Rollercoaster Ride

How are you supposed to get excited about rings and engagements when you know that divorces and annulments could just be 20 months, 10 grand and 1 gigantic heartbreak away? When prenups, separations, affairs and second marriages cross your mind, how can you still believe?

I heard it said that "It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I read it elsewhere that "It’s better to have loved and lost than to live with the psycho for the rest of your life." I say, "It’s better to have loved - and won."

I’ve been told that many come to be old maids or masters by choice. But that can’t be the case for everyone. I wonder if some people pass this life without ever having been in love. I wonder too why not one movie or play was ever written without a love interest or angle. They say that movies ought to be about the peak of the characters’ lives. Well, lots of men and women have gone over the hill without bumping into that one.

Most everything Oprah Winfrey touches turns to gold. She is the modern day King Midas -the fairy queen.

Per my Irish roommate, Colleen, you can tell a lot about how men and women of different cultures relate to each other, by observing their national dances: the Latin lover’s Salsa, Tango and Mirengue are sexier and more aggressive, the Irish Step Dance is more repressed but joyous, and the Tinikling and Singkil show of men’s respect for women.

You don’t have to pay for a foreign language class to learn that.

If you read Keith Ferraz’s Never Eat Alone, he demands master networkers to "ping" people they’ve just met to get to and remain in a person’s top of mind. Like Vince, I practice what I read.

But I have this to say: you can’t always ping if there’s no pong.

Here’s a confession:
I really don’t like art. I don’t enjoy trips to museums. I wonder how many art appreciation classes I would have to take to keep from being bored out of my brains while sitting in front of an artwork.

The collection in my office is superb, and we hold exhibits weekly, including regular visits from the artists. I was never impressed, hit or moved.

But last Friday night, I hopped from one island to another (Manhattan, New Jersey, Queens, then back to Manhattan) in a span of an hour to make it to a dinner setting, after seeing an art collection that blew me away. In the presence of a humble, unassuming painter, filmmaker, curator, actor and writer,  I just knew that fireworks were going to fly.

It was a creative and culinary explosion, that happily cost one of us a thousand dollars. The eruption definitely sent waves all the way to Brooklyn, the Philippines and Cagayan de Oro City.

Now, I appreciate art, as Totie always has. A piece of the artist - his moments,  thoughts and strokes emanate from the walls of the buyer. And in this exhibition, that’s a good thing.

Without my mom, our lives wouldn’t be as sweet as apple pie, wouldn’t be as easy as 1-2-3, and wouldn’t be as happy as re-unions.

What do you do when business is not busy?

Welcome to 7-11, New York: the biggest convenince store in the world.

Someone once said that "The four corners of the world can be found on 14th Street." I’ve also heard that "Everything you’ll ever need in your life is within six blocks from your apartment - wherever you are in New York: the laundromat, the nails salon, the grocery, and Blockbuster."

That’s sooo last year.

In the New York City of the mid-2000s, changing out of your PJ’s and putting your coat on for deli downstairs is too much to ask. All you need is wireless internet and a wireless phone and your needs are sent to your doorstep in a blink of an eye and a click of a finger.

Grocery: Fresh Direct.

Blockbuster: Netflix.

Nails Salon: Home Service Spa.

Laundromat: Pick-Up and Delivery Wash and Fold (Yahoo!)

For everything else, there’s Ebay or Amazon.

I won’t be surprised when Match.com offers a free service to deliver new friends and lovers to your home. If they don’t come with a money-back guarantee or  a self-addressed stamped envelope, the old slam-the-door-on their face manuever might still work.

I’ve spent the past few days with a lot of my gay friends  - and that doesn’t count all of them. Although I definitely miss the company of some men - which I’m sure to get a dose of tomorrow (hahaha), I know and feel that they have my best interests at heart. They’re planning my pah-ties for me. They’re sure to be pretty ones then.

I don’t skate and never will. I am definitely more afraid than curious. I can proudly say that I’m a Michelle Kwan who quits before the injury.

But alas, in time with the winter olympics, the rink has extended outside my front door, and I have to walk on the ice without the skates. Many things go through my head as I take each careful step, and am almost ready to weep!

I will never voluntarily skate on ice, but involuntary skating is something I can only try to avoid.