Was invited by my friend today to head down to her studio to view some of her art pieces she has done. I should also point out at this point that my friend is actually quite advanced in years, she's probably the same age as my grandmother.
I am not someone who's interested in art, I enjoy design but fine arts isn't something I am interested in, asking me to walk into a museum to view a collection of art pieces and appreciate them is akin to asking me to watch paint dry, or watch dry paint on a piece of canvas, that's the only thing I will experience and learn from the exhibition, that I am really just looking at dry paint on a piece of canvas, BUT, I decided to drop by her exhibition anyway because I haven't seen her in a while and thought it would be a great time to catch up with her.
I am not someone who's interested in art, I enjoy design but fine arts isn't something I am interested in, asking me to walk into a museum to view a collection of art pieces and appreciate them is akin to asking me to watch paint dry, or watch dry paint on a piece of canvas, that's the only thing I will experience and learn from the exhibition, that I am really just looking at dry paint on a piece of canvas, BUT, I decided to drop by her exhibition anyway because I haven't seen her in a while and thought it would be a great time to catch up with her.
When I walked into her little exhibition space located on the first story of a HDB flat, I was met with many curious eyes, people wondering who I was and me wondering the same about them. I knew who they were, and they knew each other because they were her friends and students from her art class, but none of them knew who I was, I was the odd one out and that made me extremely uncomfortable. I had thought maybe she would have a few people over to help her out with the exhibition and when I arrived, she will show me around the space a little, talk to me about the art pieces she has done before bringing me to a small table where we could sit down alone and do some catching up, that unfortunately didn't happen.
The first thing she did was introduced me some of her students / friends, which was nice of her, but really, if it's someone I'm not going to remember a week from now, I would rather the introductions end there, I really don't want to be sitting with them and having any conversations, I came here to catch up with an old friend, not make new ones, but my friend proceeds to seat me down with her friends around a small table and heads into the kitchen to grab some drinks and food for us because one of her student's kid, who was a little girl, decided she wanted to have "tea time"... I really don't like interacting with kids so when I realize that the kid was not going to leave anytime soon, I got even more uncomfortable.
The little girl was the more active type so all my friends' friends were very friendly with her, asking her how she was doing, if she was hungry or not and laughing at her little antics, while I was just sitting at the table, sipping my cup of tap water, looking at the little girl stuffing a whole doughnut up her mouth before grabbing another snack and trying to shove that in, the adults were all asking her to slow down and all I could think about was the horrifying possibility that the girl might shove her face full of food and look at me to try and grab my attention.
The whole time I was there, my friend came up to me a few times for like the first 10 minutes when I just arrived and asked me how I was doing before she actually decided to sit down and do some proper catching up,she tried to start a conversation with me about baking, because she knew me through baking, asked me where I was working and how was working life like as a professional baker, but then her other friend, probably bored out of her mind because she couldn't participate in the conversation, decided to switch to subject to "fine arts".....
"When I saw you (me), I got reminded of this artist daughter I met the other day because she also really loves to cook, she was very sophisticated looking and I was at her mother's art exhibition the other day, she brought me around to see all the art pieces and they were all so detailed...blah blah blah.... "
....and they ended up talking about fine arts, their trip to Rome to see the museums and I was just sitting there pretending I knew what they were talking about, not saying anything and every time the other lady who was seated with us looked at me and tried to include me in the conversation, I just smiled and nodded my head, agreeing with her blindly, secretly hoping they would just stop talking about the fine arts and boring my brains out... they never did and I was stuck there hearing them go on and on about it, it was horrible, every time I thought the lady was gonna stop having anything to talk about, she manages to reignite the conversation again, it was like sitting through a bloody lecture on her personal life experience with the fine arts that never ends, everyone around the table was interested in it except me because I didn't know who she was and didn't really give a shit about her travel in Rome, but it did come to an end when the little girl came by to the table, sat on the empty seat beside me and started wrapping the hanging table cloth around her head before she went ahead and bite the table in an attempt to get some attention, and it was only then did they finally stop talking about the fine arts and focus their attention on the little girl by bringing her around the exhibition space to see the works for like the hundredth time while she goes around pointing at the pieces she wants to bring home.
My friend went along with the little girl and just left me alone at the table, I had thought she would stay back and talk to me while her friends took care of the little girl, but that wasn't the case, she kinda just left me there by myself and left me alone to nurse on my cup of tap water, the entire time I kept looking at the clock wondering when the people will leave so I will finally have time to catch up with my friend because my plan was to leave at 4 pm to avoid the peak hour crowd. It was probably about 20 minutes later did two of them leave, and I was actually hopeful because that only leaves the little kid and another lady to get the fuck out... sadly, 10 minutes later, 2 more women that I don't know came by the door and invited themselves in, one was a student and the other was a fellow art teacher, and at that point, it's like my head was gonna explode from disbelief...
I had thought that after the "Story of My Trip to Rome" woman had left with her friend, that would be the end of any conversation regarding art, I would finally be able to talk to my friend about baking because that's all I'm interested in and know about her, that she also enjoys baking, but No~, another girl has to come in and start talking about her pottery experience... Fuck!
