Ailio

Harvard Coop bookstore, Jan 7, 2009. I am winding down after finishing a couple of b-school applications and meeting with a good friend. I am at peace, enjoying an uninspiring moment with a cup of coffee myself. Do not know why, but just love being surrounded by books, although I no longer read too many books. Also, the people in the bookstores tend to be my kind, although I do not really have definitely on what exactly is "my kind".

I am listening to the soundtrack of "Spring Awakening," a broadway show that will close in two weeks. The show really deserves a separate post on the blog. It is special to me. I played in the Chinese version of the show as my swan song, and I still miss these friends. But it is not yet the time, and maybe some day I will dig up these memories...

Ailio is my next door neighbor. We met one day because I went out for a run before realizing I did not bring the key to the main entrance. He is about 30 years old, short, with Italian heritage. He was a total introvert, he majored in computer science in college and he managed a database in a healthcare company. If you try to imagine a stereotypical technician, you got Ailio, with 95% accuracy. He is the only neighbor I really talk to, and we are quite good friends now.

If there are multiple universes, he is another version of me at the core: a loner. Of course, he is more extreme. Every time I asked him to do something together, he was always available. So I took him out for a couple of drinks on his birthday two months ago, and he insisted to do the same for me too.

He does not like to stay at home. His home is a mess, because he was remodeling the apartment. Like most Boston public projects, his endeavor seems to last forever too. He said that he wanted to rent out the place after it was done, but I was considerate enough to never ask his specific timeline.

Anyway, he liked to hang out in this nearby coffee shop, so now I regular this place too. When we just began to hang out, we talked about investment. He made a killing on some option plays then, so he was happy I guess. Quickly, as 2008 went on, investment topics subsided, and what filled vacuum was dating topics. I usually do not feel comfortable talking about dating, but with Ailio, I feel that we are equals. I forgot how it got started. Maybe some discussions about the looks of the coffee shop workers. (A quick distraction here: there is this weirdo guy called Jacks that once filled us with some background information about these girls, which spiced up out discussions a little with context. Moreover, Jack himself became our conversation topic, because he is so weird.)

Dating conversions can be fun, believe it or not. I usually threw out some eHarmony stories. Nothing substantial, just my usual silly analysis on human beings, which my regular readers are probably already tired of, but which he found intriguing. In fact, he was quite impressed, partly because he had not tried it before. He signed up for okcubit (or something like that). According to my observation, it went nowhere, because Ailio just freaked out at moments. Every time he got close to meeting the girl, he would suspect that the girl might be "crazy", or what if this what if that. He had this strange lack of self-esteem: if some girl liked him, there might be something wrong with this girl, because how could this be possible?! Well, nothing condescending, because in the parallel universe, I am just like that, only being able to pretend better.

He was quite helpful on my essays. He would read it so carefully that it made me feel that I was taking advantage of him. I asked several times to see whether I could be any help for his home remodeling, and he said "later". So I consciously overpaid our meal or coffee bill. He wouldn't care in a million years, but it just made me feel better.

We went to watch a movie together. I told him that I used to get a ticket to watch multiple movies and still used my expired ID to get student ticket. This is something I liked to talk about, because it showed a only flaw of an otherwise perfect me. Kidding. But he topped me on this one. He told me that he used to buy kid ticket to watch multiple movies. What a bad ass!