Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Night 2: Night out in Tannersville or Fixation Time

We knew that the plan for that night was to have drinks in Tannersville, another small picturesque village in the Catskills. What we did not know was the couple of colorful characters that we would meet!

Character #1: a golfer in his fifties started making conversation to us. Even if he did not say he was a golfer, you could tell he was one. He was fixated with us, and in apology for his fixation would buy us one round of drinks. And, a second one. He was clearly in need of making conversation, particularly sharing his frustration for been eliminated from a major golf tournament. He was desperately trying to get attention, which he was not getting much from me at least, though he was from the rest of the restaurant and from the bartender, concerned for his ethylic saturation. Finally, he left.

Character #2: a guy in his 40s-50s (yes, that type that you cannot tell the age!) fixated with me. He would not stop flirting with me (thinking that I was sola –which in spirit, I undoubtedly was) in an intellectual discussion, meshed with compliments and unsuccessful invites to get up and dance to Bossa Nova tunes that were playing live in this cozy upscale restaurant. I figured it was high time to engage the absent-spirit-and-present-body sitting by my side into this dialogue, and thankfully that saved me from persistently flirty unsolicited invites. Needless to say, the discussion now took a spin to the sheer intellectual side. Now it was hard for me to participate in this heated conversation that looked like an intellectual (ego?) competition ranging from non-mainstream books read to philosophy.
Until absent-spirit-and-present-body said as part of his philosophical insights: I am deeply unhappy. But in some way it is good: unhappiness can be a motivation to get out of it. To what I responded: It might, except if those living around you shall pay for it!
I stood up to go to the washroom, and left them both in that sequence of jaw-dropped turned into smile, and further compliments on my point from Mr Flirty.  I could see that with his facial expression and eyes he tried to get absent-spirit-present-body to join him in his Kudos.... naïf of him.
 
Itinerary of Day 2. Also included driving by Hunter, another typical village in the area.
Source: GoogleMaps.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Ha! I keep telling myself I will stop reading and commenting... but there's no way I can go to sleep without saying: 'I know what you mean, amiga!I have been there!'
And if we have been discussing in our previous posts about how important it is to be aware, then we might as well say: it's no good to be with someone who is not! Specially if he's not aware of us! ;)
And now I will go to sleep and comment no more... at least for today!

Gypsy's Bang said...

:D
Def, Florencia!
I really wish that a frail, weak mindfulness muscle was the justification.
Sometimes awareness is there, not just of us but of the whole situation, and they still prefer to follow that 'other way'. Hence, the worst of all situations!

So awareness is condition necessary but not sufficient: the follow-through attitude is required ;)


And please DO continue enriching and inspiring this Blog with your comments :)

Unknown said...

Hah! It definitely IS the worst of all when they choose not to mind, not to be aware...
Sometimes I am so self centered and naive that I think that if someone is truly aware of you, they can't help but love you. Maybe not the way you want them to, but still... and I also think it works both ways, too.
The thing is... love is also a muscle which needs to trained, right? Just as much as awareness/mindfulness.

Gypsy's Bang said...

Absolutely, Florencia.
In the understanding that they are on the same page and that they agree on the definition of "love" (this might sound obvious but it is fundamental... expectations management?) the question is, is it possible at all for anyone to not know how to? And if so, then is it possible for anyone to learn, even at a mature age?
If such is the case, of course then the following question is if you want to spend any time or even share your life with someone like that. And why.