My real name is Lady Gaga

Turns out I’m unconventional…

I hadn’t planned on doing anything for Valentine’s day mostly because I have never done anything for Valentines Day (sort of kinda like) but I got X postcards just in case he popped a surprise on me and gave me a gift & I was giftless. And wrote touchy-feely (surprisingly honest) messages on them… I’m getting better at this relationship business :D….

Went for a piano recital at Starehe Boys’ Centre on the 13th… Ned Kirk is a pretty awesome pianist, even though I walked out of Liszt to go walk & talk with my friend Lim as well as meet his brother Clem. During which time X, who would meet me there, called me and I didn’t pick my phone. Had left it with my cousin Sasha (great kid) who was a very random Plus One for the day. Anyway, after we had all met (X, Sasha, Lim & I – see, I’m introducing X to my family….girlfriend behaviour!!!) X & I decided our children will go to school there (sorry, Alliance High School-now that’s wifey behaviour)

We went back to the City centre & ended up at Maasai Market- a large curio market open on Saturdays & Sundays at the High Court parking lot. As we walked, I told X I really want to get an old school camera & a dark room and he said, “So I need to start saving up for dark room equipment.”  as well as positing that it was influence from ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ . To which I replied to the effect that that created the impression that we’d still be together when I wanted those. He got royally pissed, asking me why I ‘do that’ (What? Cast doubts? Yes, he says….) I don’t know, sometimes I don’t feel like I know where this is going (says Miss I have his postcards in my bag) but I got reassurance.

What else? We ended up going for Love is Kenya where so many great contemporary Kenyan musicians were performing….

🙂 🙂 Nairobi kuna solar sana/ Kijijini ni ku-poa sana 🙂 🙂

and I saw H, my dad’s friend and his son, Tim. Totally random. Tim told me today that I saw his dad because H had spotted me across the area (the Nairobi National Museum) and had come over to say hi. Anyway, X’s friend R made me really uncomfortable when he turned to me when the clock struck 12 on the 14th, and X said Happy New Year! [yes, Chinese] to tell me, “You guys should be kissing and making out…” Really, almost stranger? Don’t mess with my head… Plus X & I got tired of standing at some point and ended up sleeping on a concrete pavement (very rock star behaviour….) and he launches a talklet about how our being horizontal wasn’t a source of action. I have never received such overt ‘get laid, start making out’ sentiments from a person. But from a person who doesn’t know me well, and who I tried cracking a joke about my wearing a chastity belt to (if only for the purpose of clarity) that was a discomfiting experience. That and so much more innuendo didn’t really provide entertainment. But X singing Sauti Sol & Dela’s ‘Mama Papa’

(for me? I would hope so….) was quite something. I love the singing, his singing…always have [chalk that up with ‘part of X’s charm’]

Anyway, we all went home in the end (proud to say I took a mat both ways… Yay me) and I spent the next day picking belated birthday cake, going to L’s house to eat it & get tales & finally going back to my room. Happy Valentine’s Day, The Shaboozle.

Monday: Exam 1 at 0900 (I have exams till the 26th & here I am blogging, he he). Saw J & B for cake and fun times. Pretty awesome. J copied lots of music & affirmed me: she’s my emotional twin, I swear. She kept urging me to study for the paper I have in slightly over 3 hours (at this point) but I had that planned for yesterday & today, I’ll have you know.

Yesterday, Tuesday the 16th: I went for French class (yes, I started attending those) and met X afterwards. Fun times 🙂 🙂 I had a bit of pseudo-drama with asking how it was I didn’t get a Valentine’s gift (we call it Val’s around  here) and all but I had a moment of clarity when he said he didn’t see  the point of doing something for someone on Val’s. But it’s convention, I say. Since when did you follow convention? Touche, X, touche. And there it was, the truth… I was upset he hadn’t faked it too… So yes, I will get gifts at random times 🙂

I had thought of Marie as I did my laundry in the morning so imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw her at the mall where X and I were having this conversation. The National Geographic crew (X & I) spoke while we girls had fun and talked & I told her about the giftlessness. Talking to my sister (yes, she is) made me realise I didn’t really want a gift. I don’t do the things other people do, why do I judge myself by their standards in my relationship? Why do I want to be physical, to celebrate something I don’t care for (because I love him *all* the time)? To fit in? Because I had candidly said it to X before Marie & I came… a gift was just for adding to the pool of stories girls have, not for my wanting. Speaking to her reminded me why she’s my sister…it’s always great to have someone who questions you but also affirms your choices (yes, the issue where I’ve only garnered support with SSS & my twin)…

Marie, X & I are going for Manjano, The Nairobi Province Visual Arts Exhibition, on Saturday. Plus today us girls go for a film that’s part of Alliance Francaise’s offerings of French films this week (Images From France)… Fun times ahead… feedback very soon.

