Demanding Women??

Last week the dominant topic in a weekly magazine was "Are Jamaican Women Demanding?" I read the comments with interest and found of course that the men all agreed and for the most part the women disagreed. People's definition of demanding didn't coincide either and i would have loved if the originators of the feature had included a definition of "demanding". I must say we are NOT demanding......just a LITTLE effort and attention is required.

I say that to say this.....i was all set for my date last friday, and being the considerate woman that i am (not wanting to send anybody into bankruptcy), i suggested that we see a movie....I was quickly informed that there was no money available and we should just "hang" instead. I suspected too that "hanging" would be at my little bachelorette pad.....of course i declined. Was that being mercenary or demanding....i dont think so.

I have a friend, my very best friend, who lives in miami. She is a nurse, has a bachelors degree in computer science and a masters in information systems and has recently qualified as a real estate agent. She owns a lovely two storey, at least 2000 sq. ft. home, complete with pool in the backyard. A dream home. She is also single. She went on a date with a 30 something young man who had just completed his engineering degree and then reported that she wouldnt be seeing him again as he had no prospects. I asked her to explain.....she went on to say that this young man shares rented accomodation, complained about life while repaying student loans and looked like he was headed nowhere fast. I had to agree with her....at our age (lol) we cannot become financial providers for any man.....Any man we choose to become involved with must bring approximately equal or greater assets to the table or at least look like he is capable of doing so in the future.

Is that being mercenary or demanding?

Single in Kingston

Having embarked fully on my new single life in Kingston, i set out to thouroughly enjoy myself. I envisioned many nights of partying, movies, plays.....really everything that the movers and shakers enjoy. I was however brought crashing back to reality when i was informed that there is a serial rapist on the prowl in my well to do, right smack beside the Prime Minister, Uptown Kingston neighbourhood. Definitely not great news for a single girl in the city. Rushing to get home before nightfall, arranging to be escorted home if i want to work late, driving with all doors locked and windows up at all times, locking myself inside once i do get home. This was definitely not how i thought life was going to be. Now i pray fervently that the perpetrator will be caught quickly and maybe just maybe, i will be able to relax a little and breathe a little easier.

Now i have been off the dating scene for a little while and i think the "game" has changed somewhat. I met a young man, spoke to him in person twice, maybe four times total, and was informed by him that he is now taking himself off the market (right), and i should do the same as he is sure he has found his soul mate(?) Now we have never been out on a date, never spoken for more than 15 minutes, he doesn't even know my surname and yet he wants to visit me in my bachelorette pad and had the nerve to get angry when i refused. Men no longer try to woo us? Even if their only aim is to get us into bed? Maybe i should have told him my age when he asked, maybe then he wouldn't have been so quick to feed me the bull (crap, shite, kaka) that he did...or maybe i am just too old to be once again, a single girl in Kingston!

Anyway, we have a date tomorrow.......I wonder how that will go?

On Thieves, Hurricanes and Tennis Racquets

I just read through my last post and realized that i was planning a special home coming for my boyfriend.......how fast things can change in the space of a few days!! Well i did have a special day, but by wednesday of that week, we decided to go our separate ways...strangely enough, though i was upset for like 2 days maximum, i was really upbeat afterwards....it seems there was a lot of stress there (realized and un-realized) that just evaporated away. So i found a new apartment, moved out and set about getting on with my "new" life. Truthfully, we are still talking and reconcilliation? who knows? But what i do know is that i have set off on my life as a single girl after quite a few years of coupledom!!!

So i moved into my new apartment and i am waiting on all the parts to come together to make a whole...the furniture store is to deliver my new stuff, the cable company is to come do their installation etc. etc. etc. I am holed up at my office waiting on a call from any of these people so that i can rush home and let them in....I go out into the reception area and the receptionist informs me that she has been taking messages for me because she did not know i was still there!! I am extremely surprised and ask why and she proceeds to tell me, "well your car is not in the lot, so i just assumed.....", I rush outside, no car, everybody else rushes outside....still no car!! We figure that it must have disappeared like 15 minutes earlier...so we call the police, we call the company bosses, we set off a citywide search.......5 days later, still no car....my tennis racquets were in that car!!!!!!!

Anyway, the company rents me a car (bout half as nice as the stolen one) and i go about the business of getting my apartment habitable....only to hear that we can expect hurricane dennis on thursday. Not the best news for a single girl who has just moved into a new apartment that is on the ground floor....Anyway dennis turns out to be more bark than bite (this the jamaican experience) and proceeds to dump many inches of water on the island.....some of this water ends up in my new 20 square foot, sunken closet....my engineering analyses inndicates that this occured as a result of a local rise in the ground water table! Anyways after many hours of mopping, i again have a dry closet!!

Am I angry? sad? disillusioned? NOPE........none of these things!! I am quite happy...except that i really miss my tennis racquets!!!!