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When we were kids (my siblings and I, that is) whenever we would tell our mom that we were bored, she'd give us some manual labor to do. Then, while we were scrubbing and cleaning or whatever, she'd walk by with a smile on her face and say, "See, you're not bored anymore!"
Two things resulted from this: 1.) we became weary of ever admitting that we were bored 2.) we got pretty good at making up our own games, so that we wouldn't ever have to (admit we were bored) -- both have kind of followed me into adulthood.
As an au pair in Rotterdam a few years ago, I found it hard at the beginning to keep myself from getting bored (on my off-time). Being an au pair is kind of different from your other living abroad experiences, because it can be really difficult to meet other people. It's not like the study or work abroad thing, where you at least kinda get to be around other adults, with whom you can perhaps eventually socialize. No, you spend most of your day with a child (or children) and your evening trying to relax before you have to do it all over again the next day. If you're lucky, you have weekends off...but because you don't ever do anything but hangout with a kid, there's no one to call to come and entertain you.
So, I spent the summer becoming my own best friend. I went to cafes and movies by myself and discovered that I really enjoy my own company.
(Click Below for more)
It was during this time, that I invented a game to pass the time while walking around or sitting in a park or riding on a bus/train. It was very simple and had no point concept to speak of...it basically involved looking at any guys passing by and making a split second decision as to whether or not I would "hit that".
At the beginning it was merely a question of "yes" or "no" and then move on. Over time, I've made allowances for conditionals, such as "I'd hit that after...4 shots of tequila and a Jägerbomb."
Recently, however, the game morphed into something that I found kind of disturbing. Instead of checking out guys and being like, "Yeah, I'd hit that", it became this weird thing where I'd be checking out attractive women and thinking, "Yeah, Andre would hit that..."
It all came to a head when I was out and about with him one day. A chick walked by and we both whipped around at the same time to look at her. He totally ruined the whole game for me from that point on. Stupid Andre...
Luckily, I came up with a replacement fairly quickly. Now whenever I'm walking or riding around the city, I pick out a graffiti tag and count how many times I can spot it until I get to my destination.
It's a lot less lame than it sounds...
not really, but let's just pretend for this post.
At any rate, it was kinda cool when I came across this tag (see top of post) a few days ago on my way to work. You know... cause it's my name and all.
The sad thing is that I haven't been able to find any other occurences of the tag anywhere. It's kind of like the sprayer went out for a nice little round of bombing, threw up one tag, yawned and was like, "Behold gentlemen! My work here is done." And then went back home because it was cold and he/she was out of beer.
Kind of fitting if you think about it.
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