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“I must confess, I cried.” – Gary Numan

On Thursday night I had to go to a contemporary classical music concert at a venue near the Pompidou so we can theorize about it in one of my classes at the center. Like a lot of things that are considered experimental, contemporary classical music is good for theorizing, if nothing else. Before the concert started, a young French guy struck up a conversation with John and Jared, who were sitting next to me. After the concert we stuck around for a while to chat with him. Apparently, the girls in my program who were there felt left out. I don’t know how one is supposed to integrate six new people into a conversation.

When I was outside waiting for Jared, all of the girls gave John hugs to say goodbye. A few of them nodded in my direction. Apparently, I inadvertently offended them, and it wasn’t the first time. Or maybe they just don’t like me. Well, what are you going to do? Somehow, my reticent and reserved nature around them has gone from agreeable and inoffensive to judgmental and derisive, or something like that. I can’t win them all. Or perhaps what is more likely is that I’m simply overstating my significance in their lives (although I was implicitly mentioned in one of their blogs—that’s got to count for something).