Strange Fortune

So first this term, which has been endlessly hellish in the writing demands, brought me one odd upswing. N. She had been in my media class before and miraculously she was in Myth this term with me too. She had caught my eye then, since she was highly argumentative and very quick witted. And she was cute, too. And here we were in the same class together after having been in the debate at the end of the last one on the same team, and what happens? She ends up sitting next to me the whole term, giggling, pasing notes, acting like a general 3rd grader. And I loved every second of it. And so I got to flirt with her endlessly and Tuesdays became very happy days. While she's in a relationship, it doesn't seem fated to last. And towards the end, we began to flirt a bit via email too. Is that bad of me? Yes it's bad of me. Do I care? No, I don't care.

But other than N, the term was really tough, and right at the end I up and caught a cold. Smack. Full stop. Life over. Floor covered in kleenexes. Papers piled everywhere. Motivation: zip. And of course, as I began to enter the dry coughing sore portion of the healing process, I caught that other bug: sickness recoveriy depression. I got cranky. I got achy. I got that "what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here-and-where-am-I-going" feeling. I got lost. And that was Friday.

Saturday, then, I went North to work in C-Town. I was brakie for R. Rawr. But meh, I'm used to women I can't have, so its not that much of a boner generator anymore. Then she took me aside and told me how when she saw she was working with me on the schedule it "made (her) happy", and how I was one of her favorite people to work with. When she realized L's wife was on board still she hasted to mention L also, and made a big thing out of it, but still. And of course we talked. Incesantly. All day. School, life, the museum. Dating. Getting drunk. She apparently doesn't have a regular relationship anymore. And her last date was with "a guy from work who's 27 or 29". Yes, folks, thats my age bracket. And she's 21, not 20, making the gap that much smaller. Then when it turned out I could do both her and her dad a favor by volunteering to work father's day so they could be together? Now they both owed me a favor. *And* I got to be on the schedule with her again.

So here I am, flirting with two girls at once, as well as casually flirting with a third even while I tell her about the other two for advice/reactions.

Atop all this, I spent more time with the old man and with L&S and Ray and a bunch of the others up there. I went to dinner with H&A and with one of our older volunteers, Ed. I was the youngest at the table by about 60+ years. And yet I felt at home. They've become like an extended family for me, and I truly feel I belong with them. I don't mean "hey I'm moving in" or "hey I need these people's validation." It's more that I feel like they consider me an indispensible part of things there now. By the time I came home -- though it is such a long way! -- I felt far better about things. Though I am no closer, really, to knowing anything in particular. And for that matter, there's a good chance I may not be able to be there next year. Who knows? My life could change dramatically in the future. But then that could all go out the window, too, if I needed to stay closer to, say, Olympia.

Things may be getting interesting soon.