Cambridge Type Adventures
And now for something a little more substantial:
A Xenoful Adventure in Cambridge
20 to 12oo
With a lemon/blueberry loaf in my hands, I stood nervously on a doorstep waiting for someone to answer the door. Finally, a man with olive coloured skin and short dark hair answered the door. "Is Christopher home?" I asked. He just stared at me. Oh God. I was at the wrong house.
19 to 12oo
"I think he's still sleeping." Sigh of relief. "Was he expecting you?" Scruffy's dad gave me a questioning look. "Yes, I'm Marianne." I replied as confidently as possible. He smiled and said, "Well come on in Marianne! You can just wake him up, he's downstairs. So, he asked you to come over?" I stepped in and nodded. "Yes. Actually, I drove up from Uxbridge. Er... down." He raised his brows and smiled, "So, you're that Marianne!"
18 to 12oo
Scruffy's dad took me downstairs and woke up Scruffy for me. Scruffy sat up in bed, exposing a vair naked chest to moi and gave me a sleepy "Good morning." I gave the loaf to his dad and he went back upstairs. Scruffy pointed out a few things around his basement (still in bed) and then I asked nervously if I should wait up stairs while he got dressed.
12oo ish
I found my way into the backyard where Scruffy's parents and grandparents were sitting around a table. I introduced myself to everyone and Scruffy's granddad gave me his seat. Scruffy came out shortly after me and offered to show me around his house before he took a shower. So, I took the tour and had Scruffy promise to take a quick shower so that I wouldn't be left for the greater part of the day on my own.
I went back into the yard and sat down with Scruffy's dad and his grandmum. My conversation with them was mostly listening to his dad and his grandmum talk about music. His grandmum has a lovely accent though. She kind of reminds me of Sibil Faulty.
Sometime between noon and 1oo
Scruffy came out of the shower and sat beside me at the table. We were talking with his family when he suddenly cried out, "Oh no! I forgot to show you the backyard!" I laughed as he finished his tour by pointing out the pool and the barbeque.
I met his sister, Danielle, and his friend, Steve. Danielle left shortly after she shook my hand, but Steve ended up staying for the rest of the day. I was very glad that I had seen pictures of his friends before, so I knew what to expect/I had an easier time remembering names.
1oo
Scruffy, Steve and I are in the kitchen making breakfast. And by making breakfast, I mean Scruffy cooked while Steve and I kind of stood around. At one point Scruffy left to get something and asked me to make sure that Steve didn't burn down the kitchen. Steve then told me that he was probably the most compitent with fire of all of their group of friends and told me a couple of stories involving Scruffy and their friends that involved the loss of arm hair.
Half past 1oo
We enjoyed our breakfast, possibly lunch, of bacon, hashbrowns and toast. I mostly just had the toast, but Scruffy also made me tea (Strawberry, which he said he bought after having it at my house).
After breakfast, which could have been a lunch, Scruffy and Steve decided to take me around Cambridge. As we were walking down the street, Scruffy and Steve started talking about beards. Scruffy said that he had a little patch where no hair grew under his chin and showed it to me. "Yeah, I've got a patch too," said Steve as he pointed to a section under his jaw. "My patch is pretty big," I said patting my chin and cheeks. They burst out laughing. Our conversation drifted to the need to have a beard in thoughtful/chin-stroking moments.
Then it started to rain, so we all ran over and hid in the mall until the rain stopped. We checked out HMV and I asked Scruffy about the gerbil song on the Matt Mays CD. He couldn't remember the lyrics by heart, but he assured me that they were located on the back of the poster (Note: look up lyrics to the gerbil song). I told Scruffy about a boy in my DIY class that hadn't heard of Ska. "To be perfectly honest, I've only listened to one band myself," Scruffy replied. "Steve what was the name of the ska band we used to listen to in grade ten?" "Mad Caddies," I answered. "How the hell did you know that?" Steve asked with his mouth gaping. Scruffy laughed and said he had probably told me about the band before.
