Tuesday, September 30, 2003

   Legend of the Girl: Comp Sci and Busses
September, 2003 . . . . . The present . . . . .

The new school year started. I was now 20, in my third year of school, and an English major taking Computer Science for science credits. She was now a Computer Science major (I think) taking a Greek Myth course for arts credits. And we were both finishing every other day a couple of rooms away from each other.

Leading up to the first day of school, "The Girl" had not been on ICQ for the past couple weeks or so. Again, I had no idea why and was left wondering: out of town? Internet dead? Ignoring me? Yeah, I'm scary when I'm left to my own devices . . .

On that first day of school I was stupid and went when I had no classes - I stated this in a post from around that time. What I didn't tell you was that I saw "The Girl" walk by looking for a friend she was meeting. I ran down the little grass hill, tapped her on one shoulder, and walked to her other shoulder.

I was already talking with another friend at the time, so I left her after this OTHER friend came up to us. It was brief, but I got to see her in person again after over a month, so it wasn't all bad.

I ran into her going into the bookstore the next day. We walked around in the crowded, busy store for a while before I walked her to her CompSci class. While on the subject, I'd like to reiterate how she DARED me to take CompSci to finish off my science credits. She didn't actually think I'd do it, but I did . . . and I never let her forget it (that course is slowly but surely kicking my ass).

One day, coming out of my last class of the day, I saw her coming out of a room as well. Turns out we both finish our MWF days on the same floor, about two rooms away from each other! Well, I don't need to tell you that after that we started taking the 40-minute bus and 20-minute train ride home together (technically hers is a longer train ride, but I'm there most of the way). So yes, more time together. Awesome.

And this all accumulates to last Friday. I had gone through some efforts to get some friends off campus to come to my school and check it out . . . and, uh . . . go drinkin' . . . . . well, in any case, "The Girl" was on the bus that morning, and I reminded her about it. She said she'd try . . .

At the end of the day, she said she'd stick around (audible "Yes!!!" in my head). So yeah, that night after a Japanese dinner, the 5 of us (4 being friends since high school) were out having fun chatting, playing pool and all that jazz. It was such a great night.

Okay, it wasn't perfect. Being that "The Girl" and I had to get home to watch Inuyasha, I had to finish a pint of beer really quickly so we could leave - I was very bouncy after that. Then, once we got to the train station, I REALLY had to pee and wasn't able to until I could get home about 40 minutes later. "The Girl" found this humourous because SHE'S A MEANY, but ya know . . . that's kinda why I like 'er . . . . .

So that's pretty much the story of my convoluted, messed-up personal life. The girl liked me, I liked her back, we got together, we broke up, and I've been chasing her ever since. We're still really good friends, I'm positive she knows for a fact that I never stopped liking her . . . and it's not like she's been rejecting my requests for outings. As far as I can tell, the hint is that she doesn't think her parents would approve of her seeing someone right now, and that's pretty much left me wondering about everything else.

Yes, most normal people would get on with their lives and find something/someone more productive. But, well . . . . . if I were smart enough for that, I'd be in sciences!


Holy crap! I think we reached the end! Does this mean I'm gonna hafta start thinking of clever things to write again? Ah well, t'was fun telling this story to you all. Hope (and glad) you all enjoyed this ten-day tale of triumph, tragedy, and . . . television . . . . . ran out of "T" words . . . meh . . . oh yeah, and about "holding it" for 40 minutes . . . I've held it for half of FotR and all of Rush Hour 2 - I'm a pro now!
Comments (10) | Permalink

Monday, September 29, 2003

   Quick question . . . . .
Are my entries of "The Legend" getting a little too long and unwieldy? If you think it'd be for the better, I could try to cut them down, or break them up, or whatever . . . I know looking a big honkin' thing of text is never an incredibly fun thing.
Comments (10) | Permalink

   Legend of the Girl: Another Summer
April-onwards, 2003 . . . . .

End of the year finished without too much of a hitch. Everyone was more or less passing his or her classes, so it was good. Soon it would be summer, some people would be taking classes, others finding work, and so on and so forth . . .

