A weird but productive day
Wensday, December 4, 2002 - 16:52

I thought something was kind of weird with the seam of my underwear this morning, but it wasn't until two hours ago that I discovered that they're inside-out.

In spite of that small setback, I've been really productive today! I woke up at 6:30 but didn't get out of bed until 7:30. I got to school at 9:30, which is the earliest I've gotten here all year! I had an appointment with the department chair, during which I asked her if she'd be on my thesis committee! And she said she would! And then I sent an email to one of the professors emeriti and asked if I could meet with him sometime! And if he says yes then I'll ask him to be on my committee too! These are things I should have done two months ago! If he says no I'll understand, though, since it was only a couple months ago that I was rolling around drunk in his backyard. That would be sad though, and embarrassing.

Today in class our professor asked us what we thought of the reading (which I didn't do, since I've decided that I'm done for the quarter [not that I would have done it anyway, even if I hadn't decided that]), and Friend #2 started saying something and then paused to look in the book to find the example that she was talking about. While Friend #2 was talking, the Slurper had been trying to say something too. During the pause that resulted from her search in the book for an example (which happened before she could even ask what she wanted to ask), the Slurper said, "Yeah, I mean..." but then Friend #2 interrupted his interruption of her by continuing to ask her question.

It went something like this:

Professor: What did you think of the reading?

Friend #2: Well, I wondered about...

The Slurper: Yeah, I mean...

Friend #2: ...they say here that [blah blah blah boring freptological thing].

The Slurper's pragmatic skills leave something to be desired. Who interrupts someone else by saying "Yeah, I mean..."? *He* didn't "mean" anything, because he wasn't the one who had the floor. *I* mean, dude, shut up and learn some turntaking skills.

The Slurper has more problems than this. He has serious social skill problems. He was on Ritalin as a child and rode the short bus to school.

But, lest you start thinking ill of the Slurper, he is nice and extremely smart. His intelligence, however, is often hidden behind his weirdness.