the Gap and Me
I'd been having some trouble fitting in at my latest job. Everyone is extremely clicky, and the only new people I meet are when there's a line in the copy room.
So I've made friends with 2 colleagues since working there. One, a teacher close to my age, a blonde, invited me to a Halloween party, Mormon style! (That party is for another entry altogether.) The other is an extremely helpful counselor. Yeah, another female.
But she's different. She is the first woman I've met in months with whom I've had so much to talk about. After the first time I spoke with her at length, I was excited about this fact. We're extremely similar. Raised Catholic. Half-Chicano, half-Honkey. Our white sides include some Okie. She's a military brat. I never lived on a base, but my older sibling and I weren't born on the same land mass due to my dad's stationing. She's Green. I think Green, but am registered Democrat. She knew early on that she wasn't down with teaching, the same for me. Exception is, I'm still in it. She likes her '80s music, and anyone that knows anything about my house's last couple parties know that I, too, am slightly partial to it. We like foreign films, she leans to the French, me toward Spanish. She's sarcastic and witty; her humour (there's that cool "u" again) has the capability of being dry. And I found out today, she likes her hard liquors.
3 differences: she has 3 kids, is in her late 30s, and she's married.
No, I'm not hitting on her, just enjoying our conversations. Or maybe I subconsciously have a harmless crush on her. Either way it goes, I asked her if she'd like to join me for a Happy Hour. She asked, "When could I meet you [Ustedes form] there?" I clarified that I would be the only one...since I hadn't met too many other people to invite from the school. She agreed anyway.
So what is my problem? I've never really had such an intriguing connection with anyone with such an age gap--my dad's cousins aside, with whom I develop jell-o shot recipes. I thoroughly enjoy my conversations with this counselor and even look forward to them, me being interested in what will come up next.
It's kind of weird when I think about the age thing, yet in the midst of dialogue, I purposefully disregard it. Is that how guys in their mid-30s pick up on girls a decade their junior? Do they simply ignore the fact that they were learning to drive when these girls were learning that paste is not a delicacy?
But I feel I'm just a kid still when I try to look at it objectively, which is subject to not being objective. I definitely don't feel like I'm an adult. Yet, I do when I have a conversation with, let's say, a Bumblebee.
But I talked with my colleague/friend for an hour and a half.
As I gulped my Long Island, I thought: "I hope she doesn't think I'm a kid. I hope I seem mature. Talk politics...kind of. No more silly jokes. How old is she really? I should find out. Be sneaky about it, not obvious. Think mature, damn it!!"
All this as she sipped her Cosmo and possibly thought: "It's cool there isn't an issue about the age difference."
So I've made friends with 2 colleagues since working there. One, a teacher close to my age, a blonde, invited me to a Halloween party, Mormon style! (That party is for another entry altogether.) The other is an extremely helpful counselor. Yeah, another female.
But she's different. She is the first woman I've met in months with whom I've had so much to talk about. After the first time I spoke with her at length, I was excited about this fact. We're extremely similar. Raised Catholic. Half-Chicano, half-Honkey. Our white sides include some Okie. She's a military brat. I never lived on a base, but my older sibling and I weren't born on the same land mass due to my dad's stationing. She's Green. I think Green, but am registered Democrat. She knew early on that she wasn't down with teaching, the same for me. Exception is, I'm still in it. She likes her '80s music, and anyone that knows anything about my house's last couple parties know that I, too, am slightly partial to it. We like foreign films, she leans to the French, me toward Spanish. She's sarcastic and witty; her humour (there's that cool "u" again) has the capability of being dry. And I found out today, she likes her hard liquors.
3 differences: she has 3 kids, is in her late 30s, and she's married.
No, I'm not hitting on her, just enjoying our conversations. Or maybe I subconsciously have a harmless crush on her. Either way it goes, I asked her if she'd like to join me for a Happy Hour. She asked, "When could I meet you [Ustedes form] there?" I clarified that I would be the only one...since I hadn't met too many other people to invite from the school. She agreed anyway.
So what is my problem? I've never really had such an intriguing connection with anyone with such an age gap--my dad's cousins aside, with whom I develop jell-o shot recipes. I thoroughly enjoy my conversations with this counselor and even look forward to them, me being interested in what will come up next.
It's kind of weird when I think about the age thing, yet in the midst of dialogue, I purposefully disregard it. Is that how guys in their mid-30s pick up on girls a decade their junior? Do they simply ignore the fact that they were learning to drive when these girls were learning that paste is not a delicacy?
But I feel I'm just a kid still when I try to look at it objectively, which is subject to not being objective. I definitely don't feel like I'm an adult. Yet, I do when I have a conversation with, let's say, a Bumblebee.
But I talked with my colleague/friend for an hour and a half.
As I gulped my Long Island, I thought: "I hope she doesn't think I'm a kid. I hope I seem mature. Talk politics...kind of. No more silly jokes. How old is she really? I should find out. Be sneaky about it, not obvious. Think mature, damn it!!"
All this as she sipped her Cosmo and possibly thought: "It's cool there isn't an issue about the age difference."
posted by matty at 11:51 PM
1 Comments:
I want to hear about the Mormon style Halloween party. I went to a "dry" wedding once, had a blast. The bride and groom were beautiful and they looked so happy. And I didn't miss bits and pieces of the reception due to my usually repeated touring of the "Porcelain Room". I didn't miss a beat and smiled all night, not to mention that my hands weren't dried out and cracked from the constant hot soapy water being applied.
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