9/22/2001:

Once again, a prewritten strip happens to intersect my life with uncanny precision. So this strip was written while I was in California, under some false inspiration. Sort of. This strip is pretty true to life, but the ones that follow followed from an incorrect assumption I made. You'll see.

So the girl here is Sparky, but really, she's not even the real Sparky. This is the Sparky I thought she was when I met her at first. Before I got to know her. Really I just needed an attractive female foil. :-)

Because attractive girls are much different than the other varieties. Really attractive women have lived their lives having people attempt to please them. People like me. I think the technical term is a yutz. Someone who knows Yiddish, please correct me if I'm wrong in terminology.

So this was seen in the whole Sparky episode as well as at this party I went to tonight.

I can't believe that I'm 21. And a senior. I never thought I'd be this old. And tonight I spent a lot of time at this party thinking about how I was when I was a freshman. Lining up for the keg. Having attractive women skip me in line for the keg and not even talk to me. A watered wallflower. From time to time, I'd spy a girl resting from dancing and try to talk to her, but she'd be looking around the room and not at me and then someone she'd know would come up and talk to her and I'd be stuck yelling words that I didn't even care about over the cold unfeeling party din. Then the cops would come and we'd go home. I hated the party scene. I went to very few parties.

So I was at this party, because I needed to get out of the apartment for a little. And wow, here I was. A senior. I knew the people throwing it. And still, I sat on the edges. I'm much more confident these days so I could talk to people, but I wasn't really sought out to be spoken to. Maybe I needed a t shirt that said "Smooth Operator" like my best friend was wearing.

I left early (to do this comic, and because I have to fix computers tomorrow) and I don't think I had a bad time, but I didn't have fun.

Hey I'm not a recluse. I realize that now that I live here, I'm going to have to work harder at going out, doing things. Avoiding hermitage. I like hanging out with people in small groups. Really, I do. And I think I can converse in those types of situations and show my true self. That scared kid on the wall freshman year? Not me. The aloof senior on the wall? Not me. Crazy kid doing improv? That's me.

In other life news, Sil left for Spain today. I'm trying to avoid thinking about her absence. I did get to see her on Thursday, so that was well appreciated by all on the Scrubs staff. Unfortunately, you won't be getting new Sil art for a while. Also, the pencil sketches, while looking awesome, are unfortunately pretty impossible to use for clip art. :-( So, anyway, wish her well. She'll be back in the country (and we'll be under the same roof!) in December.

-kip