Friday, February 12, 2010

It's just been one of those days.

I think AU Admissions accidentally reversed their list this year and accepted all the people who were at the bottom of the pile. This is the only reasonable explanation for half of what I've been hearing come out of students' mouths around campus recently. Or perhaps it's the fact that we've all been cooped up for a week now, and people have all gone crazy. Or perhaps the bright light from being outside in the snow kills off brain cells.

Whichever way, it's annoying as hell. Take, for example, the line of girls who were sitting behind us at the basketball game yesterday (in which we were thoroughly trounced by Bucknell). They killed some of the only interesting plays in the game for me because they were busy flipping around their hair and giggling. I caught part of one conversation, and it went something like this:

Female Clone 1: "I think I'm, like, a make out whore or something."
Female Clone 2: "Whatever. You're allowed to slip up once in awhile."

And so on and so forth. For the ENTIRE SECOND HALF OF THE GAME. I should also mention that they spent whatever minutes they weren't talking about mindless girly shit absolutely trashing the Eagles. Like, OK, we're not great this year, and the play was slightly less than lackluster yesterday...but are you really going to sit there and insult your team during the game? Towards the end of it (with maybe 2 minutes left on the clock--which, yes, in basketball speak, will be longer than 2 actual minutes, but it's not THAT long. Especially when you've been stuck in your dorm for a week.), I heard Female Clone 3: "Ugh, I'm not missing the first few minutes of Grey's to watch us lose by 15 points." And she got up and left.

....what? Then don't bother coming to the fucking game in the first place! What the hell kind of "supporter" just up and gives up on their team towards the very end? She was walking back to her dorm--it's not like she had traffic to sit in.

I should also add that the only thing they took interest in was the dance team. Who, admittedly, are better dancers than I will ever be, but I will never be able to figure out what exactly is accomplished by tiny outfits, hair flipping and synchronized hip thrusting. ...I mean what's accomplished in terms of winning the game, not of giving drunken frat boys boners and making them drool all over the bleachers.

Or, for example, the girl who said to me in the elevator afterwards: "God, I can't believe they lost. Do you know we pay their salaries? They owe it to us to win."

We-hell. If you're going to go to the game with that sort of attitude, of COURSE we're all entitled to a winning team! We're all entitled to everything! You know why? Because we are AMERICAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, and we PAY FOR THIS SHIT, DAMMIT.

Apparently AU also accepts all of the people who check off "Yes, I am socially retarded" on their applications. They always say that "AU" stands for "Awkward University," but it's just beginning to sink in with me just how true this actually is.

Take, for example, the several times that I've held open doors for people. They often look at the ground or stare over my shoulder. I've taken to saying "You're welcome," regardless of how they respond. You could argue that means I'm doing it to be thanked and therefore invalidates my politeness, but I'm really just looking for acknowledgment that I'm standing there.

Funny thing is, being socially inept does not always equate to awkwardness. It also includes those people who are just assholes. You could take as an example the idiot who tried to pick up my friends and me in the hallway of the Berks (the apartment complex next to campus) last night. There's a way to do that sort of thing, and it does not involve it (1) being a Thursday night with classes for the first time in a week the next day and (2) doing it in the middle of the hallway next to the vending machines. You blame it on drunkenness, I blame it on social ineptness.

Or...the guy getting a letter copied on official letterhead at the Copy Centre who got snippy with the employees (who apologized thoroughly) when the printer messed up (apparently the letterhead had been hard to come by), filled out a complaint card, complained that it wasn't a "real" complaint card, then accused the employees of not apologizing. When I politely suggested that he could, perhaps make colour copies of the letters that did turn out correctly, he says, "Um..I don't think so." Curious, buddy, because how do you think the department reproduced that letterhead? His wasn't the fancy embossed kind, it was the kind that's reprinted on colour copiers.

Or perhaps when you're kneeling in the front of the SIS building attempting to pick up pins that you've dumped all over the ground, and some well-dressed bitch in heels steps over you to head into the coffee shop.

And so on and so forth.

I'm waxing overly judgmental again. I don't care. I'm annoyed.