tu_nenay_08’s Christmas Fortune Cookie

[greybeta]

Grasshopper, you paid your respects to me by being the only one to ask for a Christmas fortune cookie, so I will be a little more detailed than I normally am on these things.

My new readers may not know that Mysterious Phil, aka wldntulk2knwwho, and I were suitemates ou freshman year. We had one of those awkward moments where you come back from the first day of orientation and this guy seems to be following you…right to your suite. Hey buddy. And so we spent some time getting to know each other at Orientation Camp along with a guy named Chris Carpenter (not the Cardinals pitcher). We hung out intermittently that first semester of college.

I blame mysterious Phil for ruining my freshman and sophomore years of college. Why? The first week of classes he came into my room (I was probably playing Counter Strike or something) and said there was free pizza in the lobby. Free food? I’m so there. And so I get down there before I realize I got suckered into a stupid hall government meeting. Sheesh, I hated student council and all that jazz in high school. Why would I like it now?

Oh, but naïve Phil wanted to be Treasurer. You go do that. I’ll just sit here and say nothing. You learn in the army to never volunteer. But, in the army, they just appoint you to a position. In my case, it was soon decided that I should be community service chair. Not that I hate community service, but at the time I felt like I was more of a follower than a leader. I hated dealing with everyone people who talked too much. I am antisocial for a reason.

What happens second semester freshman year? The Vice President of our hall government resigned because he didn’t want to go to RHA meetings anymore (each hall gov’t was required to send one representative, usually the vice president, to the overall Residence Hall Association). RHA threatened to cut off funding if we did not send a rep. My residence hall director pleaded for somebody to go the RHA meeting. Awkward. Five. Minutes. Of. Silence. I happened to be free that Tuesday night, so I volunteered myself. I told them I would only be free this week, so someone else would have to go the next time.

The RHA meeting was okay. The leadership at this level was lacking because it’s a big job to program stuff for all the residents. It’s not as simple as “Hey, come down to the lobby and play HALO”. I went back and reported the goings on of RHA to my hall gov’t. After my report, my residence hall director asked if anyone wanted to be the permanent RHA rep. The next thing I knew, everyone looked at me. I refused. But then they forced me against my free will to accept offered the veep position. I opened my mouth to refuse, but before my brain could think I had already said I would do it.

And so I went to RHA meetings for the rest of the year. I made sure not to get too involved in RHA. End of the year rolls around, and my residence director requests that I run for VP. I’m already experienced. It would depend on who was running for President. Cassie? You mean slavedriver Cassie? Sure, she’ll get work done. I’ll just stand behind her as the veep. My residence hall director then asked me to represent our hall in student senate.

Now see, I would have thought nothing of this but the red headed Brigid Decoursey had happened to invite me to a Senate meeting to scope things out. I respected Brigid (we were in a study group together for our first honors class on ancient Greece) so I politely told her that I might go even though I had no plans to. But the words of my hall residence director made me feel somewhat curious about this student senate thing so sure, I’ll run. Why not?

Because I had decided to run as a write in candidate, I couldn’t tell my friends in time to vote for me. I got five votes, as did another guy. In the run off, we both got eighteen votes. In this extreme unusual situation, we both had to come to Senate to explain why we wanted to be student senators. I showed up, but the other guy did not. I said some bogus lines about wanting to try out new opportunities, yet it really did not matter because I was going to win by default.

I got approached by the Financial Appropriations Committee chair about being part of the money committee. She knew me from RHA and told me that I would get bored elsewhere. FAC deals with the money and so it was the most powerful committee in Senate. I hate dealing with money, but I might as well go to the committee where I know someone. She soon left Senate, to be replaced by a guy named Dustin Devore.

Dustin was, how shall we say it, an opinionated man. He let you know what he was thinking and he didn’t care if you disagreed vehemently with him. And he was surely a pretty hard guy to like but it’s not as if he was always wrong. You need people like that to keep your organization on your toes; otherwise, your organization will get soft. This was the man who mentored me in Senate.

