Man, this has been a strange week so far. Let’s work backwards, shall we? Today, we got our salary increase letters. Mine wasn’t quite what I was hoping for (and what I had been led to expect), but it was still decent — no complaints here.
Earlier this week (on Monday to be specific), I found out that my department at KU, Academic Technology Services, no longer exists. Our director has been transferred to a different position at KU, ATS has been split up into two separate departments, and our former Technical Support Coordinator is the new Director of Student Success Technology Services. Apparently, this whole situation has been building for a couple of years, but it was rather sudden from the perspective of pretty much all of our staff. SSTS now consists of only the technical staff of from the old ATS, and the production staff have been merged with Student Information Services. As of right now, everybody is still doing basically the same job in the same location, but that may change over the coming months.
Now we rewind another couple of days to last Friday. Yes, I know, that takes us out of this week, but I need to set up the events of Sunday, and to do that, I need to talk about Friday and Saturday. There is a certain someone who has been keeping me company at work for a few weeks now. Since I am generally online at work (we use an IM program to chat with other IT staff on campus), she has been talking to me throughout my days and generally keeping me entertained. At some point in the past couple of weeks, and I can’t pin down exactly when, I started to realize that I have real feelings beyond friendship for her. Unfortunately for both of us, I am a chicken when it comes to things like that. So, what did I do? Nothing. That’s right — I didn’t do a damn thing about it… well, at least until last week. I told her best friend, another good friend of mine, what was going on and asked her opinion. Apparently, I was getting worked up over nothing, because the object of my interest had indicated some interest back, and was also too nervous to make any moves.
So Friday comes along, and I decided that I was going to talk to her about my feelings. I showed up to swing (yup, she’s a dancer, too), and was having a general good time while trying to find “the right moment”. At one point in the evening, her and I were talking about getting with a few people to go get some food and come back — we had both skipped dinner — but it turned out that nobody else wanted food. So it was just the two of us leaving and coming back… I had my shot! So we went out to grab a bite (no place fancy, just Winsteads), and I paid of course. I thought it would be a good hint that I was interested. After we ate, we sat and talked for a little while, and then we went back to the dance studio. Three cheers for chickening out!
After flubbing my attempt on Friday, I decided that I would "definitely" say something at swing night on Saturday. She was going to be there, and I knew that if I didn’t say something soon, I was going to explode. I had a performance with the Swingsters on Saturday evening, so I was actually a bit late to swing night, but she was still there. And to top it all off, it was a fairly slow night at the studio, so I got a lot more dancing in with her than normal! (Note: normally, I have forty million people make me “promise” to save them “at least one” dance at some point in the evening… I am rarely able to make good on every promised dance.) Of course, in typical “Bill” style, though, I didn’t take a single one of the chances I had to say something. Saturday swing night came and went without so much as a peep from me.
So by now I am about to go insane, and we have caught back up to Sunday. (See? I told you this all pertained to this week… oh, ye of little faith.) On Sunday, I talked to our mutual friend again, and she laid the smackdown. And by that I mean she said that if I didn’t say something on Sunday, she was telling her friend for me. Knowing that I didn’t want to seem like a 12-year-old on the playground at lunchtime, I got it set in my head to say something. Bear in mind that this whole time, I have been talking to this girl, on average, for 4-6 hours a day. Some of this was at work, and some was at home. So when I started talking to her on Sunday evening, one of the first things I told her was that I had feelings for her. Well, it turns out that she felt the same way about me. She had been too nervous to say anything on the off chance that I didn’t feel the same way (ain’t that always how it goes?!). We wound up talking for about six hours on Sunday night, and I think things could be really good for us.
"But Bill," you say, " that story isn’t too strange! In fact, it is a little sweet and heartwarming!" I know, I know… but there’s more. She is 17. Yes, you read that correctly. Before you start gasping incredulously and preaching at me, hear me out. She will be 18 in barely a month, and she is amazing. She is a dancer, a musician, and a general fun person to hang out with. As an added bonus, she quotes The Emperor’s New Groove! That right there is a deal-maker by itself. We have a lot of similar interests (obviously), but are not so alike as to make things too boring. And most importantly, neither of us cares about the difference in our ages. She acts older than she is, and honestly, I have always acted a little younger. So I think this is a good thing.
And there’s one more thing (isn’t there always?)… as of yesterday, she is in Australia for almost two weeks. Yup. I finally get up the nerve to say something, and I won’t see or talk to her for 12 days. The past two days have been crazy, and I have a feeling it is only going to get worse (better?). I have a really good feeling about this relationship. It has been a long time since someone had this much power over me, and I kind of like it.
Becca, hurry home. hug