i had never stayed until the closing of a bar before last night. its pretty awkward. lots of sober people pushing drunk people out into the street to disperse. i wasn't very drunk, just real tired, but it was weird.
We went out last night and i made myself go talk to people. everyone thinks i'm great at it. the truth is its scary. i just throw myself into it more, perhaps, than other people and so I fake it well? so, the first time i did it last night was great. we started talking to a group and it was the mingle part of the night.
much later i did it on a dance floor and got shooed away. but, it didn't really sting. i said some cheesy hey can we come dance with you girls. and she more or less said no thats alright. nick always told me you can't ask for permission to make moves. but i don't learn. so i walked away. that was ok though, it was last call (who knew they really make last call).
anyways, i didn't let us go to the "after party". i was tired and had work today. so we walked home. it was a good night but i realize i'm an old fogey at heart. i would have been happy reading my book and going to bed early. this is why i have to live in a city. if not, i'll just get a rocking chair and get started on being old.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Keystone Dance Theory
I have a theory. check it out
when i go dancing, i go alone. I don't know who's going to be there. I hope for a room full of hotties, but generally, its old couples and randos. but as long as there are good dancers, i always have fun. I attribute this to my original dance rules: 1) if we (my partner and I) don't fall down, its a success 2) more laughing = more fun 3) whenever possible, let the woman be sexy (this is key. don't get in her way. very key).
so, thats great. generally people love dancing with me because i'm so low key and enthusiastic and such. as i've said many times, the old ladies love me. i'm nonthreatening to them, and they let me be silly, its wonderful.
On monday, i found my new wcs spot. (i can't remember if I've mentioned I have moved back to the Bay Area. I did though). it has a really great range of dancers, lots of fun exciting people, and a pretty good lesson where I picked up some things. so i'm dancing along, having fun. and i come to a realization.
just like in an ecosystem, a dance floor has a keystone species. That is, there is a species from which the entire network connects to. for dancing, this can be recognized as the oldest young girl at the event. here's why. as a young person, i'm always looking to dance with young girls. they're so scarce, its a treat when they exist. (as i've touched on in previous entries, young people don't do partner dancing. theres no place for it in clubs and so its just not a thing. further, single girls would never go alone to a dance lesson/event. think about how hard it is to go places and be alone in general, now imagine doing it in a setting with shared personal space, strange men. just doesn't happen. i get it) so when they're there, its a wonderful thing.
however, the young girls are also attractive dance partners for old guys too. i can't describe it, but somehow dancing does attract weird old guys. most all of them are nice, but often they're really good at dancing, have a sort of swagger, and would be the sorts of strangers i'd be nervous about intially. now, they're all cool eventually, but first impression are what they are. however, being maybe past their prime, they want to feel young, and so they want to dance with the young gals too. i don't doubt its also that young girls at dance events must be good or they'd not have come at all. so the guys want to dance with great dancers. i get that, i do too.
so, the potential character to be the center of the dance network are young girls. however, i notice its generally the oldest of the set of young girls. she never gets to sit down. everyone wants to dance with here. i presume this fact is because the old dudes don't want to be seen as mingling too young and the young guys like older women maybe. i don't know, i just observe and hypothesize.
I should also mention. beauty and looks play very minimally into this. although i'm making gross assumptions for this entire argument, the following is my own opinion. while i'd love to dance with a hottie, i'll dance with a great dancer over a hot beginner any day. Dancing with sean (a crazy good dancer from dartmouth) can be more fun than a leading a first timer.
SO, back to the theory. having been versed in Game theory, i decided to try and dance with the secondary keystone dancer. genius right? still a young, great follower, but less hard to get a hold of than the alpha keystone girl.
man i'm smart. whoosh
however, as luck would have it, she was a total brat. she didn't really want to dance, that was clear the second we started dancing. i was pulling out all my moves, my laughing, everything. I can truly say i've never danced with someone who made the dance not enjoyable. until this dance. it was astounding.
so what i realized was. fuck her. i'm a ton of fun to dance with. great, you're not hurting my feelings by declining to dance with me, you're just wearing lead boots and a droopy-angsty-hat the whole dance through. sweet deal.
after this i danced with the keystone girl and guess what. she was amazing. so my theory was proven, but my cheat failed. or maybe i'm reading too much into nothing.
also, i seem to do a lot of "oh damn, i'm really a cool dude and who cares what these silly girls think" realizations and then get scared back into taking things personally. this is why i'm going out tomorrow and being boisterous. thats the plan.
when i go dancing, i go alone. I don't know who's going to be there. I hope for a room full of hotties, but generally, its old couples and randos. but as long as there are good dancers, i always have fun. I attribute this to my original dance rules: 1) if we (my partner and I) don't fall down, its a success 2) more laughing = more fun 3) whenever possible, let the woman be sexy (this is key. don't get in her way. very key).
so, thats great. generally people love dancing with me because i'm so low key and enthusiastic and such. as i've said many times, the old ladies love me. i'm nonthreatening to them, and they let me be silly, its wonderful.
On monday, i found my new wcs spot. (i can't remember if I've mentioned I have moved back to the Bay Area. I did though). it has a really great range of dancers, lots of fun exciting people, and a pretty good lesson where I picked up some things. so i'm dancing along, having fun. and i come to a realization.
just like in an ecosystem, a dance floor has a keystone species. That is, there is a species from which the entire network connects to. for dancing, this can be recognized as the oldest young girl at the event. here's why. as a young person, i'm always looking to dance with young girls. they're so scarce, its a treat when they exist. (as i've touched on in previous entries, young people don't do partner dancing. theres no place for it in clubs and so its just not a thing. further, single girls would never go alone to a dance lesson/event. think about how hard it is to go places and be alone in general, now imagine doing it in a setting with shared personal space, strange men. just doesn't happen. i get it) so when they're there, its a wonderful thing.
however, the young girls are also attractive dance partners for old guys too. i can't describe it, but somehow dancing does attract weird old guys. most all of them are nice, but often they're really good at dancing, have a sort of swagger, and would be the sorts of strangers i'd be nervous about intially. now, they're all cool eventually, but first impression are what they are. however, being maybe past their prime, they want to feel young, and so they want to dance with the young gals too. i don't doubt its also that young girls at dance events must be good or they'd not have come at all. so the guys want to dance with great dancers. i get that, i do too.
so, the potential character to be the center of the dance network are young girls. however, i notice its generally the oldest of the set of young girls. she never gets to sit down. everyone wants to dance with here. i presume this fact is because the old dudes don't want to be seen as mingling too young and the young guys like older women maybe. i don't know, i just observe and hypothesize.
I should also mention. beauty and looks play very minimally into this. although i'm making gross assumptions for this entire argument, the following is my own opinion. while i'd love to dance with a hottie, i'll dance with a great dancer over a hot beginner any day. Dancing with sean (a crazy good dancer from dartmouth) can be more fun than a leading a first timer.
SO, back to the theory. having been versed in Game theory, i decided to try and dance with the secondary keystone dancer. genius right? still a young, great follower, but less hard to get a hold of than the alpha keystone girl.
man i'm smart. whoosh
however, as luck would have it, she was a total brat. she didn't really want to dance, that was clear the second we started dancing. i was pulling out all my moves, my laughing, everything. I can truly say i've never danced with someone who made the dance not enjoyable. until this dance. it was astounding.
so what i realized was. fuck her. i'm a ton of fun to dance with. great, you're not hurting my feelings by declining to dance with me, you're just wearing lead boots and a droopy-angsty-hat the whole dance through. sweet deal.
after this i danced with the keystone girl and guess what. she was amazing. so my theory was proven, but my cheat failed. or maybe i'm reading too much into nothing.
also, i seem to do a lot of "oh damn, i'm really a cool dude and who cares what these silly girls think" realizations and then get scared back into taking things personally. this is why i'm going out tomorrow and being boisterous. thats the plan.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Week 1
Went dancing on Friday night. hardly any young people. my single guy theory is spot on. two parts: first, young people don't go partner dancing without some reason. second, even if they did go, the only way that young girls go is with a boy. think about it. its hard enough to be brave to do individual things as is, but as a girl, going to a seemingly intimate activity, alone? no way. while a bummer, thats ok. without cute girl distractions, i get to work on my dancing. and i'm getting a lot better. i (re)learned about phrases in music last last week. that is, when i was young and played the piano, i know that music progressed in phrases and choruses. and i still knew that. but someone pointed out that music has up and down beats, and more importantly it has stingers, or stressed beats often in the fifth beat. also, phrases have normal structure. what this amounts to is that I'm now trying to time my moves with hits and stings. and when it works, man does it look good.
what i really need is a steady dance partner. i had one at Dartmouth but didn't have time to practice. but now i want to really get better. from this point I have to get so pulling moves is brainless, that way I'm only thinking about hitting beats.
also, i started salsa dancing. that is awesome too! completely different moves but also different music. i loved it! not only that, theres tons of videos showing moves and techniques just like for west coast swing.
the only issue with all of this is that its all individual stuff. i'm not going to make friends doing this. but as long as its still fun, thats not a big deal. for now at least.
what i really need is a steady dance partner. i had one at Dartmouth but didn't have time to practice. but now i want to really get better. from this point I have to get so pulling moves is brainless, that way I'm only thinking about hitting beats.
also, i started salsa dancing. that is awesome too! completely different moves but also different music. i loved it! not only that, theres tons of videos showing moves and techniques just like for west coast swing.
the only issue with all of this is that its all individual stuff. i'm not going to make friends doing this. but as long as its still fun, thats not a big deal. for now at least.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
sharing
i like sharing things. i liked sharing my legos when i was little. i liked sharing chocolate and donuts in high school / college. i like sharing my quirky thoughts about life when they happen. i can see the appeal of twitter in this regard. often times i have zany thoughts that, were roles reversed, i know i would want to be included on these thoughts from person X's life. and i assume once in a blue moon my friends would like hearing my such thoughts. twitter is maybe that post-it board of thoughts. or, thats the first time i've seen value to having a twitter. because A, i think out loud in WAY too many words on this blog for you to actually read thru, even i know that. so 150 characters is a succinct sort of way to share but not over share. and B, it lets you choose when you listen and stop listening in on those thoughts.
so, in the same way, i think i'm scared about moving to another new world (city, friends, school, girls) because the prospect of sharing is so hard not in person. with a roommate, i can catch him at dinner and say, "david, how many people in the world right now are sneezing?" and we can discuss. i can't share that with someone any other way. and thats what makes not having a 24-7 buddy, be it roommate, girl friend, family member, tough.
and, its not only not having the person on demand which is unfortunate. its the fact that so many things come up in life that I KNOW my who-ever would want to hear about. my ex would love to hear about this. or my best friend from college would love see this video. and as i think i've posted about before, theres nothing better than being around someone who is passionate about something. I just love hearing people excited about things. and while i can post on their wall the thing Y or video Z, its not the same because you don't get to sit there and share the moment.
ok, again i'm rambling. wrap up time
I use this blog for mostly three reasons.
sharing crazy darren thoughts or adventures that i think will be funny for my network to laugh at
documenting the hilarity that is darren trying to figure out dating.
mentioning cool realizations i have about my life and the people around me for me to remember later
so, in my most round-about way of saying things, here's what i realized.
sharing is amazing. but i should be better at enjoying things without having to share them. i don't know why i need everything i do to be appreciated by someone else. its a crutch on independence.
so, darren, go on a hike and don't tell anyone. or get a phone number and keep it a secret. thats a good one, keep a secret of any kind.
