Meeting Celeste

Meeting Celeste

Okay, so I got over my initial nervousness, and this time I went into the San Francisco Zen Center to scope out a lesbian librarian (not just any one, a specific one). The first time I parked my car across the street last week, I didn't have the nerve to go in. The second time a few days later, I waited and waited, building up my courage, only to find that the library wasn't open that day. Today, I park right across from the front door and I wait. I see all kinds of bald men and women going in and out, looking austere.

I know Celeste has a head of shoulder length white hair and I spy her walking up the steps. I consider calling her name and introducing myself, but instead I opt to be cool, and not go into the library *the* moment it opens. Be cool, real cool.

You might ask why I'd be nervous about meeting the author of Lesbian Polyfidelity and also The Lesbian Love Advisor, as the title of the former might hint that even if she's seeing someone I have a chance to woo her successfully.

I slip inside and ask directions to the library from the sexy young woman with a full head of hair and cute green glasses.

Down the steps and to my left and I enter the library. It's a very sexy place. Old wooden floors and tall wooden bookshelves neatly lined with musty books about Zen and other things. Celeste is at her desk in the far corner with her back turned to me, and the phone rings. She is a very enthusiastic conversationalist and I think to myself that she's either a Libra or a Sagittarius. Turns out she's a Sag, very fortuitous for us. Keeping to the fire signs. She chats on and on and every time she seems about to end the call (to a woman named 'Tina' no less), I prepare to say something, and finally after half a dozen false hang ups, she is off the line.

Making sure my hair is falling just so, and my maroon sweater is neat, I say her name and she comes over to me and I introduce myself as a friend of Marcelina and I am the messenger of helloes from the southwest. She is immediately friendly, and I am so relieved, I'm so tired of lesbians with attitude. She's actually a very nice lady. We chit chat and fling out into a zillion tangents and then another woman comes in before I can ask her out to tea sometime. Shoot. She stays awhile and Celeste and I stop talking. Finally the bothersome lady leaves and Celeste asks me if I want some tea or lunch, she's going upstairs to get some.

Like a puppy I follow her to the kitchen get my tea and go back to the library. She eventually returns and eats lunch at her desk, as I sit at the table in the front room and read Michael McClure poems (which I like:"every thing is always on the verge of liberation."). She comes back out and asks me if I've seen the place and if I want a tour. She shows me around and stuff and by this time I've already asked her if she would care to meet for tea sometime when she isn't at work.

She's about the same height as I am, small, as in slender, and a sharp brain, witty and just plain simpatica. She is also quite handsome and beautiful, an ideal combination of the two...and I was right to follow my instincts from when I first saw a picture that Marcelina had of her. I knew when I first saw it that I was going back to SF to meet her. I'm glad I did. When we return to the library she says that she *would* like to meet me for tea (yay! success!), and writes her home number down for me and we exchange cards. She likes the indigomonkey email address a lot. She's a very enthusiastic person, and I like that. Her earrings don't match, and I smile to myself, endeared to her already. I have no idea what we'll talk about, and I don't think she knows either, and I'm not sure it matters. I really had nothing to ask her to tea for, except to get to know her and I didn't offer her any kind of reason why she would want to know me. She asked me to call her at the beginning of June, because she has a deadline (writing) for the end of May.

While I'm over Leos in general, having the moon in Leo has its advantages. It seemed to today.

Thus begins the story of the Zen Tomboy and Indigomonkey Girl. Hold on!