Home Assignment-October 22, 2007

[z bebamboo z]

Write about a man or a woman who got stood up on a date.

[dhmt3]

Hi co^ Bamboo,


Since I was a bit wordy and my writing was too long, I posted it at http://tienganh.net/showthread.php?p=2500#post2500

However, I've just read it again, and felt quite depressed because of being stood up. I thought I might want a different conclusion. So, here it is. I would add the following paragraph, just enough to make me wonder ...

“Hi” a girl said. I looked to my side. Oh, it was the cute little waitress. She was holding two cups of coffee. “I thought you may want more coffee,” she said teasingly. She dressed differently, but she still wore the same smile. Her long wavy black hair fell over her unbutton faded jean jacket. Her eyes, shone with million sunlights, seemed to smile along. She walked lightly while trying to catch her breath as if she was just chasing someone. “Thank you,” I smiled. I reached over for the coffee cup and kept walking slowly ... next to her beautiful and playful eyes.

[gdpt-]

Haha, I read dhmt's story and for some reason, I wanted to write a quick response to it... w/ the waitress's perspective.

So here goes........................

"Would you like more coffee?" I whispered softly, careful not to startle him.

Puzzled, he gazed into my eyes as a confused expression grew upon his attractive face.

"Yes, please," he responded with a heart-melting melancholic voice. I lean inward to pour hot coffee into his half-emptied mug. His scented Polo Colone found its way through my nostril as I inhale lightly, not wanting to make it obvious. I took a last glimpse at his breath-taking musculine physique as I strode back to my working space.

A dismal sensation arose into the air as I analyze his movements from behind the counter. He was anxious to see someone because, evidently, he kept looking at his watch every 2 minutes or so. Doesn't he realize that looking at his watch won't really make a difference?

"Sigh, what a sympathetic soul," I thought to myself.

"How can someone stand THAT piece of ART up?" I questioned my co-worker. "I don't know," she replied, "why don't you go talk to him?"

"Well, what if he wants to be left alone?" I continued to interrogate.

"Well..." she exclaimed. "If you continue to harass me with these questions, I might have to ignore you!"

Then there she went, back to serving our customers as I grabbed another pot of coffee and headed toward the handsome face.

"More coffee?" I smiled as I stood there, thinking of possible conversation starters. BLANK. ZIPPO. NADA. Nothing came to mind. Not even a "what are you reading there" or "are you waiting for your wife?" or anything. I blanked out for what seems like 30 minutes. I grunted and walked away thinking... "sigh, if only co^ BBB taught me some conversation starter skills on ESE, I wouldn't have been muted at such a vulnerable moment."

[boomchat]

It would be lucky for anyone who hasn’t gotten stood on a date. Probably many of those don’t have a date and the others have a wonderful relationship. Unfortunately, I was the one who got stood on a date and the answer had not been received.


I met a girl named Jenny in Mall of America which is the largest one in the United States and we had conversed for hours about everything. Jenny was a pretty girl compared with ones I have ever met and she had a beautiful smile. I liked to look at her mouth when she talked, her lips twisted and bent rhythmically in every word coming out. I felt good and am proud of myself because I thought I was the luckiest man in the world. We chewed the fat each other hours and hours about life, cool places and interests. Every man went by us, I could see the jealousy in their eyes and I felt like I were the winner.


Eyes to eyes we said goodbye and I asked her out for an officially date next day. I told her to meet me at the Showplace theater in Coon Rapid and she said ‘yes’ and I was so happy that I could jump up in joy. I walked her to the car and saw her disappearing far off from there. I got in my car and began to think about the future and giggled with a vision displayed in mind about the old couple standing on a cruise ship, eyes out to the sea, like Wyatt and his wife in an old film of the Wild West. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t pay attention on anything because my mind floated on the sky and I broke quite many dishes. That was alright. I couldn’t help to look forward to our meeting the next day.


Waking up in the middle of the night, I looked out the window. It was dark. I was groping around in the darkness to find the night-stand light switch. I looked at the watch. It was five past twelve. It was so early and I couldn’t close my eyes anymore. Down stairs went I to get water to drink.
Somehow I couldn’t stay in one place; I sat on a chair a while but I couldn’t sit long. It was as if I were sitting on a pointy object. Then I went up to sleep again. But I couldn’t close my eyes, I thought of the next day with Jenny. The routine was like that so many times that I wasn’t able to keep track. The happy feelings kept running along my body to prevent me from sleeping. Finally, I had to read books and count flying sheep in my head in order to be able to sleep.


