Was today supposed to weird?

K, so there's lots of stuff going on in the city in the world, it's all a little on the crazy side. My sister is opening a new store in a few weeks, Ottawa's bus is still on strike, planes are landing on water because of birds (Canada geese?), we're having power outages or across the city in below minus 15 temperatures, it was my final day at my full-time day job, Steve Jobs is going on medical leave, let's not forget Gaza and Obama is being sworn in next week. It's a little bit of a change in news than the doom and gloom and maybe it's all for a reason? Maybe it means that we're not supposed to just sit tight holding our wallets close to us. The world still has to go round. I can't remember which magazine I looked at today but it said something like 250,000 of us stand to lose our jobs this year. There's the reminder of the doom and gloom again. I wonder how many magazines are focussing on recession talk? Anyway, I'm probably one of those people that are the least in the loop about the whole issue. I know it's not good and I know it affects me as a graphic designer.

Anyhow, with all these things wizzing around I had my last day at my full-time job. One would expect it to feel weird or epic. One might expect pitchers after the day to celebrate. One might expect a lot of things but it was business as usual. In fact I think the most interesting part of the day came just before a client meeting I was having at Starbucks. I was sitting working on my stuff and decided to try one of those sandwiches from the cool counter. I got the Italian Cheese, tomato and pesto on focaccia and the nice girl at the counter warmed it up for me. It was pretty good. Better than I thought and held me over till I got home for real dinner. Plus I ended up eating that instead of a double chocolate brownie which would have done little for my grumbling tummy. Before I had a chance to begin the sandwich I young dude started randomly chatting with me about my computer. I had upgraded recently to a new Macbook Pro. I'm actually a borderline Apple fanboy. Yes, the blinders are on sometimes and I apologize for my stubbornness. Anyhow, the guy wanted to know a little about the machine etc. Then after sitting next to me to discuss more I guess he asks a question I hadn't heard in a while. Maybe since grade school. "Do you think we could be friends?"

Now before I get reamed out for being cruel or anything like that, let me finish the story. I found it a pretty odd question and he continued almost to give me reasons why we should be friends. He's a nice guy and sensitive he says. I said that's cool, "I'm a sensitive dude too". I talked a little more with the guy to find out he's in his first year of nursing and just started in September. I didn't feel like he was threatening but I did feel odd about the situation. It's not often that someone might approach me out of the blue like that and nor does it happen vice versa. (there's a story there, just wait, you'll hit me). He was a little socially awkward as well and I know I can relate to that a lot. I'm an awkward kid 80 percent of my life. I don't have a smooth bone in my body almost haha. Anyway, I've got the guys e-mail address after he asked me to put him in my computer. I wonder what to do. I know the actions of a lot of people might be to totally write the guy off and not e-mail anything to him, treat it like it never happened. I know that that isn't the right action to take though.

On a social level, yes that was weird. My client saved the day almost by showing up and shortening the conversation. But this guy could have many reasons for his awkwardness. He could simply not have many friends and is reaching out to someone that happens to be me. Who am I to turn my back on someone in need? If I was in the same situation wouldn't I want someone to contact me? But is that thought process right? Am I guilting myself?

If we think about religious terms we know what the right actions are as well. I can't turn my back on this person. I'm not learned with the bible these days so I can't give any passages but if you simply think "what would Jesus do?" you'd get my drift.

The other side of this coin can be frightening and in any case I should exercise caution. I don't think that I'd like another face to face encounter with this person at this time but perhaps some of the mystery can be broken down via e-mail. It's all strange. Just like the past few months, I think this is another event that's supposed to happen. Weird sequences of events have led me to good things for months now and I'm truly thankful.

About a half hour later during a break in my client meeting I helped another mac user in the coffee shop with a problem on their computer. The elderly gentleman had some visual impairment as he explained. We talked for a little while as I awaited my clients return. He seemed like quite an interesting fellow. Why did this all seem so strange? I guess in the past week I've felt a need to help people in need but haven't done anything. I know lots of people are having a tough time at this time of year for one reason or another and as a friend, I'm super happy being a sounding board. It seems some others are piping up instead of my close friends.

Anyway, completely off topic to todays events, that not meeting people out of the blue thing... Over the holidays I got together with a few high school friends I hadn't seen in quite a while. A couple of them I hadn't seen for over a year. We were all in a booth at the local Turtle Jacks and I couldn't help but notice this beautiful girl sitting at a booth sort of across on the other row of booths. I think we kept doing the looking at each other and looking away thing. Like eye tag or something. I'm entirely awkward with any situation like this and with my lack of confidence I didn't even say hi. Something about it made me think that it wasn't a good thing she was looking at me, or perhaps she was just looking at my friend. What did I have to lose by saying hello? Anyway, hit me now, my hopeless romantic, pining person.

I guess this is a pretty personal post, I'm exhausted from the last week and going to bed super late so I won't even read through. Publish!

Love ya all.

Peace, love and rock!

J