Quatre Winner\'s Diary

January: New Year, New Life

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Friday, Jan 10th

6:45 am

Well I\'m going to try something different today: no suit. Yes, I\'m not wearing a suit to work. I\'m really going to work hard at loosening up. I don\'t want to die of an ulcer before I turn thirty now do I? Can you actually die from an ulcer? I know they can hurt really bad, but die? I\'ll have to ask my nurse about that.

You know it\'s seems odd; our company has a medical center (complete with veterinary clinic), day care center, gym (with exercise classes and sauna), and a three-star restaurant, but there are kids that live on park benches outside out complex. There\'s irony in that somewhere. Maybe I could pick it out if I had gotten the chance to take something more then basic English classes in college, but it\'s hard to get a degree in three years.

College, now there\'s something to talk about. College is where I got my small, yet close knit group of friends.
I lived on campus, much to my father\'s chagrin, my freshman year, which is where I met Duo and Wufei. We all were in the \"nice dorms\", which meant they weren\'t falling apart at the seams. Actually they weren\'t that bad, and relatively new, but set up strangely. The rooms were in a suite-style, with a common living area and separate sleeping spaces for each student. The common space had a table and chairs, full-size fridge, and a couch. Duo, Wufei, and I all shared a suite, and it was amazing we didn\'t kill each other in the first month. Wufei is a genius, really. He was an 18 year-old Junior. He\'d been in college a while, so he knew the ins and outs of dorm life. For the first month he kept to himself pretty much, which was fine by me, but bugged Duo to no end. Duo thought that since we were going to sharing a living space, we needed to be buddies, all of us, and \'Fei didn\'t take much time to socialize back then. Well, he didn\'t have any extra time either. Most Pre-Med students don\'t.

Duo is just as smart as \'Fei, which seems to amaze people. In the four years he was in college, I don\'t think I saw him read a book once. It was like he didn\'t need to, all the knowledge was in his head. And he did well in all his classes, when he decided to do the homework. He was one of the only freshmen to take a 400 level class, not study, and still get an A. That was why when he declared, he majored in Philosophy and Religious Studies, with a minor in Creative Writing and his advisor gave her okay. He\'s one of the few people I know that could double major, and get it done in four years, going to summer school every year. All three of us did, but the thing with Duo was all or nothing. If he ever took a break, he wouldn\'t have made it through. He\'d stay out. I was surprised he didn\'t over-do it though, taking twenty credits a term. It was a sight to see. There was one term where he had three papers due all on the same day, and he didn\'t even start them until ten o\' clock the night before. He didn\'t sleep at all that night, but he got all three done, and got good grades too. The mind baffles.
Then there was me. The poor little rich boy who didn\'t even know how to do laundry. I had never learned how. We had maids all my life, so I didn\'t do chores. Duo really got a laugh when I pulled him into the laundry room and asked him where the water in the washing machine was. It took a few minutes for him to stop rolling on the floor and inform me that I\'d put my clothes and detergent in the dryer. It wasn\'t my fault that I\'d never cleaned my own clothes before. It took a little while to get all the soap out of the dryer, and it was a pain in the ass, but I never tried to wash my clothes in the dryer again.
And the first time I tried cooking...well, the fire department managed to keep the flames contained to the floor kitchenette, but I was banned from every kitchen on every floor for the rest of the year. You\'d never thing that rice-a-roni would be so hard. I don\'t think anybody\'s ever burned rice-a-roni before. You\'d think it\'d be easy enough to follow the directions, but they\'re harder then they look.

12:35pm

Well, people seem to like the more relaxed-looking me. Even my secretary said I looked nice. They\'re treating me differently too. My behavior hasn\'t changed at all, but the other employees are acting like it has. I\'m my same perky self, but now my random greetings aren\'t thought of as the boss\' son hovering around spying, but as a fellow worker saying \"hi.\" I don\'t know who said \"clothes make the man,\" but it really isn\'t true. The man makes the man, clothes just change people\'s perception of the man. Chuck Pulnichick got it right. I am not my khakis. Although the part about being the \"all singing all dancing shit of the world\" doesn\'t really ring true, but you can\'t be right all of the time.

Anyway, I caught the head of the buyers eyeing me today. She\'s really pretty. Blond, tall with more curves then Mullholand dive, and lovely blue eyes. I don\'t know if she ever stared before, but today it was more then obvious. Her assistant was practically wiping the drool off her chin. It was kind of flattering. Actually it was really flattering. But Dorothy is one of my employees and I couldn\'t date her if I wanted to. It just wouldn\'t be right, even though she is attractive...and smart...and she likes me...and we would look good together...

2:00pm

I just got back from lunch with Dorothy. She came in and asked me if I\'d like to eat with her. Of course I couldn\'t turn her down. It was nice. I actually had a good time. A honest-to-goodness good time. She was witty, intelligent, insightful, cultured, and everything else I\'ve been looking for in a woman. Okay, so call me a hypocrite, Allah knows Lena will. Don\'t get involved with someone you work with. I should follow my own advice, but...well there isn\'t enough intelligent women in the world. For some reason they all think they should be airheads to get a man\'s attention, and yes that\'s nice from time to time, but I\'d really rather have a conversation where ideas are exchanged, rather then a one-sided lecture in which I explain everything.

We\'ve arranged to go to the banquet at the end of the month together as \"friends\" which was her stipulation, not mine. It\'ll be nice to have someone else to go with, rather then taking Lena again. All she talks about is how horrible Heero is. And I have to take center stage, again, Father\'s orders. Great, a speech. I should just get really trashed beforehand and improvise it. I might end up telling all my real ideas about the exploitation of the \"American Dream\" and how it demeans the populace to prey on preconditioned ideals.

I\'ve been talking to Duo too much. His postmodern philosophy is rubbing off on me.