Thursday, January 05, 2006

Rose Bowl Fallout

As I walked down the hall to the bathroom, I passed a guy from the art department, who's dating a girl in my department, both of whom are ardent USC fans. They know I'm from Texas. After quickly nodding our heads back and blurting "Hey," which is how men speak, he said to me: "So you must be a pretty happy camper today, huh?," alluding to last night's Texas victory and my apparently automatic ensuing joy.

"Well," I said, thinking on my feet and grinning the tiny grin I use on adults and in job interviews, "I don't want to rub anybody's nose in it." At this point his girlfriend, who'd just left the bathroom, appeared behind me and walked towards him. "Thanks, Dan," she said with a smile that actually made me believe she was depressed and appreciated my kindness. As I entered the men's room, we made a couple more minor jokes. All in all, a successful encounter.

With that in mind, let's check the updated scoreboard for January:

Doubts About My Ability To Meaningfully Connect With Other People: 3,490
Me: 1

As long as it's not a shut-out.

posted by Dan Carlson @ 2:49 PM   1 remarks

1 Comments:

Yesterday was my first day at a new job, one I feel undeniably underqualified for. When my boss saw me, the first thing he said was, "You aren't wearing orange. Go home," completely deadpan. I almost started crying before I realized he was joking. Then, and I can't believe I'm admitting this, I said, "You don't know everything I'm wearing," followed by awkward silence and me wondering if he thought I was flirting with him and him probably wondering if I was flirting with him, which I wasn't. At the Optimist I had this unrelenting habit of saying completely inappropriate things in front of other staffers. Apparently I still do.

So my ratio is 3,490:0. Feel better.

I blame UT.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:44 PM, January 05, 2006  

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