Failed Plans

This is a bit less a post with insight again. And bit more slice of life. And sort of touches on a “problem” I’ve had to deal with lately.

It’s last Saturday. I’ve somehow survived the trip to listen to the gig of the friend of the friend of Kat‘s and I’m staring out the window. Maybe feeling a bit tired, maybe worse. It’s time to get ready for the trip. I text confirmation messages to all the people who I’m going to Tampere with and go plug in the car heater.

When, half an hour later, I get back from the shower, my cell is filled with missed phone calls and text messages.

“I’m sick.”

“I have way too much work to do.”

“omg rofl, I liek totally forgot.”

There is a H.R. Giger Exhibit at Tampere Art Museum that we were planning on going to. It seems like a serious case of “the typical” has happened and people are bailing out on the last minute with no good reason (ok, there is one actual case of the flu, but mostly). It would have been nice to fill the old blue (I have a wonderful old blue Mitsubishi that I drive) full of buddies and take a road trip. And as it’s not really so much about the art for me as it’s about going, so I call the whole thing off and tell them that “we’ll go some other time then, ok?”.

This leaves my Saturday wide open, so I do what any reasonable person would with the sudden free time – absolutely nothing. It’s fun to just lean back and watch TV, especially after I realize how I’ve had only one evening without plans the past week and I spent most of that one working. I look out the kitchen window and realize there is another good reason out there for me not doing anything – it’s snowing horizontally. A damn blizzard.

My blissful state of inactivity comes to a halt later in the evening when my sister calls and tells me how she’s going out with her friends tonight and how I just have to join her since she still owes me from New Year’s Eve. And how we haven’t seen in ages. And how I’m being a bad big brother for ignoring her and not sending her a postcard from Dubai. And <insert guilt trip here>. So, I suit up and grab a cab to her house.

Few hours of catching up with sis, getting to know her friends (where does she keep meeting these awesome people?) and general pre-partying later, we decide to head to Jenny Woo. My sister is determined that I need to find a girl again, and that she’ll be the one arranging this. Something to do with the fact I managed to help her hook up with her boyfriend a couple of months back and she hates feeling when we’re not even.

So, the evening is an interesting mix of me trying to enjoy myself on the dance floor and her asking “so, what do you think of that girl over there?” or her dragging someone over to the bed (Woo has these weird bed-like things you can lay on, they’re really quite nice) we’re lounging at “So, this is Pirjo, we met at the ladies room, you and her have so much in common. Pirjo, this is my big brother, he’s single.”

I get home around sunrise. It’s been a good night, but I’ll have to sleep for a few hours before I can do anything more.

At 11:00 my phone rings.

“grhmnm?”

“Hi, it’s Dee! Are we getting breakfast as planned?”

Dee is an old friend, I’ll probably tell you more about her at some point. Not to be confused with Dī, who lives somewhere in Actual Europe instead of the Peripherals known as Finland.

“ghm.”

“Great, meet you at the usual place at noon, gotta run, see ya!”

“ghrmn!?” but the line is closed already.

I’m standing in the middle of our regular café, but it’s full. So full in fact that people are sitting in the tables of strangers to be able to have their cup of coffee. Something that just doesn’t happen in Finland unless it’s really desperate times. Or there is damn good coffee involved.

Dee comes in and agrees that we should probably find some other place to go to. I suggest a sushi place that’s nearby. It’s not open. The blizzard from last night might have cleared, but it’s still cold and windy, so we decide to walk to the next possible place with food, no matter what it is. Turns out there’s a restaurant right around the corner that’s open.

We catch up, the usual. She’s complaining about academic endeavors, I’m complaining about how I love my work these days and how it’s totally unlike me. I get to tell her the story of my trip to Athens that changed my life (come to think of it, I haven’t told you that yet, have I?)

“You’re staring.”

“Whuh?”

“The waitress. You’re staring.”

“Oh, was just uhmn… what? No I wasn’t!”

“Well, she is your type.”

“What is it with everyone trying to find me a girl these days? And what do you mean, she’s my type?”

She tilts her head a bit and looks at me like I’m a simpleton.

Monday eventually comes, with the promise of an actual free evening. All the stuff I have to do is starting to take its toll. But, as Pixie Lott said it: “I don’t even care, I don’t even care, never wanna say, I wish that I’d been there”

Ram calls me that he has secured a ticket for the evening’s Rammstein and since I’m the guy who is always going to these things and blogging about it, I should buy it from him. I say I’ll consider for a moment, check if I have cash and let him know.

“Never wanna say, I wish that I’d been there.”

How was that again for a motto?

That moment, my sis texts me that she needs a shoulder if I could see her after work today.

“Hi Ram, sorry. I don’ t think I can make it. Family stuff.”

We decide to go to the same restaurant I was at yesterday. Which is a nice coincidence, I really loved the food.

“So, what’s wrong?” I put on my caring-big-brother face and get ready to listen to some problems of her.

“Ah, nothing, just had a bad day at work. All better now. You do realize that the waitress over there is really cute and she’s checking you out?”

“You’ve been talking with Dee, haven’t you?”

She grins.