Halfway through the year, Dustin split up the duties of the FAC Chair into an Allocations Chair and a Bills Chair. Whichever chair was in FAC longer would be the Senior Chair and still overall decision maker for the committee. The Junior Chair would handle his or her responsibilities accordingly. I became the Bills Chair, dealing with new organizations and conference travel bills. Our confidential criteria always bothered me, but everytime I asked Dustin his response was always that “It worked”. Why go through the trouble of trying to fix something that isn’t broken?

Soon Dustin ran for treasurer and won. I became Senior Chair and Phil moved in line to be Junior Chair. Way back at the beginning of our sophomore fall semester, Phil approached me and said that he wanted to become bitter run for Senate. I warned him that I hated Senate and had become The Most Bitter Senator. He was stupid enough to say he didn’t care about that and ran anyways. And now we were going to fight side by side as FAC co-chairs and fix the allocations system.

Then Dustin threw a monkey wrench in those plans by resigning. During the summer, it’s difficult to relay messages to the whole of your student government because you have no clue where people are. The president of our student government at that time made an executive decision to appoint an interim treasurer. I would have been first choice if I had not been at home but Phil was in Tulsa and on Summer Senate so they asked him to be the Treasurer. Phil thought about it, and then realized that putting down Treasurer of the Student Association of the University of Tulsa would be an awesome resume builder. He said yes, and later on the executives went ahead and removed the interim off his title without out a student body vote (through a certain loophole in the constitution).

This is where you come in, Courtney. Phil and I were chatting about how exciting our junior year was going to be now that he was going to be treasurer and I was going to be FAC Chair. We also talked about how we were going to watch a lot of anime in the our suite (Yep, we decided to be suitemates again our junior year. Phil, guru Stu, my scheming roommate, and I were a pretty good and varied suite, actually.) We were plotting on legacies in student government. Then he oh so casually mentioned that he had recently gotten a girlfriend. If you knew what I knew about mysterious Phil, you would have been shocked as I was (like for example his dalliance with coughcoughandcoughreacoughgracoughbowcoughcough). The conversation went something like this:

D2: Tell me, how do you know this girl?
Phil: You remember that girl I knew from high school who went to Australia?
D2: I sort of remember.
Phil: Well, she’s a prefreshman so I was helping her out with stuff on campus.
D2: Okay…
Phil: Well I ran into her roommate and I started talking to her.
D2: Alright…
Phil: She was really cool and she goes to church so I kind of asked her out.
D2: Wait, you asked a prefreshman out, some random girl who you’ve never met before in your life?
Phil: I guess you could call it love at first sight.
D2: Baloney. Do you know what I call it?
Phil: What do you call it?
D2: This may just be the pessimist in me speaking, but I would call it one thing.
D2: Desperation.
Phil: Dude, it’s not like that.
D2: Dude, you’re taking advantage of a naïve young girl who’s just out of high school and met some seemingly suave upperclassman, just like in those anime we like to watch so much.
Phil: Okay, let me explain. There’s just something about her…
D2: That’s all you can say? “There’s just something about her…” Like credulousness?
Phil: Hey, take a look at her xanga.
[D2 looks at her xanga, sees a bunch of painful poetry lyrics, questionnaires, and random reports on her daily life.]
D2: She seems kind of shallow to me.
Phil: What???
D2: Look at her xanga. It’s nothing really about her, it’s just what other people think of her.
Phil: Well, I’ll tell you what I saw. Potential.
D2: You see potential?
Phil: You either see it or you don’t man.
D2: I am going to have to meet this girl who can steal my mysterious friend’s heart so easily.
Phil: She may not be what you expect.
D2: Then she won’t have my respect.
Phil: Hey, look, why don’t you talk to her on AIM…

So I talked with you grasshopper. I remember you being worried about your roommate. You were stressed out about some odd subject, like what if your roommate was one of those “popular” girls. Why would that matter in college? You came up with some sort of bratty answer. I told you straight up that none of that popularity stuff really mattered in college. You didn’t believe me, even though you said I was an interesting person. Why was I an interesting person? Even though it was just an online conversation, I was brutally honest. Why does that intrigue you? You said you had never met anyone like that.

