Guys don't keep pennies coins

Over coffee this morning (guys, in case you're not aware yet, Coffee Bean is offering a 50% off for BNI card holders -- go get that delicious Caesar's Salad!) Anna pointed to me that my wallet was growing. I didn't realize I had been putting small pieces of papernotes in it -- about teaching, about research issues, about things to blog, etc. Damn, what was I thinking? I looked at the wallet. She was right. It was ugly. She had been telling me to optimize economize with my O2, but I'm just an old-fashioned who can't completely get off papers. Out of embarrasment, I threw those notes away...

Then we talked about guys who keep coins in their wallets. If two or three pieces of small papers could make my wallet look so ugly, you can imagine that of a guy who keeps coins in it. Some guys even proudly ("look, I've got money") put their big fat wallets full of coins in their Levi's back pocket. That's a total turnoff, I overheard girls' talk once. "Like we don't know it's not part of his body?"

Now that my working environment doesn't allow me to wear Levi's everyday (blame those meetings with clients), I should've not concerned too much, because of course I can put my wallet in my pants' front pocket. But as Anna told me: "Eeew, you look like that Nazi's general from the World War!", especially when the other front pocket is already occupied by my handphone.

OK, I am not keeping coins in my wallet ever again...

(Now a little confession ... and why I stroke the word "pennies" in the title). Back a couple of years ago I was a typical grad student. By "typical" I mean, a guy who accumulated (like or not) pennies in his apartment. Everytime I came home, there was always one penny or two (along with dimes and quarters of course) in my pocket (not in the wallet, girls). I put them in my big glass bowl. Every semester the pennies grew quickly. So I went to my bank to get them transformed to paper bills, to ease carrying and transaction. So far so good. But...

One day I entered the bank hurrily with a sack of pennies. I told the cashier: "Can I change my pennies...". Alas, my accent screwed up. The cashier looked at me with weird expression (later I knew she was trying hard not to laugh). Apparently I pronounced the word "pennies" a little too hurrily, so I might have said another word with completely different meaning...!

Fast forward: I'm much more careful now. Even when teaching Game Theory, for example. Whenever I use the example of "Matching Pennies" game, I change that damn word into "coins"...