September 12, 2008
I must have been sitting with my friend Megan in a small Thai restaurant for less than 5 minutes when a woman came up behind her. Earlier when we arrived at the front door we noticed a group of about 20 septuagenarians having a lunch reunion of some sort at a long rectangular table covered in a white table cloth. Little did we know at least one of them, the tallest female, had been watching us, was still watching us—a black man and a coloured girl eating.
So she touched Megan on the shoulder at which Megan jumped, and the woman said, “Wow. I just wanted to telkj adlkj;kadjf jiweofmi.”
Megan smiled, but I missed the entire thing.
“I’m sorry what did you say?”
“She said that—“ Megan started.
“I said you are SUCH a GOOD-looking, handsome man.”
Pause.
“Well, thank you very much. I’m sure she thinks so, too.” I referred to Megan.
The woman smiled and went on her jolly way to the bathroom where joy can sometimes be found.
Megan and I laughed as I tried to explain that, though I work very hard at uglifying myself, sometimes people can see through it.
Another of the septuagenarians came by and spoke to me saying “This food sure is good, isn’t it?”
“You said it, sister!”
She smiled and giggled like she h ad just won the opportunity of a lifetime to make a famous person smile and she did it. I think she half-expected balloons to fall from the ceiling.
We laughed again. I explained that it’s quite normal for me.
“Too bad you only get it from people minimum 70 years!”
We both laughed at that. And from across the room, they just stared at us and watched in glee. Puppy love—two very handsome and cute puppies.
UPDATE
It’s good to be back and writing to you, updating you. Last week I was out of town and this week I have been sick. Strangely enough it appears as if the average person here gets sick more times a year and for longer periods of time. But that’s only my experience. It’s almost like everyone works with little kids. I wonder (assuming it’s real) if it’s related to a different level of warmth/insulation (or sanitation?) during the winter.
We recently had another winter blast in the winter’s final attempt to win a shouting match against spring. The winter is the winner. And now we have received snow in some parts of South Africa while I huddle with my warm water bottle at night. Some friends of mine (two groups) have gone camping to places where they could find snow because it’s a novelty here. Someone told me that the news reported snow hitting the beachfront. Just to make it clear, the snow places are isolated locations. Please don’t think there was snow across the country or anywhere near me (we usually have snow only at the tops of certain mountains, and we only have one ski resort in the country with a very short ski run).
Other than that, Ross (the guy I speak with; I first met him on a hike near Knysna, South Africa) and Melissa (she’s the pretty, sweet, Godly girl who lives in my neighborhood and car pools with me) are now dating. The strange thing is that they met through me. I don’t even come from this country and I introduced two people that may end up together in the end. Now, THAT is strange. I had a daydream today about coming back for their wedding. After one month of dating that’s completely premature, but you’re allowed to daydream for others.
This week, I have a few goals: 1) get a new health insurance (the one required for my visa expired last week) 2) start back at the gym regularly 3) get a college loan deferred 4) renew car registration
Wish me luck. I’m looking for health insurance that includes gym membership (as long as you go once a month it’s free for a certain level of premium). I need to see how much they ask. The doctor would always laugh at me when I went to him and told him the name of my student health insurance, and after flipping through pages of medication names, he would tell me that I would just have to buy it out-of-pocket because my medical aid doesn’t even cover the generic versions. I think I could hear more chuckling after that but I’m not sure since he was coughing at the same time.
I was told that I should have asked for a week off, but I decided to tell people I was taking spring vacation (break), and I did. I have only taken one week of vacation to go to the States. Maybe it was a week and a half. But it was good to go away even if only for a week. It was also a spur-of-the-moment drive. And I drove all the way to the Eastern Cape. . .to Grahamstown. On my way out of Cape Town, I escaped what looked like one of the worst Cape Storms in years.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=833246
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20080830103349644C863904
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