In the next day all I could do was to iron the clothes and looked at the mirrors. Talking to myself as if to Jenny, I created many images of what I would be doing when I see her. The wall clock kept reminding me the time by pounding the sound to tell time. Patiently, I followed the time going by.
I came to the appointment location forty five minutes early to wait for Jenny. I waited and waited…Looking at my watch, I talked to myself Jenny was supposed to be there by that time but I remembered that girls are always late as I ever heard a friend of mine said. I consoled my feeling by walking back and forth from the place. Casting quickly at the watch on my wrist, half an hour had passed but there was no Jenny in sight. “Jenny, where are you? Do you remember the date of ours?” I mumbled. Still, I couldn’t see Jenny whereabouts. It was getting late at night and I dared not go anywhere. I believed that she would be there.


I watched carefully every approaching car and whoever walked out of the car but she wasn’t Jenny. A figure was far from the distance getting closer to me. “It’s Jenny, please” I told myself. The face appeared clearly under the street light. No, it wasn’t her. A beggar kept bothering me for money. I couldn’t stand him anymore and had to give money to stay him away.
I began to recall our conversation of yesterday. I was wondering if I said anything wrong that offended Jenny. But I couldn’t find any. I beat myself not asking her phone number and where she lived. “Boom, why are you so stupid about that kind of thing,” words rang on my mind. It was midnight. No date could come at that time. I was sure that I got stood on the date. Could anyone tell me why?

[dhmt3]

Miss gd, I'm no expert in girl's thinking, but if I were the guy in the coffee shop, I would like very much if the waitress would have said something. How about making up a story for the waitress to tell, then? with the waitress's point of view, of course .

--------------------------------------------
“More coffee?” I smiled as I stood there, thinking of a possible conversation starter. He still seemed distracted but politely turned to me and forced a smile, “No thank you, I think I have enough for now.” “Well, gd, say something,” I kept telling myself, but I couldn’t think of anything. What should I say? I might have seemed to be talkative on Paltalk, but this is real life! Besides, Miss Bamboo hasn’t held any conversation starter class, yet. I need a mentor. I need instructions. How would he respond to whatever I am about to say? Am I going to make a fool of myself if I said something nonsense? May be he was waiting for his girlfriend. In that case, I’d better stop right here, right now. But what if he just waited for a friend? What if he wanted to talk but didn’t want to start a conversation? What if he would never come back to this place again? What if … “I wonder if I could use a phone?” Oh, he’s just said something. Did I hear “a phone?” Oh yes, a telephone. His cell phone is probably out of battery. “Sure, come on over” I said and walked to the cash register, went to the other side, and handed him the phone.

He dialed, listened, wrinkled his eyebrows, and put the handset down. He dialed again, and hung up again. “Thank you,” he said and started walking away. “You seem distracted,” I blurted out. Oh my goodness, have I just said something to him? Why did I do such a silly thing? But wait. He stopped, and turned to look at me. No, he was no longer distracted. He was 100% focusing on me now. He looked at me as if I was the only one in the whole universe that mattered to him. He smiled again. The guy liked to smile. May be I should call him Mr. Smile instead. But he looked cute when he smiled, anyway. His lips stretched out just a little, showing a bit of his teeth. His clean shaved white face made him look a little like … công tử bột, but overall, he looked attentive, comfortable, and somewhat overconfident. “I’m sorry. I might have been a bit distracted. How are you?” and returned to his smile while looking at me, still.

Am I imagining or what? The way he said “how are you” made me think that he really wanted to know how I really am. “Watch out, gd, don’t fall for the trap,” I was telling myself. “Oh, what the heck,” I decided. I think I like the guy. Let’s see how it goes. “I am fine,” I said slowly with a lower tone than usual. I looked at the floor and smiled for just a second then looked up at his eyes, still smiling while pausing for the effect, I continued, “I though the afternoon was too beautiful to be distracted.” “Well ...” he seemed to agree, “sometimes beauty can also be a distraction,” he paused, barely wrinkled his right eyes, expressing a teasing mood, “have you noticed how beautiful you are?”

I smiled. My afternoon shift happened to be over, just now.

[Handsome Bear]

I wonder what has happened. Outside, the sun has already been up half way in the sky, peeping over a row of tall pine trees. People start to come in. Some stop over for a coffee, while others wander around. They would pick up a book here and there, glance through it, and move on to the next row. The John Grisham book in front of me was pretty interesting this morning, but I have lost the interest. Have I heard it wrong? Should it be today or tomorrow? Is this the right Barnes and Nobles, or is it supposed to be the East side one? Or may be I am supposed to be at Borders. I am pondering through thousands of possibilities to figure why my good old buddy hasn’t shown up yet. Now I get confused. Every thought makes sense, but I could settle on none. OK, I am pretty sure that we are supposed to meet today at nine, and this is the Barnes and Nobles that we were talking about. Or were we?

