Sunday, October 31, 2004

Boo! Did I scare you?

Happy Halloween (and Fall Back)!! Yes, it's my favorite holiday here again. This year I was a cat (yes, I know, again). I was tempted to wear an M on my costume and be the MCAT, but I got too lazy. It seems my hands and my mind act at different speeds. I got this thing called Sonic PrimeTime so I've been burning all sorts of TV shows onto DVD. It's been great. I love possession (haha, it's a Halloween pun!). It's fun to give out candy to all the cute kids that come up to our door. They were all like, ooo kitty!! It totally reminded me of Boo from Monsters, Inc, which I burned on DVD today from when they showed it on TV last night. Snow cones, anyone? That always cracks me up. I spent all day writing my history paper on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. I really like her stuff. Maybe I'll work her into my senior thesis. I've also got my physics homework and A&P lab practical to work on. Gee, ain't I lucky? At least midterm season's over. Now it's registration time. I meet with my advisor tomorrow, so I should be hangin in the lounge from 12-1:30 if you wanna say hi.

Friday, October 22, 2004

My Turn

Today was my turn to get embarrassed in the aforementioned class. My professor was talking about existentialism and that famous quote, "Hell is other people." Then he looked at me and said, "Let's just say Maryam is my hell." I said, "I hope not." Then he said, "OK then, let me just ask you, what do you say to other people when they ask about me?" I said, "As a person or as a professor?" He said however. I said, "Well, I would say you're knowledgeable." Then he said, "See what I would say is that all professors are frauds, so being knowledgeable may not be a good thing." I, of course, started with the nervous laughter. Then my professor said, "OK, so let's say your friends want to tell you what I think of you. You should cover your ears and say, 'I don't want to hear it. The professor is my hell.' And when other people want to tell me what Maryam thinks of me, I'll...well, actually I like what she has to say about me so I don't mind." OK, the whole class was thoroughly confused, and I was a little blushy.

Later on in class, I supplented our discussion of "The Stranger" by talking about the original French title "L'Etranger." So at the end of class, the professor was talking about something and in the middle of it I thought I heard him say, "I know you're French, Maryam." Everybody in class turned and looked at me, including a piqued Cute Frenchboy. I was confused. After class, my professor came up to me and apologized for putting me on the spot. I told him I found it to be "quite funny." I went to my next class and asked one of my friends, "Did the professor call me French?" She said that she had heard that too and thought it was weird that he said that. I said, "Maybe when I said I was Persian he though I said Parisienne." Then she laughed and said, "Maybe he said, 'Pardon my French, Maryam.' That sounded reasonable (even though it made no sense in context), and I let the matter pass.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

What a Cutie!

I had a dream last night that someone else proclaimed his love for me while my crush did nothing. Well, that made me interested in what would happen when I saw him today. He came into class a little late. I started talking in class early on because I like to see his reaction to what I have to say. Today he was nodding, turning up the corner of his mouth into a grin, and saying "yes, yes, absolutely." It was soo hot!! The rest of class, however, he was pretty quiet with sort of a blank expression. The professor used me as an example for different things, and my crush smiled and laughed along. Well, then, 5 min to the end of class, the professor asked a question. Right at that moment my crush gets up to leave the room for something. Then the professor said, "Oh, you're leaving right now!!" Well, then the cutie got all embarrassed and turned back around and sat down. Then the professor started apologizing to him for embarrassing him and the cutie turned bright red. It was hilarious!! The class started laughing and he was covering his face in shame. It was so great cuz he was so embarrassed and he hadn't done anything wrong. Then one of my friends in the class was like, "it's ok, man, don't worry about it" in that tough macho way. Well, it turned out that the Cute Frenchboy had a cold and he was out of Kleenex and was going to get a new one. OK, so there's nothing shameful in that and it explains his uncharacteristic quietness. But after class he goes up to the professor and apologizes for attempting to step out of class to get a Kleenex. What a gentleman!! It was all I could do to contain myself. He's just so classy and intelligent. Dang, I wish I had a Kleenex to give him.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Find Romance No Matter How Busy You Are

OK, so I was thinking about him all night and now that the chains are broken and I've come out of my cave into the sunlight I still don't know what to do. I thought about sending him an email with some lame excuse related to our class, but that just seems so lame. See, my whole life (when I was in the cave) since I couldn't communicate directly I used all sorts of indirect means. In middle school, it was passing notes, in high school instant messaging, etc. Now I'm in college, I'm an adult, and I should be able to go up to a guy I'm interested in and say, "I like you, do you like me?" If I send him a stupid email about class, I'm just hiding behind something again. I really wish he'd make the first move. This is so nervewracking. I wonder what it's going to be like when I see him tomorrow.

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Hasta La Vista, Mind-forged Manacles!!

Ladies and gentlemen, the shackles are removed and I am a free woman. One of the biggest obstacles of my life is gone and I'm free. I can no longer blame this thing for not moving forward in my life. But now what do I do? I have this freedom and I want to use and I know who to use it on, but how? I need advice. Email me if you've got some (or you want to find out what I'm talking about anyway).

Ramadan Mubarak

Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan. Getting up early for work has made getting up for Sahar a breeze. This is the first year I'm participating where Ramadan was started for the Daylight Savings Time change (Fall Back). So we're not getting up as early but we're not breaking our fast until around 7pm. I actually kind of like that better. It works better with my class schedule, that's for sure.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Queer, the affection you feel for a stranger!

It was as though his spirit and mine had momentarily succeeded in bridging the gulf of language and tradition and meeting in utter intimacy. I hoped he liked me as much as I liked him. But I also knew that to retain my first impression of him I must not see him again.

~~Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell

Friday, October 08, 2004

First Midterm aka Turning Point

Today was my first midterm of year, and it was in my class with Cute Frenchboy. I crossed paths with him on my way to class, and we shared this smile moment thing. Then we went to class and talked to each other before the midterm. It was kind of the first time we've ever talked to each other directly. It was the first time I heard his voice without him first being called on my the professor. It was really...nice. He was funny and smart and everything I had hoped he'd be. It's kind of exciting. When the professor passed out the midterm he made a joke and we laughed. OK cool thing: when the professor was reading out the directions, my mind was sort of on Cute Frenchboy so I didn't catch what he said. So I asked him to repeat that and he did. Then a little while later, Cute Frenchboy said out loud, "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening to anything you just said. Can you say it again?" Everybody lauged. Was the reason he didn't listen the same reason I didn't listen, was it because he was thinking of me? Hmm...Luckily I refocused and hopefully aced the midterm.