Oh yeah, "The Girl" was going overseas for the summer . . . . . . . yes, "was", past-tense . . .

As fate had it this year, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome hit Asia with a vengeance. That said, "The Girl" wasn't going anywhere this summer . . . which technically sucked, of course, since she was gonna do a lot of travelling . . . but, well . . . ya know . . . . .

So she's not leaving the country for the summer. Great, right? I'll ask her out and we'll go places and have some fun if she'll allow me . . .

In lieu of her trip, she took summer classes. Damnit . . . . .

So about a month or two passed where I pretty much heard NOTHING from her. She was never online, I was obviously not seeing her in person . . . heck, for all I knew, she WAS in China!

It was late June when she finally came back online. I finally came to understand she was doing summer school and was therefore gone too often to really come online. I was fine with that, I suppose.

Later in the week I told her about a Lion Dance performance I'd be working with at a night market. She didn't make any promises, but she said she'd try to make it.

She did. It made me really happy. I mean, I only got to talk to her for about half a minute before I had to go help out with stuff, and after that I was only able to shoot facial expressions at her now and then before she left. Still, the fact that she got her dad to drive her the 30-40 minutes to see us . . . (to see me?) . . . . . very cool.

The next week after that, I very unceremoniously asked her to go see Pirates of the Caribbean with me (yes, I use Orlando Bloom for my personal gain often with this girl). She agreed, to my pleasure, and on the second day it was playing we were going . . .
. . . along with one of her friends for a little while . . . . .

So, this friend of her's just needed to buy some stuff for a party, so she came while she could get some extra arms to help her get stuff. During our walking around the mall, she kept saying things like "yeah, I'm such a jerk, coming during your guys' date and all" or "I don't even know why you . . ." (". . like her," I assumed was the end to that trailoff).

Well, we finally headed to the theater, the friend told me "No touching!" . . . . . and we watched the wonder that was Pirates of the Carribean. Good fun.

So yeah, that was the last time I saw her in person for the rest of the summer. It was a great day. A great, memorable day that was worth the months of wait . . . well, at least I figured it was worth the wait, I dunno . . . . . . . . . . yeah! Totally worth the wait . . . . . . . . .

These're gettin' long, eh?
Comments (2) | Permalink

Sunday, September 28, 2003

   Legend of the Girl: Another Perspective
I'm skimping on the plot tonight. Tonight, we're going for ATMOSPHERE! Mwa ha ha ha ha . . . . . see? I could become a Canadian novelist if I wanted to (yes, that's a fun stereotype too. Neat, eh? [hee hee . . . . . ah, it's fun to promote cultural misconceptions . . .])

"Who Knows When", 2003 . . . . .

(The following ICQ conversation is inspired by true events. They are not word-for-word in any sense . . .)

Dude, I hate school . . . . .

Ahahahaha, whats your problem?

Essays, Can. Lit. projects, ya know, the usual . . .

Yah, but you don have labs that are friggin killing ya

That doesn't matter! Stress is stress!

Ahaha yeahsure whatever man

So hey, wuz up with [insert friend's name here]? He has a girlfriend now?

Yeah. That happened like, two seconds ago or something . . . crazy, huh?

Ya man how'd they meet?

Damned if I know - he tells me just as much as he tells you . . .

Ahaha you suck. Don't you two go to the same school

Yeah, so do a lot of other people. Ass.

Ah shaddup.

So when u gettin a girlfriend, huh?

. . . I'm workin' on it . . . .

Oh are you now? You have someone in mind? Who???

"Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?"

What the hell you talkin about?

. . . you suck, man! You KNOW who!

STILL??? Geez, man...

I know, I know! I'm an idiot, probably!

You said it not me

Yeah, but you're the reason I said it . . . . . seriously, it's not a good thing to still be trying for someone this long, right?

I unno man. If u really like her it shouldn't matter

Yes, that must be it . . . . . dude, WHY did you make me get Love Hina???

