My New Wave Date From Hell
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:53 amI was listening to Otters Walk Among Us's "1985" disc (which is excellent) this morning and it dredged up this painful memory which had been mercifully buried deep in my subconcious for nearly twenty years. Maybe you'll find the story entertaining.
Stephanie (the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) was a girl I had known for several years, but we'd always been "just friends". I was hoping to move things beyond that, your know?. Stephanie was beautiful, smart, outgoing, and a new-waver to boot. We were both attending the same university. I had a car and she didn't.
One night she called me up, which she rarely did. She had just heard that INXS was going to be playing in Salt Lake City, about 40 miles away from were we were going to school - we should get tickets and go.
So we got the tickets. I would happily have paid for hers in addition to mine, but she insisted on paying for her own. Being a rather broke student at the time I didn't protest too hard. This turned out to be a serious strategic error, but I didn't give it much thought at the time.
I was really looking forward to this. Cool concert, alone all evening with a girl I really liked, and she initiated it! Things were looking up.
The concert was on a Thurdsday night. I was taking a pretty heavy class load that semester so I had to really bust my butt to clear this evening to go to the concert with Stephanie.
When I picked her up she was carrying her school backpack loaded heavily. I made a mental list of the things a girl might reasonably bring along on an evening like this: I.D., lipstick, feminine hygiene stuff... not nearly enough to fill a large backpack. I asked what the backback was for. She said she had some studying to do. Not a good sign.
So we're driving up the highway. Stephanie is in the passenger seat with her German textbook open on her lap. Glancing over from the driver's seat, I can see her lips moving as she practices conjugating irregular German verbs. This is not nearly as fun as I'd imagined it. I've got the whole evening alone with a girl I really like - I can't possibly let it pass with her sprechen-sie-Deutch instead of paying attention to me.
I decided to distract her with some witty conversation. I racked my brain for something witty to say. Nothing very witty came to mind, but I plunged ahead anyway.
"So, it looks like you're being pretty studious these days..."
This wasn't witty at all. In fact, it was exactly the wrong thing to say. Apparently it touched some very raw nerve. Stephanie responded in an unexpectedly loud and angry voice,
"You think you're so smart! Some of us have to work hard to get good grades, you know!"
Her agressive response had me backpedalling. I don't remember if I tried to say something about the late nights I'd been putting in to have that night free or if I just said "OK, sorry, never mind."
This was going badly, but was going to get worse.
When we got to the concert she "happened" to run into some friends of hers. There was one guy she seemed especially glad to see and greeted with a big hug. She took off with her friends leaving me speechless. I didn't see her except at a distance the rest of the concert. Some other friends of mine were there, so I hung out with them and tried to enjoy the concert. It was actually a good show, and I had a good time except that I lost my watch in a crowd near the stage. It was an old crummy digital watch anyway.
When the show was over, Stephanie found me. Cheerful and perky as could be she said,
"Well, it's late. I've got an early class tomorrow morning. We'd better get back."
I was tempted to tell her to walk or get a ride with her "good" friends, but being the way-too-nice guy I am I drove her home. I can't remember if any words were spoken on the way home, but I was seething. I'd been manipulated and used.
Needless to say, that relationship never got past the palsy-walsy stage. At least now I have a good story to tell. I hope you've enjoyed reading it much more than I enjoyed living it. Actually, I had fun writing this. It's been long enough that I can laugh about it all. A little bit, anyway. Anything from "Listen Like Thieves" brings it all rushing back.
So... anyone else have a tale of romance- real, imagined, or only hoped for- that went awry in a new-wave context?
<IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/cjmratings/stuff/INXS.jpg">
Stephanie (the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) was a girl I had known for several years, but we'd always been "just friends". I was hoping to move things beyond that, your know?. Stephanie was beautiful, smart, outgoing, and a new-waver to boot. We were both attending the same university. I had a car and she didn't.
One night she called me up, which she rarely did. She had just heard that INXS was going to be playing in Salt Lake City, about 40 miles away from were we were going to school - we should get tickets and go.
So we got the tickets. I would happily have paid for hers in addition to mine, but she insisted on paying for her own. Being a rather broke student at the time I didn't protest too hard. This turned out to be a serious strategic error, but I didn't give it much thought at the time.
I was really looking forward to this. Cool concert, alone all evening with a girl I really liked, and she initiated it! Things were looking up.
The concert was on a Thurdsday night. I was taking a pretty heavy class load that semester so I had to really bust my butt to clear this evening to go to the concert with Stephanie.
When I picked her up she was carrying her school backpack loaded heavily. I made a mental list of the things a girl might reasonably bring along on an evening like this: I.D., lipstick, feminine hygiene stuff... not nearly enough to fill a large backpack. I asked what the backback was for. She said she had some studying to do. Not a good sign.
So we're driving up the highway. Stephanie is in the passenger seat with her German textbook open on her lap. Glancing over from the driver's seat, I can see her lips moving as she practices conjugating irregular German verbs. This is not nearly as fun as I'd imagined it. I've got the whole evening alone with a girl I really like - I can't possibly let it pass with her sprechen-sie-Deutch instead of paying attention to me.
I decided to distract her with some witty conversation. I racked my brain for something witty to say. Nothing very witty came to mind, but I plunged ahead anyway.
"So, it looks like you're being pretty studious these days..."
This wasn't witty at all. In fact, it was exactly the wrong thing to say. Apparently it touched some very raw nerve. Stephanie responded in an unexpectedly loud and angry voice,
"You think you're so smart! Some of us have to work hard to get good grades, you know!"
Her agressive response had me backpedalling. I don't remember if I tried to say something about the late nights I'd been putting in to have that night free or if I just said "OK, sorry, never mind."
This was going badly, but was going to get worse.
When we got to the concert she "happened" to run into some friends of hers. There was one guy she seemed especially glad to see and greeted with a big hug. She took off with her friends leaving me speechless. I didn't see her except at a distance the rest of the concert. Some other friends of mine were there, so I hung out with them and tried to enjoy the concert. It was actually a good show, and I had a good time except that I lost my watch in a crowd near the stage. It was an old crummy digital watch anyway.
When the show was over, Stephanie found me. Cheerful and perky as could be she said,
"Well, it's late. I've got an early class tomorrow morning. We'd better get back."
I was tempted to tell her to walk or get a ride with her "good" friends, but being the way-too-nice guy I am I drove her home. I can't remember if any words were spoken on the way home, but I was seething. I'd been manipulated and used.
Needless to say, that relationship never got past the palsy-walsy stage. At least now I have a good story to tell. I hope you've enjoyed reading it much more than I enjoyed living it. Actually, I had fun writing this. It's been long enough that I can laugh about it all. A little bit, anyway. Anything from "Listen Like Thieves" brings it all rushing back.
So... anyone else have a tale of romance- real, imagined, or only hoped for- that went awry in a new-wave context?
<IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/cjmratings/stuff/INXS.jpg">