Becoming a Regular

Last night, in typical Friday night fashion, I went to a bar to hang out with a bunch of my fellow graduate students to celebrate the ending of the week.  We always go to the same bar, and every week I show up with my wallet in hand, ready to show my ID to the man at the door.

So, when I went to pull my ID from my wallet, I was surprised to hear, "It's okay. I recognize you."

It's official...I have become a regular.

Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but I am rarely a regular.  There are a few restaurants back home that recognize my family and know me well enough to say hi to me when I am not with my parents., but I am just known by association.  I realize there are some coffee shops, bars, restaurants or other stores that might recognize me, but they never mention that I am familiar to them.  The ONLY other time I have been greeted with familiarity is by a worker in Taco Bell.  TACO BELL, of all places.  I can't say I am particularly proud that one of the drive-thru workers was able to say, "Hey! It's you! I haven't seen you in awhile," but there is still a welcoming feeling to being recognized.

I can now ad one more place to my regular hangouts...at least my life has some consistency!

"You Are So Beautiful..."

"...besides the features you got from your father."

Yet another awesome bit of conversation I overheard, except this time it was in the middle of the student union.

While enjoying lunch on campus, a girl (who I can only assume is a college student) decided  to share this statement with her two friends.  All three laughed, so I am not sure what context the sentence was really meant in, but really?

I don't know how you even come up with a sentence like that.  The idea of beauty is based on an individual perception, which can be influenced by society, but for the most part still comes down to what an single person finds attractive.  That being said, to tell someone they are beautiful implies that the beauty is collective, encompassing the physical, and sometimes personality, traits of that person.  It seems pretty ridiculous that someone would call someone beautiful, only to then restrict this beauty to certain features (whether they are physical or not).  Why not just say the person has beautiful eyes or hair or teeth and just start with the specific instead of creating this circumstantial compliment?  It seems like a slap in the face to whoever is being addressed.

And yet, the restriction goes a step further to include only traits which were inherited from the subject's father.  Why only the father's traits?  Are they so distinct, so clearly "not beautiful", that they can be pointed to as the blemishes in this person's beauty?

Of course, I am over-analyzing what is probably an inside joke among friends.  But if you are going to have loud conversations in public, then you should anticipate being heard and judged.

Coffee Shop Chatter

So, I spend a lot of time in coffee shops attempting to do homework. (How very English major of me, right?)  Notice I said ATTEMPTING to do homework.  As a procrastinator, I often go out of my way to find some excuse to postpone working on assignments that need to get done.

When I start looking for things to distract myself, one of the first things I notice are the conversations that people are having.  It amazes me what people will talk about in coffee shops or just anywhere that they can be easily overheard.  I am sure that I have interesting conversations with my friends (in fact, I know I do), and that any person who may overhear these conversations is either greatly entertained or perplexed at the things we talk about.  Nonetheless, I have decided that the great bits of conversation that I overhear need to be shared with others.  So here is the first of (hopefully) a series of posts labeled "Coffee Shop Chatter".

Earlier today I was sitting in one of the coffee shops in town.  At the table next to me, there were two girls who were talking loudly about a lot of different things.  The part of the conversation that I overheard was this:

"I was in a wedding last summer, and the best man had one of the best speeches ever.  I mean, he made the groom go out on the dance floor and sing Backstreet Boys."

I will admit that I didn't hear the conversation leading up to this bit, but I did hear the part afterward, which was about the maid of honor from the same wedding.  My question is, what made this best man speech the best?  At no point did this girl say WHY the speech was amazing, or what the best man even said!  The only thing she said about the speech was that it involved the groom singing a song by the  Backstreet Boys.  Though I do think that is not a normal part of a best man speech, I can't help but point out a couple of things:

1) Even though the singing might have been cool, if this is the part that made the speech one of the best, I have to say I am a little disappointed.  The best man didn't even sing the song, so how does this make the speech great?  Technically the groom was saying his own speech, which happened to be orchestrated by the best man and written by the Backstreet Boys.

2) If the Backstreet Boys song is not what made this speech one of the best, then what made it the best? Why would you mention this amazing speech and then not even say what made it so amazing? Why bring up this topic at all?

Unfortunately, I do not have the answers to these questions.

Return to the Blog

I seem to struggle with blog posts. (Obviously, since it has been close to a year since the last post.)   This is mostly because of a personal dilemma I have with putting my thoughts out for the world to (potentially) see.  This is my line of thinking: though there are a few topics that I feel comfortable posting, there are many things to write about that include my everyday interactions with people, and not all of them are pleasant.  Since these events sometimes include my friends, I end up with basically two options...

1) I can post those stories on a blog, and then try to make sure that no one who is mentioned in those posts actually reads the blog.  Of course, this means that I couldn't share my blog with my friends, and since I can't expect anyone else to read my blog, that means that I am essentially posting things pointlessly online.

2) I just save those posts for a private journal so I can share my blog with my friends.  Of course, this means I am essentially writing in two different places, one that I share with everyone and one that I share with no one, which seems way more complicated than is really necessary, and it would just be easier to write all of my thoughts in one place.

I realize this post makes me seem sort of like an awful person.  I mean, how much do I really have to say that could possibly offend my friends?  Not much, at least that I am aware of.  However, it is just easier to keep everything I want to say private in case it DOES offend someone.

On top of that, I am not really sure how many people will find what I have to say interesting.  But oh well!  It is time to attempt this blogging thing again, and see if any inspiration hits!