Hot Spot

Sometimes I get tired of being single. Not because I don’t like my life – I love my life. I get to do some of the most amazing things, things that I never even dreamed I would do. What I get tired of is how much effort it takes to date, or, more accurately, even get someone to notice you. I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but some days you just have to whine a little - and eat chocolate.

At Any rate, I was having one of these days, as was my friend, whom we will call “Betsy “ to protect her identity. So “Betsy” and I are having a frustrating day – we’re single with no end in sight, just about to have birthdays, which will make us officially closer to 30 than to 20, and the weather is cold. So we head over to the Barnes and Noble Bookstore to grab some hot chocolate and decide to sit and chat, nay, vent about our lives. Guys are stupid, the media is ruining the self-esteem of all women and with it our society, life’s expensive – we have to work.

After really getting ourselves steamed, we feel a little bit guilty, so we try to change the tone of the conversation and start to point out to each other the good things about life, and that there really are some great guys that we have the privilege of being friends with. This, I think, is what friends do – you help each other get it all out, but then you have the responsibility to bring each other back down to earth.

So, finally, we stop complaining – and a little bookstore miracle happens! This good looking guy walks by wearing a hat with the logo of our alma matter. “Betsy” asks him a question about the last football game and he sits down to talk with us - turns out he and "Betsy" have alot in common! In the end, we’re probably never going to see him again – he was just out here for a visit and I don’t even know his name, but it proved to us that there is hope. LESSON: happiness is out there, but you’ll probably miss it if you’re too busy complaining.

A few months later “Betsy” and I are planning a trip she is taking to Germany and we need to pick out a travel guide for her, so we head to Barnes and Noble again. We basically clean out the entire section of books and carry them over to a table by the Starbucks. So we’re sitting there choosing a travel guide and planning her trip (and I am turning 4 shades of jealous green), and this guy who is sitting at the table next to us pipes up and asks “are you going to Germany?” Eavesdropping is a little bit creepy, so we give him a short “yes” and turn back to the books.

After a few minutes, he interjects into the conversation again and starts to give us tips about traveling in Germany since he has lived there for x number of years. We smile and listen, then turn once again to the books. Once we were done we collected our things and started to walk away, and the guy calls after me, auf Deutsch, “Hey, do you speak German? How long have you studied it?” To avoid having someone yell across the store at me in a foreign language I walked back over to him and we had a little chat.

EVEN BIGGER LESSONS: 1) German geeks can find each other anywhere. 2) Guys, don’t eavesdrop – its creepy and the girl won’t give you the time of day. 3) Barnes and Noble is our hot spot.

So now I know, if I want to meet my future husband, I need to spend more time at Barnes and Noble. I’m not surprised. I’m a smarty-pants and the only guys who can probably stand me are smarty-pants themselves.