Friday Housekeeping
We need to catch up on a few things.
• Dual high-fives to Josh Evans and Meg McGinn, who got engaged yesterday. As couples go, they’re tough to beat. Wildly entertaining, perfectly paired people. Ellen seemed more excited about this engagement than she was when I proposed. “Now we just need to convince them to move to New York,” she said. Also, I took a screen shot of three instant messages Josh sent me on Thursday. Timeless.
• Guardedly Optimistic – the blog of Justin Feinstein, my fellow Renegade copywriter – has inexplicably been missing from my blogroll. We’ve discussed his site before, and I posted the transcript of his second round interview. Not sure how this happened. I’m appointing a task force to determine responsibility.
• Colin Eckert has been named head coach of the Mount Olive High School football team. I didn’t know people our age were allowed to be head football coaches, but I very much look forward to reading Daily Record profiles of him. No word on whether Col will wear his three state championship rings on the sidelines.
• Good times out in the city last night (as captured in the above photo). I had a few beers with the aforementioned Justin, design guru Michael, and Erin, the pride of Kansas. Michael posted part of an email I sent him this morning, recapping the festivities. Then for dinner, I met up with the proprietors of mental_floss. High quality people and conversation all around.
• I’ve started a new feature on YesButNoButYes called You Show Me Yours, where I toss out an anecdote and ask the community to share related stories. I’m very happy with the first episode, “Crazy Roommates.” Even Ellen got in on the action:
Like about 75 percent of the population, the roommate I was randomly assigned my freshman year of college didn’t end up a life-long friend. Here’s why:
She hated college. To compensate, she holed up in our small jail-cell room microwaving frozen home-cooked meals her mom would FedEx to her overnight. Her extreme depression and constant presence eventually drove a wedge between us, especially because she resented how much I was enjoying college life. Still, we co-existed somewhat peacefully until about a week before the school year ended.
It was then that she decided I had been purposely hanging up on her mother whenever she called. (A charge I vehemently deny to this day. At least the “purposely” part.) This led her to do annoying things like play her stereo at its loudest volume whenever I put on the TV, or vice versa. Stupid roommate crap.
So, though I don’t remember this precise moment, I do concede it’s possible that I was overheard at some point saying, “Sometimes I just want to kill her.” She decided that I truly meant this overused expression of anger, and went to our RA about it. I subsequently found myself being questioned by the RA as to whether I truly meant said roommate bodily harm.
So I moved into a friend’s room down the hall for the last few days of the school year. At that point, I wouldn’t have put it past her to kill herself and frame me just out of spite.
• And finally, yesterday was Free Iced Coffee Day at Dunkin Donuts. My friend Jess tried to do the impossible – hit every DD franchise within five square miles (there are twelve.) Here’s her map, and here’s her story.
