06 February, 2002 - 9:47 p.m.

So valentines day is more or less just around the corner, and for once I actually have a proper "date" for the occasion. I mean, I've been out with friends and stuff before .. and we do the usual dinner and a movie thing. But I've never actually been dating someone when the holiday arises. Not to the extent that you actually have to think about what your plans are for the evening ahead of time.

I don't know how the moons and planets were aligned in all the previous years, but somehow all my relationships either ended just before Valentines Day, or started up just after it. When all was said and done, it meant that I didn't have to worry about roses and chocolates and fancy schmancy dinners. Not that I condone the whole getting all dolled up just for one night, but hey, it's all in the name of good old fashioned courtship fun, right?

Tall, handsome I'm-in-the-airforce guy has organised for us to have dinner in a rather swish restaurant for next week. At first it was all some very hush-hush deal, but using my very persuasive .. umm .. wit (yeah, that's it) I managed to secure confirmation that we are to dine in a revolving restaurant, thirty-three floors up, overlooking the city and the river.

Like, oh. my :)

In preparation for the evening, I did the extremely girly thing and started shopping for the perfect outfit two days ago. Upon exhausting practically every store in the CBD, I finally managed to to find the most exquisite dress while at lunch today.

The sheer fact that it's set me back practically a quarter of my pay for the month didn't seem to register until I'd walked back into my office, sat down at my seat, looked at my purchase and realised that now I'd have to buy matching shoes. Believe me when I say that after you've just spent $450 on a dress, the last thing you want plaguing your mind is where the heck you're gonna find strappy lavender coloured sandals with a heel from.

I'm telling you -- the work of a girl out to woo is never done :P

But enough of such self-centred talk. Well, enough of the self-centred talk involved with that aspect of my life anyway. I have a rather nice ooh-ahh story to tell about my bus trip into work this morning.

See, I got on the bus at my usual stop, and a friend I attended highschool with was on there as well. I was waved over into the seat next to him, and we got to just general chit-chatting. We got onto the subject topic of parties and who was having and doing what (and with whom) when we started discussing how often teenagers seemed to seek refuge in alcohol and other more .. shall we say, illicit products.

And after him telling me about how he'd spent all last weekend more or less comatose, he asked me when the last time I got drunk was. I carefully considered this question, and apart from the Friday night that he-who-won't-speak-to-me opted not to speak to me any longer and my quick half hour affair with a vodka bottle (I know .. I got drunk over some guy. how sad is that? .. rhetorical, I assure you) I couldn't remember when. My close friends seem to be in some state of inebriation most weekends, and I'm usually designated driver. I don't mind this position in the group so much, because I can always have a blast of a night without the help of such things. Ditto with the nicotine fixes.

.. there is a point to all this, trust me :*

I tried to explain this to him - only knowing me and my inability to articulate anything whatsoever - I don't think I conveyed my point too well. Anyway, I was busily trying to illustrate how I could have fun without the drugs, and how I'd never been tempted, and also saying how good my friends were for accepting that and how they'd never pressured me or anything .. and all of a sudden I felt this tap on my shoulder.

I look behind me, and there's this lady with about 60+ years to her credit just smiling at me. I quickly smile back, and glance back at my friend with one of those "oookay" sort of looks. He gives me one in return and was about to embark on another train of thought when I felt the tap again.

Looking back over my shoulder I gave her a questioning look. She opened her mouth and said :

"I'm proud of you, my dear. It's so nice to hear that you have managed to stand up for what you believe in, and not be swayed by your peers. It takes strength and real character. Don't let it go for anything."

Those three short sentences, all uttered with a smile and a twinkle in her eye made the rest of my day. It's nice to know that even a complete stranger can be proud of me and how I choose to run my life. It just goes to show that you don't need to solve world hunger, or be the first woman to make congress in order to do some good.

I made an old lady believe that not all teenagers are foul-mouthed, ill-mannered and ignorant.

And to me, that's all that counts for now.