31 for 31

It's 11:08 on a Saturday night and I have just got back in.

A week ago, I mentioned to my stepdad that I would be writing an entry every day for the month of March to get back into a more consistent routine. So far, not a great start. I am just squeaking in before the deadline.

It was an entirely uneventful day today, with the exception of a minor shopping spree to upgrade my wardrobe. I'm beginning to realise that 31 posts in 31 days is going to include some of these extremely mundane events whilst frantically searching for content to record. This day did include some quality time with my own I Robot though, which I have not yet introduced to all of you.

I currently live with three men, and one of them is my lovely flatmate, who I have lived with since October. He will forever be referred to as Data in this blog, as he often personifies the android from the series Star Trek. I adore him as a friend and a fellow human being, although you could call into question his humanity at times, as I often do. He is almost super-human. And when thinking of a name to refer to him as before writing, Bionic Man and Million Dollar Man all floated around.

I kid you not, he has 0% body fat which is a result from a strict regime of constant physical exercise. He doesn't even sit at his desk during the work week, he has his work space elevated on risers so that he can stand...all day. He also wakes up each day before the sun rises to cycle to the pool, swim competitively, then cycle through London risking life and limb. Today I even saw him run up the Bond Street escalators, taking stairs 2 and 3 at a time, without breaking a sweat. He didn't even flush. Then shoe shopping, I asked for what kind of shoes he needed to buy. He described dressy work shoes with the final factor of needing to be able to run in them. Run in them? In case M calls you and you have to chase a scar-faced terrorist through the streets of London? It was hard to find a pair of leather shoes that allowed enough give for a quick sprint, but he managed. I imagine his core to look like an upside-down muffin cooking sheet...I'll wait for that to sink in and marinate in your minds...

He also has the emotional range of Rain Man and just as clever. One time I asked if he knew anything about creating a website. Over the course of the next 20 minutes, I saw more scratchings of a madman than I ever had before. He was writing codes down like A Beautiful Mind...only not from the perspective of Russell Crowe who believes he's solving government secrets, but at that moment in the film when you realise he's a lunatic and he's just circling random letters of the alphabet with lipstick in tabloids. I just walked away and closed my door.

I - being a somewhat emotionally intelligent individual - will sometimes ask Data questions to see how his mind processes thoughts of love or feelings...he doesn't. To him the world is a simple, straightforward, rational place. Oh to live in that world....away from the Land of Lady Crazy. I once asked if he loved his girlfriend (a fact I am certain of that he does) and his response was, "well I speak to her." To me, this summed up exactly how Data feels and the correlation of talking to an individual and love, is stronger than the greatest left-skewed graph (*insert google search to ensure my Grade 12 data collections teacher, Mr. Gmach drilled that into my brain correctly).

It's fantastic to live with such an even-keel robot human, because the world is a messy place. Sometimes you just need someone who can see it simply. He also motivates me to take the stairs to our flat instead of the lift, and that's convincing enough that I can't live without him. I'm sure over the remaining 30 days, you will hear many short snippets about Data as he features predominantly in my day-to-day. Perhaps a quote from him to start each blog, like "why wear heels, are they comfortable? Wear your trainers with that high-waisted skirt and blouse" or "I haven't been to the doctor since I was 9 and my mother forced me. Just a little blood really..." Look forward to it.