Ahaha yeah that show makes you depressed...

. . . . . you bastard . . . . . . . .


So yeah, I've probably gone through that question with that guy a couple times now. It's always entertaining. Incidentally, this is the same guy who was talking to "The Girl" online that day prior to Star Wars . . . you see? My whole world ties together rather neatly . . . . . . . . . .
Comments (8) | Permalink

Saturday, September 27, 2003

   Oh yeah!
On Friday, just before Latin class, I said "Hello poppet!" to a couple people. They were surprised. Just thought you'd all like to know how much this site's been influencing my life lately.
Comments (3) | Permalink

   Legend of the Girl: Second Year, Second Semester
This one might come out a little messy because I just got back from a pub on campus and am still a little bouncy, so . . . but hey, I got "The Girl" to come too, so it was all good . . . anyway, on with the story . . . . .

Spring, 2003 . . . . .

The second semester of school started out well enough - after my first ten-minute intro class I went to the bookstore to try to sell back a textbook. A friend of mine was in line as well, so that was cool . . . what was even cooler, though, was that while I was in line, "The Girl" walked by, tapped me on the shoulder, and kept walking . . . anyway, after I found out I COULDN'T sell back my book, I went deeper into the bookstore to find "The Girl" . . . . .

I found her crouched, looking at a shelf with CompSci books. I then proceeded to grab her around the shoulders in a half-hug-sorta-thing. She, of course, then shrieked quietly and fell over, taking myself along as well . . . yeah, that was fun . . . . . hee hee . . . . . why did she fall over?! Oh man . . . funny . . . . .

More morning meetings at the bus stop occured, as one would expect. Life was good. Life got even better, though, when I started hanging out with another friend during my breaks . . .

It was March when I started hanging out with this other friend regularly. She was in a club, so she had an office I could always meet her at during the day. And yes, she was friends with "The Girl" as well, and she was always there too (they shared a math class, you see). So now I'm regularly spending time during the day with "The Girl" . . . very nice. We're not exactly getting closer romantically, but still . . . . .

I think the thing was, this other friend is a very affectionate person. She likes to hug people. Well, it sorta rubbed off, I guess . . . there was this one day I spent with them. They were pretty much done for the day, so they walked me to my next class. Before I headed up the stairs, the one girl got a hug . . . then I turned to "The Girl" (much less affection-gathering than other friend) and . . . uh . . . . . sorta gave a salute of sorts . . . ya know, hugging might be weird and all . . .

Well, the other friend would have none of that, and specifically ORDERED us to hug. Well, "The Girl" came to me, so I was fine with that . . . some of her hair got in my mouth, but hey . . . I missed that . . . . .

So yeah, rest of the year pretty much followed that pattern. Hang out, see "The Girl" for a bit, then go to class. Sometimes they even made me skip classes for them - what bad influences, eh? In the end, the final half of the Spring semester was a rather fun period of time . . . . . . . . . . .
Comments (5) | Permalink

Friday, September 26, 2003

   Legend of the Girl: One Meeting Per Holiday
Summer - Winter, 2002 . . . . .

May to August, "The Girl" and I just chatted a little now and then online. Well, enough time went by for my tastes, so I asked her if she wanted to hang out for a day or so. If I recall that period of time, the line started with me finding a reason to pick a fight with her, shouting, "That's it! I'm calling you out!" Upon her refusal, I responded, "Okay, what if I just asked you out nicely?" Yeah, I was a cheese even back then . . . . .

Incidentally, it was my birthday that day. We never mentioned it over our respective cups of coffee, but ya know . . . I couldn't have cared less. We spent a fair bit of time discussing anime and Final Fantasy, now that I think about it . . . during that summer I was staying up 'til about 2 each night to watch Gundam (was hoping it would finish before school started - it did).

After we chilled for a couple hours, I drove her back to the train station . . . then I told her that we should do this again or see Lilo and Stitch or something . . . she said sure . . . . . it never happened, but it was nice to know that she was willing in any case. Very nice. Incredibly nice.

