"Hey you! In the green shirt! Wanna have a dance-off!?"
So this happened about 3 months ago, but it's worth re-telling.
Every summer, numerous camps come through Covenant College. They watch things happen in the chapel (I've always wondered what), wear different colors and compete in events, and, generally speaking, just take up alot of air and space on campus. This is the first summer that I've had the opportunity to interact with the campers, and I was quite excited. Even though I was nearly beside myself with excitement about this opportunity, I tried to play it cool while there were campers around. You know, just act normal. Mostly this meant pretending like the campers weren't there and simply going about my normal business. In spite of these concerted efforts, an unfortunate exchange occurred one day while I was walking back up to my apartment via the stairs outside by the pool. The following account is mostly true, and a great story...
"Hey!"
I keep walking, pretending to be interested in the two pieces of mail (which actually aren't mine) which I'm holding. But the 13-year-old girl is persistent in the way that only 13-year-old girls can be, and is undeterred by my indifference to her epithets.
"Hey you! In the green shirt!"
I panic, surprised by her brashness. She knows who I am. Caught, I turn and give her a glowering look, a look so cold that Al Gore later told me he might have to return his Nobel Prize.
"What?"
"Wanna have a dance-off?!"
And leaving me (literally) no time to reply, she hits a button on her cell phone, techno-crap music begins to play, and she begins to do a sort of shimmy. Or a shig. Wait, that's not a word. I mean a jig. A jig that would mortify Justin Timberlake but was no doubt inspired by the same taste-deficient muse which "inspired" his "music."
It was like seeing this happen, but right in front of you and not on TV or with an English guy but with a 13-year-old middle school girl and I am the guy there in the back left standing there awkwardly with no idea about how to react.
Momentarily stunned, I desperately sought my reply. Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance and with a genuine sigh, I delivered the perfect line: "You win. You always do."
Word.
So this happened about 3 months ago, but it's worth re-telling.
Every summer, numerous camps come through Covenant College. They watch things happen in the chapel (I've always wondered what), wear different colors and compete in events, and, generally speaking, just take up alot of air and space on campus. This is the first summer that I've had the opportunity to interact with the campers, and I was quite excited. Even though I was nearly beside myself with excitement about this opportunity, I tried to play it cool while there were campers around. You know, just act normal. Mostly this meant pretending like the campers weren't there and simply going about my normal business. In spite of these concerted efforts, an unfortunate exchange occurred one day while I was walking back up to my apartment via the stairs outside by the pool. The following account is mostly true, and a great story...
"Hey!"
I keep walking, pretending to be interested in the two pieces of mail (which actually aren't mine) which I'm holding. But the 13-year-old girl is persistent in the way that only 13-year-old girls can be, and is undeterred by my indifference to her epithets.
"Hey you! In the green shirt!"
I panic, surprised by her brashness. She knows who I am. Caught, I turn and give her a glowering look, a look so cold that Al Gore later told me he might have to return his Nobel Prize.
"What?"
"Wanna have a dance-off?!"
And leaving me (literally) no time to reply, she hits a button on her cell phone, techno-crap music begins to play, and she begins to do a sort of shimmy. Or a shig. Wait, that's not a word. I mean a jig. A jig that would mortify Justin Timberlake but was no doubt inspired by the same taste-deficient muse which "inspired" his "music."
It was like seeing this happen, but right in front of you and not on TV or with an English guy but with a 13-year-old middle school girl and I am the guy there in the back left standing there awkwardly with no idea about how to react.
Momentarily stunned, I desperately sought my reply. Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance and with a genuine sigh, I delivered the perfect line: "You win. You always do."
Word.
posted by jmathe at 7:53 PM
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