Oh, what a feeling! toyota

(okay, so this post doesn't really have anything to do with toyota, but something reminded me of the father-in-law from that billy crystal referee movie, who kept saying the jingle over and over. i'm so going to be like that when i'm old.)

you know that feeling you get on the first day of class? you stroll in, try to find a seat and take in the vibe. i usually get either a very good feeling, like 'yeah, this is going to be a good semester/year/environment/people' or just 'eh.'

but just thinking about it, that vibe is usually dead-on, and in several instances uncannily so.

*in mrs. ritzel's seventh-grade foreign language class i liked german, really liked french and loved spanish. when she gave the speech about studying abroad, i said to myself, 'oh i am SO going to spain.' Junior year in college, i found myself getting off a plane and staying with a woman whose knowledge of English consisted of 'happy birthday to you' and 'thank you.' they were some of the most amazing months of my life.

*thumbing through one of those mind-numbing books of college listings, i looked at a chart of schools with dots next to the corresponding majors they offered. as indecisive as i am, i lingered over the one with the most dots. it ended up being the only school i really applied to without even so much as looking at a campus brochure. i loved my school and i have never regretted that decision.

*i signed up to live in a dorm triple my freshman year, with strangers. the girls i was paired with didn't know each other either, but had a mutual friend who decided to enlist in the navy at the last second. they were both great roommates, and i ended up living with one of them for nearly five years. to this day i'm scared of getting a new roommate because i had gotten so lucky the first time around.

(side note: i had only spoken to the roomies on the phone before trekking down to school. i had no idea what they looked like. but on that first day, hauling my stuff up the elevator, we passed a family coming downstairs. my mom turned to me and said, 'that girl. that one in the overalls. she's your roommate.' when we got upstairs, we saw that one of them had already arrived and claimed the corner spot. she'd even put up her family photo. it was the same girl -- my long-term roommate.)

(even odder side note: when her mother saw me and my family in the lobby, she turned to her and said, 'that little girl with the long hair? i think that's your roommate.')

*i had heard about a boy this girl on my floor went to high school with. she had said he'd be perfect for me. unknowingly, i saw him at a reggae party during the first week of school. there was some kind of magnetic connection. after a formal introduction, we were together nearly six years even though we really didn't have much in common. i truly believe we'd still be driving each other nuts if we were in the same state.

*i test-drove about six cars. my car was probably number two or three. i knew i had found my match before i even put the key in the ignition, and the others were just to appease my father. i love my car; i will most definitely cry when i have to give it up.

*on the first day at a new job, i saw this girl who really looked like she didn't take any b.s. even her accent was a little intimidating, but somehow i knew i'd get along with her. several years and other jobs later, she's one of my closest friends and i even stood up in her wedding. we often say that we're of one mind.

*i attended a seminar at the place i currently work years ago and said to myself, 'i'm going to work here someday.' it was the only one of several companies where i felt that. and look, here i am, in the dungeon today.

not so uncanny, but still interestingly, nearly all of my long-term/good friends made a distinct impression when i first met them.

-one was a new girl in fifth grade that people said *looked just like me* (totally untrue; the similarities end with race)

-one i used to ogle for her gorgeous fingernails (i was a nail-biter)

-one was paired with me for frog-dissection (we had eerily similar handwriting)

-one forgot his sheet music and was trying to gank mine in the orchestra pit (even though we don't even play the same instrument)

-one was the only other sane-looking person in enriched physics (and kept me from self-destruction because of the evil teacher)

-one took me in after a 30-second long-distance phone call at the recommendation of her college roommate and then salsa-ed with me all summer. (maybe that's a testament to them -- but they aren't in touch anymore and we are)

there was one person i was going to include, whom i was very good friends with for a very long time. but i couldn't recall the moment i met her. i just spent about 10 minutes trying to remember. what did come to mind is how she totally betrayed my trust, humilated me and after all the drama, never sincerely apologized. not such a good friend in the end. i should have known; that first meeting wasn't etched in my mind.

hm. maybe there really is something to the whole *you'll just know* thing.