I get up and buy myself another cup of coffee. It is my third one. Nah, I am not that crazy about coffee. It is just something to hold with my free hand. I also like the heat when holding it. I probably like the bitterness of the coffee, mixing together with a sweet smell of hazelnut creamer, too. Well, I probably like it because of the habit and the taste. Sometimes, though, it does help keeping my mind clear … Hmm, I am rambling again. That is it. It must have been me. I probably talked too much. I drive everyone crazy by talking nonsense and nonstop. I am all mixed up. I thought I was easy to get along with. Wouldn’t talking make other people feel more comfortable? “Not when you talk their ears off,” my sister would have said.

People are coming in more and more now, but I recognize none. There is a cute little asian girl holding a Pooh Bear and looking intensively at something on a bookshelf. Her sister, a calm looking girl with glasses, is reading a thicker book nearby. Her black pony tail is nicely done. She looks studious. Oh, is it because of my look, then? Are my glasses too big, or are they too small on my face? Is my hair too messy? Ah ha, may be it is about my teeth. I have an extra tooth. In Việt Nam, we call that “răng khểnh” but in America, they would probably call it “răng nanh”. But I am not talking about an American here, so “răng khểnh” isn’t a bad thing, is it? Am I too tall, may be? I am a bit taller than an average Vietnamese, but mom thinks that I am fine and dandy. She even thinks I look good. Oh, well, it is just a “mommy’s thinking”. For her, I am still her little baby. May be one day, she would realize that I have no longer needed my Teddy Bear.

An hour has passed. I guess we are not going to meet today … or any other day. That is so sad! I thought we were getting along well on Paltalk, through Yahoo IM, or on the phone. We looked good in the pictures that we sent over the net. We looked fine on webcam as well. We laughed, smiled, made faces, pretended crying (hu hu) or sometimes, acted like two little monkeys, and we have gotten along fine. Oh well, I shan’t wait forever. May be I should go home and checked into Paltalk. Miss Giggle has probably been up and xí-xọn away in the room by now.

[Handsome Bear]

Thay BoomChat oi, in your story, you were asking why Jenny hadn't shown up.
Well, instead of going through your conversation with Jenny the day before, I went through your story, and I finally figured out why :salute:

As you said, you "came to the appointment location forty five minutes early to wait for Jenny." However, you have already gotten antsy when "half an hour had passed, but there was no Jenny in sight." You probably waited for another 10 minutes watching "carefully every approaching car." You spent another minutes or two to talk and give a beggar some money for his drug habit, and took off exactly 45 minutes after you arrived at the location :ooss:

Jenny was probably parking her cute little red convertible Mercedes down the street only a couple minutes after you left, walked to the location, and spent the next hour waiting for you! :sad_no:

She left depressed and heart broken. She dreamt days and nights of the image of the handsome man she had met at the mall ... but her phone has never rung. She spent days after days going back to the mall, hoping to find her chatty Prince Charming who has forever captured her heart. She spent lonely nights daydreaming of him. She couldn't sleep. She couldn't eat. She wandered around her house while her mind was floating somewhere in a different universe.

Years has gone by. When passing through a small castle in a secluded neighborhood of Coon Rapid from the forever cold Minnesota, people can't help thinking of a story of a girl, who, once in blue moon, stood by the window and looked into the nothingness, searching for her lover who has never realized ...

[iPropose]

I leaned my head to look passed the middle passenger and took a peek at the ground below as soon as the pilot announced that we would be descending. I don’t deny it. I was nervous. My anticipation was at rooftop for this trip. We’ve met on Paltalk almost a year back. Like any other Paltalkers, we started out with casual conversations. One thing led to another, and we became very close pals. She’s sweet, funny, and intelligent. However, convincing her to finally meet me was quite a task. Just when I was about to give up, she gave in; and there I was on the destined flight. We’ve exchanged pictures, but I still couldn’t get enough of her. I couldn’t wait to see her emerging into reality just to have the definite assurance that I didn’t live a dream knowing someone like her.

I hurriedly walked off the plane in long quick strides. My travel bag felt like feather along side. I hoped to see her smiling face, as I had seen her in one of the pictures, waiting for me right in the waiting area right at the end of the exit corridor. I kept on a very big smile to greet her. There were quite a number of people standing around the waiting area, their faces anticipating; I saw none familiar. “She’s probably walking up to the gate now,” I thought to myself. “No biggie. I can wait.” I stood to the side of the corridor to be out of the way of others passengers while fixing my thoughts on remembering how she looked like; long hair, oval face, and a cute short stout nose like most typical Asians.

