Thursday, 16 December 2010
Today, Jennifer and I were talking about friends. Among other things, we were discussing the difficulty (sometimes) in maintaining friendships. In some cases, actually, it’s easy – especially if you and your friend are ‘thrown together’ (for lack of better words) for an outside reason. This is often why it’s easy to be friends with family members: your gonna be in contact with them anyways.
I’ve noticed the same thing with co-workers. I am with them every weekday, so I start to become their friends. It’s interesting to notice how quickly a co-worker can drop from one’s circle of friends once they quit the company – or even just transfer to a different department.
Jennifer and I have had friends in the past that, we claimed, liked us better than we liked them. Of course, I can’t be certain if this is fact or just our perception. Indeed, I am not even sure how something like this would be measured. But it certainly ‘seemed’ that way. Let’s just go ahead and assign numbers to these friendships, because that sounds like an extremely shallow and arbitrary thing to do:
My friend, Clarence, says I’m a 9. I say he’s a 7. This is probably okay, because, even though I have other friends I like better than him (or maybe I just have some idealized friendship that he does not, quite, attain), he is actively seeking me out – he calls me, emails me, looks for activities and events for us to join in together. And that’s just great. Of course, I reciprocate sometimes, too.
Now my friend Guenther says I’m a 10. I say he’s a 3. This isn’t any good, because even though Guenther thinks I am awesome and wants to be with me all the time, I easily grow weary of him. I get sick of the fact that he’s always hanging around and I wish he’d give me space.
Then there’s my friend Sinbad, who says I’m a 5. I think he’s a 9. This is how Jennifer and I feel a lot, especially since there’s not as much to ‘throw us together’ with friends like there used to be.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Today my department (where I work) had a potluck. Which does not mean, I was sad to learn a long time ago, that everyone brings pot and we see who gets lucky.
Here are some take-away lessons for the next potluck: I really only need to bring, like, three or four servings of food. Yep, it’s true. Here’s why: everyone in the group (and this group consisted of about 15 people, but any potluck involving over 5 people holds true for this) thinks that they need to make enough for everybody. If they’re making chili, they’ll make enough for everyone to have a bowl. If they’re bringing a fruit tray, they’ll bring one large enough so that everyone can have a serving spoonful. In my case, I brought cookies, and my wife prepared about 30 cookies – enough for everyone to have two.
But – and here’s the point – no one can eat all that food. See, if 15 people each bring something to eat, there’s no way I can consume 15 servings of food. So, I need to leave out some stuff. This brings me to my second point…
Since attendees at a potluck have to discriminate about what they’re eating, unless you bring one of the two or three best-tasting items in any given category, you’re going home with a lot of leftovers. For example, if you bring in soup, no one’s gonna eat your soup if there are two other soups there that taste better – or at least look more promising. So, you know cookies? Booooring.
Anyway, we have some extra cookies here.
Saturday, 18 December 2010
My sister and her husband are coming over tomorrow for a my-side-of-the-family family Christmas celebration. And, yes, it is sure to be the biggest, funnest, most extravagant Christmas gathering in our entire family.
So we cleaned cleaned cleaned. Dishes, laundry, vacuuming, dusting, organizing. I also spent some time today working on little gifts for Isla and her cousin Asa, but I can’t give any details here in case any of them read this blog. When you run a blog that gets read – literally – by ones and ones of people everyday, you have to be careful what you say.
This was yet another day in which I did not get into one of our cars and drive somewhere. I’ve had a lot of these days lately, and I cannot emphasize enough (well, I probably could) that I absolutely love going an entire day without getting into a car.
We also wached Jurassic Park tonight. That’s a fun movie to watch.