Tuesday, January 11, 2005

I was in a sparsely attended third year level databases class lecture. The professor’s lecture style was stuttering and hesitant, very hard to follow. One row in front of me sat a cute girl of Asian descent that looked vaguely familiar. The prof told an anecdote of how one of his grad students had trouble registering an account on a university database because his last name was just a single character, “O”. The girl in front of me said quietly but with enthusiasm, “That’s my last name! (with no trace of an accent)” and looked around a little for recognition. Apparently no one but myself choose to notice, so I said “Just like Karen”. She turned around and looked at me with the reply, “You like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s?” (I was thrilled she caught my reference). The best I could do was smile and nod, since the lecture was on and we weren’t too far from the front.   After class, I initiated additional chit chat by asking her what nationality O is (Korean). We walked over to the University Community Center together talking a little about class and agreeing that Fever to Tell is too short. We exchanged names, email and numbers under the comfortable guise of “If I need any help maybe you can help.”

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

She added me as an MSN messenger contact and sent me an enthusiastic “hi!”. The conversation was good. More free and relaxed due to that comfortable distancing effect instant messaging provides. She told me I looked funny but cute walking around with my gigantic headphones and bright red backpack. I found out she works week-end nights too as a waitress at a cafe that’s open very late. She makes a leap and asks me if I wanted to do something Thursday night. Stalling for time and thinking of my long distance gf, Merle, I ask “like what?”. “Coffee and a movie at my place? My roommates won’t mind.” I consent. The coffee shop and time are set.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

My long day of classes. By seven pm I was a little burnt out. Went home, had some leftover noodles and got ready. Chose well fitting black jeans and a nice collared buttoned shirt and my general purpose shiny black shoes. Well dressed enough for most London bars/nightclubs (which isn’t saying much) but I could have gone nicer. Took the bus to the coffee shop to arrive on time and saw I had dressed appropriately. She looked good, wearing an ankle length black skirt and white blouse. We had specialty coffee and easy, excellent conversation flowed. I felt very comfortable as I believe she did also. I had thought she was at least three years younger than me, I was delighted when I found out it was the other way around, she was 27. Her decision to go back to school and get her degree was due to her floundering for a while in the real world. I told her about my situation with Merle and her eyes dropped briefly but it didn’t seem to change anything.
We walked to a video store and picked out Chasing Amy. One I hadn’t seen for ages and she had never. We took the bus back to her third floor apartment. Two of her three roommates were in the living room area. One of them was a very short brown skinned guy who wasn’t wearing a shirt. He was sitting on an inflatable chair eating pungent junk food beside an equally short female roommate sitting on an inflatable couch. I laughed at the situation after an amused “Hi.”. There was obvious tension between the three roommates. A hushed but intense argument ensued between them over the use of the living room and I offered that we could just watch it at my place or call it a night. She grabbed something from her room and we walked through her neighborhood and campus to my place. It was warm and the walk was enjoyable.
I played the new Clem Snide album softly on my stereo to eliminate the ominous silence of my empty single bedroom apartment and offered her a drink. All I had for mixer was pepsi, so it was either, open one of the bottles of my Christmas gift wine, or pepsi-something. We each did a shot of straight Bacardi and laughed at my tiny TV. Two more shots of Bacardi and we were comfortable enough to watch the movie together on my turquoise couch. After it was over she asked me if there was anywhere we could smoke the weed she brought. We moved two chairs out onto my deck and enjoyed my ninth floor view and the unseasonable warm night. I walked her 3/4th of the way home, returned, posted a short blurb on Xanga, went to bed and lived happily ever after. The End.