[this is ironic because i'm sharing this with you in a blog, but whatever, i vacillate between writing the blog for you and for me. but, whatever]
so, in the same way, i think i'm scared about moving to another new world (city, friends, school, girls) because the prospect of sharing is so hard not in person. with a roommate, i can catch him at dinner and say, "david, how many people in the world right now are sneezing?" and we can discuss. i can't share that with someone any other way. and thats what makes not having a 24-7 buddy, be it roommate, girl friend, family member, tough.
and, its not only not having the person on demand which is unfortunate. its the fact that so many things come up in life that I KNOW my who-ever would want to hear about. my ex would love to hear about this. or my best friend from college would love see this video. and as i think i've posted about before, theres nothing better than being around someone who is passionate about something. I just love hearing people excited about things. and while i can post on their wall the thing Y or video Z, its not the same because you don't get to sit there and share the moment.
ok, again i'm rambling. wrap up time
I use this blog for mostly three reasons.
sharing crazy darren thoughts or adventures that i think will be funny for my network to laugh at
documenting the hilarity that is darren trying to figure out dating.
mentioning cool realizations i have about my life and the people around me for me to remember later
so, in my most round-about way of saying things, here's what i realized.
sharing is amazing. but i should be better at enjoying things without having to share them. i don't know why i need everything i do to be appreciated by someone else. its a crutch on independence.
so, darren, go on a hike and don't tell anyone. or get a phone number and keep it a secret. thats a good one, keep a secret of any kind.
[this is ironic because i'm sharing this with you in a blog, but whatever, i vacillate between writing the blog for you and for me. but, whatever]
Friday, June 14, 2013
family size
who buys family size shampoo. well, i do.
but heres what i realized. this makes no sense. either, you are a family of 3, 4, maybe 5, using the exact same shampoo and its gone in no time. thats stupid. it's not like its a bucket-full.
furthermore, you have the same smelling hair as your wife and children. i love my hair smelling good. but i even MORE love the smell of a girl's hair. and they can't be the same. that would ruin everything. EVERYTHING o, honey, your hair smells... like ... mine.... FAIL.
furthermore, i'm sure some families all share the same shower, but not all of them. so in that regard it doesn't make sense. you can't walk between showers and share shampoo. and if all the family shares the same shower, imagine how croweded that shower would get. not in people, but in products. I KNOW those girlies all have tons of products. i like a nice clean shower where i don't have to avoid stepping on things.
this leads me to my real point. family size shampoo makes no sense. not for families - as described above, and not for individuals. for me, i want my hair to smell different on occasions, and if i buy the family size, its effectively an extra month or whatever of coconut or lavender (love me the lavender!). but its so compelling. extra product for free.
so what am i to do? I think, next time i'll try a regular size bottle and time how long it lasts, and see where i end up.
but heres what i realized. this makes no sense. either, you are a family of 3, 4, maybe 5, using the exact same shampoo and its gone in no time. thats stupid. it's not like its a bucket-full.
furthermore, you have the same smelling hair as your wife and children. i love my hair smelling good. but i even MORE love the smell of a girl's hair. and they can't be the same. that would ruin everything. EVERYTHING o, honey, your hair smells... like ... mine.... FAIL.
furthermore, i'm sure some families all share the same shower, but not all of them. so in that regard it doesn't make sense. you can't walk between showers and share shampoo. and if all the family shares the same shower, imagine how croweded that shower would get. not in people, but in products. I KNOW those girlies all have tons of products. i like a nice clean shower where i don't have to avoid stepping on things.
this leads me to my real point. family size shampoo makes no sense. not for families - as described above, and not for individuals. for me, i want my hair to smell different on occasions, and if i buy the family size, its effectively an extra month or whatever of coconut or lavender (love me the lavender!). but its so compelling. extra product for free.
so what am i to do? I think, next time i'll try a regular size bottle and time how long it lasts, and see where i end up.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
BYF Revival
hello world.
in order to keep myself active in the coming summer, i guess i'll start the blog up again.
i've done some pretty awesome things over the past 8 months. i found my engineering passion, or at least the academic field. I fell in love with control engineering. i built an electric race car. it won the electric division of formula hybrid. that was pretty amazing. i built an autonomous sail boat. it could navigate up and downwind and to gps marks you set for it. i got into grad school. i'm going to UCLA for control and robotics. that should be exciting.
i'm not living in boston anymore though. thats going to be tough. I had such an amazing time there, its hard to imagine anything comparing. For now, I'll be living in the bay area. until i figure out housing in LA. Maybe I'll crash at a friend's house.
I'm also building an android app. I don't know anything about android for the most part, but i figure it can't be too hard.
We'll see how i do keeping up the blog. I don't envsion excitement like last summer, so it might just dwindle. we'll see though.
in order to keep myself active in the coming summer, i guess i'll start the blog up again.
i've done some pretty awesome things over the past 8 months. i found my engineering passion, or at least the academic field. I fell in love with control engineering. i built an electric race car. it won the electric division of formula hybrid. that was pretty amazing. i built an autonomous sail boat. it could navigate up and downwind and to gps marks you set for it. i got into grad school. i'm going to UCLA for control and robotics. that should be exciting.
i'm not living in boston anymore though. thats going to be tough. I had such an amazing time there, its hard to imagine anything comparing. For now, I'll be living in the bay area. until i figure out housing in LA. Maybe I'll crash at a friend's house.
I'm also building an android app. I don't know anything about android for the most part, but i figure it can't be too hard.
We'll see how i do keeping up the blog. I don't envsion excitement like last summer, so it might just dwindle. we'll see though.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Blog status
Never got any comments about my blog over my two week hiatus. I think this means I'll retire the blog for a while.I still have my goals and aspirations for the quarter (survive) but i guess i don't need to talk about it if no one is out there demanding content. I had thought the blog would be good to stay connected with people but i guess it's awkward for people to talk back to a blog.makes sense i suppose. O well.unless i have other inspiration I'll pick up the blog again for next summer.i
Monday, August 20, 2012
Well, i'm leaving boston this morning. i'll give you a proper update when i'm in california, sitting on the shore of beautiful lake tahoe.
*EDIT*
summer in review
this summer, i wanted to accomplish the following things
(in order of importance)
A) get over my sorrow of leaving college. friends are great and they'll be great when i see them next, but i needed boston people. make friends and have fun with them in and around boston
B) have the city experiance i've always wanted to have, even if i'm not in NYC. take the subway places, go on adventures, swim in the atlantic, do some shit
c) get up to a semiproficient or perhaps moderately functional level at meeting and flirting and persuing girls. get comfortable getting numbers, asking them on dates, making advances, and if the stars alligned, have a one night stand. just cause i never believed i had the capacity to do it.
d) develop skills and find out if small company work is what i want to do. do a project big enough to feel like i contributed. get paid enough to buy a nice camera by the end of the summer. then go take some amazing boston photos and really get into photography as a hobby
e) make friends with the ex girl, as a sign of being fully moved on
f) don't die in the big city
lets see where i ended up
F was a resounding success, though there were a couple nights it couldve gone either way
E was a failure, but thats okay, i can at least recognize that deep feelings take a while to pass. still would like them to pass faster, but i can realize whats going on. this one will come
D was pretty good. of all the ways the internship could have gone, i am extremely happy about it. i got some good small lessons out of it, but primarily it reaffirmed that i want to start a company that changes the world for some group of people. money will come i'm not worried, but working for a company that was developing a medical device that could save peoples lives as opposed to help them grow a virtual cow and buy a virtual plow to clean its virtual crap - i don't want anything to do with that. even if it does supposedly maybe make them a tiny bit happier. the job helped me realize what sorts of things i have left to learn from school and how critical going back is, even if i really don't want to. oh, i spent way way too much money over the course of the summer to buy the camera. but it was worth it. i don't have photos, but i wouldn't have had the memories of which to capture
i'm going to skip C for a second
B was another complete and total success. i rode the bus to virtually everywhere. by the end of the summer i had actually stopped using my car for everything. i bussed for groceries, to the dance place, to kickball, everything. i love boston for having cambridge and then having boston. downtown boston, while not even 1/2 manhattan, gave me the dense area of a big city, even if in a tiny tiny part. cambridge gave me the middlesize city where there are sections of just 2 story houses that you can take a breather at while walking around the bustle. i know manhattan well enough to know its gogogo and you have to adjust to it. i would love to live there someday, but i think boston was a good stepping stone to that. there were peripheral parks that i came upon and squares for sitting around in (boston is the city of squares i like say, because everything revolves around a square).
A friends. ha. no one will replace the kevens and peri's of my life. but the jun and the doctor now have special spots too. just to name a few. i was the baby of the group, and got called on it many times, but found that these 10 or 15 new buddies were fun and exciting and their age meant nothing. now, did it mean caitlyn never felt threatened by me? yes, but in truth most girls realize i'm a friendzone master and feel unthreatened just the same. my friends this summer were 25-31 for the most part. and the only time i ever thought about that fact was when they made fun of ME for being young. these were just my buddies. and boy did we have some crazy times. they helped me get over the dispare of not having my closest 20 friends within a 10 minute walk in any direction. they could be a 20 minute commute and it worked out just fine, so long as everyone is willing to meet up. i think only 1 or 2 times ALL FUCKING SUMMER did i say, no, i'm too tired to go out for a drink. compare that to my senior year self, and you wouldn't believe it was darren. i truly was a boisterous young fellow. not many people know where that blog title came from. its because (a loosely remembered story that i'm sure keven will correct me on) when sarah begley wanted me to go to the bar on a thursday night i said i didn't want to go. she called me boring and old and i replied that i was a boisterous young fellow.
i was being silly but i did try in the end of the year to start doing more events instead of going to bed. well, when you're desperate for friends and social interaction, theres a fire lit under your butt. or my butt. it really worked. i was a completely different person this summer from ever before. i spent money without worrying about if i should be saving for something better. i just said, fun now is the way to go. i made the friends and i tried to learn game.