Scruffy mentioned something about someone wanting their ashes rocketed into space. I said that I'd like my ashes to be spread into a feeding frenzy of sharks (Note: Novee you are in charge of seeing this is done). Scruffy asked why I didn't want my body to be thrown in instead. I said that I'd like to spare my loved ones the trauma of seeing my body being ripped apart like that. Then they asked me what I wanted my last thoughts to be. They told me that they had previously come up with, "This better be in the newspaper tomorrow." Steve said that my last thoughts might have something to do with sharks. "Where are the buttons in the eyes!?" Scruffy suggested, making an allusion to the shark mythbuster episode. "This is a lot more painful than I thought it would be," Steve offered. (Note: "(unladylike word)!! The bungee line snapped!" Is what I'd like it to be, as I have always said that I wanted to be eaten by sharks in a freak bungee jumping accident in San Fransisco)
Next, we made are way over to the Value Village in Cambridge. Scruffy said it was our mission to find me a party shirt for later that night. However, after looking through racks of clothes, we came to the conclusion that party shirts don't have the same effect on females. Scruffy found a ridiculous nightgown and decided that I could have a party dress. Steve said, "I'm not going to lie, if I saw a girl wearing that at a party, I would NOT go anywhere near her." We eventually made our way back to the men's clothing section and I picked out a black dress shirt that had a small polka dot pattern on the outside, but ridiculous pink and purple stripes on the inside. We all agreed that the inside was much more fun that the outside, so Scruffy bought it and wore it inside out on the way home (He asked me to help him with his collar...)
We stopped in at a video game store next, but they didn't have what we were looking for so we went back to Scruffy's. On the way back it started pouring. Steve handed me my umbrella. "I don't know if that's a good idea when it's thundering outside," Scruffy said. "If I get struck by lightning," I started. "-I'll throw your body into a feeding frenzy of sharks," he replied. Then it really started pouring. I told them that I felt bad, but they said it was okay since it was my umbrella and I was wearing a t-shirt.
3oo ish
After Scruffy and Steve got changed, we all went into the basement to play Mario Kart Wii. Turns out, I suck at this game. Maybe it was just because I was the only one with the wiimote. Scruffy kept "chirping" at me while we played. "The secret is to not run into the walls, Toad," he'd say as I'd get stuck in a corner. "Well we could have won that battle if Toad had scored any points!" I was vair aware that he never called me by my name.
In the end, we were all extremely frustrated with the game (we agreed that Mario Kart 64 was still the best) and had to shut it off. We lazied about in his basement while it continued to thunder outside. We talked about absolutely nothing. Sometimes it was Scruffy and Steve telling me stories, other times it was Scruffy telling Steve a story about our Uxbridge hangouts. At one point, I mentioned that I had never been to Admirals and both them disowned me (especially considering I lived across the street from it last year). I think I won them back when I suggested the best way to tell your neighbours that you were a recovering child molester would be telling them so through singing telegram. This set off a discussion on inappropriate times to send a singing telegram. Scruffy came up with the situations and Steve would make jazz hands and sing the opening lines ("Some people live a long time! Others not so much~!").
Some time after 5oo
Scruffy's granddad came into the basement to tell us that dinner would be in five minutes. Then he found a drumstick and started tapping away at the drum set. He pointed to the bass guitar and told Steve to play along. Unfortunately, you can't really hear the bass unless it's plugged in. "Plug it in then!" his Granddad called as he beat the drums louder. "It'll be too loud, Granddad," Scruffy said, half-laughing. "Yes! Louder!" his granddad played louder. Scruffy laughed. "I'm the one they're going to yell at," he said.
Dinner Time
After getting a glass of water, Scruffy showed me to my seat at the dining room table. I imagine they have to eat every family meal at this table with the amount of people going in and out of their house at any given moment, but Scruffy said that his mum was "pulling out all the stops" for this dinner. We ate (insert appropriate name for dish here), which was spaghetti noodles cooked with olive oil, shrimp, and vegetables. His dad also made bruchetta and there was a salad on the table. Scruffy served me the pasta because it was in the middle of the table and he was closest to it. His dad offered me bruchetta, but I politely declined (I'm not so much a fan of the olives that were featured on this dish). Scruffy said, "You really don't like bread, do you?" I was shocked. "I love bread!" I replied. "Then why aren't you having any?" he asked. Then I was assaulted with hospitality, against which my "no, thank you"s were poor defense. By the end of dinner, I had managed to come out only having pasta (which I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed... even the shrimp!). I didn't feel too bad about this as I ended up eating more vegetables than Steve.
