This post is for/inspired by the weird guys in my fiction writing class who don’t know I have a blog in the first place because Friday was a good day and I want to remember it. The title is lame, but also amusing–so it stays.
I’m obsessed with being late in that the idea of being late terrifies me. As a result I am always early by varying degrees. On Fridays this semester my usual arrival for my Advanced Fiction Writing class is 25 minutes beforehand. I spend the time making a circle in the classroom (we sit in a circle) and reading. No one is ever in the room before my class.
Except that this week there was a special program so there were. As a result I, and later other class members, congregated in the hallway waiting for the room to empty. I swear, no one is ever early to class but this week it seemed like everyone was (everyone being the people who are usually late and the guy I like who alternates between lateness and earliness).
I was sitting on a bench near the classroom reading my book and trying to decide if the girl sitting farther down the hall was in my class or just looked like a girl in my class. Suddenly, I noticed someone sit down next to me. Upon turning I found myself facing Tom who, deadpan, began to say to me, “My momma always told me . . .” before breaking into laughter. Oh, Forrest Gump references.
I’ll admit it, I admired the intent. So, in all seriousness, I asked him “How long have you been waiting to use that?”
Tom pointed back down the hall before saying, “I saw you all the way back there and was hoping you wouldn’t see it so that I could use it. It was funnier in my head though.”
We were talking about class when “Hades” showed up (Hades=awesome/guy I like) in time to hear Tom saying, with some dismay, that I was way sarcastic and he wasn’t sure he liked it. I replied that it was part of my charm and he just didn’t know since we’d never had such a long conversation before (true by the way).
Around this time some other people from the class including Jay showed up. I have had two other classes with Jay and am still not entirely sure that I like him. Sometimes he’s kind of mean/jerky and makes disparaging remarks that get on my nerves. But lately he’s been acting like we’re friends so I’ve been going with it.
When we finally got to enter the classroom Jay looked around in dismay and said “Hey where’s our circle?” (The desks were still arranged in rows.)
I responded, perhaps a bit too loudly, “I make the circle every week. It’s not here yet.” The prof heard me and said “Thank you and it shouldn’t be like that.” So this week, the circle was a group effort. I was happy to see that even with eight plus people working on it there was confusion as to technique. Made me feel more valid.
Later, after class had ended, Jay came up to me and asked why I hadn’t read anything. He was disappointed because as he told me “you’re funny like me but you’re a girl.” It was kind of like being complimented and insulted all at the same time. Mostly complimented though given how highly Jay thinks of himself.
Anyway, the classroom emptied out pretty quick but I stuck around to give something to the professor. This girl gathered all of her bags and left. Then I heard her rolling backpack come back down the hall and she ducked back in the room to get her coat, which she had forgotten.
About ten minutes after that (I had to wait a long time for the prof), Hades came back in and went behind a desk to get his umbrella. I think he went downstairs, saw that it was raining and realized he was missing it. He smiled sheepishly before leaving again. We had a moment (almost, for a second), it was nice.
Anyway, the conclusion I drew from today was that if you make yourself available to people you can be on friendly terms with just about anyone. And sometimes that’s just as good as being friends with them.
Miss Print 