Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Black
I meant to add this story as a comment to someone's post about Pearl Jam's latest album, but now I've forgotten what blog that was on. I may have told this story before, too, so if I have, I'm sorry.
Back when I was in college, I commuted every day on the subway. The subway line I took also connected to othercolleges-Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art, Harvard Medical School, along with Boston LatinHigh School, so at typical commuting times (pre-9AM, say), the train would get fairly crowded. C'est la guerre, right?
So, when I was either hopelessly lost or otherwise bored while in class, I would write little cartoons and such in the margins. Sometimes band logos, sometimes song lyrics. Whatever. Anyhow.
One morning, I'm studying for a test, waiting for a train. A particularly stunning girl comes nearby, waiting for the same train. (On this train platform, the trains share the same track, and where you stand on the platform determines what train you intend to board. Confusing, at times, for non locals, but we cynical college students, half asleep, pretty much do it without much thought. ) Now, this happens 50 times a day-I used to fall in love quite readily, and being around 18-22 year olds a lot of the time, your odds of seeing someone attractive are astronomically high. So not exactly a news flash.
The page I'm studying has the last verse to Pearl Jam's "Black" written on it. Which, as I'm sure you all remember, is: "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life/I know you'll be a star/In somebody else's sky/But why/
Why/Why can't it be/Can't it be mine"
So I tear the strip of paper off of my notebook, and roll it into a cylinder. The train comes, and I maneuver myself to be behind the fetching girl. She is carrying a backpack. I slip the cylinder of paper, without being detected, into the aforementioned backpack. She leaves the train at some point, and I never see her again.
Now, questions that has tormented me for almost 20 years now: Why did I do this? And, more interestingly, how did she react to finding it?
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Hmmm.... I'm guessing that it was Megan's post (Gospel according to Gates).
ReplyDeleteMore people should do random (non-creepy) and genuine things, more often.
Admittedly, if it were me- I'd be a little freaked out upon finding it and always wonder if it came from someone I know.
When you put a message in a bottle you are asking a favor of the ocean.
ReplyDeleteWow. That is one of those things where you wish you could know the answer to that question. It really does make you wonder. We must have been in college around the same time because Pearl Jam and Nirvana rocked my world during my collegiate days. I still remember hearing those bands for the first time. It was definitely one of those moments when you knew you were hearing something awesome.
ReplyDeleteThat is the most lovely thing I heard all week. It makes me wish I had been that girl. I am going to do that to some stranger this week.
ReplyDeleteTitanium-You are correct, madame. That was the one.
ReplyDeleteTata-Deep.
Mr. Shife-I finished a 5 year program in 1994, so it was right in my wheelhouse.
Wish I was that girl. Something like that would brighten my day if I was her.
ReplyDeleteBy the way I LOVE pearl jam
xoxo
Kel-Thank you. It was probably a little less creepy, though, in 1992 or 3 than it might be now.
ReplyDeletePink-Who doesn't, right? What I wonder is, did she have a boyfriend? Was he smart enough to take credit for it? Threatened by it?
There's a site that was mentioned in Esquire that (for a fee) will send Valentine's Day cards, handwritten (not by you, obviously) to someone, from a "secret admirer". Last year I sent one to a coworker who I have been nursing a wholly chaste crush on for quite a while. (Chaste in the sense that I'm married, and fairly sure she's not interested even if I weren't.)
I never revealed it (they mail them from like Minnesota or something) to her. Sometimes I wonder about that too-does she figure her boyfriend did it? Was he smart enough to take credit for it? Did she laugh it off?
My brain does strange things.
I hope it was my post you are talking about. :)
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, this happened to me about a month ago on the train into downtown Chicago.
I was that girl.
Except the slip of paper had the URL for a Yahoo Swingers Sex Group on it, inviting me to join.
Ever so slightly less romantic.
Hella-I guess that's how the crazy kids today do it. This was pre-Craigslist, of course, so I'm never, ever going to find out what happened.
ReplyDelete