[SCENE – Press conference, standing room only, carnivorous reporters
teeming with excitement for the impending figurative self-immolation of an
anonymous hopeless romantic)
AJ: “After my apparent
declaration of moral ambiguity…”
Reporter: “You mean
‘bankruptcy,’ Mr. Johnson?”
AJ: “Hey now, I’m
supposed to be the jerk here.”
Reporter:
“Apologies. As you were.”
AJ: “Thank you. I will now read a prepared
statement. Please hold your
observations until the end…”
When I wax philosophic,
I can get a little dark and myopic.
When I want to be fluid and humanist, exploring morals and ideals of the
whole, I end up polemic and digging myself a hole. [channeling my best Pete Peterkin] Let me be clear, I don’t believe in doubt and I don’t have dark
storm clouds following me everywhere.
I may digress off the topic of Dating, but fatigue and a long train ride
makes for a great writing session.
I apologize for the terribly self-aggrandizing tone. It was unnecessary. I may go back and tone it down, but it
definitely helped me come to a few new realizations about romantic-toned
interactions and “the game” in general.
I also thought my Stephen Colbert-esque title would make my sarcastic (not
angry) intent clear.
Believe it or not, I’ve
actually been making progress on the romantic interaction front. I even had the briefest moment of non-platonic
human contact. Didn’t meet her
through a website, so maybe it doesn’t count for the blog’s sake… I even made a connection with someone
from the web, but unfortunately, she failed one of my dealbreaker tests. She lives outside my circumference
requirements. Oh well. Frankly, I shouldn’t even have to say
anything – a couple of emails and text messages doesn’t require me to say “Sorry,
don’t want to see/talk/text/etc with you anymore.” Seems like a cool gal though, damn shame.
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| If you live outside of this box, we probably won't get on too well... |
Back to the non-site
chica: I’ve been trying a lot harder than usual to be in touch and/or make
plans.
Sorry ladies, I don’t
chase. It’s nothing personal; it’s
just a matter of resources available.
My rare nights/weekends off are often better spent being a vegetable and
recharging my batteries. I don’t
like talking on the phone either; it’s so much nicer to talk in person. Body language is vital to getting to
know someone. I’m also so easily
distractible that talking on the phone to me can be like talking to a six-year
old. Again, it’s nothing
personal. I also get a little
angsty when thinking about calling a woman – what if I’m: disturbing, waking up,
interrupting mellow time, busting in on a conversation with mom, ruining your
game with another man (haha), or ruined your train of thought right before you
found the meaning of life???? So,
I just won’t call you, at first. I
know that women like talking. I do
too. I obviously like to
talk… My inner Spock says:
anything I want to say, I’d rather look you in the eye while doing so. If I can’t see your face, I have
nothing to say. If I have nothing
to say, why would I call? Q.E.D.
For the record, I
followed up with almost all of my first dates. I never “just called to say hi” – I invited them out for
Round 2. If I got no response, I
never tried again. It’s as simple
as this: For aforementioned reasons, I won’t chase you. If you had fun on the date, and I got
in touch after, I take a lack of response as a lack of interest. It took me a lot of nerve to call you;
and nerve is an important resource.
If I keep tapping into my nerve to try getting in touch, I’ll lose my
nerve when I need it for something important. For some reason, I’ve made more effort with this one.
I don’t know if I’m
losing or gaining points with her, but I’ll try only so much harder. I may have lost a few points when I saw
her briefly yesterday morning on a coffee run. I was slightly ashen and travel-weary, and had no time to
stick around and chat. I even texted
her with a semi-formed plan/date/hang for tonight, but got bored of waiting for
a response and made other plans.
Naturally, she got back to me after said plans were made. Pending her schedule, of course, I’ll
have to build another logic tree to determine if seeing her is more valuable
than a round of disc golf/crossword time at the coffee shop/book in the
park/vegetating/etc. Maybe there
can be a combination of the previously listed activities… Either way, I will make sure that the
use of my free time will not detract from the important activities of next
week. I have a few nice chunks of
hours off over the next few days that will allow me to cover more activities
than usual. Very exciting.
Before I go, I want to
share a story from my train rides. On the way up, I either slept or read, with headphones and
sunglasses on the whole time.
Didn’t speak to a soul. It
was kinda awesome. On the way
back, I was headphoned again, but finished some work and wrote my silly
ramble. When we got to New York, I
was all set to keep my headphones on and read/crossword puzzle, but the train
filled up and a fairly pretty gal sat next to me.
Okay AJ, here’s your
chance to practice talking to strange (as in unknown, not abnormal) women
without sounding like a tool.
Sidenote: A train is a
great place to drink. The prices
were comparable to a mid-ranged Center City bar and you get a view.
We have pleasant small
talk! She smiles a lot. Only some of them were
condescending. Gets off at the
next stop, oh well, but a small group of people sitting around me all start
talking about the NBA playoffs. It
was clear that most of them did not know each other, but everyone is HILARIOUS.
Q: “Why couldn’t LeBron
James get a soda from the vending machine?”
A: “Because he dropped
the fourth quarter.”
It quickly turned to the
rumor of Delonte West sleeping with LeBron’s mom. I also reminded them what a monster West was at St.
Joe’s. It just continued onward
and spiraled around – we talked about living in the south, NYC, politics,
drugs, dating protocols, life goals, achievements, and on and on. We were also roaring with laughter –
many a dirty looks from the neighbors, but lots of stifled laughter from other
parts of the car. It was a deep
and passionate encounter amongst a half-dozen strangers from all over the
universe; a collision of dimensions that released energy felt by all. It was refreshing, empowering, and
enjoyed by everyone.
Let’s go Thunder.

