work and class, not much to speak of today. that is, so far. tonight the stereo is playing a free show on campus at the little coffee house venue place, and since i’ve never seen the stereo live and i like them a lot, i’m looking forward to that. for some reason it seems like the radio station here is very together this year and actually doing a good job of putting on events that interest me. the free part helps too. so that’s where i’ll be starting at 7:30, in case you were gonna come looking.

last night i was studying at my desk for my visual culture midterm and my roommate answers the door and says, “brian, you have a visitor” and a girl comes down the hall into the doorway of my bedroom. she looks sort of familiar, but i don’t know who she is. she says something about being in my finance class and asks if the exam is open book. i ask, what class she’s talking about again, because the finance midterm was last week. i thought she’d made a mistake. then she says fine arts so i understand it this time, and i say, oh, no, i don’t think the exam is open book. by the way, how did you know i lived here?

apparently she had stopped by briefly one night when our door was open to admire our living room lighting (we have a disco ball and some other chill stuff going on for kicking back), and remembered that i lived there, and that i was the same person in her class, and even knew my name as i found out later (i introduced myself and found out her name while she was here, but my roommate said she asked for me by name when he answered the door). so i’m left wondering in this situation. should i be flattered or afraid? i said hi to her in class today — i hope that wasn’t a dangerous move.

it just seems strange because afterwards i recalled vaguely the night i semi-met her and a couple of her friends when they stopped in, but would never have recognized her or remembered her name without this current reminder of that night. so i wonder how often this happens, where i’m on the forgetful end of an introduction or situation, and there’s someone out there that definitely knows my name and maybe more, someone i’m totally unaware of. i’m positive there’s a substantial number in the other direction, people i remember but don’t know who i am, because i feel somewhat forgettable in most situations. one would assume though that it works both ways and there have to be all these mysterious people out there who know what i’m up to, that i don’t have a clue about. i wonder if any of them are watching right now?… haha.

oh, also, before i forget: the unrivaled quote of the day, from my classmate steve during our short break during marketing today. spencer brought up the movie in the company of men and said something about a deaf girl, and steve says, “was her name helen?” followed shortly after by, “i think helen keller is an urban legend. seriously, how can you be deaf and blind?”

yes, he was kidding, but yes, it was still hilarious.