The Follies of Foibled Freshmen

Ahh freshmen...and ahh odd practices of asking girls to homecoming.

The girls on my floor have become very popular as of late with the young men, and are all getting asked to homecoming in varrying and diverse manners. There's been the butter asking...well...at least half of the butter-asking method. So far all this girl has is a smashed up cube of butter...and no invite. There's been the balloon method, with the paper inside of it...there's the posters in the elevators, the ramen soup with words written upon it...yadda yadda yadda.

I think what I don't understand is the necessity of such askings. Why do you need these extravegant ways to get someone to go on a date with you? For me, it's kind of like when some girls end up with these HUGE rings that are more gaudy then attractive. I always wonder if the ring was meant as a symbol, or as a way of convincing. Even though I'm almost always sure that the convincing aspect isn't the case, I always stop to wonder.

Anyway, Freshmen award goes to complicated methods of asking people to dances.

There was a young man yesterday who caused me to worry about the possibility of lead content in Hot Pockets from the vending machine. I was sitting in the office, and there's a glass window. He walks up to the closed window while I'm working on the computer, and he looks in. While holding his hot pocket close to his face, he looks at me and says, "HOT POCKET!" and then stares for a second. Then he walks away. Later, he walks outside, taps on the window (from the outside) of the office, and stands there behind the blinds. As soon as I get nearer to him and the window, he looks in the window with the Hot Pocket (now half consumed) and says "HOT POCKET! GOOD!" and then runs away again.

So, last night I was sitting in my room talking with one of my friends who's also an RA. Suddenly, outside, I hear a very loud chorus of flirtacious freshmen singing some kind of song about a sweater while lying on their backs on the basketball court. The court had two sorts of meanings that night, as it was the young men who persisted in screaming the song at the top of their lungs. It's about 10:30 on a weeknight, mind you, and they're just being annoying.

Well, being possesed of a stale bagel, I decided to toss it out the window in their direction--honestly, I wasn't trying to hit them with the bagel, I was just tossing it towards them. I tossed the bagel, and then sat back down quickly. About a second later I hear a thud as the bagel hits the ground, and then a sqeal from one of the girls in the group who them points out the fact that someone is throwing bagels at them.

At this point, I find the whole situation unbearable funny. I, the RA, just threw food out of my window instead of just telling the people to be quiet...I'm laughing about it thinking right now. Am I callous? Well, maybe...but no one got hit, and the birds will eat the bagel.

Anyway, the "singing" didn't stop there. It kept going...and louder. I think they were trying to punish the bagel thrower--I just found it more hilarious. I guess someone shouted out the window that they needed to be quiet eventually, because one of the girls the girls shouted back, "No, YOU'RE the (unpleasant female term of two letters--rhymes with "dough")."

So, to the freshmen chorus of the evening--coungratulations, you win the prize.

though sometimes they forget that...

There were three guys standing outside the windows today, and making snide remarks while trying to pretend that they weren't actually looking inside at the people in the lobby. The thing is, that their remarks were neither witty, nor clever. How could I tell? Because I could hear every single word that these poor posing fools were saying. They were being jerks, and hoping to impress young women in doing so. Not the smartest way to do things boys.

It reminds me of what happens as soon as it gets to be a few months into the semester--the couples start saying goodnight outside the windows of the lobby. It seems that the windows are solid so they must actually be walls misconception runs thick in the Freshmen mentality, as various couples lean up against the windows to say their goodnights...I'm sure they can't actually think that those kinds of kisses are seen by the whole of the lobby-goers for the evening...I'm almost certain that they wouldn't make the same sorts of smacking noises if they knew that people were on the other side, listening, and watching every saliva-swapping moment.

At least I hope people aren't that comfortable with themselves...

You know...I always laugh at the fact that one of the greatest perks about being a freshmen is also one of the things that people complain the most about. Well...at least female people complain most about it.

Yeah, it's the weight gain aspect of things. Girls HATE to gain weight, and so I see them out running, and exercising, and talking about not eating and the like...

And then I see them with their chocolate milk....their creamery ice cream...and their vending machine dinners. It makes me want to just tell them to forget about hating the fact that they might gain weight and just embrace the whole thing. Keep running and exercising...take the stairs instead of the elevator...but just love the fact that there's chocolate milk and ice cream at your happy dining plus disposal. It's not like you're going to have it in a year or so anyway.

Tonight's freshmen moment gets to go to me...my very own self.

Last night, at 11:00 in the evening, I got a safewalk home from the southwest corner of campus on up to good old DT. I'm not actually convinced that I needed to do it, but I have a friend who was concerned for my safety, and she doesn't ask a lot, so I called University Police and had them walk me home. I've walked with this particular security guard before. She always thanks me for calling, because she likes walking people home a lot more than she enjoys checking buildings. She tells me hilarious stories though. Tonight's story involved her checking the Benson building after hours once, and finding a couple engaged in activities that got them dismissed from the university in an elevator.

My only thought there was WHY? Who thinks of doing things like that? Anyway.

We get to the door of my building, and she says, "you think you can make it safe from here?"

I laughed the whole way into the dorm. Moral of the story is, calling for Safewalks isn't that bad, and University Police actually enjoy doing it.

I know that there are differences in generations as far as touching goes...but I'm not from a different generation than most of these girls. I was standing and talking to a few of them yesterday and one of them was playing with a stress ball. She just sort of reached over towards me and stuck it in my little overshirt and then just stood there.

Umm...that's totally mine, thanks.

Anyway, tonight a different girl on my floor came up and slapped my bum as she walked by me. I was talking to LEB, and he says, "you forgot to say 'good game'."

I find the practice of bum-slapping kind of disturbing when athletes do it without a second thought. I was amazed when I watched the Olympics and saw more than just football players doing it. I, however, was not playing any kind of sport...I was talking. That's not grounds for bum-slapping.

Red flag. Bad form, whatever you want to call it. That bum is my own personal bum.