C all summer i've been trying to walk a fine line about telling you about my escapades. it wouldn't be right to tell you about a hook up in detail, so i haven't. it also is something that i started this blog to force myself to do more of (put myself out there in terms of girls). i'm an amazingly outgoing person, too much in many situations this summer. james didn't believe me (until he witnessed) when i said i was bad with girls because of how i was willing to do such out there things. and he's right, i should be better. but i'm not. and i wanted to work on that this summer. so i wrote about it in the blog to kind of let it be known that i had a goal set and so i couldn't hide from it. this process was slower than all the others. there was the marine biologist masters student that seemed to really like me and was really pretty and continued dancing with me even when she had the opportunity to escape. if that happened this past saturday, i would 100% have gotten her number, and 80% likely would have asked her out. back then, i made up an excuse and i ran away. gradually i got better at it until i could get numbers without freezing up. then i realized i was actually supposed to CALL the girl. dumbass. so then i started going on dates. some of these i told you about, others i didn't. but the whole time, keeping you in the loop was a way to force me to be more bold. by the end of the summer, i had a crazy ass date with a girl. that post was about a week ago. i have many different feelings about that post now. while its true i should take away things like, try your best to give clear signals, i think some of the things she asked of me weren't fair. i had deep feelings for my ex and it worked in part because i was fully upfront and was myself with her and (i hope) she was ok and in fact liked me for that. i'm fine putting on nice clothing and doing a little dance to woo the girl if thats the game i have to play, but i should be allowed to be me. theres a great "this american life" about the numbers of love, and how statistically, there are like 10s or even 100s of people in the world that you would be compattible enough to be in love with. its not exactly great for the princess bride 'true lub' idea but it fits a little better with this engineer's brain. anyways, i should be able to be me for the most part and still be appreciated. so, i didn't need the girl from last week. i was trying to force the dating with the girl cause i was trying to learn dating again. she seemed a fit, but really wasn't good for me, so i shouldve left it alone. another goood lesson. but i majorly digress. what was i talking about? O, that i've come a long way with girls. ya. i have. fuck. i'm definitely not an author.
the last note to make is that i realized i was correct in realizing i'm not capable of a one nighter. it would take a certain drunk and she would have to fling herself at me into a cab. i might also have to hit my head getting into that cab. like i said, the stars need to align. but i can't do it. at least not yet.
in the next days i'm going to decide if i'll continue the blog going forward at dartmouth. its not going to be as exciting (i imagine) because i'll be working my ass off. but i have to think about it. let me know what you think.
thanks for listening guys
love, darren
*EDIT*
summer in review
this summer, i wanted to accomplish the following things
(in order of importance)
A) get over my sorrow of leaving college. friends are great and they'll be great when i see them next, but i needed boston people. make friends and have fun with them in and around boston
B) have the city experiance i've always wanted to have, even if i'm not in NYC. take the subway places, go on adventures, swim in the atlantic, do some shit
c) get up to a semiproficient or perhaps moderately functional level at meeting and flirting and persuing girls. get comfortable getting numbers, asking them on dates, making advances, and if the stars alligned, have a one night stand. just cause i never believed i had the capacity to do it.
d) develop skills and find out if small company work is what i want to do. do a project big enough to feel like i contributed. get paid enough to buy a nice camera by the end of the summer. then go take some amazing boston photos and really get into photography as a hobby
e) make friends with the ex girl, as a sign of being fully moved on
f) don't die in the big city
lets see where i ended up
F was a resounding success, though there were a couple nights it couldve gone either way
E was a failure, but thats okay, i can at least recognize that deep feelings take a while to pass. still would like them to pass faster, but i can realize whats going on. this one will come
D was pretty good. of all the ways the internship could have gone, i am extremely happy about it. i got some good small lessons out of it, but primarily it reaffirmed that i want to start a company that changes the world for some group of people. money will come i'm not worried, but working for a company that was developing a medical device that could save peoples lives as opposed to help them grow a virtual cow and buy a virtual plow to clean its virtual crap - i don't want anything to do with that. even if it does supposedly maybe make them a tiny bit happier. the job helped me realize what sorts of things i have left to learn from school and how critical going back is, even if i really don't want to. oh, i spent way way too much money over the course of the summer to buy the camera. but it was worth it. i don't have photos, but i wouldn't have had the memories of which to capture
i'm going to skip C for a second
B was another complete and total success. i rode the bus to virtually everywhere. by the end of the summer i had actually stopped using my car for everything. i bussed for groceries, to the dance place, to kickball, everything. i love boston for having cambridge and then having boston. downtown boston, while not even 1/2 manhattan, gave me the dense area of a big city, even if in a tiny tiny part. cambridge gave me the middlesize city where there are sections of just 2 story houses that you can take a breather at while walking around the bustle. i know manhattan well enough to know its gogogo and you have to adjust to it. i would love to live there someday, but i think boston was a good stepping stone to that. there were peripheral parks that i came upon and squares for sitting around in (boston is the city of squares i like say, because everything revolves around a square).
A friends. ha. no one will replace the kevens and peri's of my life. but the jun and the doctor now have special spots too. just to name a few. i was the baby of the group, and got called on it many times, but found that these 10 or 15 new buddies were fun and exciting and their age meant nothing. now, did it mean caitlyn never felt threatened by me? yes, but in truth most girls realize i'm a friendzone master and feel unthreatened just the same. my friends this summer were 25-31 for the most part. and the only time i ever thought about that fact was when they made fun of ME for being young. these were just my buddies. and boy did we have some crazy times. they helped me get over the dispare of not having my closest 20 friends within a 10 minute walk in any direction. they could be a 20 minute commute and it worked out just fine, so long as everyone is willing to meet up. i think only 1 or 2 times ALL FUCKING SUMMER did i say, no, i'm too tired to go out for a drink. compare that to my senior year self, and you wouldn't believe it was darren. i truly was a boisterous young fellow. not many people know where that blog title came from. its because (a loosely remembered story that i'm sure keven will correct me on) when sarah begley wanted me to go to the bar on a thursday night i said i didn't want to go. she called me boring and old and i replied that i was a boisterous young fellow.
i was being silly but i did try in the end of the year to start doing more events instead of going to bed. well, when you're desperate for friends and social interaction, theres a fire lit under your butt. or my butt. it really worked. i was a completely different person this summer from ever before. i spent money without worrying about if i should be saving for something better. i just said, fun now is the way to go. i made the friends and i tried to learn game.
C all summer i've been trying to walk a fine line about telling you about my escapades. it wouldn't be right to tell you about a hook up in detail, so i haven't. it also is something that i started this blog to force myself to do more of (put myself out there in terms of girls). i'm an amazingly outgoing person, too much in many situations this summer. james didn't believe me (until he witnessed) when i said i was bad with girls because of how i was willing to do such out there things. and he's right, i should be better. but i'm not. and i wanted to work on that this summer. so i wrote about it in the blog to kind of let it be known that i had a goal set and so i couldn't hide from it. this process was slower than all the others. there was the marine biologist masters student that seemed to really like me and was really pretty and continued dancing with me even when she had the opportunity to escape. if that happened this past saturday, i would 100% have gotten her number, and 80% likely would have asked her out. back then, i made up an excuse and i ran away. gradually i got better at it until i could get numbers without freezing up. then i realized i was actually supposed to CALL the girl. dumbass. so then i started going on dates. some of these i told you about, others i didn't. but the whole time, keeping you in the loop was a way to force me to be more bold. by the end of the summer, i had a crazy ass date with a girl. that post was about a week ago. i have many different feelings about that post now. while its true i should take away things like, try your best to give clear signals, i think some of the things she asked of me weren't fair. i had deep feelings for my ex and it worked in part because i was fully upfront and was myself with her and (i hope) she was ok and in fact liked me for that. i'm fine putting on nice clothing and doing a little dance to woo the girl if thats the game i have to play, but i should be allowed to be me. theres a great "this american life" about the numbers of love, and how statistically, there are like 10s or even 100s of people in the world that you would be compattible enough to be in love with. its not exactly great for the princess bride 'true lub' idea but it fits a little better with this engineer's brain. anyways, i should be able to be me for the most part and still be appreciated. so, i didn't need the girl from last week. i was trying to force the dating with the girl cause i was trying to learn dating again. she seemed a fit, but really wasn't good for me, so i shouldve left it alone. another goood lesson. but i majorly digress. what was i talking about? O, that i've come a long way with girls. ya. i have. fuck. i'm definitely not an author.
the last note to make is that i realized i was correct in realizing i'm not capable of a one nighter. it would take a certain drunk and she would have to fling herself at me into a cab. i might also have to hit my head getting into that cab. like i said, the stars need to align. but i can't do it. at least not yet.
in the next days i'm going to decide if i'll continue the blog going forward at dartmouth. its not going to be as exciting (i imagine) because i'll be working my ass off. but i have to think about it. let me know what you think.
thanks for listening guys
love, darren
Friday, August 17, 2012
Okay, maybe i'm not fully to blame for that one.
i went dancing last night, not really expecting this girl to want to go. i also realized i was putting in a lot of effort for some pretty ridiculous stakes. i leave boston monday. theres no future with this girl. i only mildly like her, mostly i was hoping to get better at the dating thing. but it was just too much effort. when she asked if i was going, i said yes and she was welcome to join my kickball friends and i, trying to hint that i wasn't interested in a date. she never got back to me. then she showed up. i was in the advanced class (fucking amazing. i'm literally hooked on this dance. i'll summarize in a minute). she spent the evening with the kickballers mostly. then she came downstairs. i was more than happy to dance with her but wasn't focused on her by any means. i was still getting mixed signals from her, but at this point i didn't care. when we were leaving, i invited to drinks with us and she declined. i was kinda like, 'ok, i'll see ya then'. and then i left. it was weird.
okay, heres what i know how to do in west coast swing
left side pass, under arm turn, sugar push, right sugar push, sugar tuck, reverse sugar tuck, left side tuck turn, closed tuck, left outside turn, right outside turn, left wrap, right wrap, basket whip (and with turn exit), whip, one hand whip, whip with inside turn exit, whip with outside turn exit, continuous whip, swap hand whip, reverse whip, cow whip, promenade whip, right dip, she goes he goes, shoulder wrap, bow
and then maybe 5 or 8 more that i have no idea the name of
also, i've gotten to the place where i can make them up on the fly and they end up working maybe 70% of the time.
its just insane how much fun i have with this dance. of all the reasons i don't want to move from boston and go back to dartmouth, not having west coast swing is maybe number 3 on the list (behind getting paid, my kickball friends). number 4 on the list is i'm going to have my ass handed to me.