As we finished dinner, Danielle and her friends showed up (Note: Danielle had vanished somewhere in between breakfast, possibly lunch, and dinner). There were three girls, Danielle's boyfriend, and another boy (but I didn't meet him then as he quickly hid in the basement).
After Dinner Shenanigans...Time
By nothing short of a miracle, we managed to escape the large crowd of people for about an hour. During this time, Scruffy, myself and eventually Steve, hungout in the den (possibly living room). Scruffy showed me some photos in an album. There was one picture of him as a scout which reminded me a lot of the Luke when he was in scouts/John because both he and Scruffy had blond hair syndrome as kids. One of the pictures in the album was of one of Scruffy's parties for which he had a pinata that, I swear to Bob, was the exact pinata out of a craft book I used to have. Scruffy told me that he's always wanted to have a pinata but has been too lazy to make one (note: make Scruffy a pinata for his birthday).
I also got to hear some more rad stories. One of which basically highlighted the fact that Scruffy is probably about as competant a driver as is Becky. They told me that he accelerated into an intersection as the light was turning red and ended up cutting someone off. I laughed and said, "You just have to shout, 'Point of no return!' and you're good." Steve shook his head and explained that they had definitely not reached the point of no return. "I had enough time to say, 'This is not a good idea!' "
Blueberry Lemon Loaf Time
At some point we decided to join the adults (one of these days I will accept that I'm not a kid) for tea and my super delicious ultra awesome blueberry lemon loaf (which I never actually tasted). I know, I know. I should have taken a slice for myself (especially when they offered), but I was in nervous new environment mode and I was avoiding food like the plague. Liam (Danielle's boyfriend) told me that it was the best loaf he had ever tasted: I think I was supposed to take it that he was a conisieur of loafs. There were also a few more allusions to a possible bakeoff between Steve and I (apparently, he's the one who bakes in their group of friends).
The rest of the night was kind of entertaining and mildly uncomfortable. It was entertaining in that I got to hear more stories and I absolutely love listening to people, especially friends, tell stories about each other. It was mildly uncomfortable in that more and more people started joining the conversation. I'm sure you know this, or perhaps you don't, but I fail at social situations. Especially those situations where I know few people and even less context. So, I fell silent as Danielle's friends consumed the conversation. It's not that I didn't want to be part of the conversation, but I rarely talk if I haven't anything thoughtful to say... I hadn't anything thoughtful to say.
I felt like a bad guest, actually. I should have been more active in the conversation and all that jazz or at least attempted to look more comfortable in my surroundings. I did try, though! I was trying really hard the entire night to not be shy. Heh, kind of fell on my face toward the end.
10:30 ish
When the group decided to move the action to the basement I went up to Scruffy and told him that it was probably time I head home. His mum offered for me to stay the night (ha, Dad would kill me), but I politely declined. I was about to escape like a ninja into the night, when Scruffy told me that I had to say goodbye to everyone. Drat. Scruffy said all I had to do was wave and say "goodbye." So, he took me into the basement and I waved. ...no one noticed. "Say goodbye," he prompted. "Bye everyone?" I squeaked out. Then they all noticed. Naturally, Scruffy didn't let me escape after having said goodbye, though. He had to reveal my plans to escape like a ninja into the night.
This offended everyone.
I was chewed out! They were so mad with me! Steve said he would have driven all the way to Uxbridge to throw rocks at my window had I left without saying goodbye. One of Danielle's friends said, "I'm offended and I don't even live here!" I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure this conversation ended with my turning red and saying sorry a lot.
So, after my goodbyes, Scruffy walked me to my car and gave me a hug goodbye.
