing even when I haven't done a lick of the reading.
My English major is so teaching me how to get by in this world. Heh.
Anyway, for the second time (or maybe third time?), really need to go to bed. Good God, I can't even think straight. Nearly fell asleep on the toilet. What a Mom thing for me to do. heh heh heh