Blah ...

First of all, what's wrong with my blog? My index on the side is all the way at the bottom, for some reason. That is definitely not awesome.

I'm feeling kind of blah right now. Today is one of those days that I hate living in Texas. Maybe it's because I got home earlier than usual which means more time to sit by myself. Maybe it's because I'm watching American Idol and they're singing sappy love songs. Maybe it's because I miss K. Maybe it's because I logged onto facebook and looked at all my friend's profiles and saw how much is going on there.

I'm guessing it's probably a combination of all of the above. One thing that I miss about Oklahoma is how easy it is to meet people. In Texas -- and maybe this is more a Dallas/city thing than a Texas vs. Oklahoma thing -- whenever I just randomly talk to someone in Wal-Mart or something, they look at me like I'm crazy or something. In Oklahoma, people laugh at the joke or smile and say something back. And the things I say to them aren't something like, "Tampons, huh? Supersize... sucks for you!" Once, for instance, I was on the toothpaste aisle and they were out of my toothpaste. The Wal-Mart closest to my apartment is surrounded by about 100 apartment complexes, so it's always out of everything. So I said to a lady who was next to me in the aisle, "This Wal-Mart is always out of everything!" She didn't even look at me. She totally ignored me. I would have been happier with, "No it's not! Stop talking to me, psycho!"

When I first moved here, I noticed that in Wal-Mart, people would cut me off without even acknowledging me. I didn't have much else to do, so I decided to conduct an experiment while I was shopping. So I started smiling at people as I passed them. Most people looked away quickly or didn't smile back. A handful of the hundred or so people I saw smiled back. And by handful, I mean 5 or less. That's another thing I miss about Oklahoma -- almost everyone smiles back, and many even say hello.

In a city, it's also a lot harder to meet people. On my way to work via mass transit, in the 9 months I've lived here, less than 10 people (Aaron, Rith, a guy whose niece went to OU, a girl who was on her way to school and liked the scarf I was crocheting, this guy who I see fairly often to and from work, a guy who wanted me to crochet a scarf for his mom from him for Christmas, and I'm sure a couple more than that) have actually talked to me on the way to work. A few more have talked to me on the way home, but still less than 20, I would guess -- and in 9 months, that's not very many. (I have a really good memory, and these numbers don't include the three or four people I know from work who ride the train.)

At my gym, this guy came up to me once and asked me if I was a runner. He said I was built like one. He'd seen me at the gym a few days before and wanted to introduce myself, but I left too quickly for him to catch me. He seemed nice, but I wasn't sure what his motive was in meeting me. After all, no girl had ever randomly approached me like that at the gym. So I found a way to bring up K in our conversation. It was a Thursday, and he asked if I'd be coming to the gym the next day. I said I wouldn't be able to because my boyfriend and another friend were coming in for the weekend. The next time I saw my friend at the gym, he barely even had time to say hello.

In college, my nickname was "the everywhere girl" by two different, separate groups of my guy friends because they always saw me everywhere on campus. I was accused by many of my friends of "knowing everybody." I wasn't in a sorority and I wasn't some huge drinker, I just have big enough hair that everyone remembers me after they meet me. :) So I went from the small town where I grew up knowing everyone to Norman and OU, where I knew everyone, to Dallas, where I know probably know about 30 people (that includes the people in my department at work). I'm sure if I were to sit down and count, it would come out to more than I realize, but the point is that I could probably count it person by person and come pretty close.

And my mood was picking up as I was typing this over Scrubs, but then even it ended sadly. I can't catch a break tonight! At least I had pizza for dinner...