Then came our first meeting. I was not expecting much. And I was right. Phil kept trying to talk you up, even though he knew you wouldn’t be able to meet my high standard of friends at that point. Sure, you were a cute girl but you did not talk like an intellectual. I may have just stated that I did not think you and Phil would last more than a month. On your side, you’d find some cuter guy to fawn over. On Phil’s side, he would admit to his desperation and taking advantage of a gullible girl.

However, I did see the potential Phil talked about then.

Yes, you had potential. Now what was it that you said again? Oh yes, now I remember. You said I didn’t think I was a bitter or pessimistic person at all. You know that I am fond of saying that strangers often have the best view on things because they are unbiased by our past. Of course I’m not a bitter or pessimistic person. I’m a positively bitter and pessimistic person.

I clearly recall Phil giving me one of your papers to read. I laughed so hard when I read it. You wondered why you were struggling in freshman English? It was because my worst eighth grade essays were better than anything you wrote for that class. A girl who had no idea how to command the English language wants to teach our children? Oh dear God, our public schooling system is doomed if this is the case.

I apologize for treating you extreme cruel that night. My dom personality took over. I was really, really mean. I made you read your own writing. Instead of being encouraging, I was facetious. You would read a dangling modifier, then I would laugh and incredulously ask you what that dangling phrase modified. Painful as it was, the paper needed to be helped (oh man the grammar Nazi in me is screaming to add the thing “Painful as it was” is supposed to be modifying, namely me). I chided you for random leaps of logic and weak@$$ writing. You took all the abuse before going off to be comforted by Phil.

I knew you had potential when you survived that.

Things came around and you eventually come to Senate and LJ. I took you in as my grasshopper, though you are not directly from the Ferrett Dojo of blogging (since you’re too busy to post a lot). You’re one in a million, Courtney. You’re like a diamond in the rough, and I’m just trying to bring out your true shine. You’re now in the third most powerful position in your sorority.

I would have liked to say something it was something I did, but it was something you did yourself. It took time, but you have realized your Personal Legend, and that is to be the music minister for your church. A woman music minister? You can bet your life on it, as you are more than capable. You are not the brightest light bulb or the shiniest apple. You are a cheery person though, which is your main strength. You also have the ability to steel yourself, which means you actually get things done. Well, it may not be a perfect job but it will often be more than a sufficient solution. It may you take two days to write a thoughtful post, but it comes out with glistening quality. You are not Phil’s dream anime girl, not can you ever be. You are an obstinate Presbyterian while Phil is an even more stubborn Church of Christ guy. Whatever lucky guy ends up with you will have to resolve that touchy religion issue.

My power of discernment tells me that you hope against hope that it will be Phil.

So does he.

Comments

[genuinechris.livejournal.com]

Don't cut. People are on your FL because they want to read you, not because thewy want unnecessary clicking.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Alright, but I'm inevitably going to get a complaint that I should cut stuff personal ramblings like this one. You're going to have to answer those complains for me. ;)

[tu-nenay-08.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the nice things you've said about me. You know, Phil kind of warned me that you expected a lot from me. That's part of why I took so much verbal assault from you. Also, I knew I deserved it. Teachers at my high school played favorites and I was one of them. I never struggled too much in my studies. College is a different story and I knew that coming in.

Now, how did you come to the conclusion of music minister? I would be interested to know that.

On another note, If Phil and I do break up, it has nothing to do with me being a prefreshman. In matters of relationships and feelings, I'm lightyears ahead of most people my age. That's why I've been the one people come to with problems. That's why I've been the girl that takes care of everyone.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You should know Phil said I should be free to be myself around you because he had warned you about me. ;)

Music minister? Do you really want me to answer that question? Some things are better left to discover on your own, grasshopper.

I may be wrong though about your future (with both Phil and the music minister thing). After all, I was wrong about the one month prediction.

Also, what's the best time to call your cell phone? I've been trying to call you the past few days...