Interesting exchanges

I’ve just had the most interesting day filled with wonderful and, at times odd, male attention. In fact, some of it was so odd I just have to blog about it!

The day started off with a nice IM chat with someone I’ve “met” at OKCupid, a dating website. It was filled with light-hearted fun and laughter. Very pleasant.

But that’s not what I want to blog about.

Ever have a snippet of time that you thought was going to go one way, only to have it go in an altogether different direction?

That’s what I want to blog about.

After lunch, I was waiting outside my apartment for my friend to pick me up. We were going to a Toastmasters demonstration meeting for a new club that’s forming for writers and authors, called ToastWriters. You can learn more about it here.

As I’m standing there reading David Wygant’s book Naked! How to Find the Perfect Partner by Revealing Your True Self, this guy comes up to me and says something to the effect of, “Read me a few lines from that book, just from where you are, so I can see if we’re on the same page.”

I look at him and wonder what kind of angle this is. He’s black, wearing black jeans, a black leather jacket and his teeth are pretty bad, possibly even missing a few. But other than that, he’s well groomed. So I decide to go with the flow, take him at face value and so I oblige, reading the next paragraph in the book:

“This is the kind of client that I have to rebuild from the ground up. We start by practicing how to say hello, smile, and observe others. We do everything we can to get them to realize that people aren’t scary — it’s just their thoughts that are scary. Their fear and excuses protect them from ever trying something different. What’s the worst that can happen if they were to try a new approach? They might actually succeed.” (pg. 39)

“So let me see if I got this right,” he says to me. He sums it up that the passage I had read means that we should all just be people and not be afraid to say “hi” and smile.

“You got it!” I said.

He thanks me and goes on his way.

That was it. No come on. No smart ass remark. Just thanked me for reading to him and walked away.

Strange, huh?

And the truly interesting thing is that the passage, if you read it again, was absolutely apropos for that exchange. He wasn’t scary … but my thoughts about him could have been. I tried a new approach … taking him at face value … and had a pleasant interchange with a fellow human being.

I didn’t select that paragraph. That was truly the next paragraph I was going to read had he been there or not. The Universe selected that paragraph.

Later, after ToastWriters was over, one of the guests comes up to me and says he appreciated what I had to say about following my passion and leaving my ex-husband behind. He then spends what feels like a hour, but was probably only a handful of minutes, talking about a car he wants to build. Its a cool idea, but I have absolutely no interest in cars.

Then, with no segue-way whatsoever, he asks me what kind of exercise I like to do. I look at him quizzically, trying to figure out how to answer such an off-the-wall question. He then says that he’s starting a volley ball group and was wondering if I’d like to join.

This reminds me of the time I was an exchange student in England and a guy I had just danced with asked if I wanted to watch him play cricket the next day. I have no interest in sports, so I said no. Besides, I was leaving town that next day and would never be back.

Back to today. I say to this fellow, basically, that I live in Long Beach and don’t have any transportation. Thank you, any way. Then he mentions his wife. I forget why … it just seemed odd and out of context.

I quickly made a retreat and my friend and I go get burgers at Carl’s Jr. I indulge in some onion rings … I can still taste them on my tongue as I write this. Yummy.

When I got home, I found a few messages from a couple of OKCupid guys I’d sent comments to yesterday. Very nice.

So, all in all, today was a day full of innocuous and sometimes quite pleasant male attention. A good day. I’m smiling from ear to ear.