Never the twain shall meet

I got another big editing job from the Foundation, so I am trying to be good and space it out over a week and a half by doing about 30 pages or so a day. It's a reference book on Korean art and archaeology, which sounds like it should be interesting -- well, no. No, it doesn't sound interesting at all, and it's not.

I edited a 40-page art history thesis last month which was fun because it was well-written and informative, and I didn't have to hit the level of nitpickiness that a reference book requires. Being that anal is exhausting. Even for an owner of the Chicago Manual of Style and Bryan Garner's, uh, reference book thingee. (See, I'm not really that anal.)

I'm a bit tired today because I got in at around 1:15 last night. Etsuko had gotten a random phone call from one of our former classmates (we're talking like a year ago), who set up a meeting for her with Mig, the friend of KB's whose house KB stayed at when he was here in February/March. This was totally out of the blue, and Etsuko and I were intensely curious, because she isn't close to Mig at all -- in fact, has never exchanged more than a few words with him (his Korean isn't very good and her English isn't very good).

A little nervous, Etsuko urged me to come as well, and I ended up doing so after taekwondo class. I admit that I wanted to see Mig myself; he and I had a few early morning talks that I had enjoyed, and he was a link back to KB, after all (yeah, yeah, I know).

So we meet up with Mig and his friend in Shinchon, and go to a bar, and after a few moments, I learn that Mig and our former classmate had been drinking heavily when they decided to call some Japanese girl that had attended one of their parties some time ago. "Actually," Mig admitted sheepishly, "Etsuko isn't the girl I thought we were calling. But don't tell her that, okay?" (I'm going to tell her, of course.)

I can well imagine what went on that night -- Mig and his friend were sitting around getting trashed, when the fact of Mig's single status comes up. They dig around in their brains for a pretty girl to call, and settle on someone. Unfortunately, they don't know her number, so they have to call another old classmate of ours to get it. Then, Mig's friend, who knows Etsuko better than Mig, calls her up and arranges a meeting. Unfortunately, they've got the wrong girl.

Sounds like the synopsis for a routine Hollywood romance: Janeane Garofalo as Etsuko! Heather Graham as the pretty girl! And Donal Logue as Mig!

Donal Logue, with his oafish and beefy but good-guy image (though he's actually a Harvard grad -- no wait, that doesn't mean that he's not oafish and beefy. or a good guy), is a good match for Mig, but Janeane Garofalo isn't, on second thought, a good match for Etsuko. The reason why is that Janeane Garofalo seems smart, which Etsuko is, but she is also world-weary, cynical, and wise, which Etsuko isn't.

It doesn't come up often, probably because I have more Asian friends than western here, but at times I am stunned by the gap in experience betwixt the two spheres. Yeah, of course I can't really relate to Mig's childhood of shooting rabbits and deer and whatnot, but I'm vastly closer to their experiences and lifeview than Etsuko and Mayu, my Japanese friends.

For example: Mig explained that, where he grew up, people sometimes go out and shoot wallabees at night. Immediately, I think of cow-tipping (and how bored people must be to inflict death or injury on such easy prey -- the wallabees apparently freeze up when confronted with bright light at night). For Mayu and Etsuko, there's just no comparable act in Japan. For one thing, even officers of law don't carry guns here or Japan. (For the record, the Japanese think that all Americans carry guns around.)

Another one: Someone brought up drugs, which are very hard to find in Korea (no, not that I've looked). In Mig's country, though, like in the U.S., recreational drugs are very common. Heck, even I, the original wallflower in high school, had friends who smoked up then, and among my friends today back home, mighty few are those who have never experimented even once. But in Japan and in Korea? Nein.

And another one: That whole casual sex thing? No. Yes, of course it happens (Korea has a surprisingly high abortion rate), but there's a reason why I never talked about KB with my friends here -- sex isn't a topic of discussion. It just feels wrong. (Which is at odds with the very strange recent phenomenon of high school girls in Japan prostituting themselves to businessmen for money. I've heard it happens in Korea too. Where there's repression, there's a way.)

East is East and West is West, and to the East, the West contains sex-crazed, gun-toting drug-sniffers. Because that's what we are, of course.

------------------
Apropos of nothing

Twice in the past week I have been asked if I had a boyfriend and then, when I reply in the negative, the questioner says: "Why not?"

It is somewhat flattering, and I don't deny getting an ego stroke from it, but really, what are the possible answers to that question?

- I'm coming off a very bad breakup, and [sobs begin] I'm [sob] just [gasp] not [hiccup] ready [sob sob] to daaaaaaaaaaaaate!!!! [wailing begins]
- I'm having too much fun having wild monkey sex with -- gosh, how many men are there now?
- I'm a call girl, and having a boyfriend is distracting to my work.
- Um, I'm a man.
- My girlfriend isn't into threesomes.
- Because I'm repulsive, all right?!! No one in their right mind would want to date me! I'm a miserable excuse for humanity and men can sense that! [run bawling from the room]
- I'm saving myself for Prince William.
- I actually do have a boyfriend, but [look around cautiously] he's invisible.
- My ex is a drug lord with mafia connections and -- no, we're totally still friends! -- he kind of takes a brotherly interest in any new men I want to date. Come to think of it, I don't know why that would be a reason. [blink vacuously]
- I'm entering the sisterhood.
- Oh baby, are you offering?
- I find it difficult not to emasculate men with my rapier wit, lingerie model body, and stunning intellect. I can usually rope them in with my Kama Sutra-like knowledge of sexual positions, but after that... [heave deep sigh, drain drink, leave room]
- It's all because of that fuckin' incident with the knife in bed. Fuckin' media!
- I have been promised to the chief of my clan when I turn 16.
- The mothership has not yet signaled that it is time to acquire a mate.