Canada conclusion and a note on sociality

Hey folks,

Well, I arrived back in Pasadena on Wednesay. I'll tell you about that in a bit. But I want to write a note on my last week in Edmonton. It was good. Quite good. Much better, anyways. I think you might have got the sense that things were going in a better direction from my last note. Anyways, I went to the Esks football game against Montreal on the 14th. Where they lost in a depressing effort against Calgary the week before, they demolished Montreal in convincing fashion. I went with Jeremy and we had a good time at the game, then a great conversation for a couple hours afterwards. I also ran into Mark Danderfer and a couple other Devonians while I was there, and got to catch up with him a bit. I also got to golf with Mark Salomons and go to his birthday party. Also a good dinner with my grandparents, Steve and Sharon and Gloria. Went for lunch with Brad. Tea/dinner with Heather, Lisa and Cole. And went to the Oilers second pre-season game (against the Leafs) with Uncle Steve. It was sweet because the Oil won in overtime and scored all their goals at our end of the rink. I even got some work done over that time. And just times hanging out with Mom and watching Smallville.

I think it took me a while to really get adjusted. Also, improvement of the itch and my eye helped substantially. And having a car (as my dad let me take his while he was gone in Whistler). And not feeling so spread out, so spread thin. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to hang out with Megan, though, so that was disappointing.

Back in town. It feels good to be back. I think. No, it does. My hesitiation has to do with my feeling about sociality. I don't have too much energy to be social. Or, maybe, to be social in the way that it feels like I ought to be at this point. There are all these new people on campus, and I feel a responsibility to meet them. But it's a process which takes a lot of energy for me. You end up asking all the same questions to everyone. And you end up meeting people and then never connecting. I suppose CS Wiersma talks about this when he talks about the ratio of 10:1, that you just accept the awkwardness it takes to meet the one with whom you connect. But it feels like there are already too many people in my life with whom I don't spend enough time.

I suppose I'd like to meet a woman who I could date, but that takes more energy and effort and seems like has a lower chance of the "meeting to connection" ratio than listed above. And do I want to meet someone here? I used to think for sure, but now I'm not so sure. I used to think that it would be great to meet someone in the same field, but I'm realizing that one of the things which I find really attractive about someone is someone with a skill set that I don't have. And I'm more likely to find that outside of this place than inside. Obviously there's so much more to this than just that, so don't read too much into it. But nevertheless, it's not a great motivation for me to go and invest myself a whole bunch.

Okay, well, after all that, I'm going out to hang out in a few hours, so I should go (haha, it just happened and with people that I know, so there you go.) And I do want to get started on one of the many projects that I have going. They're fun projects, but they do take time and effort. And it's hard for me to put sustained effort into them. After a few hours on a paper, I find I need a long-ish break, but it's hard to get into a different one (or even the same one) after that. Oh well. Peace to you.