Corner Compliment

I was standing near the corner of Hollywood and Vine today when a man strode up to me, full of spunk and soul, and exclaimed, "I would be inhuman if I didn't stop and say 'Mmm-hmmm, alriiiiight, you is GORGEOUS, Girlfriend!'" I laughed and told him thank you, that was very nice, and he boogied away. He didn't make any other comments, didn't look at me in a skeevy way, and didn't ask for my number. Just had his say and skedaddled on out of there. It gave me a little boost. Usually I would be polite, but my guard would be up, wondering 'What's he want?" Often when I'm walking around Hollywood doing errands for my work, I get things like this (usually from men with missing teeth): "Hey, Baby. You got a boyfriend? 'Cuz I own a comedy club. Come see me!" or "I'm thinking about buying Magic Mountain. You should give me a call sometime." Right on.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a man and traipse freely without any fear or discomfort. It's a gamble for women to walk around alone late at night or down dark alleys or even to go hiking by themselves. It makes it harder to be open to anyone who approaches us because we're always on guard, looking for an out, ready to protect ourselves. Sad, but necessary. My friend Kirsten was up in Portland a couple of weeks ago and she was walking around with her baby and toddler and was approached by two men who asked her if she knew of any good places to go out at night in the area. Kirsten is wickedly intuitive and she sensed something was off. She gave them a brief answer and scurried away, then found out the next day that they assaulted another woman. Yowza! Thank goodness for intuition. When I was in my 20's I once had a bad feeling before I went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and knew I should go to the back window. I stood there and waited and after about 10 minutes, a man came out of the shadows and began trying to break in and steal my neighbor's new jeep. I am fascinated by the idea of having a sixth sense. My great grandmother sat up in bed the night her son was shot in Vietnam and knew he had been shot and where. Why are some people more attuned to things than others? Sometimes I think this kind of awareness is both a blessing and a curse...