tonight is my last night with kickballers. we have the end of the season party and thats the last time i'll prolly see some of them. they keep asking me to go visit them, but i kinda have a line of people i want to visit and the nyc crew is at the top. we'll see though. i'm sure i won't have time for really anyone.
i'm going to talk to girls tonight. get numbers, even though it will mean nothing. its good practice.
i'll update you later
i went dancing last night, not really expecting this girl to want to go. i also realized i was putting in a lot of effort for some pretty ridiculous stakes. i leave boston monday. theres no future with this girl. i only mildly like her, mostly i was hoping to get better at the dating thing. but it was just too much effort. when she asked if i was going, i said yes and she was welcome to join my kickball friends and i, trying to hint that i wasn't interested in a date. she never got back to me. then she showed up. i was in the advanced class (fucking amazing. i'm literally hooked on this dance. i'll summarize in a minute). she spent the evening with the kickballers mostly. then she came downstairs. i was more than happy to dance with her but wasn't focused on her by any means. i was still getting mixed signals from her, but at this point i didn't care. when we were leaving, i invited to drinks with us and she declined. i was kinda like, 'ok, i'll see ya then'. and then i left. it was weird.
okay, heres what i know how to do in west coast swing
left side pass, under arm turn, sugar push, right sugar push, sugar tuck, reverse sugar tuck, left side tuck turn, closed tuck, left outside turn, right outside turn, left wrap, right wrap, basket whip (and with turn exit), whip, one hand whip, whip with inside turn exit, whip with outside turn exit, continuous whip, swap hand whip, reverse whip, cow whip, promenade whip, right dip, she goes he goes, shoulder wrap, bow
and then maybe 5 or 8 more that i have no idea the name of
also, i've gotten to the place where i can make them up on the fly and they end up working maybe 70% of the time.
its just insane how much fun i have with this dance. of all the reasons i don't want to move from boston and go back to dartmouth, not having west coast swing is maybe number 3 on the list (behind getting paid, my kickball friends). number 4 on the list is i'm going to have my ass handed to me.
tonight is my last night with kickballers. we have the end of the season party and thats the last time i'll prolly see some of them. they keep asking me to go visit them, but i kinda have a line of people i want to visit and the nyc crew is at the top. we'll see though. i'm sure i won't have time for really anyone.
i'm going to talk to girls tonight. get numbers, even though it will mean nothing. its good practice.
i'll update you later
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
o man have a i got a darren story for you. its a little more detailed than you're used to, but its so darren that i have to share it. also, the quotes are not literal, but as best as i could recall
so i went on a 4th or 5th date with a girl last night. but i have to set up the story a bit better. i met this girl at a dance club maybe a month or so ago. she was the maid of honor it turned out at the bacholette party that was going on at the Kong. we were dancing and i realized she was a good swing dancer, so i got her number and invited her to go west coast swing dancing with me. so i took her on that tuesday. in parrallel, i had been trying to get my kickball friends to go dancing. 4 of them showed up the same day. i was ecstatic. we all had a great time and i walked her home after my friend katie drove us to the T and made another date and it was great.
zoom forward. i had been texting this girl about dancing and dinner when i eventually get a text that says something of the effect of "just so you know, we're not doing any messing around tonight". now, this freaks me out. all spooked. we had done some making out at the end of the last date and i had done the best i could to read the signs. when it seemed like she said she wanted to leave it at that and i didn't go further. but from this text, i started to wonder if i did something inappropriate
we go on the date, i'm spooked but ready to figure it out. i am having a great time and learned an amazing drink from the bartender (green monster [not the one with monster energy drink]: malibu, vanilla vodka, midori. amazingly delicious) anyways, the date is going well, except this other girl is talking to me a lot. i don't know how to get rid of her. i'm not going to say get lost, cause i'm too nice. The following happens over the course of a dance and then standing and talking during a second song. maybe 7 or 8 minutes. [even i know this is not what i should be doing on a date, but like i said, i'm too polite to say go away]
later, when we're walking to the bus stop she says, 'you should take that girl out', i just about stop in my tracks. okay, now i'm all fucking confused. she didn't make a deal about it earlier, i thought the night was going well. i've danced with her maybe 30 or 40% of the songs. been flirty. i was planning on giving her a goodnight kiss and then a 'well i wish i was staying in the area so we could see this through'. but now i wasn't sure if i was even on track for a kiss. was i even on a date with her? what's going on?
<this post is turning into a novel, i'm sorry, i'll start summarizing>
we spend the next 15 minutes with her trying to critique my dating skills. do this, not that. you can't say this, etc. i skip getting on my bus. the whole thing was fairly uncomfortable, but i stayed because it was so surreal, like we were in a play and broke the fourth wall and filled the audience in on the story.
when her bus was coming, i get up to give her a hug. even the densest of dense can tell i have sky rocketed into the friend zone. i'm the master of friend zone. i had invited her on monday to go dancing again on thursday, but she declined. so as we left I said, "well, i don't know when next i'll see you. but i've had fun with you and i learned that i suck at this. i wish i had more time to see things out with you"
she immediately did the i'm interested caress that she just taught me and said "well, i'll see you thursday right".
"um, ya, i'm going dancing if you want to join"
"then see you there"
then i let her walk onto the bus and i watch it leave
this morning i wondered if i should have tried to kiss her. i'm all mixed up about where we stand. but really, it doesn't matter, what matters is the following
whereas before i've thought girls are too complicated, and stupid, now i realize, no, I'M the stupid one. if i am too tactless to keven, too dense to understand stephanie, peri has all but copyrighted the "oh darren (shaking head)" phrase -> it must be me. i can think of a million times E and i miscommunicated and i'm now sure it was my fault. thats why i instituted the 'if ever you need something, you have to be 100% frank with darren, or you might as well expect him to do it wrong' policy. i'm an amazingly nice person, but i'm not tactful and i'm extremely clueless. but now i have two huge datapoints on that. last night, and when E told me she wished during our relationship i had been more affectionate in the following sense. 'i wish when we were out, people knew i was your girlfriend and not just a friend'. that nearly broke my heart. just crushed me. but, i don't need to get into that right now. what happened last night was virtually the same thing. pay attention to me to indicate its a date
lesson learned, i have to get better at directed affection and not this messy darren affection.
holy crap that was a long post. i thought it was too juicy to gloss over. but i'm a little nervous putting it online. whatever, you guys are my friends.
so i went on a 4th or 5th date with a girl last night. but i have to set up the story a bit better. i met this girl at a dance club maybe a month or so ago. she was the maid of honor it turned out at the bacholette party that was going on at the Kong. we were dancing and i realized she was a good swing dancer, so i got her number and invited her to go west coast swing dancing with me. so i took her on that tuesday. in parrallel, i had been trying to get my kickball friends to go dancing. 4 of them showed up the same day. i was ecstatic. we all had a great time and i walked her home after my friend katie drove us to the T and made another date and it was great.
zoom forward. i had been texting this girl about dancing and dinner when i eventually get a text that says something of the effect of "just so you know, we're not doing any messing around tonight". now, this freaks me out. all spooked. we had done some making out at the end of the last date and i had done the best i could to read the signs. when it seemed like she said she wanted to leave it at that and i didn't go further. but from this text, i started to wonder if i did something inappropriate
we go on the date, i'm spooked but ready to figure it out. i am having a great time and learned an amazing drink from the bartender (green monster [not the one with monster energy drink]: malibu, vanilla vodka, midori. amazingly delicious) anyways, the date is going well, except this other girl is talking to me a lot. i don't know how to get rid of her. i'm not going to say get lost, cause i'm too nice. The following happens over the course of a dance and then standing and talking during a second song. maybe 7 or 8 minutes. [even i know this is not what i should be doing on a date, but like i said, i'm too polite to say go away]
in an effort to make it clear i'm trying to leave, i tell him i'm moving to california.she starts asking why. i panic cause i'm not actually moving to california. so i say "to go back for a masters degree in engineering". (which is what i've been telling people to avoid having to explain what the hell my dual degree thing is).random girl: "where in california"darren: (fuck, now i have to tell her a school) "UCSD"girl: "o cool, what kind of engineering"darren: "mechanical"girl: "o what type"darren: (shit, now i have to pick a masters concentration. pick something she prolly won't know anything about so we can move on) "nanotechnology"girl: "o awesome, they do that at my company"darren: (FUCK. how do i get rid of her. also, why didn't i meet you 4 weeks ago?) "o, tell me about where you work"girl: "Lincoln Labs"(FUCK. THATS TOTALLY A PLACE I WOULD LOVE A CONNECTION TO GET A JOB AT IN THE FUTURE. AND NOW I"VE SET UP A SERIES OF ALMOST TRUTHS. FUCK)also, i want her to be gone. so i let her tell me about her work. of course its fucking awesome and i would love to work at this company, then i could live in boston and get paid well and be near my NYC friends and get to have my east coast time. so i'm torn between saying get lost and developing enough of a relation to be able to ask for an introduction when i apply to this company in a year. its not that hard a decision. 1 more week with date-girl, or a connection to lincoln labs. i stay talking to this woman.
this is a great time to ask for a business card, and get out of there. i do. but then she asks if i'm going dancing on thursday. i am, (and i maybe should have done this earlier but then i wouldn't have gotten a contact to LL, i say) "i have to get back to my date."
she says great, then i'll see you thursday (at this point, this is great. i won't have a date, i can sit her down and explain in my haste to get back to my date i made up some lies and she'll be upset but then we'll hopefully laugh about it and i'll have a connection to lincoln labs. )i immediately go back to date girl and i'm really upfront with the her and say that. "look, this other girl just gave me her number and i didn't know how to get rid of her. i'm sorry about that"
later, when we're walking to the bus stop she says, 'you should take that girl out', i just about stop in my tracks. okay, now i'm all fucking confused. she didn't make a deal about it earlier, i thought the night was going well. i've danced with her maybe 30 or 40% of the songs. been flirty. i was planning on giving her a goodnight kiss and then a 'well i wish i was staying in the area so we could see this through'. but now i wasn't sure if i was even on track for a kiss. was i even on a date with her? what's going on?
i say, "no, i'm out with you right now"at this point i start to explain how i'm not very perceptive and tact isn't my strong suit. and how i have a crappy memory. and i'm a really caring person, i apologize if i did something inappropriate on the wednesday. i was dating in the only way i knew how, by being my dense, tactless, self. i had thought what i was doing was giving the signs.
her: "is this a date?"
okay, hold up, what the hell?
me: "ok hold on. lets clear this up. this is our like, fourth date"
her: "well, not really. i never really got the sense you were interested. the first time we went dancing didn't count cause you invited the other people. then you didn't pay for my dinner the second time."
