He's a philospohy major; what can I say?

After reading your post (and getting over the shock of finding that the man with the powerbook sitting at the table behind my friend was actually capturing bits of conversation!), I decided to email you and tell you the whole story -- you know, put the conversation into context. It has more of a context than you might think. :)

I am, indeed, a blonde freshman. But that's really not the important part of the story; [at this point she explains that her father is ill, and a mutual friend encouraged her to talk with ~~~~ because he had a similar experience]

I guess you'd have to know ~~~~ to understand...but he's just a genuine, earnest person. He wanted to give me advice from the get-go, even before he knew my father was sick. Once he knew that, though, he just wanted to encourage me and let me know that he was praying for me and willing to talk whenever I needed to.

So we went to Greyfriars on Wednesday night. I was a bit apprehensive, because I felt like he probably viewed me as some sort of obligation -- you know, taking a friend's friend out for coffee just to be nice or whatever. But in the car on the way, he told me the whole story about how his family coped with his father's illness, and he gave me a lot of practical advice (for example, he said that it's helpful to read through all of the promises God gives His people, because it's easy to forget that sort of thing during times like these) and just made me feel really comfortable.

Basically, I was in a listening mood, and he sensed that, so he sort of babbled for a while, which I didn't mind at all. I wish you could've seen his face; there wasn't a trace of obligation or forced interest or anything. He was genuinely wanting to listen and to share and to help me through whatever I might be going through.

We got to a point where we were talking more about relationships than family situations. I sheepishly told him that for the past four years, I've been at a high school with seven people in my class, and the only way I really had to make friends was just by being forced to get to know those other six people. So now I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed/frustrated/not sure how to make friends in this context. He encouraged me to take advantage of the situation I'll be in for the next four years, and he gave me some more practical ways to make friendships. (Yes, I know...the bowling quote was a bit ridiculous...but he was just trying to help!! :))

Ironically enough (as I would soon discover), after he dropped me off in the Mac circle, I went up to my room thanking God for the time that I had just enjoyed with a new friend, especially marveling at the fact that there was absolutely no tension resulting from the fact that we were a guy and a girl out alone. He had even made the comment (I think you had left at this point) that he would rather graduate without a girlfriend and be like his two roommates from last year (who were really godly educated guys) than graduate with a girlfriend and not (like his other roommate, I think. :)).

Of course, the next day I was pretty shocked to randomly find the blog of the guy with the Powerbook. I'll admit, I was pissed for a time...I mean, who'd be so insensitive as to construe ~~~~'s obviously completely innocent and encouraging comments as taking advantage of an innocent freshman?! Later, though, I began to soften and figure that maybe the author of this blog was stupid and heard only parts of the conversation, or perhaps he just enjoyed twisting people's words for his own amusement...and I began to think, "well, in that case, I wonder why he didn't write anything about ~~~~'s Norse Mythology, or whatever he was saying about stepping out into the morning fog with his trenchcoat and hot tea...because that'd be pretty great out of context." But then I realized: I don't remember exactly when you entered -- somewhere around where he was talking about his summer -- and you left right when he began his espresso stories.

So I suppose you really couldn't have known the entire nature of the conversation -- I guess I might've interpreted the conversation in the same sort of way, especially since you didn't see ~~~~'s face as he was telling me all of this stuff. He's just a quirky guy. No pretensions whatsoever. When he went off on "I Love the 90s," he was just trying to get me to stop crying, I'm pretty sure. :) When he was talking about Sunday mornings, he was honestly describing his joy. Honestly!! (I was surprised that you didn't include the next line -- "I'm like yessss...this is the Sabbath!!" Made me laugh, anyway. :)) When he was saying that I was welcome at 2nd South any time, he meant that if I was feeling discouraged about anything at home, he'd be there for whatever I might need. And trust me, he would not take advantage of that. And hey -- you know he did not follow it up with "wherever you are, you're there for a reason"!! That was in relation to my comment about being dissatisfied with my room situation. "This is kind of extraordinary" -- that's just the way the guy talks. He's a philosophy major; what can I say?...

