Classy Pickup Lines

This is a true story. It begs the question: why?
I was at the mall on Tuesday. I had lunch and I was searching for a particular store so I headed over to the mall directory. As I stood there, peering at the directory, this tall South Asian dude walks up to. I look up quizzically (perhaps he's about to ask me where to find a particular store??) He stares for a minute, then two, so I say: yes? This is the conversation that follows:

South Asian dude: Are you India? [shakes his head] from India? Indian?
Me [a little puzzled]: No.
South Asian dude: [looks expectant]
Me: [grudgingly] I'm from Pakistan.
South Asian dude: Oh. Well I was eating lunch, and you were sitting opposite me. I was watching you. You look good so I
came over.
Me: [backing up] Um...OK, well thanks.
South Asian dude: [moves in closer] Did you just move here?
Me: Yes.
South Asian dude: Me too. I just moved from California, and New York.
Me: Oh, OK. I hope you like Boston.
South Asian dude: I moved two days ago. Its been raining and its cold.
Me: Well, it will get much colder than this. [I like to scare people with the New England weather]
South Asian dude: Do you work here or are you student?
Me: I work
South Asian dude: I just got a job here, just across the street. I work in IT and I eat lunch at the mall.
Me: [backing up still more, I don't know whether to be afraid of this dude of feel sorry for him] Great. Well, I hope you like
Boston...[I back up into H&M]

Somehow I manage to extricate myself from this conversation. But, come on!! "I was watching you. You look good so I came over." This ranks alongside "I like your toes" as creepy pick up lines that only, ONLY, sound good in dudes' heads. And, why pray tell, do I fall victim to these? Why can't the hot dude in H&M come over with the pickup line, ever? [Purely metaphorical, there is no hot dude at H&M]
Tell me why. This is the question. It is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with my "love-life".

Busy weekend

Phew! I've been living up the young twenty-something's life: much too much fun. And, lacking the reserves of energy I posessed as an undergraduate, I am exhausted! Overslept on Friday, and on Saturday - in fact, on Saturday my alarm clock gave up on me, and by the time I awoke I had only 15 minutes to get dressed and run to the train. I made it. During my early-morning run, however, I noticed puddles of water frozen solid. I think we have passed the point of no return. Hibernate, I say!

Last night we hung out long enough to ask the Boston Globe delivery men for directions home. Fun though, I learnt how to play pool - yay:)

I like party-weekends.

OH, and CPC called - I might soon be employed!!!

Pats hold on to win...24-17 (Pats, Saints). We have our first winning streak of the season! When will the Colts lose? This is the question that keeps me up nights. Could I really be rooting for the Steelers in the next two weeks? Or perhaps we should concede the season to Manning et. al. and move on. Sigh.

New York City mini-vacation

Phew! Much walking; a busy mini-vacation it was. What fun!

New York City however, continues to not quite work for me. Everytime I visit I want to fall in love with it - but I can't. Its too large, too dirty and too crowded. I'm a Boston girl at heart. And, yet, if I could live at the Metropolitan Opera I SO would!! Finally saw the Marriage of Figaro - it lived up to my expectations. Always a pleasant surprise. Also a pleasant surprise: orchestra seats at the NYC Met. for $25!! I would go to the Met every week if I could! Next project is to see Denyce Graves in Carmen, and then return for La Traviata. I also want to someday see the entire Ring Cycle performed - just so I know what that's like! And, then eventually I want to tour Europe's Opera houses - all the big ones! I'm on an Opera high.

If I could be 25 for five years and actually travel to my heart's content, I would move to new city every six months, work at a coffee shop, visit all the museums, the opera houses and concert halls, the historic cites and the pretty places. See the world: Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Florence, Berlin, Munich, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Istanbul, Vienna, Beijing, Tokyo, New Delhi - where else?? Yes, I have caught the travel-bug.

Hmm..what else? Had a mini-smithie reunion in NYC (minus two central figures, of course - they know who they are!) - also fun:)

A very important non-profit called me in for an interview for Monday. Very important corporate firm I've been interviewing at since July called this evening to say they had news concerning the job I had applied for. I was in the shower - I missed the call :( Now I have to call them back tomorrow. What could it be??

The wheels are turning.

Pats won the Dolphins game. This is good.