September came along, and we ran into each other at the bus stop going to school often enough. One day I even ran into her during our respective lunch breaks - incidentally, on HER birthday! Again, no one really brings it up . . . well, she eventually did, but that's beside the point . . . so yeah, aside from these brief interludes, the semester began flying by . . .

One day in late November or so, I ran into "The Girl" before her class. I was free for whatever reason, so we went to the bookstore and looked around for a bit. I made a point to show off what books I had read for my classes last year - ya know, to show I'm not wasting ALL my time at university . . . . . I eventually walked her to her class, and just before leaving . . . "you know what I'm gonna ask next, right?" She thought about it for a second before telling me to ask again after finals were over . . . . .

It was around Christmas time again, and that next "Legolas movie" was coming out. AGAIN, I beg her to come; AGAIN, she had already promised that friend of hers . . . . . upon getting that message, I only had one thing to say to her . . . ". . I'm calling you for Return of the King right now!" She laughed, and agreed. So yes, I'm looking forward to December 2003 . . .

After she finally saw that movie, I told her that it was important that we meet so we could discuss it. Again, I grabbed her from the train station - this time, we went to the park . . .

We walked around the main area once, and eventually settled on circling the rose garden over, and over, and over . . . and over. We talked about whatever, had some fun . . . I gave her her Christmas present of a Princess Mononoke DVD and a painted Bilbo model - that day she learned of my hobby. Her words were, "don't tell me you painted this?!" It was great . . . . .

I didn't see her for the rest of the year after that . . . again, I just had to wait for the next semester to start . . . and to look for my next opportunity to hang out with this person whom I just sorta kinda have this thing for . . . and don't ask why, my friends don't really get it either . . . hell, I don't get it either . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Comments (4) | Permalink

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Legend of the Girl: Whole Lotta Convincing
(This one's spanning a lot of time, so it's long - I'll try to be quick, though. Thanks for enjoying this so far, by the way!)

December 2001 - May 2002 . . . . .

After "The Incident", things were . . . different. I found I was still messaging her online as much as before, but I was generally being less flirtatious than I used to be. Makes sense, right?

So it was December. Finals coming up, Christmas nearing . . . and a certain movie about to come out . . . . . let me tell ya, "The Girl" was a Tolkien fan long before I ever was. I've kinda gone overboard since then, but at that time she was the master of Ring Lore. That said, she was afraid the movie could wreck a lot of her visions. In any case, she still wanted to see it, and I wanted to see it with her . . .

Turns out she had promised to see it with her best friend (who had gone out of the country for the holidays), and therefore had to decline the offer to see it with the group of people. Every day I kept checking with her again, trying to get her to sway (she said she almost would, but couldn't). In the end, she didn't come opening night . . . no Legolas for her until after New Year's . . .

The odd thing about everything after "The Incident" was that I was leaving from home a lot later, so I was seeing her at the bus to school a lot more often. Very nice, I found. I mean, all things considering . . . . .

In April, my school has an annual fair of sorts with a bunch of big name bands playing. We had The Tea Party, for one thing. Again, the work to convince "The Girl" to come was strenuous, but eventually fruitless - second round of finals was too scary for her. Nuts. (Arts County Fair was awesome that year, by the way.)

In May, I had a new movie to think about: Star Wars. It was leading up to the week before (I like prebuying my tickets for these things). So yeah, guess who I wanted to come? That's right . . . the very same girl who once swore she'd stay away from Star Wars as long as she could. Up until that point she had only seen bits of Phantom Menace, and was pretty solid on her stance . . . trouble, yes . . .

So every night would comprise of me messaging her, saying, "ya know, you should really come," and her saying "no." Well, the big break came one day when a friend of mine logged into his ICQ at my house . . . . .

Well, I looked over his shoulder, saw she was online, so using his account, I messaged her, "You should come to Star Wars!" She laughed, of course . . . I then gave some names of who was coming (my own included), all the while typing in a fashion not related to my own. Well, eventually my friend took over as himself and messaged her "So are [my name] and you still going out?"

