Unfinished post from some time in February
It's been more than a week since my friends visited me and we had a great time together. I was afraid of missing them too much towards the end of their stay but really, I was so mentally exhausted that I was sort of relieved when it came time for them to leave. I think I've gotten too comfortable with staying by myself that the constant social interaction was weighing on me. But otherwise, I had so much fun with them.
I felt like they visited me at exactly the right time. They took my mind off of Jack. They cooked me food. Shannon helped me move my huge fish tank into the bathtub so I can wash it and then helped me put my shower rod up. They also made me analyze the relationships that I've been forming here in Melbourne and helped me realize that I need to stop being such a coon and think of the quality of people that I choose to spend my time with.
I think I was getting really caught up in being in the "in" group at Harris. While I have fun with those people, a lot of them are white and a certain type of white. I don't actually think I'd ever get close to them neither would I necessarily want to so why should I put so much stake in these relationships? I do, however, want to connect with more black people because I've been a coon for too long. I'm not going to expand much here because I feel like it's a deeper post for another evening and I'm going to keep this one a little more light-hearted.
We did everything I sort of planned in my last post: ate at a restaurant along the river and went to karaoke on Thursday night, went kayaking and to the bar on Friday night, and then Orlando on Saturday. I felt like we had such a good time in each other's company that it was sort of a burden to bring them along to gatherings with other people. We went to the karaoke thing and while that was... interesting, to say the least, I didn't really talk to anyone else but them. Karaoke was weird in that it was at a dive bar (never really been to one of these) and karaoke consisted of one person singing to the entire bar. The karaoke places I was used to had sectioned-off areas for groups to use. I also feel like karaoke is funner when you're singing with a group of people that you actually are cool with. Not a bunch of randoms who may or may not be weirdos. And yes, that place attracted a bunch of the weirdo-type.
We sat at the quieter side of the bar to talk and watched a couple who had been previously groping each other, walk into the women's bathroom. So we saw it as our responsibility to let any woman waiting outside of the bathroom know that it would be a while. These two guys had watched us "policing" the bathroom and came up to ask us what was up. It diverged into an interesting conversation. The two guys were getting their doctorate degrees at the nearby university. I can't remember much else we talked about but it was one of those "flirty, nonsensical" type of conversations. They were both semi-attractive, definitely nerds. They invited us out to get kava and we declined and said we could try for another night. My friend got one of the guys' numbers but we never ended up meeting them again for kava. While banal as fuck in the grand scheme of things, it was a memorable experience for me because it was such nice interaction from a group of guys. It doesn't really happen that way all the time.
Another friend of mine, Alain, was hitting up a bar with his friends on the other side of the river and had invited me. He's one of my "cooler" friends so I definitely wanted my friends to meet him so we ended up ditching karaoke to go over there. My friends found him much more "normal" compared to the rest of the Harris group that were at karaoke. When we got there, Alain was playing pool with his friends and a guy named Miles. The story of Miles is an interesting one but I'll keep things short and simple. He's an awkward guy that most definitely has a thing for me and I'm not having it.
So when I wanted to play pool with the rest of them, Miles tried to split the teams up so that it was me and him versus Alain and one of my friends. Thankfully, at some point in the night, I had briefed my friends on Miles so they knew how I felt about him. They came to my rescue immediately and started whining about how they wanted to play on my side because they missed me so much. It was such a cringe-y but beautiful moment. I will tell my children about it.
Alain witnessed the encounter and side-eyed us. I thought that was hilarious. Everyone seemed to get the hint besides Miles.
Alain left with his friends not long after that and so it was just me and my friends and Miles for some time. He wanted me to let him know if we decide to go out the day after. I said sure and never hit him up. But don't worry. That wouldn't be the last I saw of him. But that's a story for another post.
The next day, we lathered up the sunscreen and went kayaking. My friends had been bothering me about alligators attacking me since long before I moved to Florida and we all had been anticipating an alligator sighting. It was a long ass kayak ride and my arms were done less than halfway through. We (and by that, I mean *I*) didn't really see anything spectacular for most of the trip except for turtles and these jumping fish. There were baby alligators sighted at some point but I was too blind to see them. It was only towards the end that a true big alligator was spotted and honestly, it looked like a floating log to me because it was mostly under the water and we were too far away for me to see it.
It's wild that I've been here for so long and still cannot say that I've officially seen an alligator. We got food at this Korean place downtown (the same place I ate lunch with Jack) and the food wasn't hitting like it did the first time I had it but it was such a pleasant day that it didn't really matter. We headed to the beach, which isn't really my favorite place to go with people. I wanted to take a nap on the sand but truthfully, I was afraid of tanning too much. I wanted to swim in the ocean but I was afraid my hair would get wet and knotty. Not to mention it was soo cold. We ate ice cream and that was the best part for me.
I think for the rest of Friday, we napped and chilled and then went out to downtown. I thought we were going to bar hop but my friends ended up wanting to stay at one place. We danced hard and we were the only ones dancing.