Last but definitely not least…I got a letter from my brother on Friday… It made my day… I love that boy. Wherever I go, I know I have his love. And that counts for a lot 🙂

I’ll leave you with a video of Rick Lau’s ‘Men in Love’ which gathered critical reviews and snippets of which I heard on the BBC. I especially love a bit form this performance where a (gay) man, on realising his lover has run off with their neighbour mourns on the loss of his lover, his car keys (and hence his car), his stereo….and especially, his “Lady Gaa-gaa  CD” Enjoy

Nishike pole pole mimi ni bibi ya wenyewe

Which loosely translates to: Hold me slowly, I am the wife of others

I turned 21 on Saturday, 30th January.

I had an interesting day….Or rather, an interesting 3 days 🙂

January 29th: I begged a phone off my friend E, saw a Facebook post by my friend that’s usually referred to as SSS (Sole Soul Sister) and called her. Yes, I would have wine and chocolate with her (yes, my non-drinking self would have wine and chocolate, stop staring 🙂 ) and yes, she could sleep in my room as part of that ritual called ‘The Sleepover’. Signpost in my head: This Way To Fun Times. I met her and her friend Charles, an amiable guy, after her boyfriend of 2 years (time is important, just keep reading) left her in my care. We went to the food court at the mall we were at, I told them a funny X-related story, and we bought wine after unsuccessfully trying to buy soda. Translation: We left the soda in the trolley for so long, the guys at the supermarket (wisely) decided we didn’t want it 😀 We met Jay & Co, went back to the supermarket….and the 2 of us ended up in my room 😉 he he he

It was interesting… Around her I am not reticent…at all. I didn’t need the tongue-loosening powers of wine to get me talking. About how down I had been in the 1.5 years we had been apart. About X. I’ve known her for the last 7 years and in a sense she is me…I can trust her. That, for me, counts for a lot. And she let me speak about how the absence of [intense] physical displays of affection in my relationship with X had got me confused, should we say bewildered. That >6 months into it, all we had done is hold hands…And here was a person saying that which I had wanted so badly to hear: Let it be…don’t rush it and look back and think to yourself: This, not that, is the right moment [though I momentarily forgot her advice the next day]. Everyone around me, minus my twin, has created the impression that the absence of a make-out session up to this point signals the presence of a malfunction in my sentiments for this boy, a quirk on his part….[not that my virginity pledge doesn’t complicate issues]… I was happy to know she has been happy. Because as the person I could always trust to pull me out of the doldrums, I wanted; need, actually; her happy. And she is. I’m not playing catch-up again 🙂

January 30th: I woke up on the morning of the birthday to the presence of SSS, A gift I have not received since she transferred schools when she was 16 & I 15. It was a better gift than any I could have asked for. Having X call me to meet him close to my hall of residence [“Meet me Halfway”]

and meeting him… E and SSS had met the day before [during the time at the mall] so when E came, they had time to bond after SSS had had time to speak to X. X & I were left in my room, I snoozed, E & SSS waited for almost an hour and IT happened.

IT: My roommate’s best friend walking in on me sleeping with X lying next to me. We looked so chaste; almost like 6 year old cousins having their Sunday nap on the same bed. My 4 year old cousin & I have had scenes like that, my 9 year old brother…no biggie. I had my eyes closed [not least because I was asleep], he didn’t…no cause for her reaction. Effusive apologies, almost like she had found us doing SOMETHING [your mind is now allowed to wander…] and the humour of the situation not being lost 🙂  SSS & E called me post-bonding and I went off to the city (all of 10 minutes away) to get drinks for my party-let as well as meet Marie & our mutual friend I.

