jeff yen

Coffee talk

To my bewilderment, I have abruptly found myself to be at that age where it is fun to meet new people and discuss vaguely business-related topics while drinking tea and coffee.

In one of those coincidences that test my commitment to the staunch belief that I am entirely luckless, I ran into an ex-potential roommate. The first words we exchanged involved me pulling a face and saying,

"Do I know you? You look really familiar."

Which, I said afterwards, made me feel like some sleazy dude pitching a pickup line. I should have worn a leisure suit and a chest wig.

At any rate, I suppose my mug is just ugly enough to be vaguely memorable, since she kind of recognized me too. We mulled it over for a while until the realization dawned that we'd nearly ended up living together.

A Twilight Zone moment if there ever was one.

I'd like to take a moment to note that, although I can instantly name some obscure character actor under twenty-five layers of makeup, it takes me five minutes of intense concentration to recognize someone with whom I nearly shared a bathroom.

Truly, my mind is hopelessly broken.

So I ended up spending about two hours in the company of my new friend, along with a fairly sizable gathering of loosely affiliated people who all happened to be working in industries very similar to my own. Coincidentally, they were all very friendly, eager to trade advice and connections, and fun to be around.

See what I mean about that luck thing?

Funnily enough, until this point in my life, an evening entirely devoid of (in reverse chronological order) scotch on the rocks, Jaegermeister, Long Island iced teas, Quake, foosball, Doom, Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Fraggle Rock, Speed Racer, or a shiny object would have held few attractions for me.

I suppose we must all grow up eventually.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get hammered on single malt and watch Cartoon Network.