You're cooler than the flipside of my pillow

Today, when I was walking on an usual street, I saw a very old man standing in front his house. I smiled and said hello. He smiled back, and said, 'You are a very happy woman. Beautiful! Bella!' That made me smile for the next five minutes.  There's another old man on our street who usually stands in his balcony and smokes, or talks on the phone in a loud voice. And every time I go past, he smiles and waves. I actually talked to him today, and somewhere in between, I managed to get permission to take photos of the spider-web in his front yard. The house opposite ours has a beautiful old lady who smiled brightly at me the first day that she saw me. 

I love having these random nice moments with people in the street, people who I know nothing about, yet, are polite to, because, we share the same space for a few seconds.

Or, like yesterday, on the train. I had one of those moments of 'should-I-or-should-I-not'. The guy in front of me and I got up from our seats at the same time, then both of us hesitated. I hesitated because he was in front of me, and he hesitated because I was female. And as my brother pointed out the other day, I would make a very bad feminist (although I do admire some of them); predictably, I just laughed, said thanks and walked out. The nice thing is, he laughed too - not an annoyed laughter - but a genuine, thanks-for-some-entertainment laughter.

But I don't think I was always a bad feminist (Politically correct readers: I'm using the word quite loosely. Don't crucify me in trying to define it.). Once upon a time, I used to feel bad when guys got up for me and I do still feel bad when someone else (other than my family) tries to pay for me (now that I earn). However, in most cases, I think I was quite reasonable in my demands. On two separate occasions, randoms got up for me on the university bus and 'insisted' that I sat. I mean, they probably were not even five years older than me, so they could not have been brought up with the chivalry of previous generations. The only other option is that they thought themselves stronger than I am and hence could endure standing up for twenty minutes while I could not. Which is pretty insulting.

As for the paying thing, that goes out to you Emu from Mars. Talking of Martian emus, where have you disappeared? Leave a buzz if you ever come across this. :)

Since the martian is a female friend, I guess that makes it okay and awkward both at the same time. It is okay because she is older and I eventually just stop saying no. It is awkward because I actually want to pay, so when I stop saying no, I don’t say it from my heart. However, I suppose things would be different between a man and a woman. As one episode of HIMYM pointed out, the ideal situation is, the man reaches for the bill (or his wallet, or calls the waiter, or whatever, I don't know how fine dining works), the woman insists on paying, but the man never lets her pay. Which would be both okay and unawkward.

I had a mocha from Jamaica Blue on my way to uni today. It is absolutely awesome - I did not need to add any sugars, the combination of coffee-coco-milk-sugar-whateverelsetheyputin was just perfect. I officially do not like GJ or Starbucks any more - overpriced and overrated. The coffee cart coffee is okay. At eight in the morning, when I am deprived of sleep and in need of getting work done, it works wonders. The Quad coffee is okay too, and, I think I stopped liking the Gradueat coffee. Even though it’s the cheapest.

I think I wanted a coffee maker once upon a time, but I have now realised, I would much rather go out, sit sleepily and lazily on a chair, reading something, while someone else makes a delicious cup of mocha (in one of those ceramic cups) and brings it to me. 

P.S: I watched the last few episodes of season 5 of Little Mosque on the Prairie, even though I only watched one or two from the beginning. I found it annoying so I skipped a whole bunch - I just wanted to see the wedding. 'Twas cute, and slightly funnier than the beginning episodes.

P.P.S: I am a little more than half way through reading Alice in Wonderland. It is an amazing book, I am thoroughly enjoying it! I probably will be quoting all my favourite bits here sometime soon (and there is a lot of them!). I wonder why I never thought of reading it before.

 P.P.P.S: While I was reading an article for my psych assignment, look what I found: a research that is quite depressing for the physicists out there. 'physicist’s big ideas are thought to come by age 30 or not at all. (Sawyer, 2006)'. And something that is probably bad news for all those depressed poets: 'creativity seems to flourish when people are in positive or neutral affective states rather than negative affective states (Amabile, Barsade, Mueller, & Staw, 2005; Fredrickson, 2001; Fong, 2006). Which makes sense, because rhyming 'pain' and 'rain', 'cry' and 'bye' (and die), 'sad', 'bad' and 'mad' have all been tried and tested many many times, therefore, they really do not fall under 'creativity'.

P.P.P.P.S: I picked up the habit of naming my posts with lyrics from songs from a blogger - http://s00kylala.blogspot.com/. She is one of those entertaining writers, much like Rimi, although, she probably does not remember me from the two years of schooling. :P Although the lyrics often have nothing to do with the post, it is an indication of the weather of my mind (cloudy/sunny/shower-or-two).