What made you smile today?

goodnight all.............

Good idea! Just give him a big smile, next time you see him. He'll get the message! Happy Hunting!

Hey! Why should it always be us? You ask us out!

Harrumph.

OK, Little K - so he let you know, indirectly, that he likes you by telling your sister. So did you already pass back the message, like, through the same way for example, that you like him?

Perhaps last time he never followed up because he thought, I put the news out through the grapevine, but I never heard anything back - better retreat?

I saw someone with a walkman the other day. Yes, a walkman, not a discman or an MP3player, but one of them ones with a cassette in it. Had headphones like that too. Thats amazing.

Tell your sister to give him your number. Or ask her to find out where he hangs out after work and then persuade a friend to accompany you there one night.

The upcoming long weekend.

nimh - I would ask him. If I saw him out of work, alone, I'd ask him. If I had his phone number or email address, I'd contact him.

Heeven - my sister did forward my number and email address. On friday. Grrr. He smiled big and shook her hand.

The BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader, plead guilty to all 10 counts of murder this a.m. This saves our community and the victims' families from a long, drawn-out trial.

Yes, I was glad to hear that too, Ticomaya, for the very reasons you mentioned. However, I also have some other thoughts about it that I really need to post on the "What made you grimace today" thread.

Meanwhile, don't worry, littlek! I'm sure he'll contact you soon. Probably just trying to think of a really nice first date to take you on!

Yeah! And every time he thinks about how nice exactly the date might become he gets into these, eh, reveries ... and then he wakes up again hours later and thats why he doesnt get round to actually calling you

Excellent! He probably didn't want to call you over the weekend (Sat and Sun) because, since you are "pretty" you must have been out gallavanting and all !!! Hmm, I wonder if he has plans this holiday weekend? Or is unsure if you have plans. I am sure he knows that YOU know your sister gave him your contact info, so if he doesn't at least call/email you this week, I'm sure he knows you'll be wondering why. Guys, guys, guys .... can't get inside their heads, don't want to! I guess it's just a waiting game.

Something that made me smile this morning - a girl on the train talking to her friend - she was complaining about not being able to find nice guys, or at least one she would give the time of day to! I nearly bust out laughing when she used the phrase I love from "Sex and the City", where Charlotte says "I've been dating since I was 15, I'm exhausted, where IS HE?"

Ooh and not to make you all sick or anything, I am smiling too because I am putting together my agenda for my upcoming trip. Yes, yes, I'm a planner! Although my sisters will probably beat me to a pulp when they discover I've put parachute jumping on it!

Walking along the steps by the Danube, upstream, past Parliament. Across the river the palace, the Church, Buda Hills. Weeds cracking through the stones, growing tall. It smells almost like the sea by The Hague.

Aside from that, two goth girls carefully peeling away a Marilyn Manson poster from the back of a phonebooth.

Did I smile today?

Last, when was it, Friday I was heading up this way too (ok, so I head up here every other evening for a bit. Its the cutest internet cafe. And nice people.) And crossing the Korut by the bridge, you hafta go through the underpass. Just a regular underpass, begraffitid, little newspaper shop.

There's often a bunch of kids there, breakdancing (to always the same tape - they were in the park on May Day too, including a girl). But this time there were more than ever, twelve, fourteen. Most all of 'em are not very good, which makes 'em even cuter. They got a bunch of onlookers this time too. I was charmed.

(It was a very nice evening, period. I bought two lovely bunches of field flowers at the flowershop on the corner, where the older saleswoman in turn was charmed by my hapless attempts to speak the language. Little down the road this time I was early enough to bob down into Wallenberg Cafe, a tiny tea/cofeeplace that's always closed when I have time. Beautiful comfy chair in one corner, with tiny framed pics above, few chairs on the other side, thats it. 1920's jazz playing, nice.

After that I went here after all, posted some. E. was working, and was reading short stories by Istvan Eorsi (Eorsi came to Holland once, gave a lecture at my university - impressive man). I gave her one of my bunches of field flowers because she was so obviously in love with 'em ... we shared 'em. She was charmed.

I was feeling so generally happy about all the charm that by then was in the air, that before entering my building to go sleep I popped in for a minute at Sark across the road, where homegirl turned out to be working (forget her name, she's nice). So I just jumped into excitedly talking to her, kinda surprising myself, and we all sat down, her and this older woman who was an artist and had just gone for a few months to Ghana and this guy who worked for a casting agency. So I ended up staying there for another hour or so talking to these two people (will perhaps model for her). In terrible, haphazard Hungarian, yes, believe it or not.

It was nice, that evening, being out! And that was the end of the day, the morning had already been nice too. Since I had papers to edit, I'd emailed work that I'd be out editing, and so I was in the morning, drinking coffee at Aztek Chocolat (still the city's second-prettiest courtyard). I also tried sitting on Deak Ferenc Ter by the fountain for a while, but there these two guys started talking to me, obviously destitute, I thought they were going to ask for money. But they didn't. Ramid turned out to be a Kosovan Serb, who had lived in Germany for ten years, returned to Kosovo, then came up here. Didnt speak a word of Hungarian, just fragmented German and Russian. Unlike his friend, who spoke Hungarian and Arabic, no idea how they got along. I gave 'em my pogacsa's and the cherry tomatoes I happened to carry along, and we switched between "Yes - no - here one year, yes? - work, well, hard find no? Was in Pristina, yes, five years back! Good, thank you!"-type Hungarian, Russian and German. Cute, but it meant I had to eventually retreat to the office to do some further editing after all ...)

Surely you must have!

Better than a 50/50 chance, I think.

went to the library this afternoon to get some books and magazines. as i was looking through the stacks of c.d's i saw a 3-disk set : "you're the tops : cole porter in the 1930's".
there are such great hits as : "let's fly away (with bunny berrigan)", "easy to love (judy garland)" ending with "well, did you evah ! (with cole porter and cast of 1956 television broadcast)".
sure made me smile ! hbg