me: "ya, but when you showed up to dancing with your friend i was trying to make clear i wanted to see you. and i'm not even counting that time. and then how about when we went out with your friends and then i drove you home and then we were making out. that had to have been a date."
her: "ya, that one was, but every other time i've hung out with you i get mixed signals. first you're into me. which was great. then you show up with friends. and go dancing with other girls. and we got a ride home from your friend katie instead of leaving on our own. you never made any moves until that wednesday. you didn't wait for me to go inside when you drove me home. you didn't remember things i had said to you. frankly you were showing me you just wanted to be friends who go dancing. which sucked cause i was really into you from the start. Except that wednesday. and then that went way to fast" (what!? i've been training all summer at flirting and have been instructed to ABC - always be closing, which is something i have a terrible time doing because i don't work that fast because it makes me uncomfortable. furthermore, WHAT too fast, uh oh what did i do?)
suddenly she says, "here, like this. i know you're interested in me, you have to show me." she caresses my head. "more contact means interest"
"but i don't want to just start touching you"
"you'll know if she doesn't want it"
<this post is turning into a novel, i'm sorry, i'll start summarizing>
we spend the next 15 minutes with her trying to critique my dating skills. do this, not that. you can't say this, etc. i skip getting on my bus. the whole thing was fairly uncomfortable, but i stayed because it was so surreal, like we were in a play and broke the fourth wall and filled the audience in on the story.
when her bus was coming, i get up to give her a hug. even the densest of dense can tell i have sky rocketed into the friend zone. i'm the master of friend zone. i had invited her on monday to go dancing again on thursday, but she declined. so as we left I said, "well, i don't know when next i'll see you. but i've had fun with you and i learned that i suck at this. i wish i had more time to see things out with you"
she immediately did the i'm interested caress that she just taught me and said "well, i'll see you thursday right".
"um, ya, i'm going dancing if you want to join"
"then see you there"
then i let her walk onto the bus and i watch it leave
this morning i wondered if i should have tried to kiss her. i'm all mixed up about where we stand. but really, it doesn't matter, what matters is the following
whereas before i've thought girls are too complicated, and stupid, now i realize, no, I'M the stupid one. if i am too tactless to keven, too dense to understand stephanie, peri has all but copyrighted the "oh darren (shaking head)" phrase -> it must be me. i can think of a million times E and i miscommunicated and i'm now sure it was my fault. thats why i instituted the 'if ever you need something, you have to be 100% frank with darren, or you might as well expect him to do it wrong' policy. i'm an amazingly nice person, but i'm not tactful and i'm extremely clueless. but now i have two huge datapoints on that. last night, and when E told me she wished during our relationship i had been more affectionate in the following sense. 'i wish when we were out, people knew i was your girlfriend and not just a friend'. that nearly broke my heart. just crushed me. but, i don't need to get into that right now. what happened last night was virtually the same thing. pay attention to me to indicate its a date
lesson learned, i have to get better at directed affection and not this messy darren affection.
holy crap that was a long post. i thought it was too juicy to gloss over. but i'm a little nervous putting it online. whatever, you guys are my friends.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
i just had a great and desperately needed softball/drinking day. i was super depressed from being sick and missing all the fun things i was going to be doing last week. and so i really needed that. we went to kellen's house in connecticut and played softball in his backyard and did the drinking debauchery thats always fun. i learned that at a campout, either have a fuck buddy, or have your own tent. cause no matter how you plan where you're going to sleep, you're cockblocking somebody. i made 3 different sleeping nests only to have to move to allow some couple to have some 'lone time. at one point i just said no. IM SLEEPING HERE. YOU MOVE. but it all worked out (ish). i got like 4 hours or so of sleep like thing.
and now, i'm back home, packing up all my things. i hate doing this. i do it so often its a process. first i take down my posters. then i fill my book boxes. then i load up the big boxes. then i fold all my clothes. it just sucks.
but the worst part is, i'm moving away from all my new best friends. i was extremely sad to leave vassar. extreme depressed. but then i made a group of wonderful freinds. i have 5 bros (something dank haus was but not quite like this. i've always wanted to be a bro). i have my group of girls (who by obligation think i'm the nicest young boy - that is, my friendzone crew). and i have a great feel for boston and where to go and what to do. O and i have my work buddies. who are awesome. getting paid is sweet. and when i get paid appropriately, i'm going to be (effectively) loaded. cause i spend tons of money on alcohol already and i can more or less support the drinking on my measely current salery. i just imagine what i could do with a proper engineer salary.
i find myself doing the reflecting thing a lot. i mean thats what you do when you pick up and move your life. i've been thinking mostly about if i played my summer right. most of my goals were met. i don't really wanna get into it, but i think i made the right decisions. cause what i wanted - to live in a big city and have a crazy fun time - is what i got. i just don't want to let it go.
and even though its scary to say, i didn't need my vassar people to make it happen. i miss them. all the freaking time. but thats what will make seeing them so special, is the being away. it'll make going to nyc so much extra special.
(don't cry)
and now, i'm back home, packing up all my things. i hate doing this. i do it so often its a process. first i take down my posters. then i fill my book boxes. then i load up the big boxes. then i fold all my clothes. it just sucks.
but the worst part is, i'm moving away from all my new best friends. i was extremely sad to leave vassar. extreme depressed. but then i made a group of wonderful freinds. i have 5 bros (something dank haus was but not quite like this. i've always wanted to be a bro). i have my group of girls (who by obligation think i'm the nicest young boy - that is, my friendzone crew). and i have a great feel for boston and where to go and what to do. O and i have my work buddies. who are awesome. getting paid is sweet. and when i get paid appropriately, i'm going to be (effectively) loaded. cause i spend tons of money on alcohol already and i can more or less support the drinking on my measely current salery. i just imagine what i could do with a proper engineer salary.
i find myself doing the reflecting thing a lot. i mean thats what you do when you pick up and move your life. i've been thinking mostly about if i played my summer right. most of my goals were met. i don't really wanna get into it, but i think i made the right decisions. cause what i wanted - to live in a big city and have a crazy fun time - is what i got. i just don't want to let it go.
and even though its scary to say, i didn't need my vassar people to make it happen. i miss them. all the freaking time. but thats what will make seeing them so special, is the being away. it'll make going to nyc so much extra special.
(don't cry)
Saturday, August 11, 2012
no update recently cause i've been dying. well, sick.
i bailed on operation kill kenny (for his birthday), i canceled a date. I didn't go to dancing. and i skipped getting shitty with my buddies. its amazing how depressing being sick is. you sit at home and do nothing. nothing at all. you think about the things you could be doing. and you don't do them. plus doesn't help when your roommate has a super hot girlfriend over for 'sleepovers' every night of the week.
whatever. i'm going to softball today. its happening. it is. no stopping it. (unless i'm too sick)
i bailed on operation kill kenny (for his birthday), i canceled a date. I didn't go to dancing. and i skipped getting shitty with my buddies. its amazing how depressing being sick is. you sit at home and do nothing. nothing at all. you think about the things you could be doing. and you don't do them. plus doesn't help when your roommate has a super hot girlfriend over for 'sleepovers' every night of the week.
whatever. i'm going to softball today. its happening. it is. no stopping it. (unless i'm too sick)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Miniunions
Nick and Keven came to visit this weekend. I haven't seen keven since moving out, so it was great to see him. nick had been over recently but was his typical vibrant self so it was fun.
friday night we went with the broseffs (kickball guys are very into bromance. its somewhat a satirical and somewhat genuine bro love) to a hot pot place and got real real drunk on sake bombs. from there we rolled on over to the kong, and instantly took over karaoke. i've since been told i went up to a group of girls and invited them to come with, but accidentally frightened them. they apparently didn't hear me and then i went and to invite them and got too close (and in hindsight wonder why i wasn't slapped). anyways, at the kong i switched to waters and nick kept on to scorpion bowls. some of the kickball girls showed up and i sang them a song (fuck her gently). martha told me on sunday she was incredibly embarrassed... for me. but i'm sure i had a great old time. in fact i remember thinking i was clever (not because of the song content, but because i found a song that i knew all the words to. crazy, i know). when we went to go get keven, we were real drunk. we got back to my house and he had a drink or two but mostly we were set to retire.
saturday we went on the harpoon brewery tour. this was another excelent and nearly free drinking event. we tasted most all of the beers harpoon makes and decided which ones we like (PUMPKIN!). afterwards, we walked along the greenway - the parks the snake around the downtown area. we went up to north end to get gelato and then headed home to make pina coladas. we went for indian for dinner, met up with julia and stuffed ourselves. this was unfortunate because it severely hurt our drinking desire. we trudged around harvard square a number of times but didn't do much heavy drinking.
sunday we went to the kickball barbecue and then keven took off. nick got to play some kickball when various teams forfeited. my team lost in the second round. whatever. i always was in the semicompetitive awkward place with kickball, so its good i just was done. we had to wait until all the games were done, and we were getting desperately sober.
we went to the bar and took care of that. and, after nick left, i walked back to the bar and (i claim credit for) broke up a fight. one guy made a really inappropriate comment about another guy (who is an ex marine and would have beat him up badly). i happened to be kinda right there. and i just made friends with the namecaller's friend and more or less was apologizing for everyone saying bad stuff to him when it was his friend was the one who was to blame. he talked his friend out the door, then came back in for some reason (there was suddenly tons of testosterone and stupidity in the room. i felt it too, but since everyone around me was easily 4" or more taller and broader, i wasn't going to be doing anything stupid). he and i talked for a bit while he kinda calmed down and then i sorta convinced him to leave. [in reality, i'm sure i'm misremembering my importance, but i certainly was peacemaking and also standing inbetween these angry giants] mostly i consider myself a hero.
i had tried to spend as little money as possible (i'm tired of constantly being worried about making bill payments. i had hoped to SAVE my money from this summer. but its impossible to go out and not spend at least 20 or 30 bucks. money just flows out of my pocket. its really quite ridiculous.
on the book for this week. another date. operation "kill kenny" - for his birthday. another advanced dancing class. my last free weekend night in boston (TEARS). and kellen's softball game and shenanigans
Nick and Keven came to visit this weekend. I haven't seen keven since moving out, so it was great to see him. nick had been over recently but was his typical vibrant self so it was fun.
friday night we went with the broseffs (kickball guys are very into bromance. its somewhat a satirical and somewhat genuine bro love) to a hot pot place and got real real drunk on sake bombs. from there we rolled on over to the kong, and instantly took over karaoke. i've since been told i went up to a group of girls and invited them to come with, but accidentally frightened them. they apparently didn't hear me and then i went and to invite them and got too close (and in hindsight wonder why i wasn't slapped). anyways, at the kong i switched to waters and nick kept on to scorpion bowls. some of the kickball girls showed up and i sang them a song (fuck her gently). martha told me on sunday she was incredibly embarrassed... for me. but i'm sure i had a great old time. in fact i remember thinking i was clever (not because of the song content, but because i found a song that i knew all the words to. crazy, i know). when we went to go get keven, we were real drunk. we got back to my house and he had a drink or two but mostly we were set to retire.
