Postscript to Negros Tour

but things are not what they seem, like they always go. the topside world shows one thing, the underside world shows another.

all throughout the tour, seated across the aisle from me in the bus was a mixed couple, a tall goodlooking 50ish caucasian and a petite nice but marmy and chinese-looking 40ish woman, probably another product of those Internet romances getting so common in our country nowadays.

they didn't look fitted together, in the physical sense. the lady was dowdy looking, in fact, almost like a lesbian, with her short hair, thick glasses and cheap walking shoes. the gentleman was attractive in an understated and soft and gentle kind of way. i actually thought i'd look more "fitted" standing next to him than she. heehee.

but they looked comfortable together, and i envied that. they had this easy way about each other, comfortable in each other's skin, not at all the way most mixed couples i see acting around each other--sort of stilted and overly nice and cloying, with the woman so young and gawky while the man quite old and solicitous.

at one point, during our lunch at a golf country club cafeteria, one member of the tour group called out to the gentleman who was standing by an electric fan, trying to cool himself. the tour group member asked him to come over and eat already, and he was quick to say, "oh it's okay, im waiting for my wife." i envied that even more.

then, during a printmaking lecture, while the tour guide singled them out and told the group how lucky the lady is for having married such a nice guy, he was even quicker to say, "well, im luckier that she would have me for a husband!"

i envied that the most.