True Reflection(s)

My “real rastaman” called today, asking me not to give myself away to any American, Jamerican or whomever, and to keep myself for him as he waits “behind these prison walls,” meaning, in Jamaica.



Considering that I woke up this morning in someone else’s bed, should the appropriate response have been, “Oops?”

I, of course, told A none of this. I’ve never really taken his advances seriously, but I wonder now whether I should have. I think I will in the future. He seems way too set on me for his own good. He apparently wants “a baker’s dozen” worth of children (from numerous women and not just one, I imagine), but is willing to settle for three from me. I’m not too keen on being one in a harem (and he has been quite upfront about the fact that he has a girl in Martinique and has various others in the country), and I’m also not too keen on any further exploration of the Rastafarianism that my choice of hairstyle seems to suggest that I associate myself with, so I’ll have to find some way to let him on to the fact that, as far as I’m concerned, he’s been sentenced to life as my friend and nothing more.

Some other time I’ll have to blog about the dangers of sleeping with your friends, but I’ll save that for when I have legitimate Internet access and am not sitting on my (closed) toilet seat in order to steal a wireless connection from somewhere else in the neighborhood.

[side note: I’m playing a game of online “Scrabble” (aka “WordScraper”) with my brothers and the game cheats heavily in R’s favor by spasmodically denying the rest of us portions of our hard-earned points. Not a facebook app I would recommend. Furthermore, R is so lucky that I missed when he played his last round (the game only updates me when M plays, since M is between R and me) – hoaxy? Rubbish.]

The beginning of school (Sept 2) is too soon for comfort. I still have a room to clean and two books to read, not to mention lesson plans and all that nice stuff to complete. It’s going to be a terrible Sunday/Monday. (Yes, as usual, I’ve left it down to the wire.) The person who was to sell me a bed cancelled on me today. I knew the situation would play out like this, so I wasn’t even truly miffed. I’ll buy a new bed from Costco sometime this week and have them deliver it. By the time that happens, my room will hopefully be clean.

I worry that my flatmate is a neat freak. I worry even more at the possibility that she is one of those people who is messy in a particular way, but gets annoyed at other people’s messes (because they are not her own). She has a plant in a birdcage and walks her geriatric dog in a stroller. She vacuumed and washed dishes while I was gone, but left the vacuum out and plugged in, as if to make the point that she had done it. She is certainly more efficient than I am. We’ll see how this goes. Pray for me.

Snapshot of life in Tarrytown: We went out to a restaurant the other day. It’s a seafood place. It apparently opens at noon, but we came (unwittingly) at 11:30 AM. On our approach, we meet two locals, who immediately inform us that the place doesn’t open till noon, but also counsel us: “Don’t worry, though. Go in! They’ll give you a drink. They at least can give you that!” Love it.

Much love,
Katherine