saturday we went on the harpoon brewery tour. this was another excelent and nearly free drinking event. we tasted most all of the beers harpoon makes and decided which ones we like (PUMPKIN!). afterwards, we walked along the greenway - the parks the snake around the downtown area. we went up to north end to get gelato and then headed home to make pina coladas. we went for indian for dinner, met up with julia and stuffed ourselves. this was unfortunate because it severely hurt our drinking desire. we trudged around harvard square a number of times but didn't do much heavy drinking.
sunday we went to the kickball barbecue and then keven took off. nick got to play some kickball when various teams forfeited. my team lost in the second round. whatever. i always was in the semicompetitive awkward place with kickball, so its good i just was done. we had to wait until all the games were done, and we were getting desperately sober.
we went to the bar and took care of that. and, after nick left, i walked back to the bar and (i claim credit for) broke up a fight. one guy made a really inappropriate comment about another guy (who is an ex marine and would have beat him up badly). i happened to be kinda right there. and i just made friends with the namecaller's friend and more or less was apologizing for everyone saying bad stuff to him when it was his friend was the one who was to blame. he talked his friend out the door, then came back in for some reason (there was suddenly tons of testosterone and stupidity in the room. i felt it too, but since everyone around me was easily 4" or more taller and broader, i wasn't going to be doing anything stupid). he and i talked for a bit while he kinda calmed down and then i sorta convinced him to leave. [in reality, i'm sure i'm misremembering my importance, but i certainly was peacemaking and also standing inbetween these angry giants] mostly i consider myself a hero.
i had tried to spend as little money as possible (i'm tired of constantly being worried about making bill payments. i had hoped to SAVE my money from this summer. but its impossible to go out and not spend at least 20 or 30 bucks. money just flows out of my pocket. its really quite ridiculous.
on the book for this week. another date. operation "kill kenny" - for his birthday. another advanced dancing class. my last free weekend night in boston (TEARS). and kellen's softball game and shenanigans
Friday, August 3, 2012
the end is fast approaching.
i really don't want to go back to school. life is so much fun with all my new bostonian amigos. this isn't going to be my sappy summary post, not QUITE yet. but i'm starting to feel it.
no, power onward!
Keven and nick are coming for the weekend (i know, a ton of visitors). i'm really excited to have dnk in boston. tomorrow we're going on the harpoon brewery tour and then who knows afterwards. then in the night i'm going to try and meet with tyler for drinks. ty is the one i stayed with for the first week before i had a place to stay. then sunday is our last kickball game. playoffs and then drinking like theres no monday. i mean slip-sloppy.
if this weekend doesn't kill me, then i did it wrong.
i really don't want to go back to school. life is so much fun with all my new bostonian amigos. this isn't going to be my sappy summary post, not QUITE yet. but i'm starting to feel it.
no, power onward!
Keven and nick are coming for the weekend (i know, a ton of visitors). i'm really excited to have dnk in boston. tomorrow we're going on the harpoon brewery tour and then who knows afterwards. then in the night i'm going to try and meet with tyler for drinks. ty is the one i stayed with for the first week before i had a place to stay. then sunday is our last kickball game. playoffs and then drinking like theres no monday. i mean slip-sloppy.
if this weekend doesn't kill me, then i did it wrong.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Its been a little while since i posted.
work is still like pulling teeth. my distributors are dumber than piles of crap.
saturday i met up with james and a friend from home and we did north end (finally) and then got ice cream. we met with matt and kylie and went to dinner then out to a bar. I was flirting pretty heavy with the waitress, and she was giving it back. i asked for her favorite drink, and she reccommended two good ones. i wrote "you have good taste" then left my name and number. i thought that was pretty slick. but alas, she never called. james and amanda and i headed to logan's frat. he lives in MIT Tao Epsilon Phi. there house was the coolest frat i've ever been in. amazing real estate, huge and awesome rooms, all kinds of awesome engineering geekyness (this was not your frat boy type frat, though those do exist at MIT. this was a geek's frat. but no negative judgement from me, i thought it was sweet).
sunday i was actually excited for the drinking. i got up and went to keggs and eggs and got good and derunk. played kickball drunk, went to courtside and then in typical darren fashion decided it was time to leave and peaced.
monday i took it easy (i'm finding this to be real important for not dying, taking nights off - or rather, i take mondays off and pretty much that's it).
Tuesday i took a bunch of kickball girls to swing dancing. i realized half the girls in the class were there as a result of me. i should get a discount or something. not only that, they raised the price of the lessons. kinda lame. whatever. i'm absolutely a west coast swing junkie now. this is kinda bad.
i am no living with two people. one guy came by to check out the place on monday night. he's 30 and an odd dude. the other guy showed up last night and said, "who are you." I said, "i live here, who are you". but he's cool. hes a mechanical engineer at tufts and was working as a marketing intern with a san Francisco. he made a rap video for the company. interesting use of engineering talent. but he's cool.
we'll see how i adapt to living with people.
work is still like pulling teeth. my distributors are dumber than piles of crap.
saturday i met up with james and a friend from home and we did north end (finally) and then got ice cream. we met with matt and kylie and went to dinner then out to a bar. I was flirting pretty heavy with the waitress, and she was giving it back. i asked for her favorite drink, and she reccommended two good ones. i wrote "you have good taste" then left my name and number. i thought that was pretty slick. but alas, she never called. james and amanda and i headed to logan's frat. he lives in MIT Tao Epsilon Phi. there house was the coolest frat i've ever been in. amazing real estate, huge and awesome rooms, all kinds of awesome engineering geekyness (this was not your frat boy type frat, though those do exist at MIT. this was a geek's frat. but no negative judgement from me, i thought it was sweet).
sunday i was actually excited for the drinking. i got up and went to keggs and eggs and got good and derunk. played kickball drunk, went to courtside and then in typical darren fashion decided it was time to leave and peaced.
monday i took it easy (i'm finding this to be real important for not dying, taking nights off - or rather, i take mondays off and pretty much that's it).
Tuesday i took a bunch of kickball girls to swing dancing. i realized half the girls in the class were there as a result of me. i should get a discount or something. not only that, they raised the price of the lessons. kinda lame. whatever. i'm absolutely a west coast swing junkie now. this is kinda bad.
i am no living with two people. one guy came by to check out the place on monday night. he's 30 and an odd dude. the other guy showed up last night and said, "who are you." I said, "i live here, who are you". but he's cool. hes a mechanical engineer at tufts and was working as a marketing intern with a san Francisco. he made a rap video for the company. interesting use of engineering talent. but he's cool.
we'll see how i adapt to living with people.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
this was a shitty work week but another pretty fun play week. tuesday i convinced a bunch of my kickball buddies to go swing dancing with me. they had fun and say they will come back next tuesday. wednesday we went out for margaritas for somebody's birthday. that was an interesting trip. i fell asleep on the subway. which was kinda bad. but i'm alive. then thursday i had a just crap work day and was needing a pick me up. fortunately STEPH was visiting. we went out and i took her swing dancing and we had a great time. that helped a lot. then yesterday the company went on a team building kayak trip. matt and i dressed as pirates, had a flag for our canoe and we brought some nips. we also dunked the vp. to be fair he was trying to take me down and matt was just protecting me. but we got some greif from the company for the act. i'm not too worried about my job though :).
last night we went to a drive in theatre where we saw dark night rises and then saw ted. we brought booze and had a great time. batman was awesome again.
we'll see what i end up doing today.
last night we went to a drive in theatre where we saw dark night rises and then saw ted. we brought booze and had a great time. batman was awesome again.
we'll see what i end up doing today.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Another excellent weekend here in boston.
friday i mostly just stayed in and got 11 hours of sleep. then saturday, i went to brighton to meet at fort kickass - one of the other team's house. from there we drove down to plymouth (of the one with the rock). we were going to cabbyshack- a place with famous clam chowdah. we get there, and when we're waiting for our table, i did a typical darren stupid. i'm just finishing my first "good guy" (lemonade, sweet tea vodka, iced tea) and i want to order something else. so we're standing around a bunch of people eating at their tables and i start reading a menu. i'm reading it for a good minute or two, when all of a sudden, i get the feeling i'm doing something wrong. Of course i noticed that there was a couple at this table, but i didn't think about the fact that if i'm staring intently at the menu, i'm effectively staring intently at them. the man catches my eye and says, "just take it". right at that moment, a waitress comes over, obviously having seen me staring at this couple (seemingly) and she hands me a menu. i go beet red while all my friends scold me for being so rude. typical darren being 1 step off of appropriate, without malintent. anyways, when we do sit and eat, it takes about an hour for everyone to get their order in. insane. but we were tossing back 'good guys', so it was fine. the clam chowdah was infinitely filling and i was stuffed like a pig. when the meal was over, the bill was over $500 for the 13 of us. not cheap. but it was great. then we went to a crazy awesome cupcake place. we walked to the beach - which was totally devoid of sand and then eventually headed back to boston. we went directly to 'the kong'. our second favorite karoake spot is hong kong in down town boston. we were there just before 1. 5 hours at the kong. i sang songs, danced with girls, got really trashed and lucked into a ride home from a sober person. i am now at the point where getting numbers isn't an impossible task, its a realistic saturday night goal. now i have to start calling these numbers - something I only recently realized was part of the process. i had been getting the #s and being so content that i never called anyone. stupid darren.
sunday, i woke up in the developing hangover state. i knew i had a great day of fun drinking ahead of me, and i was dreading it. gotta go though. you're only yahtzee once. so, i went to kegs and eggs, circumvented my hangover with beer, and was off and running. kickball was fun, got on base 2 of 2 times. we lost, but whatever. next week is the last week of the season, which is sad. but its been great fun. and i'm sad i won't get to do it in the fall with my buddies.
on the menu for this week: steph is coming to boston, and i'm excited to see her. and i'm going to take a couple nights of this week off, to recharge my jets. i may call the girl from saturday night to go dancing with me though. haven't decided.
