Saturday, June 19, 2021

Movie Night, Part 2

From my perch on the couch, I yesterday saw this big boy being walked down the pathway.


I hope the woman, obviously a new resident, follows the rules and scoops her pooch’s poop, because I'd hate to see his droppings nestled in amongst the painted rocks.

Long-time readers, familiar with management screwups here at the senior complex, probably won’t be much surprised to learn Movie Night never happened, though I observed at least one resident ready and waiting — having plopped down on a bench, overlooking the area, around 7:30 p.m.

After 15 minutes of seeing nothing happening, she left.

Actually, there were two residents ready and waiting.


Behind that tree, in the upstairs unit, is the patio of a resident whose placement gives her a birds eye view of the location the movie was to be shown.

A friendly woman, she has never made the blog, but caused one of the disagreements I had with Handsome Man because of his opining how others should live.

It was that day he came onto me with his, “I’m looking for a good woman” line. Since I wasn’t interested in being that woman, I deflected by pointing out other single women he might consider.

One was Next Door Neighbor, who’d invited him to dinner once or twice (he accepted) and who had indicated to me she was very much interested in him.

Handsome Man doesn’t know I know about the dinners but, when I offered her up, he’d shook his head, actually shuttered — as though shaking off a bad memory, and gave me a unequivocal NO!

I then pointed out the woman with the patio behind the tree was single, to which Handsome Man went off on a tirade about her having a relationship with an old army vet I see out walking his dog most days.

He said the man was married, his wife is an invalid and yada yada yada here he was visiting the upstairs unit, having dinner with that woman.

My position in life is that we are all doing the best we can with the cards we’ve been dealt. Consequently, nothing is right, nothing is wrong, but more it is what it is and so long as you’re not a complete arsehole, hurting and abusing and using others, in a harmful way, it’s not my place to judge.

Coming from that position of essentially live and let live, I foolishly responded to handsome man’s tirade by saying, “Well, if his wife is an invalid …” and before I could complete my sentence, Handsome Man’s voice went up several octaves. He began waiving his hands and went on a tirade starting with, “YOU CAN’T TELL ME THAT WHAT HE’S DOING IS …. yada yada yada”. So, I just shut up, let him have his say, then pretty much told Handsome Man that I wasn’t the kind of “good woman” he was looking for.

As for the woman on the upstairs patio, I don’t know, and neither does Handsome Man. For all we know, they could just be good friends, or it might be there is a relationship, the wife might know and may have given approval because why should the husband suffer needs the wife cannot fulfill.

Which, my saying “may have given approval” reminds me of years ago, when I was on a trip to Las Vegas. While others went to the casino, I was lounging at the pool, in a bathing suit, sunbathing and reading a book.

An old couple joined me at the pool, and we all got into general chitchat.

After a time, the couple left and I went back to my book

Then, the husband returned … alone.

He offered me money to have sex with him, saying his wife had given him approval —that the wife thought I was nice and looked clean.

That was not the first time I’d been propositioned, nor would it be the last (last time was just last week, when I was pumping gas at the corner station, but that's a tale for another time). Propositioned because why? ...  because a Black woman out walking for exercise or walking to work, in the mind of some guys, is selling it, a Black woman waiting for a bus at the bus stop is selling it, a Black woman sunbathing at the pool is selling it, a Black woman pumping gas is selling it.

I was calm and polite in declining the old guy's offer saying something to the effect, “I work. I have a job”, so he’d know I wasn’t a prostitute, did not need his money.

He upped the dollar amount and became so persistent that I got disgusted and ended up having to leave the pool to get away from him.

So, like I said, Handsome Man has no idea what’s going on between the old vet, his invalid wife, woman on the upstairs patio and therefore is not in a position to judge.

Along about 8:00 p.m., having seen the bench resident long gone, I walked outside to see for myself if Movie Night was happening.

Nothing.

Walking over to the woman on her patio, she said she’d seen no preparations.

Concluding, the event was another of management’s screwups, I headed back to my unit and caught Aquaman on tv.