The end.
-Xenos
A Xenoful Adventure in Cambridge
20 to 12oo
With a lemon/blueberry loaf in my hands, I stood nervously on a doorstep waiting for someone to answer the door. Finally, a man with olive coloured skin and short dark hair answered the door. "Is Christopher home?" I asked. He just stared at me. Oh God. I was at the wrong house.
19 to 12oo
"I think he's still sleeping." Sigh of relief. "Was he expecting you?" Scruffy's dad gave me a questioning look. "Yes, I'm Marianne." I replied as confidently as possible. He smiled and said, "Well come on in Marianne! You can just wake him up, he's downstairs. So, he asked you to come over?" I stepped in and nodded. "Yes. Actually, I drove up from Uxbridge. Er... down." He raised his brows and smiled, "So, you're that Marianne!"
18 to 12oo
Scruffy's dad took me downstairs and woke up Scruffy for me. Scruffy sat up in bed, exposing a vair naked chest to moi and gave me a sleepy "Good morning." I gave the loaf to his dad and he went back upstairs. Scruffy pointed out a few things around his basement (still in bed) and then I asked nervously if I should wait up stairs while he got dressed.
12oo ish
I found my way into the backyard where Scruffy's parents and grandparents were sitting around a table. I introduced myself to everyone and Scruffy's granddad gave me his seat. Scruffy came out shortly after me and offered to show me around his house before he took a shower. So, I took the tour and had Scruffy promise to take a quick shower so that I wouldn't be left for the greater part of the day on my own.
I went back into the yard and sat down with Scruffy's dad and his grandmum. My conversation with them was mostly listening to his dad and his grandmum talk about music. His grandmum has a lovely accent though. She kind of reminds me of Sibil Faulty.
Sometime between noon and 1oo
Scruffy came out of the shower and sat beside me at the table. We were talking with his family when he suddenly cried out, "Oh no! I forgot to show you the backyard!" I laughed as he finished his tour by pointing out the pool and the barbeque.
I met his sister, Danielle, and his friend, Steve. Danielle left shortly after she shook my hand, but Steve ended up staying for the rest of the day. I was very glad that I had seen pictures of his friends before, so I knew what to expect/I had an easier time remembering names.
1oo
Scruffy, Steve and I are in the kitchen making breakfast. And by making breakfast, I mean Scruffy cooked while Steve and I kind of stood around. At one point Scruffy left to get something and asked me to make sure that Steve didn't burn down the kitchen. Steve then told me that he was probably the most compitent with fire of all of their group of friends and told me a couple of stories involving Scruffy and their friends that involved the loss of arm hair.
Half past 1oo
We enjoyed our breakfast, possibly lunch, of bacon, hashbrowns and toast. I mostly just had the toast, but Scruffy also made me tea (Strawberry, which he said he bought after having it at my house).
After breakfast, which could have been a lunch, Scruffy and Steve decided to take me around Cambridge. As we were walking down the street, Scruffy and Steve started talking about beards. Scruffy said that he had a little patch where no hair grew under his chin and showed it to me. "Yeah, I've got a patch too," said Steve as he pointed to a section under his jaw. "My patch is pretty big," I said patting my chin and cheeks. They burst out laughing. Our conversation drifted to the need to have a beard in thoughtful/chin-stroking moments.
Then it started to rain, so we all ran over and hid in the mall until the rain stopped. We checked out HMV and I asked Scruffy about the gerbil song on the Matt Mays CD. He couldn't remember the lyrics by heart, but he assured me that they were located on the back of the poster (Note: look up lyrics to the gerbil song). I told Scruffy about a boy in my DIY class that hadn't heard of Ska. "To be perfectly honest, I've only listened to one band myself," Scruffy replied. "Steve what was the name of the ska band we used to listen to in grade ten?" "Mad Caddies," I answered. "How the hell did you know that?" Steve asked with his mouth gaping. Scruffy laughed and said he had probably told me about the band before.