I checked my watch. Fifteen minutes had passed since I arrived on Houston’s airport. I felt uncomfortable sitting on one of the waiting benches right outside of my arrival gate. I caught glances of the check-in/out attendants now in preparation to move to another gate. More than forty five minutes later or so, another crew of attendants arrived to prepare for another departure. I got more glances; whether or not they were empathetic, I didn’t care. There was still no sight of any long hair, oval face, and cute short stout nose girl anywhere. That was added on top of the uneasy feeling I had while waiting for her like a boiling kettle wheezing and emitting hot vapor all at the same time. My throat began feeling a bit dry. Fifteen more minutes passed. I assured myself, “Perhaps she’s stuck in traffic. Maybe I should take it easy and go waiting for her down on the ground floor instead.” I took another round of look in the waiting area just to make sure that I did not miss the sight of her; then I got up and walked on toward the escalator down the airport lobby. I paced myself through the halls of airport shops and checked through almost every faces I crossed just to find the resemblance of her sweet face. The walked seemed infinite; and I caught more strange glances from people as I checked passed their faces.

Down in the baggage claim was full of people. I suddenly realized that it would be even harder to spot her out from the large crowd. I began to feel a little panic. My eyes swept through the unfamiliar faces. For the next thirty minutes, I waited at the end of the escalator leading up to the gates in hope that I could catch her in her tardiness before I would lose her in the crowd. More time had passed. I had stopped keeping track of the time. The travel bag felt like rocks along side from my shoulder. I decided to step outside for a gulp of fresh air. The passengers pick-up area was full of cars in several lanes stopping and moving, of people walking in and out, of people hugging and cheering each other, and of anything but my girl. I bit both the bottom and the top of my lips, and looked around. The hot humid air swarmed over my face and body, thrusting on the exhaustion. I tried to recall how she had once told me what kind of car she drives. I saw cars approached and hoped at each one that it would finally be her stepping out of the car with opened arms awaiting me. It had been hours since I landed, and yet I was still stranded in the airport. Everything turned dark around me… and I woke up sweating. The pilot just announced that we would be landing shortly.

===
Written for a friend who thinks he would be left abandoned and stranded at IAH. :shoock:

[z bebamboo z]

The clock struck eight as I entered the restaurant. A quick glance over to survey the population of this bourgeoise gathering. Alone in the corner of the center booth sat a young vibrant woman that caught my sight. Impatiently looking up at the clock along the decorations on the opposite wall, she glared quickly at me as her eyes returned to the door. An asian woman in her late twenties, with shoulder length jet black hair, along with well proportioned chest to match. She wore a red velvet dress with a nice silky scarf on her neck. "What a piece of work" I muttered to myself. She seemed very edgy as she continually glances at the door and the parking lot. I strolled slowly over to the table across hers, and sat down without any hesitation. Here is a chance for me to express my lesbian love towards this wonderful creature, lost in the glimmer of this once rich pick up joint. I ordered a drink as I turned my head towards her and declared "Are you waiting for someone, babe"? "I noticed you've been checking the parking lot several times" as I smiled. She seemed surprised as she took a rather long pause, after which she nodded and smiled back. I was shock out of my seat as she smiled and said "me no speaky en go` lit" with her two front buck tooth well exposed. This was the first time I met friend, co bebamboo.

[z bebamboo z]

The most memorable life experience of mine is dating with being stood up. Just last year, when I was introduced to a very exciting chit chat website, pal talk, by a close friend. At first, it was not that exciting as being told my friend. But after about six month, when I had happened to meet with a very sweet talk member there, Chubbychick, I started to log on to the site right after work when being at home as if it was my home. Just by the way she chat, I was already in loved with sweet words that I had dreamed of when sleeping. Eight months had passed since our first “Hi there…How are you?” I asked for a picture of hers. She looked just like my imagination, prettier than any girls than I have known of. Could not hold back the feeling of seeing her real face in real life, I beam her a message of the plan, “would you like to have a cup of hot chocolate together tomorrow night at starbuck? one block from you, at 7:30 pm.?” She knew I look above average. So, I was very positive with a “yes, babe” replied mail. The entire day of work that day, I was full of happiness and excitement. I checked the mail every half an hour and until four pm I still did hear any lovely sound as I used to “You got mail.” I was pretty said on the way home with million questions in mind. What had happened to her? Did she reject me…..what was it? I checked mail right after getting into my room. What a lovely moment that I had been waiting for the entire day at work, “You got mail.” It was her email. I scanned through it as if I broke the world record of one hundred meter run. “I’ll see you there, babe, muahhhh.” That was the only words that I remembered and needed. As going out for a party, night club, with nice clothes on and of course with a lot of cool water colon. I was there at seven, thirty minutes early. I was happily and patiently with a newspaper and waiting for her. Seven thirty had passed, then eight. I decided to call her to see if she was on her way. No phone ring, just a lovely voice of the answering machine as lovely as I used to hear when we talk on the net. It had been eight thirty and I was till here by myself the newspaper two hours ago. I decided to go home unhappily. From that night, I had not seen her online any more until now. Whatever the reason that she got me stood up…I just don’t know. But life moves on and so do I. But, she still has the sweetest voice that I’ve ever heard and I do miss it once in a while.