Was running around town in those way-too-tight bike shorts a bad idea?
I guess you’ll never know…
“You’re doing it all wrong. Almost 100% for sure, you are doing it absolutely wrong.”
Realizing this truth about your many failed romantic pursuits is not the easiest cookie to swallow. It’s my fault? Nah, man! If at 26 years old, and I’m already seriously weighing my options between dying old and alone versus a mail order bride–surprisingly logical choice of–then that must be for reasons entirely preordained by the Universe, right?
Right?
Well, if you don’t recall, I recently related my “Aw, well screw me, then!” moment in which I realized that maybe–just maybe–I wasn’t so innocent when it came to the untimely deaths of past romances in my life.
What am I thinking? Of course you’ve already read 3:45–The Perfect Time To Full On Panic At The Disco. And if you read that then you definitely read The Unexpected Value Of Rump-Shaking With An Average-Ass White Girl.
So I know at this point you’re indubitably wondering if I actually learned anything from my horrifying self-realization experience. Like, did anything really change for me after that?
Well, I’m pleased as a pickle you asked…
“If every instinct you have is wrong…then the opposite…would have to be right.”
Who, pray tell, spoke such sage words of advice? Ghandi? Einstein? The Buddha? Jesus?
No, someone much insidiously wiser…Jerry Seinfeld. While his eponymous hit show, Seinfeld, claimed to “be about nothing”, I believe it was all a ruse to sneak in some of the best life advice to an indifferent 90’s generation.
I essentially grew up on Seinfeld as ‘tween and teen, and so it’s no surprise that this clip playing in the back of my mind ever since the aforementioned fateful night on a Greensboro dance floor:
So…easy peasy, right? Whatever I thought should do or say, just not do that and do the exact opposite.
I’m being only half sarcastic here–of course it takes some thought and effort to restrain your natural instincts–but at the same time, could you possibly have it laid out for you any easy, you ----- numb-skull?
“Sure, why not? Why not give it a whirl?” I thought, and I set about giving the whole whacky-ass, so-crazy-it-just-might-work strategy a chance to change my luck, my love life, and my life forever.
Talk less.
Ask more questions.
Maybe not make that cynical jackass comment.
Make eye-contact for more than 1.3 seconds.
Given the choice, say the nice/uplifting thing, even if it makes you feel sappy inside.
Compliment others…behind their backs.
Perhaps we don’t have to share every little extraneous detail when telling one of our little tales.
Okay, okay, the irony of that one is not lost me. Clearly, I’ve reverted to my old ways, at least in part.
But otherwise, I gotta report that, yeah, doing the opposite of what I wanted to pretty quickly made my summer much more interesting.
Within a week or two, I was already playing some low-key footsie with two young ladies from my church–something that I had never really been able to pull off in the previous 25 years of my life.
I figured between the two of them, it would work out with one of them sooner than later, and I might just find myself with a–gasp!–GIRLFRIEND…
“Wait, what are you doing back already?!?”
I had gone out cycling with my friend The Wooly Mammoth, and had come back to my new apartment to the surprise of THE cutest girl from my church sitting in my living room, chatting with my roommates.
Not only was this single-dimpled beauty the most all-around attractive single lady in our church, but The Dimpler was also my new neighbor. Well, technically, I was her new neighbor.
Oh, and yeah, I’ll admit this way-out-of-my-league lass had also caught my attention several months ago, before she had headed off to Central America for the summer–but, ALAS! I ultimately learned she had a boyfriend that went to a different church.
And also, that whole “outta my league” thing.
So why was I so surprised to find her in my humble abode? My roommates and I ran in the same social circle at church with her and her roommate, so inevitably they would be dropping in at our place just around the corner from theirs.
Two words: Moose. Knuckle. I’ll let you ask the interwebs yourself if you don’t already know what that means.
You see, I hadn’t expected her to be back from her summer trip for a few more days, otherwise I would have avoided being seen publicly in our neighborhood in my cycling tights had there been any chance of running into her surreptitiously.
I guess you could say that my instinct was telling me that perhaps welcoming her back into town with my Moose Knuckle wasn’t the best idea.
Then again, by now we all know how reliable my instinct is…
“Cocaine!”
Now it’s debatable whether or not it was instinctual that I responded to the midnight FaceBook message from The Dimpler with drug-related humor or not. But, in retrospect, I would argue it was the ----- right way to answer the question “What are you doing up so late?!?”
Though FB had been around for 2-3 years at that point, The Dimpler had just signed up, and since I was a neighbor/friend from church, I soon became one of her first FaceBook friends. Also, back then, it was much harder to control your “Active” status on FaceBook–and therefore much easier for your crush to know whether you practiced good sleep habits or whether you were an addict of some kind.
In my case, it was the latter. Or at least that’s what I told her, referencing the 70s hit Eric Clapton song, Cocaine!
Now wouldn’t you know it, but she responded with “Oooh, drug abuse! How romantic!”–which I took as a personal challenge to my creativity. I promptly turned around and composed a haiku based exclusively on the indifferences between drugs and being totally high on somebody’s love (or, on occasion, your lust for them).
The next morning, I got a reply from her that started, “Wow…that was actually…pretty good! Did you right that yourself?”
Clearly a sarcastic personal insult.
Man, I put myself out there and make myself vulnerable, and what happens? She come back all rude and demeaning? Geez, I should have known I was going to get roasted for attempting to talk to talk to pretty girls again…
…
But…
wait…
just…
a…
tic!
My instinct is telling me that she thinks I’m stupid and I’ve written some trash-ass poetry. Which is interesting, because, if taken literally, is not at all what her message said.
And, before I blow up any chances with her by responding to her mean-girlness in anger, maybe I should stop and listen to my instinct…
…and tell him to shut the ----- up, you ----- idiot.
So…if my instinct is indeed dead wrong, then I should do the opposite. But, responding sincerely to a genuine compliment from a veritable Greek Goddess? This was new territory for this cynical self-saboteur–I had no idea how to actually accept that praise (assuming she wasn’t being sarcastic, of course–you can’t just let go of your instincts and in-grained ways that easily).
I had no choice but to…stall?
I mean, there still was the possibility that I was right, and she thought my haiku was stupid, so I didn’t want to claim responsibility just yet. So, in a move totally, completely, and utterly opposite of me, I simple shot back:
“You’ll never know…”
Ooh, go with being coy…maybe a little mystery will keep the spark alive. Kinda makes sense, seeing as how my instinct is to share every detail and look where that’s got me in life, amiright?
What intrigue! What mystique! What the hell was I thinking?!? What made me think my crazy anti-plan might work?!?
…
Well, friend, I have good news for you: unlike The Dimpler, you might actually get to know what happened next if you stick around until next week.
Sorry I have to leave you hanging, though. I wanted to tell you everything, and I wanted tell you everything now.
That’s what the little voice inside my head was telling me.
But then again, we all know he is a certified dip-shit…
Content created on: 29 July 2022 (Friday)
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