Hello there,
Hope you're doing well. Let me begin this edition by thanking all of you for the friends requests that have come in. It may not be possible for me to thank everyone personally, so I am taking this opportunity to thank all my new friends who have joined me on the roller-coaster ride of my life! Thank you! Now, lets dig in... | | | If you have trouble viewing this email, please click here. You are receiving this email from 123Greetings. | | | | | | Girlfriend's Day [Aug 1] Starbucks was party to some drama the other day when all the women, Kaitlin, Kate, Megan, and Irina decided to hang out. The 'girl gang' was quite upbeat about meeting up after a long time and someone informed me about the meeting. I think it was Megan. She's the one who's most likely to tell you about a party in which you are not invited! But I was really curious the entire evening to know what was going on at the cafe.
Next day the phone rang early. It was Megan again. She sounded serious. She started with "Bob, it's serious." At the end of a ten-minute talk, I realized that maybe it's not serious, but it is most definitely alarming. It was about the party they had. Staying true to what she said, this is what happened. Things were moving on really well and they were having a great 'girls' day out' time, even planning to celebrate Girlfriend's Day on August 1, when Kate brought up the subject of shopping for her marriage. That is when it went off the track and into the slide.
Kate had some ideas about handling the shopping and the clothes and the wedding theme she wanted. Irina, who is very fashion-conscious and on a love high these days, with her new hotshot boyfriend and all, decided to cut in. She tore up Kate's plans in shreds and made Kate feel like her plans were only good enough to marry off dolls. This brought on an ego clash between the two and things fell apart. Megan said that the tension went so high up that they almost started yelling on top of their lungs. The people on the neighboring tables went silent and stared at them. Irina and Kate suddenly noticed that they caused a ruckus so they calmed down and the group quietly exited the cafe.
Now I know the matter would be resolved in a couple of days because both of them are sensible human beings. What I am worried about is that such incidents sometimes make a negative impact in the long run. And that is alarming, I don't want the group to break up and I am sure nobody wants it either. | | | | | Pamper Yourself Day [Aug 6] Lo behold, I've got to tell you all that I was forced to go into a beauty treatment. I'm a true blue Californian surfer boy, OKAY?! I don't really pamper myself. I don't see the need apart from the usual personal hygiene. That way I don't really fit in very well with the image of the 'New York metrosexual male'. I'm the boy next door that you'll see in t-shirts and jeans, skating around in the neighborhood. I used to be way more tanned than I am now, but New York pretty much changed my skin. After years of living here, it's sickly pale. So I get out to the parks and skate whenever I can. The best thing about the summer is that I can skate to work, but the traffic gets a little crazy around the Times Square area, so I start walking from there onwards.
Donna got me this beauty package for my birthday. She was going to take me to a black tie event so it was the perfect birthday gift that was going to improve both our images. She said, "Bob, I know you're not going to clean yourself up properly, so I got the package for you. You don't have a choice. You want to go to this event so I need you to look your best." Apparently big funders for non-profit organizations that Donna's working with are going to be there. Plus some of her socialite family friends are going to be there. So I needed to do this for Donna. I didn't mind, and I'm not going to use the "what are friends for" line either. I figured it's something out of the ordinary routine that I should just enjoy.
So I took the day off the other day to well, to 'get pampered'. Donna came with me to give me company. It was my first time being in a beauty parlor and I wasn't going to cut my hair. I walked in and I felt like a giant. All the little Korean ladies stared at me, they came up to about my chest. At least Donna comes up to my shoulders. Donna told them what to do. I had to take off my sandals. All of a sudden I was surrounded by little Korean ladies taking care of my hands and feet, laughing and talking in a tongue I couldn't understand. They were probably talking about how dirty my finger nails were or something about my face. I thanked Donna for picking an hour that she thought would have the least number of people pampering themselves. There were one or two other clients, I was the only guy in there. I was also the tallest person. I felt self-conscious, like a teenager.
