Everyone is a Prima Donna

Why it's so hard to find love at UC Berkeley.


My roommate Lauren and I headed over to Bears Lair on Thursday night, our on-campus bar, to celebrate a close friend's birthday and to do a little drinking. Naturally, the other reason we went was to check out the boys; if you meet someone at the Lair it means you already have one thing in common: a shared love for a beer (or two).

We bought a pitcher for John, the birthday boy, and enjoyed each others' company at a table on the patio. Since I had an early flight the next morning to Orange County I didn't want to drink too much, and so I walked around the patio to "baby-sit" my beer for a bit. I ran into some old friends and we chit-chatted about plans for post-graduation, girl-friends, boy-friends, and the like. Meanwhile, I noticed that a very attractive young man across the patio was clearly checking me out.

Let me preface the following situation with the fact that it's not that often that that someone that I might actually be into is checking me out - so I was thrilled, to say the least. We made eyes at each other for some time, and when I thought he would be inebriated enough to forget anything silly that I might do or say, I went over to say hello.



"Hey, palm-reader," I said, reacting to what his shirt claimed he was. "What's mine say?" I asked. With a coy little smile I showed him my palm and anxiously awaited the answer.

Ideas of what he might say ran through my head... "That I'm the man of your dreams," "That you just met your match" "That you better watch out because I'm so smooth" were just a few of the phrases I thought this hopefully not only cute but clever boy would come up with.

You can guess my excitement when all he said was "uhmm.... uhmmmmm....... uhm...."

I giggled a little bit, smiled, and in what I thought seemed like a friendly manner said " 'Um.. Um..' don't think too hard now," playfully mocking him just a little bit.


Ego: bruised
Self esteem: broken
Defense-mode: intensified.

The guy gave me a mad/ hurt look and after I told him that I was just kidding, I gave him another chance to "read my palm".

But he wouldn't have it, and he kindly asked me to "Fuck off".






Talk about a great way to start a relationship!

But, that was three years ago, and now we are getting married.







NOT.









Ok. So, after he reacted so poorly to my advances, I told him I was just kidding, asked him to calm down a bit, and emphasized that I was "just kidding." He reluctantly accepted my apology and I peaced-out to to say hello to another friend standing nearby.

I had no idea what to think of our brief interaction. After all, "fuck off" is a pretty straight forward way of saying "Hey ass-hole, I'd be happiest if I never spoke to you again in my life"

Though I knew this, I felt bad and didn't want this one to get away. Like I said, it's rare for someone who i might actually be interested in to be checking me out, so after chatting with my friend for a bit, I went back over to the palm-reader to apologize for my impatience and inability to believe in his abilities. Upon noticing how bad I felt for upsetting him, he also "admitted" to having been joking about telling me to fuck off.

Even after accepting his apology, I was still a little blown away that someone had actually told ME, a relatively attractive girl, to fuck off (the exact meaning of which still is rather perplexing to me). I went back to Lauren to tell her what happened. We both giggled about it and she helped me realize that I had literally laughed at the poor guy in his face, but then commended me for apologizing as it "shows that I'm not insecure and don't have an ego problem... though he might."

Anyway. The point of it is: he did not seem like he was going to come up to me... After all, for a majority of the night I was hanging out with my friend the birthday-boy, and I was pretty dressed up for Bears Lair, and there were a lot of sorority girls there that I was chatting with as well so maybe he thought I was one of them - and we all know what people think about sorority girls... Or, maybe he was intimidated, or maybe he had a girlfriend, or maybe he just wasn't interested. Though I can't imagine why someone would be checking someone else out the whole night if they weren't interested.

Either way, the fact that I went up to him defnitely says something about me and my personality. If I were a guy, I would love if every now and then an attractive girl was hitting on me.




We ended up talking again later that night at the bar, and he offered me a beer, which I didn't take, then offered me a sip of his, which I did, and we made some conversation. Turns out he's from Irvine, went to the same high school as one of my friends, and is graduating this semester as well, and he's staying in the bay after he graduates. It would've been perfect. I'd love to end this by saying "and he overall he seemed like a pretty decent guy," but I really can't say that since he did, after all, ask me to fuck off.

And no, we didn't exchange numbers.

So much for that "cute guy at the bar" situation. Things could've gone so well.

See what happens when you can't take a joke? Freakin' prima donnas.