The Silent Treatment

About four weeks ago, a friend of mine was (at least in my opinion) really rude to me on AIM over a silly debate we were having, and did the online equivalent of "storming off", saying "bye" and then abruptly logging off. I was ticked off at the time, so I put her on invisible/block and when I ran into her at school the next day, when she mustered a very weak "hey...", I just ignored her, as unless the first words out of her mouth were "I'm sorry", since she cut off the conversation, she's the one who has to take responsibility for restarting it. I've run into her maybe twice since then, and ignore her weak salutations. I realize it's a power play on my part, but I do want her taking responsibility here.

I was convinced that things were going to get patched up much faster than this, and things have escalated to the point that when I ran into her in a group at a party tonight, I made a point of saying hello to everyone except her, a behavior I typically only reserve for the stupid cunt. Only this time I feel sort of rueful/remorseful about it. I suppose it's another one of those tit-for-tat equilibria, where I feel that she's responsible for causing this mess in the first place and not apologizing on her own, but I'm probably being overly stubborn and combative, and I could try to be the "bigger person" and fix things up.

Yet, my gut tells me to dig my heels in in the interests of self-respect and all that. Of course, I now wonder if I'm more of a vindictive and/or stubborn person than I am a "good" one...

A tightrope that cannot be walked?

Recent discouraging events have rendered me a bit lonely (this is not to imply that I've lived like a hermit or have had nothing to do, I just haven't had any contact with anybody I like at a non-superficial level for a while), so I emailed a (female) friend of mine to get together, because we have a really good relationship, and I really want us to be friends. She's always fun to be around, and I think we do a good job of brightening each other's days. Of course, I'm pretty sure she wants more out of me than just a friendship (she responded pretty much immediately with "Wow, I'm so glad you wrote me!", etc.), which is a sentiment I don't think I can reciprocate at this point, if ever. My egalitarian views posit that two people of the opposite sex should be able to interact and enjoy each other's company without sexual tension, and that the lack of romantic interest should be irrelevant to the friendship, and who each person is. While I'm really happy to be seeing her on Tuesday, I'm feeling a bit guilty because everything I suggest that we do (walk/dinner/movie) sounds so "date-like", and I think I might be setting her up for disappointment (and if I do disappoint her, I hope she'll forgive me and still be my friend).

On the other hand, having this looming quasi-relationship is good motivation for me to find someone else that meets my picky standards in a hurry, before I get desperate and date this one, even though my brain, ego and principles tell me it's a bad idea...

Really Stupid Thought of the Day

"Is my iPod heavier (even by just a little bit) once I've filled it up with songs?"

Worse than Professional Boxing

Wow. This whole Landis-LeMond scenario transcends fucked-up-ness.

Anticipation is better than...?

In a hell-freezes-over-esque development, I am slated to have something of a date tomorrow. I don't know her all that well, but our chance encounters around campus over the past six months have always gone well, and my intuition has screamed to me that this one is worth pursuing (or was it just screaming that I'm desperate?). Since she was out of town since I had the good fortune of running into her, and locating the gumption to suggest we get coffee someday, I've been anticipating tomorrow for over a week. Frankly, it's been a pretty good week, as I resolved to start taking better care of myself and just the notion that there might be hope for me in the romance department was sufficient to really buoy me emotionally. Hope alone is really awesome and precious to me (after having none for so long), I'm slightly terrified of what will happen if things don't go well tomorrow. Hope alone was something powerful and tangible to me, and I don't want to lose it. I think I'm a strong person, but screwing this up might mangle my achilles heel. Of course, I hope it doesn't come to that, but I also find it a bit disconcerting that a small date-esque meeting has the power to do this to me. Shouldn't I be stronger, or at least have the ability to generate this sort of scenario more than once every 1.5 years or so?

Regardless, I bought a really cool new shirt for the occasion. I hope the rest of me lives up to her, and my cool new shirt!

Gasping for everything

So, while stepping out of the shower the other day, I realized that my penchant for junk food and for taking the bus over walking to work has rendered my appearance rather akin to the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. For a variety of reasons, I've decided that I have to do something about it, so I started jogging (and soon, I'll start lifting weights too). This is the part of the rationality trap where despite being horribly incompetent and not doing all that much, physical activity is agonizing wile undertaking, and then painful afterwards. It's kind of fun to feel all sore and cozy in my easy chair at night, and feel like I'm accomplishing something with my body. However, I hope I can keep this up, and lose my penchant for getting Twix bars and half-moon cookies throughout the day. The positive thing about the pain is that it increases the perceived costs of taking in those fat-laden calories, which thus makes resisting them more easily...