Donna did her pampering as well. She seemed to fit in fine, unlike me who was feeling uneasy throughout all this. I failed to understand why you need to brush, trim, wash, then re-brush and wash again. I mean, isn't it enough to do it just once? And then they did some other stuff like "buffing", as I was educated by Donna. They did some other stuff that I don't really recall. But overall it wasn't as bad an experience as I thought. I think I fell asleep for a while when they were doing my facial. I can understand now why people are so addicted to beauty treatments and spas. It was really relaxing for me, and almost therapeutic. So if you're really stressed out, go get yourself pampered and feel rejuvenated. Hey, it's cheaper than vacations! | | |
| | | Friendship Day [Aug 3] After I returned from the Cape, life has been one busy chaos. Work piled up on my desk, I couldn't really sleep properly and I felt drugged in the mornings. So I suggested to my friends that we meet up soon. They agreed and we met at a new hangout place. This place was new but it was cozy. I loved the whole couch theme all around and you can see people coming and going. The lighting was fantastic and the waitresses were really friendly. Totally not New York at all. The scenery refreshed me, I mean you can go to the regular dive bars only so many times. All of us were there except Irina, who was out with Richard on a 'holiday trip', AGAIN!
We gathered around a largish table and talked about the golden times that we have spent together. Then an idea struck me. I told the others to talk about the first impression we had when we met each other! We had to be as honest as possible. It was a riot! It was like those truth or dare games we play at house parties. Except there's only the truth part. All sorts of odd impressions came up and we were very amused to find out what we thought of each other before we became really good friends. And if you guys are thinking that I am about to give you a sneak peak into that as well, you will be disappointed! That's because they made me promise that they will play to my idea only if I kept quiet about it as far as my newsletters are concerned. Sorry folks!
What I can tell you is that I had a whale of a time and it helped me recharge my batteries to a great extent. Really there's nothing like old friends and old wine. Friendship Day isn't far off, so I am thinking of having a sort of BBQ party to celebrate our being together for so many years. Talk about first impressions, why don't you share your stories of how you first got this newsletter? Click here to comment and share! |
| Double Date Deal Breaker! The mail came in the afternoon. I was just about to take it easy for a little time after my lunch when my mail popped up. The mail was from the online dating site I registered with. I know many of you guys must be wondering why I did it, but anyway, it's done now! They got me a date after all!
Her name was Cathy. This time I decided to have a good time whatever it took. So I booked a table for two in a fancy restaurant that everyone's been talking about. Cathy turned up half an hour late. She was wearing a peach colored gown with a single strap on the left shoulder. To add the icing on an already overcooked cake, she had a chunky sunflower pinned to the solitary strap! I was taking some big gulps of slowly receding oxygen supply when she yelled something about being sorry. I was taken aback by the loudness of her voice. She reminded me of Fran from 'The Nanny'.
I was grappling with her loud voice and trying my best to keep curious eyes off our table when it got from bad to worse. I kept my head down but when I gazed up I couldn't believe what I saw. Standing by the hostess was Leo, with Megan on his arm. The man I dislike and am starting to hate even more now for having turned up at a time when I am not in a good mood. He always seemed to show up at the wrong times! "Hi Bob, my pal!" came his greeting--the same pompous wave of the hand and patronizing tone. Then they walked up to our table. Leo insisted on having a double date and two more chairs were arranged at our table.
Then Leo bragged. He bragged as if there was no tomorrow. The problem was that he did not need to stop. He had two spell-bound listeners in Cathy and Megan. Cathy even shifted her chair a little in his direction so that she can hear him clearly! Megan was clearly besotted; she had the excuse: she was in love. I fiddled around with the salt and pepper shakers till the food arrived. Then I ate in silence while Leo continued his one-man show, being the motivational speaker that he is. At the end of it all, I was so tired that I said a quiet good bye to Cathy and left. I didn't even turn to see what reaction my abrupt exit made on the three of them.
The moral of the story? Never blind double date! It can spell disaster. Come to think of it, I think I'm going to give up on online dating... it's just really not working out for me. That reminds me of the Zen quote I read the other day, "Computer dating is fine, if you're a computer," said Rita Mae Brown. I'm not a computer and it's starting to spell like the end for me. What do you think? Should I give it another shot? | | |
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Enjoy the experiece........!!!!!!
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