The Free Shot Queen
by Carolyn Bockius, NA
When Uncle Jordy informed me that my Intraview was with a second year I had never met, the first thing I did was check out Hugh’s classcard for a little background information. I found out that he was into sports (a definite plus) and poetry. Not having read much poetry since high school, I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time perusing his website. I was quite impressed by Hugh’s poetry collection and especially by his own “Epitaph.” We had never met, but all that changed a few days before our date, when I ran into him in the tunnel on my way home from Shad. Noting that both of us were active people, we thought a good idea would be to spend our Intraview at Jillian’s. I found out that Hugh’s first impression of me was made on the IM football field last fall. As our second meeting also involved me wearing gym clothes, I decided I really had to look swanky for our Intraview.
Apparently Hugh did not want to be added to the list of guys who get lost on one of these adventures, so he suggested catching a cab from Ikon. When Hugh arrived, the dark sunglasses were a dead giveaway that he was still recovering from the previous evening’s Dionysian Ball. Luckily our cab driver loosened us up for the evening. He was quite possibly the most verbose cabbie I have ever met. Among other things, after he misidentified Hugh’s sexy Welsh accent, we learned that he thought Australians are the best people on earth. He didn’t seem to have much of an opinion on people from the UK, but he was quite opinionated on backyards. We learned that it is extremely important for a backyard to be secluded enough that you can run around naked in it. I know I will have nightmares if I start picturing this cab driver naked, so I’ll stop there.
When we finally got to Jillian’s, Hugh was a complete gentleman. He opened doors and supplied me with a continuous stream of drinks. Although, hmmm…maybe that was some sort of plan. And this stellar college tennis player didn’t even suggest we play table tennis. We began our evening by relaxing upstairs and getting to know one another better. We talked about everything from our college days to our feelings about life at HBS. Hugh is a great conversationalist, and there was never a dull moment.
After talking for a while, we decided to hit the pool tables. It was difficult to find a game that provided some good competition since Hugh beat me handily in pool and air hockey. Luckily basketball helped repair my damaged ego as I realized that Hugh does not have a future in the NBA. (Then again neither do I.) We took a short break from the action to sample the cuisine at Jillian’s, and for bar food it was pretty tasty. We realized that the only games we were equally bad at were racing games, so we spent some time on Harleys followed by a few laps in the Daytona cars. Being typically competitive HBS students, we couldn’t keep from occasionally flipping each other’s vehicles. The only disappointing part of the evening was when we went to redeem our tickets for a wonderful Jillian’s prize and discovered that we had only amassed 11 tickets. Deciding against a glow-in-the-dark bracelet, we headed home.
It was a nice easy evening without the awkward pauses and uncomfortable moments that typify most Intraviews. Hugh is a great guy to spend time with, and anyone who will be in London this summer should definitely make an effort to get to know him. You won’t regret it.
The Pool Shark
by Hugh Karseras, OI
I am running through this cave in the Amazon, and this big boulder is crashing down toward me, I leap a chasm, duck a series of poison darts, jump over three skeletons and through a giant spider cobweb and straight out of the cliff face into a 800-foot waterfall. Carolyn meanwhile is fighting a tribe of very hungry cannibals by deftly wielding a nine-inch piece of string and a dented spoon to fend off the attacks of their eight-foot bloody spears. She escapes their evil clutches by doing a back flip onto a BMW motorbike, speeds off, jumps the waterfall, and rescues me from drowning at the bottom. I had a cramp in my big toe-bloody typical. We then escaped into a water-plane, which flew us to Paris where we had Lobster delicately served on a bed of fresh basil, nachos, and CheezWhiz for dinner with Bill Gates, Britney Spears, Prime Minister Blair, Richard Branson, and Kid Rock (What an intelligent, articulate young man!) in a Hot Air Balloon hoisted from the Eiffel Tower.
OK, so I am lying. We did nothing of the sort, but from the hype of Uncle Jordy and the athletic, adventurous Intraviews of the past few weeks, this was the kind of date I felt pressured to organize. Actually, I was very relieved to see that in the modern era of equality, Uncle Jordy charged Carolyn with the responsibility of organizing the date. We did look into the “Amazon Movie Rip-Off Adventure and Paris Celebrity Dinner” package at Priceline.com but unfortunately the trip required layovers in Nicaragua, Newark, Brussels, Oslo, and Papua New Guinea, which were of course far too inconvenient.
So Carolyn suggested a fun-filled evening of spirited
competition at Boston’s one and only Jillian’s. The evening got off to a fine start as I joined Carolyn in the taxi waiting at the Ikon, but found myself unable to say a word, as the taxi driver proceeded to talk constantly for pretty much the entire journey. As soon as I did manage to speak, he immediately asked if I was Australian, I replied that I was, in fact, British. He continued to tell us how much he loved Australians and how friendly a town is Boston. We looked for signs of drug abuse, but strangely found none. It was actually highly amusing and did set the tone for what proved to be a very fun evening.
We began simply by getting a couple of drinks and learning a little more about each other. I was exceedingly weak and opted for orange juice all night, as my liver was screaming at me for severely abusing it at the Dionysian Ball. We chatted for an hour or so, starting creatively with classcard topics and bravely moving onto other HBS themes. I remembered Carolyn from an IM Football game-she had no recollection of me-I was so damn good too, only dropped the ball nine times-Jeez! She mentioned that she used Shad a lot, and I told her that I was a bit of a Shad local myself-she said she had never noticed me in there-and I thought I looked buff! Nevertheless, we seemed to get along very well. I thought Carolyn to be very relaxed, easy to talk to and good fun.
Onto the games-a medley! First Pool. I dominated-Woo Hoo! Second basketball free throws. She whooped my ass real good! Next motorbike racing-remember the BMW-could have been true-I saw nothing but dust! Next darts, I narrowly won, but Jillian’s has since ordered a plasterer to redo three of their walls. Next Nascar racing-I managed to sneak it in the deciding race by crashing into a wall two feet ahead of Carolyn in the last second. By this point it should be mentioned Carolyn had consumed four or five beers and I was still nursing my second Orange Juice. It was a caddish plan of mine to ensure ultimate victory for the evening, but proved successful as I stole close wins in Air Hockey and Foosball! Somewhere in the middle we grabbed a bite to eat and chatted, amongst other various subjects, about hobbies. Jigsaw Puzzles! I shall say no more! Then again, I have a website full of poetry so perhaps I shouldn’t tease!
All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening. Carolyn was excellent company and truly a fine competitor. Thanks for being gracious enough to let me win!