Update: Running into Head Maintenance Guy this morning, I asked, “What happened to movie night?”

”No one RSVP’d”, said he.

I didn’t know, or see on the Monthly Calendar, that we had to RSVP. Probably no one realized that either, but it’s doubtful enough would have signed up to get it going anyway.

12 comments:

  1. I was hoping the movie night turned out to be fun. I've wondered if one would go over here but I'm not sure. Probably no one would want to leave their apartment. A group of the men were getting together in the evening when it cooled down. One of the guys brought his guitar and they eat brought food or cooked burgers on the grill. That was before Covid and then Guitar Guy moved. No men group meetings since then.

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    1. Folks are so accustomed to staying in that it's going to take something pretty spectacular to get them outside, involved in events again. If Apache, our unofficial mayor, were still here, you can bet he'd have arranged for an outdoor cookout, invited all the new residents. There would have been music and dancing.

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  2. The movie night would have been fun, what a shame these events are not made more clear from the managements end. It would be nice to promote community instead of further isolating everyone in their own flats. And propositions of sex!?!?!?!?!?!

    Your place is a daily soap opera girl!

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    1. Not so much the place being a daily soap opera, as my life. LOL. You'd think, that at my age, it would be safe to go for a walk, pump gas without being profiled as a "working girl", but noooooo.

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  3. Bet you never would have guessed you'd still be propositioned at over 70! I think I would laugh outloud or drop in a faint if it happened to me at 76.

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    1. No, never entered my mind. LOL. But evidently age is no protection. I'm profiled in shops as a shoplifter and followed around, because I'm Black and I'm profiled, when out and about, as a street walker because I'm Black.

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  4. I'm sorry you were the one who had to leave the pool. You were just minding your business before the obnoxious old geezer showed up.

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    1. Life 101. Crap happens, but a lot of that crap is why I do not trust men and am happy to be without, stay without one.

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  5. I don't think a black woman can walk down any street with at least one black guy in a car slowing down and propositioning her. I rarely see it now because I'm retired and don't work in areas where that happened. But! Bigger than whatever, a few years ago, not far from my house, two black gals were walking along when the car in front of me came to a stop in the middle of the street and started hollering out his window at them. They were trying to ignore him but he wouldn't give up. It seemed like an hour but after about a minute I just laid on my horn. I didn't stop until he pulled off the road enough for me to get by. And he looked mad at me when I went by.

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    1. That doesn't surprise me, but my encounters have been on an international scale, only 3 Black Guys - that I recall, countless White Guys and nationalities I'd classify as "others". About the only thing I don't have to worry about now is that, I can be harassed, propositioned but not kidnapped. The creeps can't just jump out of the car, pick me up, throw me in the car and drive off. I knew an adult smaller female, standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, who had that happen to her. Fortunately, her screams and fighting and people coming outside enabled her to escape. But she was all beat up.

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  6. Handsome Guy has some Red Flags going off, doesn't he? He's doing a lot of speculation about what the dynamics are between people. Both The Man and I have Dear Friends of the opposite sex that we just have platonic Friendships with just like we have plantonic Friendships with same sex people we know... that said, whatever happens between consenting Adults and the dynamic they may have in their own Relationships is their Private Biz and not up to me to stand in judgment of. As for being propositioned, isn't it funny in some ways as you get older tho'... here a lot of Younger Hispanic Men seem to really be attracted to Older big-made Women, so it's a bit flattering actually to have them flirt or attempt to come on to you. My Daughter in Mexico laughs when I tell her because she has said that all her Male Friends there in Mexico have told her that her Mom is Hot... Holy Hell, LMAOROTF, perhaps poor eyesight in the Young is prevalent or something, I've been called a lot of things, but not that in a dog's age! *Bwahahahaha*

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    1. Handsome Man's problem is much the same as Church Lady's, they are Old Testament Bible Thumpers. Thoroughly believe in sin and a God who punishes sinners. Uptight, Judgmental.

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