Marie, X, I & I all headed to the Nairobi National Museum [a great place to have any sort of event…] where J, her boyfriend K [no jokes], her friend S, and our friend B were waiting for us…Getting high on soda is a plan; as X and my previous run-ins with Coca Cola products have shown.  We drank litres of the stuff, played random games, got to know each other, talked, made fun of each other & made up for lost (friendship) time. I was told, by J, how after a series of arguments she had urged K to ‘court her’ a romantic notion that included chasing her like the past months hadn’t happened. X & I clocked 7 months on my birthday and J was tired 2 months into her relationship & SSS had logged 2 years in one relationship. Time is so fleeting and yet we attach so much to it…

We all walked (I joke not, past 1800) to the city centre-ish with Marie & I walking in front of us. J asked me for more than a year if X and I were going out and the answer never changed: No. But our body language, mirrored so clearly in my friends’, said it all. We liked each other….a lot 😉 J had asked me what the deal was but being as I had asked the girl half and it had said pretty much nothing,  I wasn’t pushing it. Oh, but after we had walked into the city & were about to order dinner, they decided to leave. There’s never been a moment, surrounded by friends, as awkward as J asking them if they were dating…and them saying yes….*cue jaw drop*

How now? when I had tried subtly? But being as the guys (X & I) had hit it off at an earlier meeting, I got to pry [If J can, why can’t I…J/K] and asked the question that had such heat in my  brain  I could almost feel its searing effect: When did this happen? Or was I always blind (Yes)? X & I walked them to the corner, dinner was had & we went to a club. This after Jay, happily gay, had come over and had conversation & strangeness with J & K (who X & I have beaten at the awesomeness that is ‘vogueing’, thank you very much) being all over each other. Jay was hard-pressed to understand how our straight selves were going to go to a club that attracts the gay crowd sans him… But go we did.

Post K having a talk with me about ‘taking care of J’ before he left, we went to the club. On our way there it was revealed that one of X’s friends [a member of AIESEC, the organisation that he is-I did not stutter] tended bar there. Before I forget, X became President of his AIESEC chapter (coincidentally, the code for the organisation within the organisation is the letter X) and I almost died-of pride. Seriously…Which some people would say is a good thing 🙂 She was so happy to meet me, his friend, saying that it felt good to finally meet me post-X’s conversations about me. And she was pleasantly surprised to realised he has friends outside AIESEC [remember, earlier, I did not stutter?] and we had an interesting time that included me getting a call from my mum & jokily telling her I was out with X getting drunk (“take care of yourself”) [that was the night before :D]. This didn’t last long as the crowd sought by J & B was elsewhere & so J’s friend K, her boyfriend J & the rest of us left.

X left us at the entrance of the 2nd club [we would later sing ‘Another one bites the dust” when Kate’s J left]  and we went and had unbelievable fun. Which included guys hitting on K after her boyfriend left & not single B. Which was an improvement on the joke that was the last time we had gone out together when, with my relationship with X now declared to J, she had repeatedly fended off the men that tried hitting on me by insisting that I had a boyfriend [though stated as, “Yeye ana bwana”-she has a husband :D]. We left that club because of J’s insistence.

The one we went to had an age limit that the lady at the door imagined up at the sight of us [23 & over-who ever heard of that?] and we ended up at the club we had gone to for B’s 22nd on the night of the 8th/9th. We-J & I- (you have to believe this) fell asleep & in the end J went to her hostel (my & B’s former residence) & I put B up for the night. Thankfully, my roommate hadn’t been in on those 2 days, sparing all the parties involved the awkwardness of a shared bed…

Sunday January 31st: I woke up to lock the door after B left, lay on my bed and showered & ate in time to look calm when X came to watch Woody Allen’s ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, the first of his films we are (were?-English is confusing…) to watch together. We were originally meant to watch ‘Sherlock Holmes’ at the theatre but a conglomeration of factors meant that we started on our list… The twin & X had an awkward moment when I left him to get VCB & she went to my room to pick her book without my informing her of his presence. But it was OK in the end…with X remarking on the film’s ‘European’ qualities…

This past weekend rocked…the CAT I had today, that I aced, couldn’t cast a shadow on it… The small moments (my uncle-who calls me his ‘niece & friend’-calling me, my friend & I planning a post-birthday lunch in lieu of her presence) the ones that made the day what it was, the time spent with X (so hard to get since I became a First Lady 😉 )….I had a great time…

And about X & I not being physical…I couldn’t have said it better than SSS did… I want something to happen,  I’d like for something to happen…but I have the sense to know that rushing matters won’t make for a great ride and so while I wait [need I say ‘hopefully’?], I shall enjoy all the beauty of my life & the joy of my love 🙂

PS Mo, I wish you’d been around…it would have been like the Ribena ad with the blackcurrant that can no longer contain itself…its goodness just overwhelms it… We miss you…