Scruffy mentioned something about someone wanting their ashes rocketed into space. I said that I'd like my ashes to be spread into a feeding frenzy of sharks (Note: Novee you are in charge of seeing this is done). Scruffy asked why I didn't want my body to be thrown in instead. I said that I'd like to spare my loved ones the trauma of seeing my body being ripped apart like that. Then they asked me what I wanted my last thoughts to be. They told me that they had previously come up with, "This better be in the newspaper tomorrow." Steve said that my last thoughts might have something to do with sharks. "Where are the buttons in the eyes!?" Scruffy suggested, making an allusion to the shark mythbuster episode. "This is a lot more painful than I thought it would be," Steve offered. (Note: "(unladylike word)!! The bungee line snapped!" Is what I'd like it to be, as I have always said that I wanted to be eaten by sharks in a freak bungee jumping accident in San Fransisco)
Next, we made are way over to the Value Village in Cambridge. Scruffy said it was our mission to find me a party shirt for later that night. However, after looking through racks of clothes, we came to the conclusion that party shirts don't have the same effect on females. Scruffy found a ridiculous nightgown and decided that I could have a party dress. Steve said, "I'm not going to lie, if I saw a girl wearing that at a party, I would NOT go anywhere near her." We eventually made our way back to the men's clothing section and I picked out a black dress shirt that had a small polka dot pattern on the outside, but ridiculous pink and purple stripes on the inside. We all agreed that the inside was much more fun that the outside, so Scruffy bought it and wore it inside out on the way home (He asked me to help him with his collar...)
We stopped in at a video game store next, but they didn't have what we were looking for so we went back to Scruffy's. On the way back it started pouring. Steve handed me my umbrella. "I don't know if that's a good idea when it's thundering outside," Scruffy said. "If I get struck by lightning," I started. "-I'll throw your body into a feeding frenzy of sharks," he replied. Then it really started pouring. I told them that I felt bad, but they said it was okay since it was my umbrella and I was wearing a t-shirt.
3oo ish
After Scruffy and Steve got changed, we all went into the basement to play Mario Kart Wii. Turns out, I suck at this game. Maybe it was just because I was the only one with the wiimote. Scruffy kept "chirping" at me while we played. "The secret is to not run into the walls, Toad," he'd say as I'd get stuck in a corner. "Well we could have won that battle if Toad had scored any points!" I was vair aware that he never called me by my name.
In the end, we were all extremely frustrated with the game (we agreed that Mario Kart 64 was still the best) and had to shut it off. We lazied about in his basement while it continued to thunder outside. We talked about absolutely nothing. Sometimes it was Scruffy and Steve telling me stories, other times it was Scruffy telling Steve a story about our Uxbridge hangouts. At one point, I mentioned that I had never been to Admirals and both them disowned me (especially considering I lived across the street from it last year). I think I won them back when I suggested the best way to tell your neighbours that you were a recovering child molester would be telling them so through singing telegram. This set off a discussion on inappropriate times to send a singing telegram. Scruffy came up with the situations and Steve would make jazz hands and sing the opening lines ("Some people live a long time! Others not so much~!").
Some time after 5oo
Scruffy's granddad came into the basement to tell us that dinner would be in five minutes. Then he found a drumstick and started tapping away at the drum set. He pointed to the bass guitar and told Steve to play along. Unfortunately, you can't really hear the bass unless it's plugged in. "Plug it in then!" his Granddad called as he beat the drums louder. "It'll be too loud, Granddad," Scruffy said, half-laughing. "Yes! Louder!" his granddad played louder. Scruffy laughed. "I'm the one they're going to yell at," he said.
Dinner Time
After getting a glass of water, Scruffy showed me to my seat at the dining room table. I imagine they have to eat every family meal at this table with the amount of people going in and out of their house at any given moment, but Scruffy said that his mum was "pulling out all the stops" for this dinner. We ate (insert appropriate name for dish here), which was spaghetti noodles cooked with olive oil, shrimp, and vegetables. His dad also made bruchetta and there was a salad on the table. Scruffy served me the pasta because it was in the middle of the table and he was closest to it. His dad offered me bruchetta, but I politely declined (I'm not so much a fan of the olives that were featured on this dish). Scruffy said, "You really don't like bread, do you?" I was shocked. "I love bread!" I replied. "Then why aren't you having any?" he asked. Then I was assaulted with hospitality, against which my "no, thank you"s were poor defense. By the end of dinner, I had managed to come out only having pasta (which I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed... even the shrimp!). I didn't feel too bad about this as I ended up eating more vegetables than Steve.
