Mean Girls Lives On?

Who knew that mean girls still existed? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people out there who totally suck, but apparently the catty, pettiness of it all doesn't end with high school. I was reminded of this fact over the weekend.

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Picture this: I'm being all nice and mingly at the giant Emory grad school mixer over the weekend. I happen to be talking to several fellows in the business school (one of whom is this beautiful Cypriot man who is so gorgeous I have trouble making eye contact with him) and we all seem to hit it off, so when it's time to leave beautiful Cypriot man asks for my number (yes I died a little) in case we decide to go to this bar they plan to hit up. Of course we do, but as soon as I get there, while hottie pottati is getting me a drink, this chick sidles up to me and starts warning me about "those business school guys."

Mind you, I have never seen nor spoken to this girl before tonight; though apparently she also is a first year public health student. Biddy proceeds to tell me how business school guys are really nice but be careful, they are players who will screw you over. I play along, nodding my head, looking appropriately serious/concerned, and even throw in the ole "thanks for warning me, I will definitely keep that in mind." But all the while I'm thinking "who the hell are you to be telling me this?!" Gut feeling tells me that she isn't doing this out of the concern of her heart, no no no, I think this chick is feeling threatened by little ole me (as well she should be, I'm quite the charmer). But seriously, who does that?! Starts warning a complete stranger about the player status of some guys; girlfrien, you don't know me. I would never deliberately flirt with someone's boyfriend or "steal" the attention from a guy someone was interested in, but I knew these guys were single. Are single? Will mingle!

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I was rather taken aback by the whole situation (I will also mull over any nugget of drama in my essentially bland academic life). Basically I was transported back to high school (or maybe middle school) this weekend, all sparked by the pettiness of some jealous chick. Amazing. So there you go, a little grad school drama for your week!

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Mingling Machine

This weekend I was a mingling machine. The funny part is, the first random person I actually struck up a conversation with (I pulled the "so what beers are good here?" card) happened to be married. I noticed the ring just as the words were leaving my mouth. Oh the irony. But it got better! Miracle of miracles I actually went up to a group of guys I'd been making eye contact with and started chatting. I didn't even have to get wasted to do it (ok I had had a drink or two but was no where near inebriated).

Obviously even I'm surprised at myself, since I've previously written about how I suck at socializing. I really can't pin point what happened this weekend, otherwise I'd be sure to share my wisdom with the masses. I just sucked it up and did it. I took the repeated eye contact as my cue that the other party was interested and boom, "hey what's up guys?"

"Oh hey fellas" photo courtesy of Kristen

Pretty much, I threw caution to the wind. That's all it takes, 5 seconds of not being self conscious. Every time I go out I always tell myself that I'm going to be awesome and approachable and just exude self confidence; the only difference is that this time I actually did it. And generally people respond favorably to that. If they aren't a total dickhead then they will at least humor you for a little while (and if they are rude, then consider yourself lucky that you didn't have to waste one more second putting up with that!).

Weekend Update

Their faces sum it up quite nicely. via

1. Volunteering is good for the soul: Finally volunteering/playing with horses. This time at a local barn in Atlanta. Having kids not pay attention is always a lesson in patience, but I couldn't imagine not giving back somehow. Hopefully it's more organized next week; the substitute instructor looked a little frazzled and wasn't so thrilled at having completely new volunteers.

2. Having a goal is also good: I don't know what came over me, but in a fit of madness I signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k in January. Originally I thought I'd do the regular ol' 5k, but then I figured, what the hey I can already run that anyway. So now I'm giving myself something to work towards. I usually run 5k a couple times a week on the treadmill (but to be fair I do play with intervals and make sure that I adjust the incline as well, so it's never just a flat run at the same pace). Now that I've discovered some cute neighborhoods nearby I'm going to try and find the motivation to run more outside, especially now that it's getting cooler.

3. Okcupid is not so good: One night I was bored and decided to sign up. A friend of mine had been raving about it, saying that she'd actually been on a couple dates with guys she met on there. Since I hardly ever seem to get the opportunity to meet new guys (did I mention that my program is 80% women?!), I figured what the hey. That lasted an hour. After I came across the profile of a guy I knew in person/had kinda liked, I took that as a sign from the universe to get the hell off there. My short stint on an online dating site has left me a little creeped out; sure you get a lot of messages from guys, but these are guys I'd never be interested in. Plus I have to wonder if free dating site = hookup site from a male perspective... no thanks. My dating life in general is just not so good. But after going to yet another bar that reminded me of UVa, complete with preppy obnoxious bros, I realized that this is not how I can go about this. Those aren't the guys I want to get involved in, so obviously those aren't the bars I'm going to find myself going to anymore. Romance/relationships are supposed to find you when you're not looking anyway right?