Dear Darika;

This has been driving me crazy!! I've been living in Thailand for a year now -- Bangkok 8 months. This has been happening lately and again this past weekend: I approached a cute young one who was immediately and obviously interested in me... we chatted only briefly... he was all smiles... then he went back over to his gaggle of friends... as I approached the cloche, one boy whispered something to "my" boy... and he turned away... would not talk to me or even acknowledge my existence anymore...

What have I done? I know I've been a butterfly... but how is one to meet "the right" one without kicking a few tires? Or could it be that I've frequented Babylon? Or that I'm no longer a "rich falang" on vacation... but just a poor English teacher... Am I scarred for life? On a blacklist now? I've heard that once on a Thai boy blacklist you can never get off (pun intended)! I know DJ Station just lookin for luv in the wrong place... but still furious and curious.

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself as a piece of jewelry (Darika is fond of bracelets)--not the kind of fun diamond bauble you would find at Harry Winston, but a bangle dripping with dangling charms from the kind of low-end chain store that offers its own credit plans. Imagine that you are bracelet from Zales. What Your Boy did was wrap you around his wrist and display you to his group of friends as if to say "how does this look on me?" Since none of the other boys have a nice bracelet--cheap or otherwise--they probably said something like, "Looks really tacky to me. Can't you get something a little nicer?"

Before you wallow in any self pity that you have been treated ruthlessly by this band of sissy thugs, ask yourself if they might have imagined themselves not as a piece of decorative jewelry, but a big, raw slab of red meat displayed on someone's platter. Or a tire that has been kicked one too many times. And just what kind of treatment do you expect at a place like DJ?

Honestly, there is a far finer class of people out there who do not hang around places like DJ and are not burdened with lofty standards that they somehow believe they are entitled to. Darika has not set foot in a disco in years and is dating a lab technician, a security guard and the sommelier in fashionable restaurant that she would not otherwise be able to afford. We are all having fun with meat and jewelry of our own.

Love, Darika