Yeah, I stopped looking after that . . .

So, my friend's done, he logs out . . . I logged in . . . . . . "Hey, you should come to Star Wars!"

Again, she laughed. I pleaded my case some more . . . . . . . . . "...I'm never gonna live this one down....."

She came! And it was glorious! And she even enjoyed herself despite being the only girl! Hell, she was even clapping at the end! It could not have been a better night . . .

After the movie, everone else wanted to do more stuff - she had to go home. Well, needless to say, I left my friends in the dust and left with her . . . . .

We discussed whatever on the trainride back to civilisation. At some point the discussion of convincing her to come came up. I told her that I always had faith that she might decide to come. Why? "Given time, anything's possible, right?" She sorta rolled her eyes . . . . .

To this day, I still don't know what "The Girl" and my friend discussed on ICQ that day . . . . . . . . .
Comments (6) | Permalink

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

   Legend of the Girl: November Rain
Yeah, you all knew you saw this coming . . .

November, 2001 . . . . .

I got word through a mutual friend that "The Girl" had something on her mind: she wasn't feeling capable of handling a relationship at the current time in her life.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night. I eventually got a meeting with "The Girl" planned during one of her breaks on a Thursday of that month (don't ask why I remember that one).

Well, first off was the apology for having to go through the friend and not directly to me. Second off was the slow process of hearing her out. To put it simply, she was scared. She wasn't sure how anything would come about in the future, and how well we'd actually manage with school and whatever other factors were at hand (she's a single child in a traditionally-raised family, that may or may not have been an issue, I don't know). In any case, as much as I would have rathered it not be, I wasn't about to make her do anything she didn't want to . . .

To be honest, I really held no hostility towards her for any of what she said. I mean, I didn't exactly make it much easier for her (I actually went through the process of the "is it me?" question . . . ugh . . . that was silly of me . . . . .). Likewise, we both knew actually upholding something like that in our present states just wasn't gonna happen - we simply had no time.

My last note I left with her that day was cliched, unrealistic . . . and completely true: "I don't plan on giving up on us any time soon; given time, anything is possible . . ."

And that was that. She headed back to her building, and I headed home.

With certain dynamics now changed, I had more reason to stay in my lounges during long breaks, and she had more reason to leave early if she didn't have labs. And I was spending a lot more time staring at my ceiling before falling asleep . . . . . . . . . .
Comments (7) | Permalink

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

   Legend of the Girl: Summer and School
Summer-Fall, 2001 . . . . .

By July, "The Girl" and I were chatting online more regularly than before. Eventually, the day finally came around - we met so we could walk along the quay along the riverside. (Funny story, actually . . . we were gonna meet at a train station at one time, but both of us (unknowingly) decided a quick stop at the mall that's on the train route. In any case, I got off just as she was heading on . . . weird, huh?)

So throughout the summer we met up now and then. There was the quay, the shopping trip with her friends (they kept trying to embarass me with girly stuff), a few movies, a trip to my old elementary school playground . . . . . yes. The summer was nice. Oh, and I FINALLY got my acceptance to the university too! So I also officially get to go to the same school as "The Girl" as well!

All the while we still had yet to get each other's phone numbers or meet any parents. Well, we had ICQ, so phones weren't an issue . . . the other one, well . . . . . uh . . . yeah . . . . .

School finally started in September; I was in my Arts program, she in her Sciences. We'd make plans to meet for lunches and to go home on certain days. We never saw each other at the bus stop in the morning, though (I was always leaving too early).

Well, as the life of a science student goes, her schedule was hectic, to say the least. While I had a fair amount of breaks, her schedule was pretty packed. That said, certain points of many of my breaks were spent waiting outside her classes so I could walk her to her next class.
Likewise, the workload she had also cut down on her regular outing time. In other words, we weren't going to as many movies as before.

So yeah, life of a university student. Hectic, but with perks. Doesn't seem too bad, right? Well . . . . . . . .
Comments (5) | Permalink