9:13 p.m. | 2004-10-26 Dorks Are Us. Recently, I went to dinner with BestestGirlfriend (BG). I decided to walk over to her office after work to meet up with her and check out her office. When I got there, we were talking while she was finishing up the day. Here�s some of that. (CI:) Cool office. I see you�re bucking the system by placing your bookshelves diagonally in the corner as opposed to flush against the wall. I like it, you rebel. (BG:) Thanks. It�s a hot topic around here. It has caused quite a stir. Hey, check out my new (postage) stamps. (CI:) Wow, they�re different kinds of cloud formations including the names of such various formations. Very cool. You know, I heard a couple arguing once about the proper name of a particular cloud formation� I mean, who knows the names of clouds? (BG:) I do. I LOVE the weather. (CI:) (Here�s where I started laughing.) (BG:) See, you�re the only one that understands these things. Everyone else just looks at me funny; you always understand how it�s funny. Seriously, I had this astronomy class in college and it was my favorite class. Well, outside of my favorite classes within my major (political science). I really loved that class. (CI:) (Trying to speak through my laughter.) Heh, I understand. One of my favorite classes in law school was Land Finance. I mean, come on. (BG:) You know, I am prepared to be a meteorologist at a moment�s notice. (CI:) (Laugh-snorting.) Oh. My. God. You just finished your law degree and you�re waiting for your bar results and that�s what you throw at me? I am prepared to be a meteorologist at a moment�s notice? Who says that?! (BG:) Oh, I�ve got more. Ready? You�re gonna LOVE this! I used to say: �If I was a meteorologist, the whole world would be my lab.� (CI:) Oh, Jesus. (Doubled-over, crying tears of laughter and trying to talk at the same time.) I wanted to be a historian and, though I didn�t, I could�ve said the same thing. (Her co-workers started �casually� walking by to see what was so funny. I don�t think they �got� it.) I�ll give you this though� I�m seriously considering becoming a docent at local historical sites. (BG:) That�s what I�m talking about� no one understands like you do. Of course, I promptly filed both I am prepared to be a meteorologist at a moment�s notice and the whole world would be my lab in the inside joke recycle bin. I�ll pull them out and use them randomly while around BestestGirlfriend and we�ll both dissolve into giggles. I understand if you don�t find any of this funny at all. And, know what? I�m okay with that. I�m okay, you�re okay. Speaking of yesteryear clich�s that go unappreciated, we spanned some decades at work today. The ages in our Department range from early 20s to well, 40. I�m actually the oldest person, beating out NewColleague by a few months. Anyway, we had an impromptu Department meeting today and a 29-year-old made a reference to the Wonder Twins. The two youngest people had absolutely no idea whatsoever what we were talking about. Totally blank looks. Later at lunch, I was informing NewBoss that such occurrences only increase as you get older. To prove myself, I threw out the phrase �the Rabbit died�. Only NewBoss, myself and one other person � that was 3 out of 8 � knew what it meant. When I told them what it meant, they couldn�t understand so I had to explain the rather, say, cruel and unusual scientific origin of it. Yeah, that didn�t go over so well. But hell, they know what it means now. That�s one way us �old� folks find our own people. By throwing out arcane phrases. Tricky, huh? Yeah, we�re wily. your thoughts? seed flower