Okay. So I write that (in third person, even though it's painfully obvious that "she" is really me), then I head out to lunch, wrapped up in my own little world where I'm enthusiastically throwing myself a pity party. I get on the elevator, and vaguely notice that there is a guy on there with me. We start down, just him and me and my self pity, then I realize that he's speaking. "mumbled garbled raining outside," I hear.

I jerk around and squint at him. "What? Crap, did you just say it's raining outside? It better not be, I didn't bring my umbrella."

"No," he said, looking slightly frightened, "I just said I wonder if it's raining."

"Oh. I don't know," I say with a shrug, and turn back around to face front, and continue the ride in silence.

So then I meet up with my friends, and we're walking to the greasy hamburger joint, and we pass this car from which I hear "... know how to get to Houston Ave?" Now, he doesn't say "avenue," he says "ave," as in, rhymes with cave. I glance over and see that he's looking straight at me. I note that he's a foreigner, so I forgive the "ave" bit, but I look ahead and keep walking without responding. Before I can pass the car he repeats the question, so we all stop and turn around. "Um," I say, standing way back on the sidewalk with my arms crossed in front of me, "I'm pretty sure it's that way." I then point in the general direction of the street he's looking for. He mutters a half-hearted thanks, then goes on his way, and we continue to the hamburger place.*

See, now this is what I'm talking about. These were both nice enough looking guys, both young, and both looked professional. I could have handled both situations much better than I did, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself over not being able to find somebody to love that I didn't even recognize potential opportunities until after the fact. I do that sort of thing all the time, and I never seem to learn. I guess I'm pretty hopeless in that respect.

*To my credit, or at least to make myself look somewhat better, when he asked for directions the first time, one of my friends just said "No" and kept walking without even looking at him, and the second time, they all just stood back and looked at him, and I think a couple of them pointed in the same direction I did. I think they were all thrown by the way he said "ave."