The girl who took my breath away: a GM

First off I should tell you that I'm usually not the guy who goes for "classically beautiful" features in a girl or woman. I usually find myself attracted to cute more than to some vision of perfection. I usually find something off-putting in a woman whose features look like some cold Grecian statue.

That said; every once in a while I stand transfixed by someone who embodies that delicate perfection to a degree that's just one in a million.

Those who remember some of my previous posts may remember a 13 year old girl I used to see on my bus-ride to work; which oh so conveniently stopped by a private school to pick up kids. She had the poise of a ballerina and the look of a Romanov princess with her long brown hair and her porcelain features all dressed in a pressed white shirt. There was something both beautiful and tragic about her. And yet she carefully negotiated her backpack, and her bus pass despite the fact that all this was done with a right arm which ended just short of her elbow. I saw her for months on end until her class schedule or my work schedule changed. Of all the girls I've seen since, none had that transcendent radiance. That is, until today.

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How shall I describe her. Her hair was short and black. She was younger, with a slight swell of breast buds disturbing an otherwise flat expanse of shirt. She was of mixed-race, but I was unable to determine the elements. I'm usually pretty good at this. But I couldn't tell; was she Hispanic, Arabic, African, Turkic or Mediterranean? All I could see was that her skin was dark olive and her features were flawless. I knew I'd never seen her before, and yet something about her looked as if I'd gazed on that face many many times before.

As she approached me to purchase something ( I was at work,) I could see that her purse contained a bag from a music store with a copy of Viva La Vida inside. So I said, "I've heard the new Coldplay album, its great." ( True, that.)

She said, "I love their new song."

So I talked to her about their first album Parachutes, and how it sounded quite different except for the up-tempo hit Yellow. I mentioned that their subsequent albums were closer in their energy to the song Yellow. I also mentioned that something similar had happened to Radiohead; who actually came to hate their first album. "Sometimes," I told her, "it takes a band an album to find their true voice."

At some point during the aforementioned, I was struck by a temporary impression that the girl I was chatting with was a petite flat-chested adult. But no, I'm quite good at distinguishing adults, however petite, from children. And as she spoke to me it was clear that this was a stunningly beautiful child. She walked away, turned slightly back and thanked me.

As this was early in the day, it set a marvelous tone for the workday. And I noticed numerous other cuties in the workplace today.

However, it took me a while before I finally clued in on the cause of my two mysteries.

What struck me as "adult" was her directness in speaking to me and her assertiveness about what she likes. This is not a girl who was taught to doubt herself on matters she was clear about. Most children are taught to be shy when young, and then peer pressure and mean-spirited cliques bruise their egos later on. But this girl had a certainty that few people do. Additionally there was no deference between us as to her age. It was one music lover speaking to another about a great band and a great album. I think that part of her relished being treated as an equal whose opinion mattered. But it also seems that she was used to this.

And as for her familiarity, it occurred to me as she left that many of her facial features, particularly her smile, were reminiscent of Natalie Portman as Mathilda in Leon.

Some folks here ask which LG body parts we're most attracted by. I have my pat answers. But in those rare moments when I stand transfixed by a girl's beauty; its her face I'm looking at.

Dante