I refected on the experience,
I refected on the experience, rating my own performance and seeing what I could learn from it. I had not conducted myself with quite the dash and devastating wit of my fictional namesake, not had I been able to quell him at a glance, so the whole business, thought firmly concluded, had dragged on entirely too long. Part of that, though, is attributable to my being in a foreign country, and thus inclined to assume that such behaviours are just courtesy. (That very assumption, by the way, nearly got me into trouble my Freshman year, but that is a story for another time.) But once someone claims that he likes Americans because they remind him of movie stars, and that his interlocutor looks just like one, and the speaker is an adult and the interlocutor is myself, than that is a good indication that his friendliness is not attributable to mere effulgency of genial character.
I shall mkae a list, perhaps, of some discouraging comments so as to have them more ready to hand in the case of such another eventuality. Of course, I should like to drop broad hints that men aren’t the sex which interest me, but as much fun as I would have messing with people’s minds, I suppose that, without having evidenced a clear prediliction for women, and thus being able to claim that title truly, it would be exceedingly bad form. If all goes right the conversation should never get to the point where it would be useful to explain my perfectly-thought-out, but rather lengthy, views on personal romance, so what I basically need are flattery deflectors.
Ah! I have it! "Surely you must agree that true beauty comes from within, but you can have had no acquaintance with my mind or character, and so any praise without them must be empty flattery."
Of course, I don’t really anticipate needing such again. I am of a very felicitous constitution to be a lady traveller. Women who get hit on, at least in the states, tend to exhibit notable beauty, slightness of frame, mildness of disposition, or weakness of character, and I flatter myself that I possess none of these traits. Plain of face and strong of arm, I shall pursue the beauty of stone strength and cultivate the intellectual virtues.
::makes a face:: You know, I remember your commenting once that you thought I got hit on a lot. I am not mild or weak! Just ask Martin, whose arse I’ve been kicking for his impudence all day.
June 24th, 2002 at 7:52 am