Hallelujah! / Girl Watching / Swami Ramananda

Hallelujah! I’m finally online! After much trial and tribulation, getting a LAN card installed, buying a new keyboard since the jealous cat had peed on it twenty thousand times while I was away (I think in his sweet little brain he thought the computer had swallowed me up), getting a new CD drive so that the modem software could be installed…I am finally...online. Still lots of hiccups owing to this being a five year old machine – you can’t see my pretty face as you chat with me and the whole machine suddenly shuts down for no apparent reason (I did get the power cable and plug strip changed too so can’t be that). But, I am ONLINE!
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Went to see a Kitano film yesterday. Well, tried to see a Kitano film yesterday...the Jokester was sweet enough to say he’d go with me – I totally bullied him into it, and he almost had a heart attack on the way there when he found out it was in Japanese with sub-titles! Anyway, we got there and it wasn’t on, an error in damn ‘First City’. I should sue them. Was so embarrassed. And the Jokester wouldn’t let me hear the end of it! He thoroughly enjoyed my discomfort and kept making digs at me ("Damn, the one Japanese movie that I've waited my whole life to see - how could you do this woman!" etc etc). We ended up at Priya where we spent three quarters of an hour drinking local chai (not the machine type – please!) and sitting on the sidewalk while he instructed me in the art of girl watching. It was very informative. I thought he would be really superficial and go for great figures and lots of skin but it wasn’t like that at all. A woman who scored high had to be comfortable with what she was wearing, have an open and friendly face - doesn't have to be a stunner, SHOULD NOT BE TEETERING ON STILETTOES (it’s okay to wear them if you can walk in them!), should not hunch, should look confident, he doesn’t go for the intellectual looking types though. Oh and he prefers them covered and not with everything hanging out. Also was instructed in the fundamental principles (Never check out a woman less than 20 feet away, if they figure out you're checking them out they get all snooty.) Of course I supplied the mandatory feminist outrage – maybe she’s wearing it cos she’s feeling hot, so what if she wants to attract attention, what’s wrong with that?, how can you judge her entire character by what she’s wearing on one evening? etc. But I pretty much ended up agreeing with him :) Sorry womankind I did try to defend thee.
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Went to dinner with the Ducati Dreamer last night after avoiding him and putting him off for a while. We have known each other far too long to just cut off. Relationships are complicated, people are complicated – as long as I lay down the rules and boundaries and stick to them strictly we should be able to remain friends.
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Something else rather strange happened last night. But I know that will be fine too. Trust goes a long way.
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And now finally...yet another attempt at fiction! Something I jotted down a few months ago after observing something at a traffic light.

Swami Ramananda

Swami Ramananda tried not to look. But he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.

Through the laterally inverted letters spelling ‘Chant Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ he saw her humming to herself, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. The red of her lips was richer than the red of her car. Her streaked hair framed her strong face – finely etched eyebrows, magnetic eyes.

How many times before had he felt this way – unashamed. Wasn’t it just human?, he thought to himself. And then felt the tears prick his eyeballs.