Really, at that point, I got very annoyed with the whole situation because I have traveled an hour just to see my friend, hoping to do some catching up, something I don't do very often with friends, and all I am getting is tap water to drink and a table to sit so I can look at the same art pieces I have been staring at for the past 30 minutes, join a group conversation about "fine art" that I wasn't really a part of because I didn't really give a shit and then just see more and more of her art students and friends come in and talk about art and how it excites them and gives them a fuzzy and tingly feeling down in their lady parts.
I had thought that after the "Story of My Trip to Rome" woman had left with her friend, that would be the end of any conversation regarding art, I would finally be able to talk to my friend about baking because that's all I'm interested in and know about her, that she also enjoys baking, but No~, another girl has to come in and start talking about her pottery experience... Fuck!
Really, at that point, I got very annoyed with the whole situation because I have traveled an hour just to see my friend, hoping to do some catching up, something I don't do very often with friends, and all I am getting is tap water to drink and a table to sit so I can look at the same art pieces I have been staring at for the past 30 minutes, join a group conversation about "fine art" that I wasn't really a part of because I didn't really give a shit and then just see more and more of her art students and friends come in and talk about art and how it excites them and gives them a fuzzy and tingly feeling down in their lady parts.
So after seeing another 2 friends of hers coming in, I realized that she has already done her catching up with me, that short 5 minutes small talk was the catching up she was talking about and really after that, she just became really disinterested in entertaining me anymore, seeing how she completely ignored my presence for the entire latter half of the time I was there, I was literally just sitting at the table alone for the next 40 minutes or so just looking around aimlessly, I got up once and walked around to look at the pieces, but after that I was just sitting at the table alone, seeing my friend busy entertaining her other friends and that was when I decided .... Fuck it, this has been a huge waste of my time, so I got up and told her I was going to make a move.
I actually thought when I told her I was going to go, she will realize that we haven't really done any catching up, but nope, instead she just thanked me for dropping by and ask me to come by again another time. I smiled politely and said I will call again if I do decide to come by, but I won't and probably will never call again.
She just left me a text message, once again thanking me for dropping by and also said she was glad we could do some catching up.
In my eyes, there was no catching up of any sort, just a huge waste of my time because even though I may appear to look like someone who doesn't talk a lot, I actually really appreciate it when someone strikes up a long and meaningful conversation with me. 5 minutes is not catching up, that's just small talk and I don't enjoy coming out of my way to pay you a visit after a year of not seeing each other, only for you to have 5 minutes worth of small talk with me.
I actually thought when I told her I was going to go, she will realize that we haven't really done any catching up, but nope, instead she just thanked me for dropping by and ask me to come by again another time. I smiled politely and said I will call again if I do decide to come by, but I won't and probably will never call again.
She just left me a text message, once again thanking me for dropping by and also said she was glad we could do some catching up.
In my eyes, there was no catching up of any sort, just a huge waste of my time because even though I may appear to look like someone who doesn't talk a lot, I actually really appreciate it when someone strikes up a long and meaningful conversation with me. 5 minutes is not catching up, that's just small talk and I don't enjoy coming out of my way to pay you a visit after a year of not seeing each other, only for you to have 5 minutes worth of small talk with me.
Needless to say, I was NOT happy when I left the place. I don't always meet up friends I haven't contacted in a long time, but when I do, I expect there to be lots of catching up and reminiscing about the good times we have had together in the past. I am not someone who agrees to just meet up with any friend, I only meet up with people I consider close friends, so when someone I consider a close friend presents me with such a pathetic excuse for catching up... well, it sucks.
Recently, I met an old army friend whom I haven't contacted in a very long time and that meet up was fantastic because we talked about our lives and how we have been doing, just 2 days ago, I met up with 3 of my ex-colleagues from the bakery, 2 of whom I was not even close to and we had a great lunch followed by ice cream afterwards, so when I met this old friend of mine today, I was expecting all that awesome to happen and well, it was a lot worst than what I had originally anticipated, because I like painting plausible worse cast scenarios in my mind that could happen and being left alone for almost the entirety of my time there was not something I had thought would happen.
I never replied back to her message though, because if I do, it wouldn't be what I really feel and she probably won't want to know how I really felt about the supposed "catching up" that we did.
Recently, I met an old army friend whom I haven't contacted in a very long time and that meet up was fantastic because we talked about our lives and how we have been doing, just 2 days ago, I met up with 3 of my ex-colleagues from the bakery, 2 of whom I was not even close to and we had a great lunch followed by ice cream afterwards, so when I met this old friend of mine today, I was expecting all that awesome to happen and well, it was a lot worst than what I had originally anticipated, because I like painting plausible worse cast scenarios in my mind that could happen and being left alone for almost the entirety of my time there was not something I had thought would happen.
I never replied back to her message though, because if I do, it wouldn't be what I really feel and she probably won't want to know how I really felt about the supposed "catching up" that we did.
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