(no subject)
About a month ago, I received an e-mail from a fellow professor in a different college here. He was planning to use the life of JKR as a case study in one of his courses, and while researching Harry Potter stuff, he came across my name. So he e-mailed me, apparently the resident Harry Potter expert, to ask if I'd be willing to talk with him about JKR's life and work. He seemed to think this was a truly bizarre request (pfft--hardly), but his e-mail was polite.
I, of course, promptly forgot to reply.
Fast-forward to two weeks ago. I was frantically trying to get my stuff together for class, which was starting in 2 minutes, when someone knocks on my open office door. I assumed he was yet another book-buyer (GO AWAY, BOOK BUYERS, I'M NOT SELLING), so I was fairly cold to begin with. But he turns out to be the e-mail sender. At which point I become flustered, b/c I want to be polite, but I have class in 3.5 seconds, and...yeah.
Exchange of e-mails apologizing for rudeness and promising to get together soon.
Last week, as I am coming in from downstairs, having just warmed up my leftover jambalaya for my lunch, he's lurking outside my office. (Okay, "lurking" is perhaps unfair.) He sees that I'm eating and, again, apologizes. I'm tired from teaching and need to unwind mentally, so I don't ask him to hang out and talk JKR. But as he's leaving, I notice his hat.
"Is that...a Mariners hat? Are you a Mariners fan?"
Turns out he's a big fan of the Pacific Northwest and wants to live there some day. So we have a short conversation about that, once I say that I'm from Seattle and just got back from there.
After all this back-and-forth, on Thursday night he asks me to have coffee or dinner with him on Saturday. This seems like a good way to have the meeting without having to deal with my teaching schedule, so I agree, and we met at Starbucks on Saturday afternoon.
We met at 3:30. I didn't get home until almost 10. We did talk about JKR, but we also talked about the hilarious awfulness of the institution that employs us, about the PNW, about books and movies, etc. It was a nice time. At like 6 or 7, we decided to get some dinner, since it was dinner time. He paid, though he said if we had dinner again I could pay, which seems fair. And he walked me to my car, which was polite. And surprising.
As I said, a really nice time. So of course I'm totally weirded out by it now. See, if he'd been a woman, gay, significantly older, or a married man, I'd be like, "Awesome, I made a new friend! Yay!" But since he is really none of the above (older, definitely, but not so much older that I can put him in the "old enough to be my father" category, and possibly not involved with anyone at the moment), I get weird. B/c I almost never have male friends who aren't in the "safe" categories listed above. And if this had potential for more (I have no idea), I...don't know how to deal with that. He e-mailed me later and said we should get together again--maybe a walk in a local park that I can't seem to find. (I swear it's like it's hiding from me.)
I really just had a strange weekend. I mean, I went out for dinner twice, and never paid a dime. Which is odd for me anyway, b/c I usually insist on paying for myself. But sometimes that's rude, and...yeah.
I, of course, promptly forgot to reply.
Fast-forward to two weeks ago. I was frantically trying to get my stuff together for class, which was starting in 2 minutes, when someone knocks on my open office door. I assumed he was yet another book-buyer (GO AWAY, BOOK BUYERS, I'M NOT SELLING), so I was fairly cold to begin with. But he turns out to be the e-mail sender. At which point I become flustered, b/c I want to be polite, but I have class in 3.5 seconds, and...yeah.
Exchange of e-mails apologizing for rudeness and promising to get together soon.
Last week, as I am coming in from downstairs, having just warmed up my leftover jambalaya for my lunch, he's lurking outside my office. (Okay, "lurking" is perhaps unfair.) He sees that I'm eating and, again, apologizes. I'm tired from teaching and need to unwind mentally, so I don't ask him to hang out and talk JKR. But as he's leaving, I notice his hat.
"Is that...a Mariners hat? Are you a Mariners fan?"
Turns out he's a big fan of the Pacific Northwest and wants to live there some day. So we have a short conversation about that, once I say that I'm from Seattle and just got back from there.
After all this back-and-forth, on Thursday night he asks me to have coffee or dinner with him on Saturday. This seems like a good way to have the meeting without having to deal with my teaching schedule, so I agree, and we met at Starbucks on Saturday afternoon.
We met at 3:30. I didn't get home until almost 10. We did talk about JKR, but we also talked about the hilarious awfulness of the institution that employs us, about the PNW, about books and movies, etc. It was a nice time. At like 6 or 7, we decided to get some dinner, since it was dinner time. He paid, though he said if we had dinner again I could pay, which seems fair. And he walked me to my car, which was polite. And surprising.
As I said, a really nice time. So of course I'm totally weirded out by it now. See, if he'd been a woman, gay, significantly older, or a married man, I'd be like, "Awesome, I made a new friend! Yay!" But since he is really none of the above (older, definitely, but not so much older that I can put him in the "old enough to be my father" category, and possibly not involved with anyone at the moment), I get weird. B/c I almost never have male friends who aren't in the "safe" categories listed above. And if this had potential for more (I have no idea), I...don't know how to deal with that. He e-mailed me later and said we should get together again--maybe a walk in a local park that I can't seem to find. (I swear it's like it's hiding from me.)
I really just had a strange weekend. I mean, I went out for dinner twice, and never paid a dime. Which is odd for me anyway, b/c I usually insist on paying for myself. But sometimes that's rude, and...yeah.