Holding Patterns

So, yeah, today's lectures, they finally told us how to do the homework. However, I've still had nothing to do for the past several days since the stuff I thought was due today got pushed back until next week. So, all I've got is more aimless rambling. Here goes:

Last night, Conan O'Brien and Steven Colbert both reported that it had been scientifically determined that yesterday was the most depressing day of the year. I had previously heard from the cafeteria radio programming that Monday was the most depressing day of the year, but Colbert/O'Brien have WAAAY more authority than cafeteria breakfast radio. Anyway, this was based primarily on the overall lack of sunlight, the arrival of holiday bills, and the fact that many New Years resoultions have probably failed by now. And I got to thinking... I'm hardly ever outside, so I don't notice lack of sunlight; my personal holiday bills came and were paid without difficulty; and the window of opportunity for my New Years resolution (entire service on organ by year's end or bust!) is still open. However, I do as always have major concern around this time: the slow, inevitable approach of the Holiday We Do Not Name. Perhaps some elaboration is needed:

The Girlfriend Situation in its present form is best defined by a single event, as recorded in the Feb. 28-29, 2004 entries to The Epic Battles between Myself and The World regarding College and Related Experiences which I maintain meticulously for the sake of posterity:

And in the evening some of my roommate’s high school friends showed up. They apparently have some beer/concert event in the works for overnight here, good luck to them... So, everyone got back around 3 in the morning, drunk. But not so drunk that they couldn’t carry on a conversation, which they did, loudly. They talked about their girlfriends and who they’ve cheated on them with and so forth. I’m sure there was a lot of exaggeration. So anyway, now I know what drunk talk sounds like, for whatever that’s worth. I’m sure I’ll remember it better than they will.

Now, I have nothing against my freshman year roommate. Mainly because he brought all the major appliances. Also, I do no begrudge him the lack of sleep since it was a Saturday night and I didn't have to be up particularly early the next day. As for his behavior, he's a guy doing what I guess a lot of guys do. But what I can't figure out (this has been festering in my mind for two years and I still don't have a good answer) is why these guys that are able to enter and leave relationships seemingly at will and I remain perpetually single despite my best efforts. Also, for future reference, guys like this are "drunken slobs" and the girls that tolerate them are "shallow, misguided fools." So, to the girls out there: Chivalry is not dead, and if you think it is, that means you're looking in the wrong places. Also, you clearly have a great degree of choice over who you date, and your choice has been resoundingly... not me. So, you have no one to blame but yourself for any mishaps (read, crippling emotional trauma or other misfortune) you may encounter while dating drunken slobs. And when you grow out of it, and it's my standing assumption that you will, I'll still be here staring at the computer for hours on end on Friday and Saturday nights. And there are plenty of other engineering majors just like me. We're sort of a quiet lot...

And that, in a nutshell, is what happens when I have too much free time to think about things.