Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Nerd Words: My Main Man

My Main Man
- nickname

1. A close friend

[ Origin: In the Engineering program at ASU Erik and I had a lot of Indian classmates. One of Erik's classmates always called him, "My Main Man". Erik stole the saying from him, and I stole the saying from Erik. ]

- see also
My homie

- usage
1. "What is up my main man?"
2. "Erik. My main man. Get over here."

Jesse Fails at Friendly

About a year ago Maya and I had a set date of hanging out once a week which has since turned in to "once a month... if time permits" as both of our schedules have gotten more busy. After our weekly dinner we'd watch Heroes or Firefly or some other nerdy TV show and gossip about boys, twins, and bands.

One particular Monday evening we found ourselves walking in to the Pei Wei near my house for some fine Asian Fusion dining. Like a true gentleman I opened the door for Maya and entered behind her. I was surprised when a blond girl from across the restaurant's hand flew up and waved to me. There was a small wall between us, and I must have been tired because I didn't immediately recognize her. I checked the surrounding area for other, better looking guys who would have a cute girl waiving to them, but it was just me. I returned the motion with some hesitation and went to order.

"Who's that?" Maya asked
"Um. I'm not sure" I started, but as we got up to order my brain decided to start working and the answer finally clicked, "Oh, that's Megan. She lives in my building."

Megan was a very cute resident of the fourth floor who always seemed nice and personable. I'd bumped in to her a lot since she was friends with my main man Allen, and due to the fact that she was often seen walking her dog Brownie. She was one of the people in the building I'd always wanted to get to know better, but never had the confidence to initiate more than a friendly hi with. She had a very warm aura that was attractive on a personal level, but for a shy nerd such as myself also somewhat intimidating.

By the time I'd put together who it was a few minutes had past. More importantly the moment had passed, and I found myself unsure if I should walk over or just go about my business. In times past when I've chosen the former I normally end up saying something absolutely brilliant.

"So... uh... what are you doing here?"
"It's a restaurant. I'm eating"
"Uh.... yeah... see ya round"

So in this case I settled on the latter and left it at an uncomfortable wave. An uncomfortable wave is better than saying something uncomfortable and stupid I surmised.

A few months later my extended family was in Phoenix for my brother's wedding and I was showing them my condo. There was a huge moving truck outside being loaded up and I was surprised to see Megan walking towards it carrying a box.

"You... You're moving out?" I asked. It was that last day of school when you find out someone won't be returning next year after Summer break. His or Her dad took a job in upstate New York, but you'll keep in touch. At least that's what you wrote in each other's year books.

You didn't keep in touch.

"Yeah" she replied, "It's been nice, but I just don't think people are very friendly here."

Monday, June 16, 2008

Where we're going. Where we've been.

It's been a while since I've posted. I'd like to say that it's because I've been working on some amazing and humorous stories, but that's not necessarily the case.

Sesquipedalis Year 2 is drawing to a close, and I find myself in need of a new direction for the blog. The amusing thing about writing a blog is you start off thinking, "Man I've got some funny stuff to write", but then 3 weeks later you've written those 2 stories that were really "money" and you're left winging it for the remainder of the blog, which for most people is about 4 entries in.

Year 1 was all about me and my inability to function socially, especially when relating to members of the opposite sex. Through the significant efforts of a few people, most notably a couple of fantastic neighbors, I've worked through the majority of those issues.

Year 2 I branched out a little and tried to share more of my people(Nerds) culture, and do some more off-topic type pieces like reviews and such.

For Year 3, I'm at a total loss. I could easily turn this in to a day by day status update. There's nothing wrong with those blogs, but it's just not what I want this to be. Others have done that and do it better than I ever could.

I've had a few ideas, but nothing has jumped out and grabbed me.

I considered taking a fast food joint job once every month and seeing how quickly I could get canned. How fun would it be to work at Pizza Hut again, but not care about anything? The issue here is that I'm quite lazy.

I considered turning the blog in to a piece of fiction. Adam had told me to just start making things up. Base them slightly in reality, but never let the audience know. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm that creative.

My last idea was to "get involved" with something, anything. The big stumbling block here is that I'm the least opinionated person you'll ever meet.

In the end so far I've resorted to not writing anything. Maybe I'll put the nose to the grindstone and finish up some other stories and wait for inspiration. This blog has more loose ends than a gay cowboy rodeo at an abandoned tampon factory, and maybe I should tie them up some day.

Hang in there kids, and stick with me. We're gonna get through this together. Feel free to leave suggestions and tell me what sucks/what doesn't.

Credit goes to the lovely and talented Kendall for the tampon joke.

One

A black Jetta pulled up outside my house and I jumped in without a moment's hesitation. Hopping in a near stranger's car didn't...