Perfectly Imperfect: Calihan Huntley

“Perfectly Imperfect is a free newsletter about what people are into” and since they have yet to come knocking on my door, I figured I would do it myself. Here is a collection of things that characterize me that I’m very interested in right now. (2023 edition)

Being hated by Starbucks employees

I do not drink coffee and I never have. I find the taste all too bitter and when I drink caffeine I tend to get even more anxious than I already am. Although I need somewhere to study, and Starbucks has tables and free Wifi. I buy a green juice out of the prepared fridge for $3 all in quarters, and then I post up at one of their tables with an outlet and work on my computer with five notebooks for six hours. They’ve never said anything to me about it before or attempted to kick me out, but I do notice the subtle side-eyes.

The Press League softball 

My biggest aspiration in life right now is to be able to play on The Press League’s softball team over the summer. All of the major newspapers form a team and they all play each other and sometimes I dream about it at night. When I was a sophomore in high school I joined a game of pickup wiffle ball and by the next morning, five of the guys I was playing with asked for my number. I may not be able to make the small talk necessary to network, but I do know how to impress out on a sport’s pitch. Put me in coach, and I’ll come back with five job offers.

Embellishing stories

Even the best stories could use a bit of spice here and there. I like to keep the listening party entertained.

Taking hard classes as electives

I’m currently writing this as I’m waiting for my accounting test to be passed out. I don’t need to take accounting, I just need an elective. I could have chosen any random class, and I chose to take accounting. I suppose I did study it profusely over the summer, but now there are tests and lots of homework. I’m also taking a business Spanish class in which we learn all the finance vocab that most people don’t even know in English, in Spanish. I really need to ease up on the electives next year.

Hostels

I love hostels and I miss them so much. I stayed in hostels all across Europe when I studied in Madrid. They’re so cheap, and you always meet an interesting person. When I was in Seville, I watched Australia in the World Cup with two Australians. They were very into it. It’s a goal of mine to own hostels all over the world, and make them the perfect destination for backpackers.

Basketball socks

I have some weird affinity to wearing ankle socks. I’m not insecure about my ankles— quite the contrary, I’m actually very proud of my ankles. They are very adequate and strong and therefore I’ve never twisted an ankle. My friend Erin says that I like basketball length socks because I have nice calves. Once in high school I wore ankle length socks to racquetball practice because I was feeling quite odd that day. I played against our #1 seed and won for the first, and last, time ever. Everyone was in shock. She turned to me and said, “I’m so distracted, I kept staring at your fucking ankles. I’ve never seen them before.”

Writing code in Google Docs first

I’m taking this class where I need to code and sometimes the professor comes and looks over my shoulder and sees that I have literally nothing typed in the program yet. It’s all typed in Google Docs and once I have ensured that it all makes sense, I retype it into the program. It making coding less mathematical and technical and more like a story, and stories have always made more sense to me.

Posting unhinged Tik Toks

I like to edit them as weirdly as possible, tag my friends for no reason, and just see what happens. I thought people might think I was weird (that train has already left the station) but in the past two weeks I’ve gotten two compliments on my “amusing” Tik Toks. Fly me to LA!

Yours truly,

Calihan