It's been more than a week since my friends visited me and we had a great time together. I was afraid of missing them too much towards the end of their stay but really, I was so mentally exhausted that I was sort of relieved when it came time for them to leave. I think I've gotten too comfortable with staying by myself that the constant social interaction was weighing on me. But otherwise, I had so much fun with them.
I felt like they visited me at exactly the right time. They took my mind off of Jack. They cooked me food. Shannon helped me move my huge fish tank into the bathtub so I can wash it and then helped me put my shower rod up. They also made me analyze the relationships that I've been forming here in Melbourne and helped me realize that I need to stop being such a coon and think of the quality of people that I choose to spend my time with.
I think I was getting really caught up in being in the "in" group at Harris. While I have fun with those people, a lot of them are white and a certain type of white. I don't actually think I'd ever get close to them neither would I necessarily want to so why should I put so much stake in these relationships? I do, however, want to connect with more black people because I've been a coon for too long. I'm not going to expand much here because I feel like it's a deeper post for another evening and I'm going to keep this one a little more light-hearted.
We did everything I sort of planned in my last post: ate at a restaurant along the river and went to karaoke on Thursday night, went kayaking and to the bar on Friday night, and then Orlando on Saturday. I felt like we had such a good time in each other's company that it was sort of a burden to bring them along to gatherings with other people. We went to the karaoke thing and while that was... interesting, to say the least, I didn't really talk to anyone else but them. Karaoke was weird in that it was at a dive bar (never really been to one of these) and karaoke consisted of one person singing to the entire bar. The karaoke places I was used to had sectioned-off areas for groups to use. I also feel like karaoke is funner when you're singing with a group of people that you actually are cool with. Not a bunch of randoms who may or may not be weirdos. And yes, that place attracted a bunch of the weirdo-type.
We sat at the quieter side of the bar to talk and watched a couple who had been previously groping each other, walk into the women's bathroom. So we saw it as our responsibility to let any woman waiting outside of the bathroom know that it would be a while. These two guys had watched us "policing" the bathroom and came up to ask us what was up. It diverged into an interesting conversation. The two guys were getting their doctorate degrees at the nearby university. I can't remember much else we talked about but it was one of those "flirty, nonsensical" type of conversations. They were both semi-attractive, definitely nerds. They invited us out to get kava and we declined and said we could try for another night. My friend got one of the guys' numbers but we never ended up meeting them again for kava. While banal as fuck in the grand scheme of things, it was a memorable experience for me because it was such nice interaction from a group of guys. It doesn't really happen that way all the time.
Another friend of mine, Alain, was hitting up a bar with his friends on the other side of the river and had invited me. He's one of my "cooler" friends so I definitely wanted my friends to meet him so we ended up ditching karaoke to go over there. My friends found him much more "normal" compared to the rest of the Harris group that were at karaoke. When we got there, Alain was playing pool with his friends and a guy named Miles. The story of Miles is an interesting one but I'll keep things short and simple. He's an awkward guy that most definitely has a thing for me and I'm not having it.
So when I wanted to play pool with the rest of them, Miles tried to split the teams up so that it was me and him versus Alain and one of my friends. Thankfully, at some point in the night, I had briefed my friends on Miles so they knew how I felt about him. They came to my rescue immediately and started whining about how they wanted to play on my side because they missed me so much. It was such a cringe-y but beautiful moment. I will tell my children about it.
Alain witnessed the encounter and side-eyed us. I thought that was hilarious. Everyone seemed to get the hint besides Miles.
Alain left with his friends not long after that and so it was just me and my friends and Miles for some time. He wanted me to let him know if we decide to go out the day after. I said sure and never hit him up. But don't worry. That wouldn't be the last I saw of him. But that's a story for another post.
The next day, we lathered up the sunscreen and went kayaking. My friends had been bothering me about alligators attacking me since long before I moved to Florida and we all had been anticipating an alligator sighting. It was a long ass kayak ride and my arms were done less than halfway through. We (and by that, I mean *I*) didn't really see anything spectacular for most of the trip except for turtles and these jumping fish. There were baby alligators sighted at some point but I was too blind to see them. It was only towards the end that a true big alligator was spotted and honestly, it looked like a floating log to me because it was mostly under the water and we were too far away for me to see it.
It's wild that I've been here for so long and still cannot say that I've officially seen an alligator. We got food at this Korean place downtown (the same place I ate lunch with Jack) and the food wasn't hitting like it did the first time I had it but it was such a pleasant day that it didn't really matter. We headed to the beach, which isn't really my favorite place to go with people. I wanted to take a nap on the sand but truthfully, I was afraid of tanning too much. I wanted to swim in the ocean but I was afraid my hair would get wet and knotty. Not to mention it was soo cold. We ate ice cream and that was the best part for me.
I think for the rest of Friday, we napped and chilled and then went out to downtown. I thought we were going to bar hop but my friends ended up wanting to stay at one place. We danced hard and we were the only ones dancing.
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