The weather is turning cold; its actually Thanksgiving next week!! My, how time flies.

Inspiration is low; going to turn my attention to CSI, followed by ER and then the Daily Show.

MNF

Colts Suck. I hate the Colts. Always have, always will.

The Streets of Old Boston Town

It has been a while. To those still reading the blog I apologize for my absence. I know how desperately you must wait for every post. I have been uninspired of late. Or rather, I am only inspired at random moments as I walk around town. Mostly when I'm sitting in the public gardens. Unfortunately, I do not carry this laptop everywhere. It is too heavy. I am frail. So inspiration comes, and then goes away. By the time I'm back at the computer Clio's blog counterpart has departed.

Meandering around town does allow one time to contemplate; perhaps this is what Rousseau did. I have moments of clarity, but most days I cannot for the life of me figure out what I am supposed to be when I grow up. The legal profession calls, but so does the academy. I find myself called upon to explain what I had been studying, would have written my dissertation on, what I will write my dissertation on, at the most unexpected of times. Yesterday I sat down for a slice of pizza at a small (but fantastic) pizza place in Harvard Square. Seating was limited so I shared a table with another woman. In the midst of pleasantries she confided that she was in fact a sixth year doctoral student in Japanese history. Her dissertation was to be on Japanese imperialism. Funny, I said. I just left a graduate program in history. I was going to write on British imperialism, until I decided to write on Dystopian literature. It makes sense in my head. Has she ever read the work of one of my advisors in college - he also writes on Japanese imperialism - yes, of course! Small world. Would I ever consider going back to graduate school. Ah yes. You know not how many times I ask myself that very question. Yes, I would. I like the Subaltern Studies group. I would have to write on British Imperialism in India. What is the subaltern studies group about, and what would I suggest she read to get the basics down. There it was. An intense effort to retrieve from the recesses of my mind, what I had been fully conversant in just six months ago. She looked suitably impressed. I was impressed by my ability to recall, and sound confident doing so. As a parting note she said "I do hope you go back to school. The project sounds fascinating, and its obvious you love it." As I left the the pizza place I realized not just how much I loved it, but how much I miss it.

Other times the thought of subjecting myself to graduate school again makes me want to hurl. I kid you not.

It is fatiguing (is that a word?) to try and work on multiple paths one's life could take. Some days I study for the LSAT. Other days I spend trying to figure out if my old thesis is publishable in any form, and how could I make a convincing case for grad school entry again. On more other days (!) I lament the fact that I missed the deadline for the PRAXIS exam and the next one is not until March. That without certification I cannot get hired as a teacher at home; and private schools are too competitive to get in. On most Fridays I turn up at one corporate publishing company and interview for their entry level position currently open. I have been eight times. More interviews are good but how many do they really need?

Does this blog have any relevance to its title, you may wonder. The streets of old Boston are my saving grace. I have walked and walked this city repeatedly in the last two months. I certainly am getting my share of exercise. I have walked the "Freedom Trail" multiple times. Each time I get a little closer to the end. I have made it to the USS Constitution thus far, but it was snowing that day (yes, snowing!) and I did not have it in me to walk to Bunker Hill. The North End is certainly worth a visit. Very pretty, almost European, with its narrow winding streets, cafes and balconies. I love a city where one can live amongst history. There is a rootedness, earthy quality to a city that preserves its old self, as it redefines the new. I love that I can wander in the business district and stop in at the Old State House from where the Boston Tea Party emerged; or that I can walk to "Little Italy" and sip on some overpriced capuccino as I contemplate the church steeple in which the lanterns were hung to warn Lexington and Concord that the British were coming. I can visit the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world - there is a ship even I can appreciate! I walk through the Boston Common (circa 1634) to the Boston Public Gardens (circa 1864 - or thereabouts). Among the weeping willows, the lake and the orange and red hued maples I can imagine old Victorian poets writing verse. Nevermind they might never have visited the public gardens. I can imagine them all the same. There is also something fun about visiting a place one frequented as a child; for me these are few and far between. The Public Gardens however, I visited, as every child in Boston must, to recreate McCloskey's "Make Way for the Ducklings". It remains one of my favorite books! I am ready to guide tours through Boston, and if I remain unemployed long enough, perhaps even write a travel guide. What's one more to line the shelves of Barnes and Noble!