Obsidian Potency 3.0
Days of Being Wild
posted Monday, 14 March 2005
This entry is named after a movie by Wong Kar-Wai -- and a song that I actually have heard by one of my favorite bands, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. In fact, I'm listening to the song now.
This past weekend was a good one. Joe Yang is in town, and I got to catch up with him as well as with my twin friends Ina and Ada. Ina was also visiting. Ada now lives in the D.C. area, and I hope I get to hang out with her more (especially since there's no telling how long I'll stick around. We also hung out with Joe's friend Wil, who has also moved to the area from S.F. On Friday, we went to Morton's of Chicago, a ritzy steakhouse where (true to U.S. standards) I paid way too much for a very large ribeye. The meal cost me something like $80, or 480 rand. In SA, the meal would have been aboiut 150-200 rand at most, or less than half the price I paid at Morton's. And, of course, the meat would have been better. But it was more about the company than the food itself, and in that regard the meal didn't disappoint.
Saturday, I had lunch with Farmer (high school/college friend) at Armand's in Congressional Plaza/Rockville. They serve some of my favorite pizza in the world, and this branch built a dining room and starterd offering a buffet since I left. Later, Wil, Ada, Ina, Joe and I had dinner at Rockland's BBQ in Arlington (D.C./Northern Virginia). Thanks to Armand's, I could barely eat anything at all. We then hung out at Wil's place until the wee hours.
Since I got back, I've been noticing how I've changed relative to my "new" environment. For one, I'm a lot more paranoid. I was in Montgomery Mall a few day ago, just walking along, when a very hot girl stopped me and asked a question. She wasn't standing near a kiosk at the time, so my first reaction should have been puzzlement or pleasant surprise.
Instead, my initial reaction was fear.
I suddenly became very sensitive to everyone around me, and waited for someone to try to steal something from me. As she led me to her kiosk to demonstrate the use of Dead Sea salt for skin care, she told me she noticed my reaction. I explained that I had just come from a country where I was rather apprehensive about crime. She was amused, and I was rather disturbed with myself.
At the same time, I think I've become a lot more hardened than I used to be to situations on the street. In other words, it would probably be a bad idea for anyone here to fuck with me. The place I am now is so much less hostile than the place I left that any fool that tried to step to me would likely get a rather aggressive response compared to the way I used to be. After all, I lived in Joburg for a year, so how scary are you? This wouldn't appply in Southeast D.C., though.
Television simply isn't as compelling as it used to be, which has to be a good thing. I find myself forgetting that it's even an option to turn on TV and watch. It's made me a hell of a lot more productive than I used to be. It's amazing how much you realize you have to do, even unemployed, and how much more you actually get done when there's no TV. I still try to catch certain shows, but I now find almost everything else to be a lot more important.
Finally, I don't find the urge to go out to be nearly as important as it used to be. I think that it's a matter of increased confidence and faith, and that some of my old social habits were in fa ct a symptom of my insecurity. Before I lived in South Africa, I would feel like a total loser if I didn't go out on a Friday or a Saturday night. It was almost like I needed to do so in order to give myself physical evidence that I had an active social life and friends.
I don't feel that way anymore. I stayed in two Saturdays ago, and I didn't even think twice about it. I didn't try to see what everyone else I know was doing -- hell, I haven't even called a lot of my friends around here yet since I got back. It's as if I've finally become comfortable with who I know and who I am socially, and I have nothing to prove to myself anymore. That sin;t to say that I don't enjoy going out and being wild anymore. It's to say that I don't have to every weekend anymore, as long as I get to have some quality time with myself and/or with my friends.
These are good developments, and it will be interesting to 'see' how else I've changed.
This past weekend was a good one. Joe Yang is in town, and I got to catch up with him as well as with my twin friends Ina and Ada. Ina was also visiting. Ada now lives in the D.C. area, and I hope I get to hang out with her more (especially since there's no telling how long I'll stick around. We also hung out with Joe's friend Wil, who has also moved to the area from S.F. On Friday, we went to Morton's of Chicago, a ritzy steakhouse where (true to U.S. standards) I paid way too much for a very large ribeye. The meal cost me something like $80, or 480 rand. In SA, the meal would have been aboiut 150-200 rand at most, or less than half the price I paid at Morton's. And, of course, the meat would have been better. But it was more about the company than the food itself, and in that regard the meal didn't disappoint.
Saturday, I had lunch with Farmer (high school/college friend) at Armand's in Congressional Plaza/Rockville. They serve some of my favorite pizza in the world, and this branch built a dining room and starterd offering a buffet since I left. Later, Wil, Ada, Ina, Joe and I had dinner at Rockland's BBQ in Arlington (D.C./Northern Virginia). Thanks to Armand's, I could barely eat anything at all. We then hung out at Wil's place until the wee hours.
Since I got back, I've been noticing how I've changed relative to my "new" environment. For one, I'm a lot more paranoid. I was in Montgomery Mall a few day ago, just walking along, when a very hot girl stopped me and asked a question. She wasn't standing near a kiosk at the time, so my first reaction should have been puzzlement or pleasant surprise.
Instead, my initial reaction was fear.
I suddenly became very sensitive to everyone around me, and waited for someone to try to steal something from me. As she led me to her kiosk to demonstrate the use of Dead Sea salt for skin care, she told me she noticed my reaction. I explained that I had just come from a country where I was rather apprehensive about crime. She was amused, and I was rather disturbed with myself.
At the same time, I think I've become a lot more hardened than I used to be to situations on the street. In other words, it would probably be a bad idea for anyone here to fuck with me. The place I am now is so much less hostile than the place I left that any fool that tried to step to me would likely get a rather aggressive response compared to the way I used to be. After all, I lived in Joburg for a year, so how scary are you? This wouldn't appply in Southeast D.C., though.
Television simply isn't as compelling as it used to be, which has to be a good thing. I find myself forgetting that it's even an option to turn on TV and watch. It's made me a hell of a lot more productive than I used to be. It's amazing how much you realize you have to do, even unemployed, and how much more you actually get done when there's no TV. I still try to catch certain shows, but I now find almost everything else to be a lot more important.
Finally, I don't find the urge to go out to be nearly as important as it used to be. I think that it's a matter of increased confidence and faith, and that some of my old social habits were in fa ct a symptom of my insecurity. Before I lived in South Africa, I would feel like a total loser if I didn't go out on a Friday or a Saturday night. It was almost like I needed to do so in order to give myself physical evidence that I had an active social life and friends.
I don't feel that way anymore. I stayed in two Saturdays ago, and I didn't even think twice about it. I didn't try to see what everyone else I know was doing -- hell, I haven't even called a lot of my friends around here yet since I got back. It's as if I've finally become comfortable with who I know and who I am socially, and I have nothing to prove to myself anymore. That sin;t to say that I don't enjoy going out and being wild anymore. It's to say that I don't have to every weekend anymore, as long as I get to have some quality time with myself and/or with my friends.
These are good developments, and it will be interesting to 'see' how else I've changed.
Want to read comments, or have something to say? Bring it.
Obsidian Hit Counter
Total: 266,451
since: 18 Oct 2004
since: 18 Oct 2004