The End is Nigh!

last week i was described by a part-time co-worker as being 'pretty, but not a lot going on up there.' this was said with a disparaging look and an emphatic point to the head. now kids, if this is true then my whole perspective is totally fucked. in fact, there is a good chance we live in bizarro world.

the summer of 2003 was the first time someone broke my heart with a comment along this vein. one night at elphinstone duncan, in passing, looked at me and said 'i used to think you were smart and well-read, now you are just dating matt s___.' i promptly sat down on the road and started to cry. and i think making me cry was one of his goals but there was an element of truth behind the comment.

so what is the link between the two incidents? i can say definitively that my intelligence is not effected by my hair style or the clothes i wear, a summer fling has little bearing on the books i read, and joking around with a friend at a staff party is not an indicator of how smart i am. but all those things have a bearing on how i am perceived by others. apparently there is a negative correlation between the level of fun i am having and the level of intelligence people credit me with. and fair enough. i'm more likely to enjoy myself at a party talking about music and boys than international political theory. obviously. but that doesn't mean that i couldn't hold my own if someone asked me for my opinion on the theoretical cause of an international conflict.

so having worked through this i've decided that i will take the first part of the comment as a compliment and ignore the second bit. and maybe i will take up playing pretty and dumb. thats gotta be good for a laugh every now and then.

and p.s. just in case you were wondering, no one has ever asked for my opinion on the theoretical cause of an international conflict. sweet masters degree.