D'oh

I have this theory. It's still in development and it's something that I tested last night. Simply, my theory is, "I'll go out with anyone at least once". It sounds like a grand idea. How do you know you will or will not like someone unless you go out with them once, right? Well, last night tested me and my theory. It's still intact, but I definitely wavered a bit.

Last Friday, as some may recall, I went out to a club and met a Peruvian woman. We danced, chatted, exchanged numbers. Well, the risk of doing that when you're pissed (drunk) as I was at the time, is that you really have no idea if the person you're chatting with is attractive - physically or mentally. So, last night, when I met up with her for drinks, it was my first chance to see what she really looked like. Wow was I disappointed. It's not that she was entirely unattractive, it's that I was entirely unattracted to her - something I figured out in 5 seconds or less. I'm experienced enough in the ways of the world to know that if there is no attraction, nothings happening, no matter how cool the other person may be. Still, being a nice guy, I wasn't about to turn and walk away. Instead, I figured I'd go through with the date but try to give her signs that I was not interested. If she was perceptive, she would figure it out.

Sadly, she was not perceptive. In fact, I got the clear impression that she totally digs me. I hate to disappoint people, but in this case, I had no choice. I left took her to the tube at the conclusion of the date and deferred on seeing her again. Not wanting to make her feel bad, I was a little equivocal, but I made clear that I'm not after her. She went for a kiss, I went for a cheek. I think she got the message.

Anyway, the other real problem was something I've encountered before and something that I think is likely to become a hard and fast rule from now on. I have found it exceedingly difficult to engage people in a dating sense when their English is less than stellar. It's not that you can't understand them. It's that the act of listening and communicating becomes laborious to the point that I become disinterested, ancy, and irritated. I do understand that it's difficult to learn another language and be able to express yourself in that language and I'm not faulting people who are in that process. But I do not want to be in a situation where I constantly have to substitute words that I would normally use for simpler, easier ones. Nor do I want to be in a situation where the person I'm with can't follow me when I'm talking or making bad jokes (as I'm wont to do). And nor do I want to be in a situation where someone else can't express themselves properly because of the language barriers. So my conclusion is that while I appreciate Latin culture and people, we gotta be able to freely communicate to make things happen. (All bets off if she's extremely cute.)

Anyway, I had the opportunity last night to watch some of Kylie Minogue's first show at the Earl's Court Exhibition Center last week. They recorded it and played it on Channel 4. I have to say, without a doubt, she's one of the worst performers I've ever seen or imagined. Not only does she have an extremely average voice, her stage presence is non-existent, and she seemed to suck the life out of the audience. This is shocking to me. I've seen great shows before. Dave Matthews, for example, is pure intensity. Great, great act to see live. Kylie was pretty much the polar opposite. I like some of her clubby hits, but those should only be heard on disc, not performed live. What's really shocking is that given this reality, how could she sell out one show, not to mention 7?

In other news, some people are just necessarily thick headed. I've mentioned this before, but some of the folks I work with (ok, mostly just one of them) is dense to the point that it makes me question how she has a job, not to mention functioning biology. Last week she took 10 minutes to explain that she needed some coffee cup gifts to have price tags removed and then placed in padded envelopes for shipping. It took me maybe 5 minutes to complete the task. Why are you bothering me, I wonder. Today, she needed help doing an inventory for some marketing materials. I imagine it's because she can't count. Whatever the reason, the task proved to be a lot simpler than described, something she didn't catch on to, which forced me to seize the moment and force the agenda. If I have to do sh*t work, I want to get it done as quick as possible, not fiddle around for hours in useless and endless toil. Anyway, there's a reason I suppose that some people are only suited to admin tasks and she's Exhibit A.

Tomorrrow I have my US Foreign Policy final. There's been a lot of nervous chatter among my classmates because we essentially didn't learn anything about US Foreign Policy in class and the assigned readings are: a) not available (our library has 1 of the 10 or so books on the list) and b) oddly irrelevant (microcosm case studies that he never brought up in class and would cause a riot if he tested us on them). It makes it tough to study for a final if you don't have any study materials, you have no direction from the professor, and you have no idea what you were even supposed to learn. All of these gripes are legitimate gripes. This has been the absolute worst effort by this professor since I've been here (and there are reasons in the background for this that I won't discuss) and I'm just as clueless as everyone else. That being said, I'm still pretty confident that I'm going to ace the exam. Half of the exam will be writing a foreign policy memo, which I aced both of the ones I had to do previously and the other half will be short answer. I can't imagine that the short answer will be highly specific meaning that I'll be able to draw on a variety of knowledge that I have retained over the years. Unfortunately for my classmates, they have no such exposure to IR or debate (my primary sources) and are not so advantaged. I see many complaints about this class forthcoming.

Tomorrow my cousin and his wife arrive in London. They've been traveling Europe for two months and this is the last leg of their journey (and maybe Ireland too). It will be good to see some family and hear their stories. Plus, I'll be done with school for a week which makes two reasons to celebrate.