"Want to go out with me, Sharky?"

My only pick-up line I've ever received. Oh, Prov.

What makes it acceptable to throw out pick-up lines? Maybe a better question would be Are there acceptable pick-up lines? It doesn't seem like it. Any story beginning or ending or containing the phrase So then he used this pick-up line on me is invariably met with groans. Or appreciative laughter if the audience is male. Why then do they exist?

I really am a lone shark these days. I have started the countdown to when all my wayward friends return home. The festivities actually start tomorrow, and then mid-February, early April, late April, and reunited we will be! I've never thought of myself as someone who has trouble identifying emotions, but as of late I've really struggled to figure out what I'm feeling about all this. I eagerly leap onto the computer at any chance I get, regardless of whether I've checked my email only 45 minutes before, because there may be a chance that one of them will have emailed. Every shrill ring of the phone is cause for a heartbeat to be lost, especially if the time differences are acceptable. And when I finally arrive at home every evening, especially after a day of disenheartening email absences, there's still the brief flicker of hope that arises as I flick through the mail on the table. All that stomach-twisting, heart-swinging, and crushing disappointment when it all comes to nothing...


Why, I think I might miss them.