Today I saw him again!!! I have no idea what his name is. All I know is he has got to be the handsomeness man I ever did lay eyes on. The above picture looks nothing like him. It's not meant in anyway to represent him. It's just another random painting. Anway..........

The first time I saw him was when I went to the Creative Alliance to drop off my artwork and to pick up a Sowebo poster. There was this older black guy there who was introducing him around to the people who worked there. I remember the old man saying saying that he was a student at Maryland Institute. I remember thinking to myself upon looking up at him, “Wow!!”

I saw him again at the Ahi 1442 Gallery when I was picking up my artwork from the Creative Alliance group show. He was sitting by the window in the gallery talking casually to the gallery owner. I just recall thinking that day after I saw him up close yet again, “Wow!”

Today, I saw him walking up Baltimore Street across from the driving school. I can only assume that maybe he’s working at Maryland Art Place and was on his way home from work. He was wearing this red print shirt and khaki shorts and a backpack slung across his shoulder. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I just stared and watched him walk by. Ohhhh, what great eye candy he makes!!!

I’m not sure what his nationality is. He looks like he could be Asian, Latino, Native American, Hawaiian, or Philippino. One thing is for sure, he’s fine as hell. He truly is a beautiful foreigner. I would like to paint him or maybe photograph him all day. It’s like the world was is in black and white and when he enters it, it switches to glorious Technicolor. I know I probably have a snowballs chance in hell with him. He’s probably gay. Besides, most men like women who are talkative and pushy. I’m neither.

I don’t really want to know him or what his name is.... I’d like to keep him as this mysterious good looking stranger who occasionally enters my world and brightens it with his presence.

I’m not sure if I previously wrote this but I like to listen to the Out to Lunch radio show with Bill and Thrill on 105.7 I like the theme song that this rapper called Jake the Rapper came up with so I stupidly wrote on a message board that I liked it and thought he was stand up guy. I said this because he told Bill and Thrill live on the air that he would come up with a theme song for them by such and such a date and he did. All the other listeners and musicians who said they would come up with a theme song for the show never followed through.

Needless to say Jake the Rapper saw what I wrote on the message board and then wrote me back saying that he liked my artwork and wanted to meet me. This of course frightened me,.....then again everything does. I have autism after all. I like to use my computer because I find it’s easier to communicate with people on it than face to face. It’s almost like I’m more in my element. I’m afraid that if I met him he wouldn't like me very much because I’m not very talkative and do not smile and giggle a lot like other females. I’m sure that 99% of the people who meet me think I’m probably a snob because I don’t say very much. The thought that I have autism never crosses there mind. I look and dress normal and I like to wear makeup. Also I feel uncomfortable because Jake is 23. I have a niece that I practically helped to raise who is 23! Besides what would David think?

Also there’s this guy I met on an e-mail list. He also wants to meet me in person. He’s into mail art and he’s got me interested in it as well. Again this frightens me. I’m more comfortable in the cyber world. I’m sure that if I met him in the real world he would find that I don’t talk very much and would read that as not being interested, hostility, or passive aggressive behavior. Also since I don’t smile very much he would probably think I’m an angry person or overly serious when the opposite is true.

The truth is I’ve never really had true conversations with people. I don’t know how to do small talk or shoot the breeze. I feel that the reason I have more male friends than females is that they don’t mind if I ask them 1,001 questions about them or there favorite subject. Women on the other hand would become very suspicious of this.

Truth be told in a sense I view people as talking books. If I want to know something about r&b music from 1960-1989 I know that Richard is the guy to ask. If I want to know about cars, just as Nick. So conversations for me are just information gathering sessions. When I get my information I’m done. This I’ve learned through studying my disorder is normal for people with the form of autism I have, Asperger’s Syndrome.

Today, Ms. Dumas was late for the driving class. She was in a bad mood. She told us she wasn't feeling well and that she would let us leave early. This was both good and bad. Good, because of course I got to leave early. Bad, because she barely taught us anything. We ended up doing the quiz together. So we all got 100’s. I noticed that half the material on the test she didn't cover in class. I’m worried because we have a final exam in two weeks and I’m afraid that I’ll fail the section that she was supposed to cover today. I guess I could ask her to go over it tomorrow or next week.

Also today, I confided in a fellow classmate that I felt that Ms. Dumas was nuts. He just laughed.

Personally, I do feel that she is certifiably insane. She’s erratic and makes frequent loud outbursts to the class and starts to laugh for no apparent reason. I don’t know maybe she’s on the very of a nervous breakdown...or maybe she’s like that all the time. I just don’t know. All I know is that her erratic behavior makes me feel very uncomfortable. Again, I feel that this is an effect of my autism. We like order and recognizable patterns in or world.

Todays writing prompt says to think about the most memorable summer you had in childhood. What makes this summer stand out from the rest?

First off my family never went anywhere for the summer. Every summer we just stayed put on 529 Robert Street while other families went to Disney Land or visited relatives in Virginia or some far off place. Nothing spectacular or exciting ever happened during summer. Except this one year....

I believe I was seven because it was the summer that Elvis died. Hues Corporation’s, Rock the Boat was very big on the radio. I believe the movie Which Way is Up?, came out that summer too. Anyway, these white holy rollers moved up the street from us. This was unusual because we lived in the ghetto. It was a whole group of young people maybe in there twenties. I remember every evening they would do these shows for the kids. They’d roll out this red carpet on the sidewalk and all the children would sit on it as they told bible stories. I remember it was fun and very dramatic. They were creative and would act out the parts and stuff, sometimes there would be singing and dancing. This was the closest I ever came to going to church on a regular basis. Something tells that me that if you go to a regular church they aren't going to dress up in costumes and act out bible stories in a Broadway-esque manner....