Yes, I know it’s been a while, but life moves on, and I still live.
Today was simply wonderful. I would really like to have more days like it. I woke up fairly late in the morning, did that stuff you do in the mornings, then sat down and had a good conversation with my mother while we both did some stuff on our respective computers. It was pretty nice. Not quite as nice as sitting down to lunch with her, but still not bad. It’s the last serious conversation we’re likely to have before she and my dad leave for a conference in North Carolina in the morning.
I then went to meet Nikki for a late lunch. I hadn’t really realized just how busy our respective semesters have been, but we really haven’t seen much of each other recently. Anyway, we probably had a good one and a half hours of solid discussion, just catching up. She didn’t tell me before, but she’s interviewing Wednesday with the City. That’s definitely good news, since she’s a shoe-in.
Anyway, we got to talk about her trip to Chi-town and we discussed how much we miss hanging with Thomas. Hear that Thomas? We miss you! Then we talked about school, classes, and future plans. I’ve got to say that it’s… oddly reassuring to hang out with someone you like and respect and both of you have a strange desire to work in academia. I also applied some not-so-subtle pressure for her to get involved in some game design efforts. She’s a dang clever person, and she has some incredibly good ideas.
We also talked a bit about our sooper-sekrit project. We’re hoping that we’ll have something to show in six months or so. Here’s hoping!
Energized from our discussion I did some interesting thinking on unrelated topics, and man if I didn’t have some interesting thoughts on the nature of roleplaying, fiction, and aesthetics. I just wish I had more time and more people to talk about this with. I mean, online discussions just aren’t the same, and locally I’ve got Will. Don’t get me wrong, Will is a sharp guy, and we work well together, but we have so much going on that I often neglect theory discussions with him. Maybe I should start pestering people I don’t know with Skype… Anyway, moving on…
After that I put some oil in my car, managing to spill some all over my pants in the process, so I headed home to change and was them. Spoke briefly with my mom again, then took off to meet Will for dinner. Got introduced to Matt, Tim, and Anna: cool people all. Tim was a fairly quiet guy, seemed pretty sharp, but not much of a talker. Anna was good company: smart, attractive, and funny. The real highlight though, was Matt.
Matt’s a former philosophy major himself, currently in seminary studying Christian doctrinal history. Not as deep a modern philosophy background as me, but the mentality was there, and that helps in such discussions. But the best stuff we talked about wasn’t really philosophyical at all.
I have deep-seated problems with the structure and culture of the Christian church in America. While I haven’t yet really sat down and spoke with one, I suspect that the problems I have are similar to the ones had by the church’s biggest opponents. I do not often have the chance to sit down and simply talk with someone who agrees with me on many of these issues. I won’t go into it here (but I would be willing to if there was some interest, I just don’t want to bore anyone with my massive indictment), but it was good to simply discuss the problems, their consequences, and what we see as possible solutions.
A good, solid two hours of dinner and discussion.
Then I went to Hastings and treated it like my own personal library…
And that’s it, that’s my day. The thing is, I really, really like people. I love getting to know them, to talk about hopes and dreams, to intermingle our ideas and passions. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the things that draws me to academic pursuits: serious discussions of interesting topics with intriguing people. It’s interesting how easy it is for me to forget that these are the things that energize me.
Sitting and talking for about a total of four hours today had me perked up and bouncing in my seat on the drive home. And then I look back and consider this past semester: I’ve been too busy, really, to do it. No wonder I’ve been feeling tired! And so, I make a note to myself, I must make time for people if I’m going to be able to function at my best because people are invigorating.
Thomas
not-so-subtle pressure? my arm still hurts!
That wouldn’t be nearly as funny-as I perceive any onlooker without personal introduction to the parties involved would take it-if I didn’t think that Thomas had physically hurt Nikki in an attempt to encourage her.
Best,
Will
P.S.-Double negatives may add to your style score, and always detract from your clarity score, which is why they’re awesome.