July 26

Plan: My Mom has been kind enough to remind me to meet someone everyday. Which begs the question: had she done that when I was a child, would I be less socially awkward? Hm. So I told her that I would find someone to interview, but that I had no real plan. She suggested sitting outside and talking to someone walking their dog. I let the hours slip by and at 11:30PM, whilst having a heated conversation with an ex-boyfriend about returning my Wii games, I walked out to my car to get my phone charger. Then, I hung up the phone, and there was a guy sitting on the front step of my apartment smoking a cigarette. He had overheard my part of the phone conversation, so that seemed like a good ice breaker.


Who I met: I shook his hand and told him my name. His name is Randy (just like the other guy). He said he had seen me around the building; he's staying with his brother on the floor below me. I didn't even really need to ask many questions because he seemed excited to have someone to talk to. First, he told me he goes to ITT tech and he had his grade report in his hand (nice!), with all As. I congratulated him and suggested he put it on the fridge like I did when I was in college. But he won't because he doesn't really live here. He's just getting out of an 8 year relationship with his girlfriend, who he used to live with. I thought that 8 years seemed like a long time, so I asked how old they were when they first started dating and he said 16. I told him that's a long time to be with someone and asked if he missed her. He said that he did, but mostly, he missed his two dogs, which he couldn't bring with him.

What I Learned: I felt bad for him losing his dogs, and I pointed out that at least they didn't have children. "That's right." he said, "Don't be a fool-wrap your tool." That's true, kids.
Then if made me think about my boyfriend when I was 16, Stephen Gunther, and what it would have been like if we had stayed together for 8 years. Tumultuous-at best. We were together off an on for 7 years, in actuality, but only about half of those years were on. Whenever I think about Stephen, (which has been happening a lot lately, since he's passed away) I think how we literally grew up together. I mean, he was the first guy who actually picked me up for a real grownup date. We went through all the teenage drama together. But how weird would it be if we were still together now?
Another thing I learned was that this really isn't as hard as I'm making it out to be. I ended up talking to Randy for a good hour. I think that's because 1) Christopher wasn't home, so I didn't have to hurry back and 2) he was bored and lonely and needed someone to talk to. So I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time. But I need to seriously not wait until the end of the day to get this done because it is entirely too stressful.