Monday, February 17, 2014

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

    If you were in college in 2008 and you didn't have some special someone to pet heavily in between watching episodes of Lost or Grey's Anatomy, you were one sad customer.  At least I know I was pretty bummed about my singleness when I wrote this column.  

February 4, 2008


    Well folks, January is over, and you know what that means; it means February has just begun. And you know what that means. It means that February fourteenth, that cursed celebration we call St. Valentine’s Day, is mere days away. Now, in previous years, I would be using these precious days to prepare myself emotionally for a long lonely evening of watching movies and eating Planter’s nuts by myself while most everyone else is out frolicking and cavorting and canoodling with their significant other. But not this year! This year I have my own column in the Collegian. Now normally I do not use the far-reaching influence of my column for my own means, but this is different. I’m drunk on power and high on desperation. So I’m using my column to announce that I am going to be interviewing girls to be my Valentine. This is such an awesome plan. You have no idea how well this is going to work out.
    Ok girls, here’s how it’s gonna go down. You sign up for an interview time. Show up at my room appropriately dressed and promptly at your appointed time. Upon your arrival, my loyal and obedient freshmen roommate Michael will offer you cookies and a steaming mug of Cinnamon Stick Tea. Then it’s down to business. The following is just a sample of the questions I may ask you to determine our compatibility.
    What’s your name? Where are you from? How has your day been so far? What are your thoughts on the meaning of life? What is your favorite movie? (there are no right answers to this question, only a myriad of wrong ones). Do you like to read? How long have you wanted to get to know me? How awesome do you think my weekly column is? What do you think of my sideburns? Wasn’t my idea for having Valentines interviews flawless? If we’d been going out for a year, what would you get me for my birthday (Hint: no woman has ever been wrong in buying her man a cavalry saber for his birthday). Are your parents crazy? What do you think your parents would think of my sideburns? If you could be any X-Men character, who would you be and why? If you had $655, what would you do?
    Based on the answers to these questions, each interviewee will be rated on the Tom Ackerman Passion Scale (0 to 100, 0 being no compatibility at all, 100 being I would propose to you immediately if we weren’t so busy makin’ out). The highest any girl has ever achieved on the Tom Ackerman Passion Scale was a 58. Luckily my love is graded on a curve.
    “But Tom” you must be saying, “you can’t give affection a number.” And “interviews aren’t romantic at all Tom.” Well if you’d forgotten it is officially crunch time, and the TAPS works very well during crunch time. Also I’ll have you know that I make my interviews very romantic.
    So the call goes out. Who wants to be my Valentine? Maybe you want to meet me, maybe you just want to get to know me better, maybe you’ve known me for years but you just want to tell me again how much you like my sideburns. Drop on by Baxter 327 and sign up for an interview time. Or you can email me. The important thing is that I don’t end up spending the evening of the 14th eating Planters nuts alone. If my methods seem heartless, I remind you that we are talking about a holiday that supposedly was created by candy and greeting card companies. But it is a holiday that I want to be a part of nonetheless. Such a great plan. It’s totally gonna work out.
Love, Tom Ackerman


   Well I did not get the massive volume of interviewees that I was secretly hoping for.  And of the people who did drop by, almost all where people in my dorm hall and several were dudes.  Which is surprising really, I thought everyone would be on board with my "finding a mate should be more like finding a job" theory.  I did find a Valentine however, so mission accomplished!  It'd be a few more years before I was in an actual serious relationship though, because I was totally terrified of girls in general.  But that's a story for another time.

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