Christmas and other fun
Shock, shock, horror, horror -- at least two of the flatmates actually do exist! One's the guy I passed like ships in the night a while ago: he was just leaving as I was coming in. His name is Tony and he's a second-year Art History student. The other one is Joq, as in Joaquin, and he's doing archaeology. Seems I just can't get away from historians and historical-types, but they're both bloody nice, so I'm not complaining. They took me out for a drink Saturday night, which actually had the potential to go really rather badly when Joq and I ended up in an incredibly compromising position on the lounge table after we got back, but -- what a turn-up for my luck not actually being consistently crap -- somehow managed to be all right after all. He collared me on Sunday morning and said, straight up, dead pleasant about it, "Look, about last night? You're awesome, you really are, but it's not gonna happen. I mean, unless you feel really strongly about it. Still friends, right?"
To which I say, "Oh God yes. I'm so glad you said that, or I was going to have to. Not really dating at the minute, see."
(Well, not dating the likes of him, who was going for a leg-over after a few drinks and one or two badly-placed sidelong looks on my part.)
"Me either," he says. "Long as we're clear. Tony and I'll be back just after New Year's, if you want to go have some drinks or something."
"No accidental snogging," I told him, "and you're on."
"Promise." He laughed, thank God, and that was it. Course, I'd spent half of Saturday night feeling guilty because that's just how I am (not to mention feeling a bit cheap, to boot -- and I don't really want to go into why I wound up flat on my back on the living room table with an archaeology student on top of me, thank sweet mother of mercy still fully clothed oh God I'd have died of shame otherwise. Probably something to do with being godawful hellish homesick but shh), so it was nice to have it all sorted out, find out he wasn't hoping for anything more any more than I was, and that we could still potentially be friends. They seem like nice blokes, both of them. I'll just have to remember not to look at Joq funny too much, or he might get ideas. Mind you, in fairness, we were both pretty drunk, and he obviously felt bad too, so maybe I should just try to get the hell over this one and sail cheerfully onward.
I've gone out and got the electric cello! Although the poor thing's playing second fiddle (...har har, not) to Val's double bass practise at the minute, what with the band and all. I'm still a bit buzzed from how well the show went -- Val seems to be really pleased with it as well, and we're doing internet link-up rehearsals while he's in New Orleans apparently (should be fun, since I have all the technological acuity of goldfish. Hopefully one of the other blokes will sort it all out), so we definitely haven't crashed and burned yet.
Mostly, I'm just trying to keep busy. It just hit me recently that I'm going to be on my own in a strange city over Christmas, which is a bit depressing, but I've got plenty to keep me occupied -- reading for university (erm, college), music practise, work in the tattoo parlour (which is going really well, by the way. I'm starting doing proper transfer work in the new year, instead of just drawing up the designs. Eventually I hope I might be doing ink-on-skin, but I think that's going to come after uni if at all -- I need to be able to concentrate on it a lot more fully than I can while I'm a college kid). It's making me kind of homesick, but I'm trying not to think about it, or I'll just get upset. I'll be all right, one way or the other. If there's anywhere in the world to be alone over Christmas, it's got to be NYC, right??
To which I say, "Oh God yes. I'm so glad you said that, or I was going to have to. Not really dating at the minute, see."
(Well, not dating the likes of him, who was going for a leg-over after a few drinks and one or two badly-placed sidelong looks on my part.)
"Me either," he says. "Long as we're clear. Tony and I'll be back just after New Year's, if you want to go have some drinks or something."
"No accidental snogging," I told him, "and you're on."
"Promise." He laughed, thank God, and that was it. Course, I'd spent half of Saturday night feeling guilty because that's just how I am (not to mention feeling a bit cheap, to boot -- and I don't really want to go into why I wound up flat on my back on the living room table with an archaeology student on top of me, thank sweet mother of mercy still fully clothed oh God I'd have died of shame otherwise. Probably something to do with being godawful hellish homesick but shh), so it was nice to have it all sorted out, find out he wasn't hoping for anything more any more than I was, and that we could still potentially be friends. They seem like nice blokes, both of them. I'll just have to remember not to look at Joq funny too much, or he might get ideas. Mind you, in fairness, we were both pretty drunk, and he obviously felt bad too, so maybe I should just try to get the hell over this one and sail cheerfully onward.
I've gone out and got the electric cello! Although the poor thing's playing second fiddle (...har har, not) to Val's double bass practise at the minute, what with the band and all. I'm still a bit buzzed from how well the show went -- Val seems to be really pleased with it as well, and we're doing internet link-up rehearsals while he's in New Orleans apparently (should be fun, since I have all the technological acuity of goldfish. Hopefully one of the other blokes will sort it all out), so we definitely haven't crashed and burned yet.
Mostly, I'm just trying to keep busy. It just hit me recently that I'm going to be on my own in a strange city over Christmas, which is a bit depressing, but I've got plenty to keep me occupied -- reading for university (erm, college), music practise, work in the tattoo parlour (which is going really well, by the way. I'm starting doing proper transfer work in the new year, instead of just drawing up the designs. Eventually I hope I might be doing ink-on-skin, but I think that's going to come after uni if at all -- I need to be able to concentrate on it a lot more fully than I can while I'm a college kid). It's making me kind of homesick, but I'm trying not to think about it, or I'll just get upset. I'll be all right, one way or the other. If there's anywhere in the world to be alone over Christmas, it's got to be NYC, right??