friday i mostly just stayed in and got 11 hours of sleep. then saturday, i went to brighton to meet at fort kickass - one of the other team's house. from there we drove down to plymouth (of the one with the rock). we were going to cabbyshack- a place with famous clam chowdah. we get there, and when we're waiting for our table, i did a typical darren stupid. i'm just finishing my first "good guy" (lemonade, sweet tea vodka, iced tea) and i want to order something else. so we're standing around a bunch of people eating at their tables and i start reading a menu. i'm reading it for a good minute or two, when all of a sudden, i get the feeling i'm doing something wrong. Of course i noticed that there was a couple at this table, but i didn't think about the fact that if i'm staring intently at the menu, i'm effectively staring intently at them. the man catches my eye and says, "just take it". right at that moment, a waitress comes over, obviously having seen me staring at this couple (seemingly) and she hands me a menu. i go beet red while all my friends scold me for being so rude. typical darren being 1 step off of appropriate, without malintent. anyways, when we do sit and eat, it takes about an hour for everyone to get their order in. insane. but we were tossing back 'good guys', so it was fine. the clam chowdah was infinitely filling and i was stuffed like a pig. when the meal was over, the bill was over $500 for the 13 of us. not cheap. but it was great. then we went to a crazy awesome cupcake place. we walked to the beach - which was totally devoid of sand and then eventually headed back to boston. we went directly to 'the kong'. our second favorite karoake spot is hong kong in down town boston. we were there just before 1. 5 hours at the kong. i sang songs, danced with girls, got really trashed and lucked into a ride home from a sober person. i am now at the point where getting numbers isn't an impossible task, its a realistic saturday night goal. now i have to start calling these numbers - something I only recently realized was part of the process. i had been getting the #s and being so content that i never called anyone. stupid darren.
sunday, i woke up in the developing hangover state. i knew i had a great day of fun drinking ahead of me, and i was dreading it. gotta go though. you're only yahtzee once. so, i went to kegs and eggs, circumvented my hangover with beer, and was off and running. kickball was fun, got on base 2 of 2 times. we lost, but whatever. next week is the last week of the season, which is sad. but its been great fun. and i'm sad i won't get to do it in the fall with my buddies.
on the menu for this week: steph is coming to boston, and i'm excited to see her. and i'm going to take a couple nights of this week off, to recharge my jets. i may call the girl from saturday night to go dancing with me though. haven't decided.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Well, life is awesome.
Monday my buddy eric came into the city and we had fantastic burgers and then went to JP Licks, a great ice cream place. it was fun catching up with him and planning out how bad school is going to romp our asses next year. well, that part wasn't fun. but it was good to see him.
then tuesday. o man tuesday. i got a text at 5.30 that said "go to central, we're going to the pond". i thought for about a minute and said ok. so i book it out of work a little early and make it to central where i'm picked up by 3 of my close kickball friends. we were going to walden pond (you know the one from the thorou poem (spelling doesn't count) ) anyways, so we drive around boston taking random turns whenever the traffic gets bad (which it was everywhere as it was rush hour). also, the driver do0esn't know where she is. so all the 3 have smart phones and are trying to gps and its just hilarious to watch. eventually we get out of the city, are about 5 minutes from the pond when our other friend calls and said she can't find the entrance. at this point, we learn there are 2 walden ponds. we went to the wrong one. so we set course for the new pond and head out there. we get there at 7.45, park closes at 8. we park illegally, run down to the waterfront. everyone else got the invite on facebook, but i don't have a phone to check it during work, so i didn't have time to go get a bathing suit. so after a moment of thinking, i strip to boxers in the public beach area and hop in. boxers and swimsuit have different properties, one of which is their ability to stay on.... so i made some adjustments and was good to go. we swim for maybe 6 minutes and then run back to the car. its here where someone pulls out a bag of malibu. of course we down it. and then we take off for margaritas. its maybe 8.15 and i'm feeling it. we moon our other group of friends on the highway (cause "it [was] time for the moon to come out") and go for drinks. drinks / dinner was awesome and hilarious. so much fun. it was a crazy spontaneous adventure that was legen-------dary.
Wednesday was an even more epic adventure. nolan gave me 4 tickets to the red sox game. but, there was thunder/lightning predicted. by about 4.30, it was raining so hard i was afraid (as a californian, what you guys have over here is something other than rain, its more violent in nature). everyone says theres no way theres a game happening. but i say, well, if its canceled, we'll just go to a bar. we walk to the T in light rain and low spirits - the radar map made boston look bright red all over. on the t we keep checking the fenway weather twitter feed (first time i've ever really checked twitter. turns out its really boring. all the same comments replay until a new one comes out. but its like watching a tree grow.). game is still on. so we change to the green line and see TONs of sox fans, so at this point i'm sure the game is on. a guy tells us we should go to a bar until the game actually starts, cause there is no reentry. this is a great idea, so we stop for a couple drinks. we pick up excellent sausages on the way in (if you don't know, i'm a sausage addict [damn the en tendres]) we get to our seats and they're as good a bleacher seat as you're going to find. somebody brought shamwow's to dry their seats and they lend it to us. very clutch. so we start watching the game. at this point i learn A) James doesn't really know the rules to baseball B) matt didn't know the white sox were a team and C) kylie only likes baseball a little bit. hahaha. o well, i appreciated that we were at FENWAY. i've now been to the following stadiums: candlestick (giants), Pacbell (new giants), new yankee stadium, the angels stadium, oakland collesium, wrigley, camden yard (orioles), ballpark at arlington (rangers), and now fenway. a nice little list. But going to classic parks is just special. anyways, we were having a great time, i snuck in a matthew vassar flask (SO worth the $10) and we were getting pretty tipsy. kylie asks me how my dating life is going (she and matt are the ones who housed me and were my first boston friends, so we go way (2 months) back). so i start talking about not being good at talking to girls and james and matt are laughing at me. only now do i realize i was spilling guts in straight up public, where everyone heard - i did win the "i can talk louder than you" award back in middle school. [and i could and still can btw]. anyways, a couple of innings later, people are trying to get the wave going in our section. i'm not really interested, since between the drinking and the gut spilling, i feel like i'm missing the game. (this goes to nolan's point about how baseball really only has one thing going for it. its such a slow pace its perfect for socializing and watching the game only secondarily) so i'm watching, not waving. all of a sudden, some girl comes down and talks to the four of us and says "my friends up there are trying to start the wave. it would be really awesome if you'd help out" and then after we kinda go *aha, ya, sure* head nod, she adds, "oh and one of you said having a wingman wasn't the problem, you were the problem. i think you just need to be more confident". I go beet red, matt and james are holding in laughter and i can't remember what kylie said, but it was something in agreement. the girl just walks away at this point. finally coming to understand how public my discussions had become, the guys behind me say, "you should have gotten her number!" Oh how obvious! so, in the blink of an eye, i'm up, i walk up the section to where the 3 or 4 girls are sitting and i say, "if i'm being confident, the first thing i should do is get your number." i go to pull out my phone and she pulls out a pen even faster, and old school rights her number on my hand. I say, can i have your name and then she writes that. stunned, i say cool, and start to walk away. after two steps, i realize and turn around, stick out my hand and say, "nice to meet you jasmine, i'm darren". i walk back down to our seats, report my success and we all have a laugh. i wait an inning and text her about the wave, and then we send a couple of slightly flirtatious texts. the game ends (the sox destroyed them. the game was awesome by the way, but of course all you guys wanna hear about is the story i'm telling). I figure i'll never see her again, so i say something like, "hey it was nice meeting u. maybe i'll see you at another sox game in the future" i figure thats the end. but she sends, "i'm in boston two more weeks". one of those intentionally vague, not closing the door, but not leaving it open, type comments. i don't reply. james has recommended i give it a day or two before doing anything. Regardless, i consider it a rousing success. i got an opening to talk to a girl, i didn't chicken out and i got a number.
Monday my buddy eric came into the city and we had fantastic burgers and then went to JP Licks, a great ice cream place. it was fun catching up with him and planning out how bad school is going to romp our asses next year. well, that part wasn't fun. but it was good to see him.
then tuesday. o man tuesday. i got a text at 5.30 that said "go to central, we're going to the pond". i thought for about a minute and said ok. so i book it out of work a little early and make it to central where i'm picked up by 3 of my close kickball friends. we were going to walden pond (you know the one from the thorou poem (spelling doesn't count) ) anyways, so we drive around boston taking random turns whenever the traffic gets bad (which it was everywhere as it was rush hour). also, the driver do0esn't know where she is. so all the 3 have smart phones and are trying to gps and its just hilarious to watch. eventually we get out of the city, are about 5 minutes from the pond when our other friend calls and said she can't find the entrance. at this point, we learn there are 2 walden ponds. we went to the wrong one. so we set course for the new pond and head out there. we get there at 7.45, park closes at 8. we park illegally, run down to the waterfront. everyone else got the invite on facebook, but i don't have a phone to check it during work, so i didn't have time to go get a bathing suit. so after a moment of thinking, i strip to boxers in the public beach area and hop in. boxers and swimsuit have different properties, one of which is their ability to stay on.... so i made some adjustments and was good to go. we swim for maybe 6 minutes and then run back to the car. its here where someone pulls out a bag of malibu. of course we down it. and then we take off for margaritas. its maybe 8.15 and i'm feeling it. we moon our other group of friends on the highway (cause "it [was] time for the moon to come out") and go for drinks. drinks / dinner was awesome and hilarious. so much fun. it was a crazy spontaneous adventure that was legen-------dary.
