One thing that wasn’t happening was that date I briefly mentioned in yesterday’s post. When Mary sent me a friend request on Facebook a couple of days ago, I noticed we only had one mutual FB friend–a woman who used to be my weekend cleaner. I accepted anyway, and we began chatting on Messenger. I was immediately impressed by her English fluency and her quick wit. One exchange I recall was me saying something like, “I do what I want, not what people tell me to do,” and she immediately responded with OMG! I think I know your astrological sign–those are traits of a Virgo. She’s right; that’s my sign. That led to discussions about religion and other deep topics. It’s been a rare experience for me to have more than surface conversations with the Filipinas I encounter.
Mary is going to school in Barretto and wanted to come to see me after class. I wasn’t comfortable with that since we hadn’t met in person yet. We chatted some more, and I discovered that my former helper was the girlfriend of Mary’s father. Mary also told me that her great-grandfather was a black man from the Navy days here. I mentioned that one of the gals in our Hash had an African-American father but didn’t give a name. Mary immediately said, “Wendy Burdette–that’s my aunt!” It is incredible how interconnected folks are here in my little town.
I also learned that Mary has a baby who will turn two later this year; of course, that seems to be the norm in this country. Still, I enjoy our chats enough to want to get to know her better, even if she is not a good fit for a long-term romantic relationship. Mary asked again about visiting me, and I suggested we meet for dinner instead. It turns out we have similar food favorites, so I wanted to introduce her to the menu at John’s place. Mary said she would finish at her school between three and four, change at her grandmother’s house (Mary doesn’t live in Barretto), and meet me there. I told her to message me thirty minutes beforehand because that’s how long it takes me to walk to John’s.
Around 2:30, we had a power outage here in Alta Vista. That always sucks, but it was especially frustrating because I hadn’t showered yet. No power = no water at my place. My helper was able to extract a pail from the water tank in the basement, and I washed up the best I was able with a bucket bath. Rather than sit around in a hot house, I headed out to IDM to await the message from Mary, arriving a little after three o’clock. I tried to drink slowly but was on my third gin and soda by 4:30. Mary finally messaged me that she had to cancel because her grandmother wasn’t feeling well and she needed to take of her. And that was that. I was disappointed but understanding.
Alright, I admit I saw a potential red flag. Today I checked with our mutual friend, and her story mostly checks out. I’ve chatted with Mary some more today, and I’m willing to give her another chance. In fact, she wanted to meet tomorrow, but I’ll be going to Pundaquit with the nephews (yes, Josh’s brother Justin arrived this morning) for the weekend. I jokingly invited Mary to come along, and she was asking what time we would return on Sunday, so I told her it was too soon for that and we would take some time to get to know one another first.
I’m not sure what I’m doing here. If it turns out that we have a connection and I feel that I can trust her, I’d consider playing the Sugar Daddy role. I know a guy who sponsored a young woman through college, and she, in turn, showed her appreciation by giving him a GFE (girlfriend experience). I used to see them around town, and there seemed to be genuine affection between them, even though the age difference and life goals were not in sync. She’s graduated now and is pursuing her career in Manila, and he feels satisfaction from making a meaningful difference in her life. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll meet Mary first, then assess what role we may have to play together (if any) going forward.
After learning I wouldn’t be eating at John’s place after all, I went to Baloy Beach to visit Josh at his hotel, Johan’s. We did a Baloy bar crawl (Johan’s, DaKudo’s, McCoy, and Snackbar) then I called it a night.
This morning I did an enjoyable stroll of almost 8K. Street walking, so I didn’t bother with many photos. But boats on the bay are always nice to see, right?
Justin and Josh will accompany me to the SOB tonight. That should be fun.
Back tomorrow with a full report.
This might be strange for me to say since I’m usually the dude pointing out the red flags, but… so far, I don’t see much to worry about regarding Mary. Personally, I’d be troubled by the kid angle (too many Filipinas making the same poor life-choices, one after another), but what’re you gonna do? If you meet a woman in the PI, she’s probably got kids in tow. I’m surprised, frankly, that the country’s population density isn’t far higher, what with all the lagomorphic breeding.
Is Josh as much of a liberal as his brother? If so, they’re both very tolerant of their Nazi bastard racist bigot of an uncle. That’s good to see. The world could use more actual tolerance.
Good luck whenever you do meet this chick and find out whether there really is Something About Mary.
Thanks for your insights, Kevin. I agree to take a wait-and-see approach rather than allowing my paranoia to dictate my actions. There are bound to be some lessons learned with Mary, maybe even the good kind.
Surprisingly, Josh and Justin are opposites when it comes to politics. They sometimes bash each other on Facebook but are full of brotherly love for one another. We don’t talk about all the crazy bullshit when we are together (or at least we haven’t so far). I know in the past, I’ve tried to un-indoctrinate Justin without success. We’ll see if we can maintain the truce over the course of the weekend.