Scene: Trininista walking down the streets of Port of Spain, during her lunch break, looking cute as always, albeit a little aggravated cause the Third World pavements are destroying my Manhattan bought shoes, and threatening to give me a sprained ankle. A man is walking in the opposite direction, towards the 'nista. He is leering in that Trini way. Smiling. His lips curve as he prepares to speak, no doubt about to utter some lame line about my figure or my complexion. I roll my eyes behind my sunglasses and ready my lips, tongue and teeth to release the loud sucking sound Trinis call a "steups".
Man: Baby, you look good. I wanna ride you like Seabiscuit.
Steups averted. It was so funny I made sure I was out of his sight before I laughed aloud. It is a line that I have placed as my #1 pickup line ever!
Fast-forward to the technology age. Now I have weird men offering to chat me up on Facebook, as I have complained on countless occasions on my wall, and to friends whose "thirsty" friends spot my cuteness on a comment or a "like" and feel it is a free-for-all on the friend requests. Now I also have random men stalking me even on Twitter. How do you stalk someone on Twitter? I am not sure but it must take a special (idle) type of person. In any event, a few weeks ago, on my other handle - my professional handle - a young man sent me a DM, not just chatting me up, but extending the cyber assault by offering his BBM pin.
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| BBM fever |
1. I love the sound of the human voice. I mean, what is it now with people and all these gadgets and texting and BBMing and malarkey? Does anyone even know how to make a phone call anymore? Call me old fashioned, but I love a good old phone call. A few months ago, a guy, who should have known better cause he knew me well enough by then, tried to plan a date with me via text and email. He did not hear from me and never once thought, maybe I should call. Nope. He was depending solely on this email which I could not, or would not access cause I was out. Sorry but I only access emails on my laptop. I spend enough time on this as it is. I am not going to sit online via my phone as well. So he waited and waited, getting no answer from me, and then sent me a text. "What's happening later? I sent an email". A phone call would have solved all his dating problems. I thought maybe this was an English thing but I know it is becoming a global communication phenomenon. It irks me.
As for Mr BBM, I mean, if he had asked me for my Skype, he may have had a chance (.0000001 of a chance), but my BBM pin? Really? Which brings me to point #2.
2. I do not currently own a Blackberry or any type of smartphone. I know this makes me a social and technological pariah, but I don't want to be one of those hamsters on the platform, with eyes glued to the screens of a phone. While I can access all things internet on my piece of crap Samsung, I don't. Trinis love the art of maccoing aka minding other people's business. Being in London, the city of the seemingly indifferent, has not changed that. I always on the lookout for something interesting from homosapiens. That's the fun part of life.
I feel like all these gadgets, while great on many levels, also retard socialisation and I must admit, I resent it.
Needless to say, the young man never got a response. I do not respond to Facebook, Twitter or BBM flirting. Fun fact for today. I cannot believe I am saying this, but I much prefer random men in the street and their Seabiscuit analogies. At least it is in 3D and live surround sound.
I once got "ride you like Rocinante" (Don Quixote's horse), which scored literary points, at least.
ReplyDeleteWow. That is impressive! lol.
ReplyDeleteThe man gets credit for his boldness, albeit it his douchey boldness. Personally I never had the cahones to say anything that bold to a woman, I usually visualized her smacking the crap out of me.
ReplyDeleteI commend the man for his boldness, albeit his douchey boldness. Personally I never had the cahones to be that in your face. I always visualized having the crap smacked out of me.
ReplyDeleteHahaha. This technology/talking on the phone part made me laugh because I was looking at my cellular bill yesterday and was a little surprised to see that I rarely use my phone to actually TALK. It's almost all data and texting.
ReplyDeleteNo one has ever used a cheesy pickup line on me in my life. I'm kind of disappointed by this.
I, too, love the Seabiscuit comment. OMG, totally would have made my day to hear that spoken out loud!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what's wrong with people today, but I couldn't agree more. What's wrong with picking up a phone and actually CALLING someone these days? I got a phone call from a guy the other night and we were chatting for about an hour, and it was wonderful. And it made me sad all the same b/c I can't remember the last time that has happened. Ugh. Men.