Wednesday was an even more epic adventure. nolan gave me 4 tickets to the red sox game. but, there was thunder/lightning predicted. by about 4.30, it was raining so hard i was afraid (as a californian, what you guys have over here is something other than rain, its more violent in nature). everyone says theres no way theres a game happening. but i say, well, if its canceled, we'll just go to a bar. we walk to the T in light rain and low spirits - the radar map made boston look bright red all over. on the t we keep checking the fenway weather twitter feed (first time i've ever really checked twitter. turns out its really boring. all the same comments replay until a new one comes out. but its like watching a tree grow.). game is still on. so we change to the green line and see TONs of sox fans, so at this point i'm sure the game is on. a guy tells us we should go to a bar until the game actually starts, cause there is no reentry. this is a great idea, so we stop for a couple drinks. we pick up excellent sausages on the way in (if you don't know, i'm a sausage addict [damn the en tendres]) we get to our seats and they're as good a bleacher seat as you're going to find. somebody brought shamwow's to dry their seats and they lend it to us. very clutch. so we start watching the game. at this point i learn A) James doesn't really know the rules to baseball B) matt didn't know the white sox were a team and C) kylie only likes baseball a little bit. hahaha. o well, i appreciated that we were at FENWAY. i've now been to the following stadiums: candlestick (giants), Pacbell (new giants), new yankee stadium, the angels stadium, oakland collesium, wrigley, camden yard (orioles), ballpark at arlington (rangers), and now fenway. a nice little list. But going to classic parks is just special. anyways, we were having a great time, i snuck in a matthew vassar flask (SO worth the $10) and we were getting pretty tipsy. kylie asks me how my dating life is going (she and matt are the ones who housed me and were my first boston friends, so we go way (2 months) back). so i start talking about not being good at talking to girls and james and matt are laughing at me. only now do i realize i was spilling guts in straight up public, where everyone heard - i did win the "i can talk louder than you" award back in middle school. [and i could and still can btw]. anyways, a couple of innings later, people are trying to get the wave going in our section. i'm not really interested, since between the drinking and the gut spilling, i feel like i'm missing the game. (this goes to nolan's point about how baseball really only has one thing going for it. its such a slow pace its perfect for socializing and watching the game only secondarily) so i'm watching, not waving. all of a sudden, some girl comes down and talks to the four of us and says "my friends up there are trying to start the wave. it would be really awesome if you'd help out" and then after we kinda go *aha, ya, sure* head nod, she adds, "oh and one of you said having a wingman wasn't the problem, you were the problem. i think you just need to be more confident". I go beet red, matt and james are holding in laughter and i can't remember what kylie said, but it was something in agreement. the girl just walks away at this point. finally coming to understand how public my discussions had become, the guys behind me say, "you should have gotten her number!" Oh how obvious! so, in the blink of an eye, i'm up, i walk up the section to where the 3 or 4 girls are sitting and i say, "if i'm being confident, the first thing i should do is get your number." i go to pull out my phone and she pulls out a pen even faster, and old school rights her number on my hand. I say, can i have your name and then she writes that. stunned, i say cool, and start to walk away. after two steps, i realize and turn around, stick out my hand and say, "nice to meet you jasmine, i'm darren". i walk back down to our seats, report my success and we all have a laugh. i wait an inning and text her about the wave, and then we send a couple of slightly flirtatious texts. the game ends (the sox destroyed them. the game was awesome by the way, but of course all you guys wanna hear about is the story i'm telling). I figure i'll never see her again, so i say something like, "hey it was nice meeting u. maybe i'll see you at another sox game in the future" i figure thats the end. but she sends, "i'm in boston two more weeks". one of those intentionally vague, not closing the door, but not leaving it open, type comments. i don't reply. james has recommended i give it a day or two before doing anything. Regardless, i consider it a rousing success. i got an opening to talk to a girl, i didn't chicken out and i got a number.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
this was a crazy crazy weekend. nick came down for the weekend pretty much right when dan left. didn't plan it, but it was great. he was going to wing for me all weekend. i ended up winging for him because, we'll i'm no good at closing. i've learned i'm awesome at talking to girls, i'm a pretty fun person, at least a little funny and enjoyable enough for 10 minutes or 1 hour or whatever of talking. i've learned how and am now sorta able to ask for numbers. but i realize two new things. first, i have maybe 5 numbers. but i don't know what to do with them. i could invite them out to do stuff, but i haven't yet and don't know about it. i've also learned (and i knew) i can't ABC. always be closing. just like i can't creepily grind on a stranger, i don't know how to suggest to go back to my place. i should be able to, but thats just a crazy thing. anyways, i feel like i make this rant 100 times over.
nick and i went to a bbq before going to karaoking friday night. saturday we went to bars near fenway and i learned i missed out on a beer marathon. we went hard, but my voice is dead from the singing, so the girls weren't really feeling it. i sound like a grouch. last night, nick was going to be wingmaning, but i wing'ed for him, like i said. he ended up staying talking with this girl forever. got her number and she seemed to dig him a lot.
sunday, today, we went to keggs and eggs and it was awesome. we played and then went to the bar and had fun. i have a great time here in boston, but its hard to get used to the new shape of life, the fast pace of weekend and the drull of weekdays. i find myself missing college more than usual. hmm.
nick and i went to a bbq before going to karaoking friday night. saturday we went to bars near fenway and i learned i missed out on a beer marathon. we went hard, but my voice is dead from the singing, so the girls weren't really feeling it. i sound like a grouch. last night, nick was going to be wingmaning, but i wing'ed for him, like i said. he ended up staying talking with this girl forever. got her number and she seemed to dig him a lot.
sunday, today, we went to keggs and eggs and it was awesome. we played and then went to the bar and had fun. i have a great time here in boston, but its hard to get used to the new shape of life, the fast pace of weekend and the drull of weekdays. i find myself missing college more than usual. hmm.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Week update on its way
I met up with nolan's friend who got me (effectively) an offer for an iRobot internship and talked to her about my job, my social life in the city, my future, her future. she's a kickass woman in engineering, a kickass engineer, and a kickass person in general. I really like her. she gave me advice about all of the things career related and it was insightful. she's going to upenn for advanced haptic research for a masters degree, but is delaying that for a year because her part of iRobot is going through development of manufacturing in china and thats an amazing thing to have experiance in and she wants to stick around to learn it. it was a great talk. (sorry for the engineering digression, i know i've said i'll keep this just to social issues, but i thought this was a worth while item)
tuesday, went dancing, had great fun like always. i'm really getting way way better. i'm at the point where if i know the song, i can pretty much throw in a particular move to match the music. my move set isn't tremendous, but i can also make up moves with about 40% success rate which i consider admirable. i can't get enough of it either, i'm going to have to find a place to do this at dartmouth. AND the international competition for the month of august is in boston and its not too expensive to go. i really wanna go but it would mean i wouldn't go home. and i kinda want to go home to see my mom and my grandparents. dilemnas
wednesday dan came to visit from NYC (he's doing a world tour sort of trip). we went to pickup kickball and had a good time and then of course went to courtside. get this, at courtside i ran into julia and anabeth from the barefoot monkeys (at vassar). they both i guess live in boston area and met up and wanted to go to a pub in the area and through some crazy series of events they ended up at our shitty ass dive bar. i'm surprised they sat at the bar. its prettttttty funky looking. but anyways, i walked in and did what amounted to a triple take before i decided thats julia. i'm trying to get them to come to kickball sunday, or join kickball in the fall. but, i'm not going to try that hard. i like them, but if they're not into it, i won't force it.
yesterday i took off the afternoon to hang with daniel and we went to the historical instrument museum at harvard. it was awesome. they have instruments from back in the 1500s all the way into the 1990s. it was really cool. then we went to the MIT museum. that was fantastic. it had an entire robotics wing. i'm pretty sure i want to do robotics as my first job out of school - you know before i start companies of my own (that came off douchy, sorry). but anyways it was cool. then there was a scientific photography exhibit that was amazing. if you think about when you did physics in college or high school or even middle school, i can guarantee you one of the images or copycats came from this exhibit. it was stunning work. and i'm not always into artwork, but this stuff.
in the night we went to the best bbq in cambridge/somerville: redbones. i took him to underbones, the bar/dining room underneath redbones and its wonderfully decorated in stylized tribal artwork. great food of course too.
1 more bit of engineering news. yesterday the company did a demo for the client and afterwards i had two people come to me and ask when my project would be done and how important it is (now that the client mentioned wanting data from the system i'm building.) but this is the first time anyone has shown interest. i've placed orders for all the hardware and it should be machined and shipped here in two weeks. i have at that point i guess 3 or 4 weeks (depending on if/when i go home) before i leave, so there is a tiny window of opportunity to fix any screw ups i've undoubtedly made. i'm getting nervous. but i'll take photos and such for myself (and thusly you) when it comes together.
Talk to you later :)
~ p.s. if you're reading this, i'd love to hear if you'd like me to talk about certain things more or less, or just that you exist. its kind of eery writing a letter to the internet. i imagine there's someone listening, but i really don't know.
I met up with nolan's friend who got me (effectively) an offer for an iRobot internship and talked to her about my job, my social life in the city, my future, her future. she's a kickass woman in engineering, a kickass engineer, and a kickass person in general. I really like her. she gave me advice about all of the things career related and it was insightful. she's going to upenn for advanced haptic research for a masters degree, but is delaying that for a year because her part of iRobot is going through development of manufacturing in china and thats an amazing thing to have experiance in and she wants to stick around to learn it. it was a great talk. (sorry for the engineering digression, i know i've said i'll keep this just to social issues, but i thought this was a worth while item)
tuesday, went dancing, had great fun like always. i'm really getting way way better. i'm at the point where if i know the song, i can pretty much throw in a particular move to match the music. my move set isn't tremendous, but i can also make up moves with about 40% success rate which i consider admirable. i can't get enough of it either, i'm going to have to find a place to do this at dartmouth. AND the international competition for the month of august is in boston and its not too expensive to go. i really wanna go but it would mean i wouldn't go home. and i kinda want to go home to see my mom and my grandparents. dilemnas
wednesday dan came to visit from NYC (he's doing a world tour sort of trip). we went to pickup kickball and had a good time and then of course went to courtside. get this, at courtside i ran into julia and anabeth from the barefoot monkeys (at vassar). they both i guess live in boston area and met up and wanted to go to a pub in the area and through some crazy series of events they ended up at our shitty ass dive bar. i'm surprised they sat at the bar. its prettttttty funky looking. but anyways, i walked in and did what amounted to a triple take before i decided thats julia. i'm trying to get them to come to kickball sunday, or join kickball in the fall. but, i'm not going to try that hard. i like them, but if they're not into it, i won't force it.
yesterday i took off the afternoon to hang with daniel and we went to the historical instrument museum at harvard. it was awesome. they have instruments from back in the 1500s all the way into the 1990s. it was really cool. then we went to the MIT museum. that was fantastic. it had an entire robotics wing. i'm pretty sure i want to do robotics as my first job out of school - you know before i start companies of my own (that came off douchy, sorry). but anyways it was cool. then there was a scientific photography exhibit that was amazing. if you think about when you did physics in college or high school or even middle school, i can guarantee you one of the images or copycats came from this exhibit. it was stunning work. and i'm not always into artwork, but this stuff.
in the night we went to the best bbq in cambridge/somerville: redbones. i took him to underbones, the bar/dining room underneath redbones and its wonderfully decorated in stylized tribal artwork. great food of course too.
1 more bit of engineering news. yesterday the company did a demo for the client and afterwards i had two people come to me and ask when my project would be done and how important it is (now that the client mentioned wanting data from the system i'm building.) but this is the first time anyone has shown interest. i've placed orders for all the hardware and it should be machined and shipped here in two weeks. i have at that point i guess 3 or 4 weeks (depending on if/when i go home) before i leave, so there is a tiny window of opportunity to fix any screw ups i've undoubtedly made. i'm getting nervous. but i'll take photos and such for myself (and thusly you) when it comes together.
Talk to you later :)
~ p.s. if you're reading this, i'd love to hear if you'd like me to talk about certain things more or less, or just that you exist. its kind of eery writing a letter to the internet. i imagine there's someone listening, but i really don't know.
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