1999-12-08

About dorks

I always get the most offhanded compliments.

Other than Kev, nobody's ever given me a direct compliment, like "Gee, you're pretty," or "Boy, you're really funny." Take yesterday, for example -- I was getting ready to leave, and popped into the second-in-command's office to say buh-bye, and he looked me over and said, "You know, there's just something so...comforting about you in that coat." (I was wearing my 50's wool swing coat, which I suppose does give me sort of a punky grandmotherly sort of image.) I guess that was his way of saying, "I would never ever dress the way you do, but I'm glad you dress that way, because it gives me something to chuckle about." Just part of my job, chief; somebody's gotta be the office dork...

I want to talk now about the word "dork."

I was thinking about a conversation that transpired, a few weeks ago, between Linda and Peter. It was after a show, and Linda was doing her patented "Linda Bean Dance," where you sort of hunch up and do this little do-wop/kinda disco-y move with your hands...Linda does it with a big stupid smile, whereas I tend to utilize the "white man's overbite." At any rate, Peter witnessed this little dance, paused, and then said to Linda, "Wow...you're a dork." He didn't say this in a disparaging way, not at all; it was like recognizing a member of the tribe, like: "Hey, I hadn't pegged you for one of us, but I see now that you are a dork. Huzzah!" Of course, Peter didn't call me a dork; I think it's just understood that I am one. And all my friends tend to be dorks as well...I've pretty much been able to immediately recognize those that will be my friends, and they're generally straight-across-the-boards dorks. I don't mean that they all dress funny; anybody can shop at Hubba Hubba or Oona's and call themselves misfits or whatever, but there's a basic personality component that determines true dorkdom, but I haven't really pegged it down. It's not a sweeping generalization, like, "all dorks watch the Sci Fi Channel," because I personally don't watch the Sci Fi Channel, and I'm not a Star Trek fan, despite being born to a family of Star Trek fans. I just know a dork when I see one, and then I am relentless in pursuing a friendship with said dork. I want to surround myself with dorks!

I once quit a job because I realized that I was pretty much the only dork there, after they'd fired my fellow dork Marty, and I must have been just vibrating with my dork essence, because the other non-dork harpies in the desks around me were just about ready to peck me to death. It was fight-or-flight, and I chose to flee rather than endure a company-wide meeting about "personality conflicts," which I suspect was hurtling down the pipe.

So, yeah, dorks. I like dorks.

lisamcc at 09:36:34

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