As we finished dinner, Danielle and her friends showed up (Note: Danielle had vanished somewhere in between breakfast, possibly lunch, and dinner). There were three girls, Danielle's boyfriend, and another boy (but I didn't meet him then as he quickly hid in the basement).
After Dinner Shenanigans...Time
By nothing short of a miracle, we managed to escape the large crowd of people for about an hour. During this time, Scruffy, myself and eventually Steve, hungout in the den (possibly living room). Scruffy showed me some photos in an album. There was one picture of him as a scout which reminded me a lot of the Luke when he was in scouts/John because both he and Scruffy had blond hair syndrome as kids. One of the pictures in the album was of one of Scruffy's parties for which he had a pinata that, I swear to Bob, was the exact pinata out of a craft book I used to have. Scruffy told me that he's always wanted to have a pinata but has been too lazy to make one (note: make Scruffy a pinata for his birthday).
I also got to hear some more rad stories. One of which basically highlighted the fact that Scruffy is probably about as competant a driver as is Becky. They told me that he accelerated into an intersection as the light was turning red and ended up cutting someone off. I laughed and said, "You just have to shout, 'Point of no return!' and you're good." Steve shook his head and explained that they had definitely not reached the point of no return. "I had enough time to say, 'This is not a good idea!' "
Blueberry Lemon Loaf Time
At some point we decided to join the adults (one of these days I will accept that I'm not a kid) for tea and my super delicious ultra awesome blueberry lemon loaf (which I never actually tasted). I know, I know. I should have taken a slice for myself (especially when they offered), but I was in nervous new environment mode and I was avoiding food like the plague. Liam (Danielle's boyfriend) told me that it was the best loaf he had ever tasted: I think I was supposed to take it that he was a conisieur of loafs. There were also a few more allusions to a possible bakeoff between Steve and I (apparently, he's the one who bakes in their group of friends).
The rest of the night was kind of entertaining and mildly uncomfortable. It was entertaining in that I got to hear more stories and I absolutely love listening to people, especially friends, tell stories about each other. It was mildly uncomfortable in that more and more people started joining the conversation. I'm sure you know this, or perhaps you don't, but I fail at social situations. Especially those situations where I know few people and even less context. So, I fell silent as Danielle's friends consumed the conversation. It's not that I didn't want to be part of the conversation, but I rarely talk if I haven't anything thoughtful to say... I hadn't anything thoughtful to say.
I felt like a bad guest, actually. I should have been more active in the conversation and all that jazz or at least attempted to look more comfortable in my surroundings. I did try, though! I was trying really hard the entire night to not be shy. Heh, kind of fell on my face toward the end.
10:30 ish
When the group decided to move the action to the basement I went up to Scruffy and told him that it was probably time I head home. His mum offered for me to stay the night (ha, Dad would kill me), but I politely declined. I was about to escape like a ninja into the night, when Scruffy told me that I had to say goodbye to everyone. Drat. Scruffy said all I had to do was wave and say "goodbye." So, he took me into the basement and I waved. ...no one noticed. "Say goodbye," he prompted. "Bye everyone?" I squeaked out. Then they all noticed. Naturally, Scruffy didn't let me escape after having said goodbye, though. He had to reveal my plans to escape like a ninja into the night.
This offended everyone.
I was chewed out! They were so mad with me! Steve said he would have driven all the way to Uxbridge to throw rocks at my window had I left without saying goodbye. One of Danielle's friends said, "I'm offended and I don't even live here!" I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure this conversation ended with my turning red and saying sorry a lot.
So, after my goodbyes, Scruffy walked me to my car and gave me a hug goodbye.
The end.
-Xenos