At the end of the night, he made absolutely no proposal of a second such "date" -- he said he'd call if he and his friends were doing something so I could maybe join them if I wasn't doing anything else. You know, taking the first step socially! :)

So I'm very sorry if this bored you, because that's the opposite of why I wanted to email you. I just wanted you to know the real story; things definitely weren't what they seem. I guess there are guys at Covenant who use Christianese to seduce poor freshmen, but trust me, I know them when I see them. And I deliberately avoid them. :) I'm not as stupid as freshmen tend to have the stereotype of being. Oh, and I'm also now attempting to get over my new Greyfriars phobia. :)

Anyway, I'm starting to see your post as a bit funny...and, as one of my friends so aptly put it, "hey, at least you're the pretty blonde and not the predator!" I am glad of the opportunity to set the record straight, in a manner of speaking. Thank you for your time.

Oh, and I do plan to go bowling next Wednesday -- are you aware that it costs $2.50 on Wednesdays?!


Sincerely,

~~~~~~ ~~~~~

Girls should have their guard up anytime a guy she barely knows offers to either (A) wants to talk to them to "show them the ropes" of college or (B) pray with her. Prayer, though a great gift of God, is also an amazingly good tool to use to hook up with a chick. Not that I know from personal experience.....

Hmm. 2nd South, eh? We had a name for the kind of shit they used to pull, only we called it "trolling for freshmen". I remember quite well showing up at Steak 'n Shake and seeing a table comprised of two seniors and a super-senior and one freshman girl. Yeah. That kind of stuff happened all the time with them. The guilty parties are well known (and know who they are), so I need not name names.

As far as whether or not the male in question was being genuine: doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to quote the venerable Tom Okie at this point, who is reported to have said an only slightly related but fantastically relevant thing: "Studying with girls is the biggest self-deception in the world." Amen.

If Julian did write that (and even if he didn't): Hi, Julian!

Some Covenant buddies and I used to joke about writing a pamphlet, "How to Pick up Women with Biblical Theology."

Women are best left to be comforted by other women. Thinking back on my relationships with the opposite sex, things were much different than I thought, especially now that I am married and I understand things a little better. My poor husband with four kids of his own has to go to school with all these Covenant kids. God be with him!

As the "mutual friend" in this story, I feel the need to say...y'all suck.

And Mesh, my brother was your Bagpipe successor, so you should be ashamed too.

Mesh should be ashamed of his Bagpipe sucessor? Fair enough.

aww how cute she fell for the sensative guy approach, freshmen are so silly.

Nice joke if this was sent by one of your pals. It must have taken a bunch of time to compose. Sad if true.

My Bagpipe successor is my current roommate, Noel Weichbrodt. He probably is ashamed of me. I forget to pay the water bill a lot.

(BTW, what am I supposed to be ashamed about, again? This isn't my blog.)

Holy Shit! I've been a little out of the chattablogosphere recently and I just found this. I was at Greyfriar's, working that night, and I remember passing the couple in question numerous times, mostly just to see if I could catch the guy in the middle of another ridiculous line.

When i was a freshman at covenant, funny enough Josiah used a lot of those lines on me. And even funnier it worked.

I was once a -wise beyond my years- freshman, yeah, didn't take long for me to figure out I was an ass instead. Give her a few years, she'll see the facade sooner or later.

Wow, this grows beyond absurdity. What's sad about this whole thing is not that the great mass of you refuse to believe the authenticity/sincerity of the aforementioned letter and the individuals involved, but more that you know people who have nothing better to do than to concoct an elaborate personal letter pretending to be someone else based on some trivial post you read on an internet blog - and that you would believe such is the case, rather than simply one believer having compassion on another. I think that speaks volumes towards the perceived character of Covenant College and its students/alumni...

...additionally, since I know the "predatory senior" in question (he's actually a sophomore), I know that the pickup lines he does use are actually way worse than those supposedly overheard...

This is another reason why blogs scare me.

I don't know what she(he)'s talking about, but where I go bowling on Wednesdays it's only $1.25 per game and for your shoes.