It has certainly be awhile since we've met. Nearly a month. So you might be thinking that I have many marvelous stories to share with you. No. I had hoped to have all sorts of good things to share, but now I think I'm going to call this year the year of stand ups. There are two ways I define being stood up. The first is when someone extends an invitation to another and that other person acknowledges the invitation and does not say no but then offers no further response. So if the invited person says yes and both neither shows up nor calls to cancel that is being stood up. If that person says I'd like to but I'll have to see, and does not call with a final confirmation one way or the other, that in my book is being stood up. If the person just gives a non-commital response then I don't consider it being stood up if that person doesn't call with a final confirmation, but I do think it's rude.
The second way to stand up someone is by offering an invitation and not following through. So if someone invites another to partake in an activity, but then does not show up to that activity and also do not call to say it is canceled, that is standing up the invited person.
So going by those two definitions, in just the past four days I was stood up 6 times. Twice Sunday, once Saturday, once Friday, and twice Thursday. 6 times I had plans with people who agreed to partake in an activity with me, either by my invitation or their own, and then both did not show up at the planned time and did not call saying not to expect them. In fact not only did they not call, but in all cases I never even got a call after the fact. I know these things shouldn't be taken personally, because far more important things do come up that can distract our attention. Still this was all in just the past four days, and it's no fun being completely forgetable. But yesterday, Sunday, while I was trying to come up with new plans when it became apparanet that my two activities were canceled I had a laugh. Here I was upset about being bailed by a couple people when probably earlier that day Jesus had millions of people not say "Hi". So I guess I have nothing to complain about.
Nevertheless I do have one story to share. After watching a little bit of "Elf" and seeing that scene where he decorates the store overnight, I wanted to revisit the craft of making paper snowflakes. It had been years since I had made a paper snowflake, particularly because I was never any good at it, and I wanted to add some Christmas-time decorations to my apartment. So about two Saturdays ago, I spent a few hours figuring out how to properly fold the paper and create a snowflake. I'm still not any good at creating something geometrically pleasing but I can create scenes, like of snowmen. Eventually I came up with a design that I snapped a photo of on my phone and sent home. Dad said it was the most impressive thing I've done all year and Mom said it was so beautiful I should sign it and frame it. Well I don't know about all of that, but I was impressed about how nice it came out. It's one of those things, where minimal effort can create something that looks amazing. I would attach a picture but I don't have a camera at the moment. But yes, paper snowflakes do look impressive and they aren't too hard to make.
Now that Saturday evening I had a date. Yes, I had a date. I had been talking with a girl on one of these dating websites. She is Catholic, in medical school, lives in town, and, as I soon discovered on the date, is quite attractive. But the date itself wasn't too great. It just never felt at any point in time that we clicked. Things felt almost a little tense. So after the date, I told her that I would like to hear from her again, but she never got back in touch. I thought about calling her again but decided against it. It turns out that she is only in town until June, then she is going to Ohio for the last two years of medical school and she wants to permanently live there. Also she works until 9 PM Monday through Friday. So I didn't see a relationship coming out of this and decided not to pursue the matter any more. But it's not like she called me back either. For my part, I tried to be charming and pleasant on the date. But maybe she didn't like my responses to some of the questions she asked me. For example, this is how one of the questions went. Her: "So what did you do today?" Me: "This afternoon I spent a few hours making paper snowflakes."
The second way to stand up someone is by offering an invitation and not following through. So if someone invites another to partake in an activity, but then does not show up to that activity and also do not call to say it is canceled, that is standing up the invited person.
So going by those two definitions, in just the past four days I was stood up 6 times. Twice Sunday, once Saturday, once Friday, and twice Thursday. 6 times I had plans with people who agreed to partake in an activity with me, either by my invitation or their own, and then both did not show up at the planned time and did not call saying not to expect them. In fact not only did they not call, but in all cases I never even got a call after the fact. I know these things shouldn't be taken personally, because far more important things do come up that can distract our attention. Still this was all in just the past four days, and it's no fun being completely forgetable. But yesterday, Sunday, while I was trying to come up with new plans when it became apparanet that my two activities were canceled I had a laugh. Here I was upset about being bailed by a couple people when probably earlier that day Jesus had millions of people not say "Hi". So I guess I have nothing to complain about.
Nevertheless I do have one story to share. After watching a little bit of "Elf" and seeing that scene where he decorates the store overnight, I wanted to revisit the craft of making paper snowflakes. It had been years since I had made a paper snowflake, particularly because I was never any good at it, and I wanted to add some Christmas-time decorations to my apartment. So about two Saturdays ago, I spent a few hours figuring out how to properly fold the paper and create a snowflake. I'm still not any good at creating something geometrically pleasing but I can create scenes, like of snowmen. Eventually I came up with a design that I snapped a photo of on my phone and sent home. Dad said it was the most impressive thing I've done all year and Mom said it was so beautiful I should sign it and frame it. Well I don't know about all of that, but I was impressed about how nice it came out. It's one of those things, where minimal effort can create something that looks amazing. I would attach a picture but I don't have a camera at the moment. But yes, paper snowflakes do look impressive and they aren't too hard to make.
Now that Saturday evening I had a date. Yes, I had a date. I had been talking with a girl on one of these dating websites. She is Catholic, in medical school, lives in town, and, as I soon discovered on the date, is quite attractive. But the date itself wasn't too great. It just never felt at any point in time that we clicked. Things felt almost a little tense. So after the date, I told her that I would like to hear from her again, but she never got back in touch. I thought about calling her again but decided against it. It turns out that she is only in town until June, then she is going to Ohio for the last two years of medical school and she wants to permanently live there. Also she works until 9 PM Monday through Friday. So I didn't see a relationship coming out of this and decided not to pursue the matter any more. But it's not like she called me back either. For my part, I tried to be charming and pleasant on the date. But maybe she didn't like my responses to some of the questions she asked me. For example, this is how one of the questions went. Her: "So what did you do today?" Me: "This afternoon I spent a few hours making paper snowflakes."
