So this Monday I woke up to the sound of my crazy roommate's 4: 30 alarm, as always, and was extremely slow to get up (jet lag has completely worn off about a week ago). The freezing winds of Seattle morning exposed my weak body like a skinned chicken on a grill.

I blasted Daddy - Psy on the way to the diner, and fiddled with the body of Liu for entertainment on the way there. The 2 female RA groups were early to arrive -- earlier than us, despite my sleepless fanatic RA being extremely committed in depriving us of our sleep every morning.

There she was. A (from the previous post), was unboxing her lucky charms. A, mind save a lucky charm for me? Despite her rapidly logarithmicly-decreasing interest in me as shown by the delay of her texts last night, I still believe all it takes is a face-to-face encounter for a spark to ignite. I shifted my body, retracted my diaphragm, and shot at her a hey-babe-sorry-for-being-awkward-last-night-but-I'm-actually-a-cool-guy-how-about-you-stop-evading-me-and-give-me-a-window-of-opportunity-to-talk-to-you glance. Heartless rejection.

After I got my sausage and eggs, and was on my way to the fruit line, I saw my second but more significant source of heart-ache. Angela. Because of the spacing of my route, it was too late to evade her by a natural trajectory, so I was forced to line up next to her. I turned my head by 10 degrees, and so did she, but I was quick to retract, since I really don't want to have a heart attack for a reason other than Combo 3.

The rest of breakfast was the normal stuff. In Combo, we did the second day of Combinatorial Geometry. More frustration and head scratching of Romanian TSTs, US TSTs and IMO problems.

Lunch was still much of the same -- what are the odds and me fruitlessly on my phone, waiting for a message notification from a non-empty set of girls {A, B, C}.

Then I went back to my dorm to take a nap, which didn't last long when my crazy roommate, Andy, and Liu stormed into my room creating an uproar. So then I went to Daniel and Bruce's room and got a solid 10 mins of sleep (the other 30 mins were compromised by Kpop listening). A lot of Chinese acquaintances were there so I sang TFBOYS as well.

Geo 3 we did more projective and properties of harmonic divisions, bundles, etc. The theory and theorems were all manageable enough, though Steven (close friend and the guy who danced Michael Jackson during the talent show) and I only got about 3 problems.

At one point during class I allowed Steven to chat, using my messenger, with A to see if anything good happens, and the text conversation got really boring, rip.

Then after class, pinetree1, eed7573, Steven, and I walked to the dining hall, and there goes the butterflies again -- A is walking in our direction! Steven began frantically tapping my shoulder, and my heart rate traced out the shape of Mt. Everest in mere seconds. I had my opening line ready. .

SAY IT, MICHAEL, SAY IT.
...
Dinner was more typical as well, but what then happened next was clearly not...

Right as I finished the last of my curly fries, I spotted A putting away her tray. Bruce and Steven looked at me. It was time. I quickly put away my tray, and out I went the dining hall. On the way, however, I ran into the same 2 girls whose phone number I got on the first day (remember?) and whom I flirted with a bit on text. As I found out a few days prior, one of them is actually Titu's daughter (a realization that certainly scarred me a bit).

This certainly made me hesitate. If I were to run to A before she reaches the dorm, certainly I would be judged by the 2 girls, one of which I clearly can't afford to do so. Suddenly, I saw Liu, walking swaggily as always towards me. He winked at me as he always does.
Then I went.

I thought I nailed it, but for some reason she hasn't replied to my text ever since.

That night was also staff v. student basketball.

Since people apparently recognize me as one of the best players, I was obligated to go. I set out in my jockiest and coolest clothing, and on the way I overheard Angela saying she wanted to go watch. My heart semi-somersaulted. Once I entered the court, I was immediately swept up by the atmosphere of around 30 people shooting around on 2 baskets. There were only 3-4 balls, coupled with me, 4-5. It was chaos.

After around 20 mins of shooting around, the starting 5 were silently picked. Kobe, as I was called by the other people, along with another Michael, a super athletic Chinese player, as well as Sanjay, a tall and loud Indian, along with 2 tall ball-handling guards, were chosen. There were around 20-30 people watching.

The atmosphere was clearly in the staff's favor, as they brought out an incredibly loud huddle. In the opening possession, they were much more mobile, though they missed their shot (the staff team starting 5 was comprised of 4 6-footers and 1 7-footer). Our starting 5 including me were spread out on the perimeter. I called for the ball and the ball was swung to me, in the corner, with the 7-footer RA on me. He was sagging but incredibly alert on me; I smiled a bit. One jab step. Pull up three. Splash. The sideline erupted into a frenzy, and for obvious reasons I immediately looked for Angela. Eventually I semi-found her location, and I held up three fingers and threw a hand-sign in her direction (not really but sort of).

But then the starting 5 was subbed off cause everyone HAD to play and we had to wait for the very end to get back in, and we ended up losing 21-23.

Then I walked back to the dorm to see my crazy roommate having math'ed nonstop. More waiting on my phone for her text and texting with Steven regarding relationship advice.

After the RA meeting, most of the RA group had a ninja game (it has become a tradition). Apparently they all think I'm really good (probably cause of my signature move where I turn and push my butt into the opponent while sticking my arms out in front, away from the opponents so no one can get me). So I got ganged up near the end and came in 3rd, though it took 10 mins of scrambling and writhing on the floor and under each other's legs before they got me. It was really hilarious, though Fishy (RA group member and the person who played 2 piano pieces in the talent show) managed to snap a lot of embarrassing pictures.

Anyways, that was a summary of my life this past Monday, delivered in an objective fashion mixed in with some personal thoughts. This will probably be my last day-in-lifepost since they're pretty similar to this, but keep checking my blog! (subscribe if you haven't). I'll be posting more goodies soon.