Oh, so thats all it takes...

Last Thursday evening was a blast, even if it was a little rushed. I gawked in horror at the fact that I had a midterm that night until 7 p.m. Resigned to the fact I had to concentrate, and was missing the company of my out of town friends, I wrote my midterm. The second I was done I bolted out the door and headed to Laura's apartment.

* * * * * * *
Laura and I were very close friends through high school. She was also the first girl I'd really fallen for. We've got this chemestry that still hangs around to this day, which can make for some pretty interesting evenings. But when I wanted to go out with her during high school, she wasn't interested in dating anyone. Time passed, I figured it was long gone. She came to Toronto to school, and I moved on.

Then two summers ago, the summer before I came to Toronto, we fired things back up while she was home for summer break. We both were interested again, it seemed, and we were headed in the right direction. But I thought to myself, "I'm moving to a new city, and even though she lives there too, I don't want to rely on her instead of meeting new people." She apparently thought the same thing, though we never discussed it with each other.

I found out in December of that year from her sister's boyfriend that she had been crazy about me that summer, and had wanted to get into something. He even named the weekend in early August where she was about to ask me out. But her conscious had told her not to bother me when I was about to start a new chapter in life, with the possibility of meeting someone new.

That chemestry haunts me sometimes. One of the first times she came to visit me in residence, we ran into a girl who lived down the hall from me. Laura was on roller blades, demanding that I pull her along the carpeted floor. I, naturally, was being a pain about it, and at one point we almost ended up on the grond. After I had piled her into the elevator, my neighbour came to talk to me.

"Wow. So are you guys dating? You're such a couple."

Yeah, that pretty much hit it on the head. A couple who don't date.
* * * * * * *

I arrived at her apartment, threw one very large and very stiff rum and coke down my throat, and we headed back out to the show. There were a bunch of us, Laura, her roommate and his friend, Laura's sister and her boyfriend, some other couple and me. On the elevator ride down, Laura and her sister were fidgeting with their bras a little more than usual. I gave her a look, and she pulled two joints out of her strap.

"Ah. Cool."

Once inside the Air Canada Centre, our big arena/music venue, we found our seats in time to hear the rather pathetic music of 'Buck 65', some sort of rap/hip-hop performed by white guys. I'm not a rap fan, so Joe (the sister's bf) and I headed to buy some beers. $18 and two very small pints later, we were back in our seats. Buck 65 finished, and Joe and I got to have a great chat. He's a friend from highschool too, we go back a long way.

The Tragically Hip came on stage to a roar of mostly 20-30-something audience members, sloshing their beer about in rythem to the beat. I got into the show too, they were pretty awesome players and for being 'new rock' they really know how to not screw it up.

Of course, through the concert, I was also checking out the bevy of hot guys who came either in groups of guys or with their presumed girlfriends. As I was studying them, I was shocked at how much of a carbon copy they were of each other. Practically all of them were wearing the same type of clothes, had the same haircuts, and the same looking girlfriends on their arms.

I wondered then if that's all it takes to be successful in both social and sexual endevors. To be the successful, typical 'college guy' you must wear:
-a polo of either short or long sleeved variety. Bonus points given if you wear it with the collar up, and have a well displayed necklace of some variety
-a hoodie. Specifically not just anything with a hood, but something that is your sweater/shirt and has a well-covering hoodie
-a baseball hat, perched at any angle other than straight
-jeans that are not ripped/frayed or stone washed, but are more skater-like, or khakis that are a darker shade, also of the skater variety

So the reason I've been single all through college is the fact I've missed the dress code memo. Well, 'dress for success' they always say...I of course find it hard to believe that if I indeed pull on a polo and baseball hat I would become an instant success. But still, it's pretty amazing to think that all it takes is a certain kind of shirt or a hood to give you an advantage.

The show ended, we headed back to Laura's place for more drinks and hanging out. I bailed wayyy to early because I had another mid-term Friday morning that I couldn't exactly miss. But I had a great time, came home to a nice surprise, felt very happy, and did my part to better the scientific understanding of being in college.