A Comedy of Errors

Temperature in
Houston, Texas is:

LINKS

Sign my Guestbook
(Powered by SignMyGuestbook.com)

MSN Encarta
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Morrow
"Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves." -Anonymous
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." -F.P. Jones

Profile | Contact Me | Archive | Newest | Diaryland

2004-05-07
give me your freaks, your crazies, your desperate masses...

09:17

If I had a Statue of Liberty dedicated to me, that's probabaly what it would say. I was going to put up some pictures today, but I will do that tomorrow. Instead, something funny happened to me yesterday, and I want to tell it today. So, without further ado, here it is.

Yesterday, I went downtown to meet Beth to listen to some jazz singing. A guy she works with participates in this jazz choir and they were singing in a main alley. It was really cool, with songs like "It Don't Mean a Thing" (in English) and "Bare Necessities" (in German) and I was hanging out, enjoying it while waiting for Beth (for once, I was on time and she was late).

During a break between songs, a guy next to me asked if I speak English. I say yes and he asked if this is a common occasion. I told him no, thinking that's the end of the conversation. Oh how wrong I was. He asked where I'm from, how long I've been in Bremen, what I'm doing, how much I've traveled, if I like it here, etc. He told me he is from Egypt, have I ever been there (no), why not? (Why not? What kind of question is that, why not?) He was part of a ship crew in town on a four-day leave. THEN he said "you're very beautiful". Hello, hold on there just a minute. I mean, sure, nice to hear, but he was asking an awful lot of questions, was overly friendly, and standing much too close to me (although, part of that is probably cultural differences as us North Americans like our distance).

Meanwhile, I was frantically looking around for Beth. He saw what I was doing and asked. Waiting for my friend, I said, she should be here. "Oh, she, not a he, that is good." Um... "Do you have a boyfriend?" (Okay, I went into full lying mode.) I said yes. "Why all these women when I ask, they say yes. Nobody say no." Hmm, I wonder, indeed. He keept going, yadda yadda yadda (I was thinking, leave me alone), then came out with, "if you did not have a boyfriend, I would marry you". What?! "I want many children, you're very beautiful, be a good mother." WHAT?! I don't want children, I have no time, I want my freedom. "I stay home, you have plenty of freedom." I finally said, flat out, no. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Why I am I always so nice? Why can't I just tell this guy to bugger off? "Well, okay, maybe we can be friends. Can I see you tomorrow?" No, I don't think that's a good idea. "Oh, but just as friends." No, and I really need to be finding my friend (where the heck is Beth???). So I took off.

After wandering around in a local department-everything-store, getting creeped out by the Harry Potter display in which they tried to make him look like a hip, young German but only succeeded in making him look like a freaky girl, I headed back out to see if Beth has arrived yet, determined that I shouldn't be the one to have to leave. I almost hoped that that guy was still there and he would start talking to me again so I could tell him off. He wasn't, but Beth was, and I met some of her coworkers. We listened for a while longer before leaving, going through the store again to get to our tram stop and almost making it through but couldn't get past the candy section. We both bought a bunch of candy, and Beth ate enough to give her a stomachache (don't yell at me, Tyler, please! =)

I told the story to Beth and Dinesh and they both thought it was really funny, too. But my question is, why always the creepy weird guys? I am not so sure that I want to be considered beautiful by them. Why can't I get hit on by some hot, young, normal guys? Argh. Oh, the plight of the single young woman.

Speaking of being single, here's a list of the best and worst cities in the US for the dating scene. Nice to see Houston at practically rock bottom.

One more thing, in my quest to learn German, my new phrase that I learned yesterday is "Ich habe meinen Regenshirm vergessen", which means, "I forgot my umbrella". ;) Tsch�ss!

Previous | Next