Sooo. It being Labor Day and all – I mean Veteran’s Day – I thought I would take the day off. I have been under a lot of “stress” lately, with all this novel-writing, getting up early, socializing, dating, coffee-drinking, hiking, biking, stalking baristas and backcountry ski gods, etc.



Speaking of baristas, who should I find working at Victrola this afternoon but Shy Barista Boy himself? Now that he’s behind the counter, of course, we have the perfect excuse to talk to each other. “I only work here a couple days a week now,” he said, shyly, when I expressed my delight (well-camouflaged, of course) that he was still working here. We exchanged names (again), though I couldn’t exactly throw myself at him from across the counter when other patrons were crowding up behind me. (What, is this France or something?)



At least now I know WHEN he works here (Tuesday afternoons, maybe evenings?) so I can insinuate myself into his consciousness and maybe find the guts to…what…give him my card? Ask him to go to that non-coffee drink? Say “hey, you’re cute, wanna hang out sometime?” Or maybe get one of my friends to do it for me. Now there's a great idea straight from our seventh grade pasts!



On e-mail, the WimpDatingTool ™, I’m much better. In fact, I now have a theoretical coffee date with the Backcountry Ski God (BSG) that friends A. & J. (backcountry ski gods themselves) threw in my lap unknowingly when they pointed me to his Web site.



Seeing so many strapping young men engaged in life-threatening activities mountaineering activities got my pulse pounding so hard that I could not help but e-mail the creator of this Web site, and ask, point blank, if he and any of his friends were single.



(Update: I just went up to get my free coffee refill – not because I should be drinking any more coffee, mind you, I really should NOT – but just to get another chance at SBB. Well. I have to say the pain and suffering I shall feel later at the hands of this caffeine was worth the adoring gaze he leveled right into my eyes. Oh. My.)



So, not only did BSG write me back, as it turns out, he IS single; not only THAT, he works here at good old Acme Software Company (name courtesy of my coworker Odious Woman). Software developer – good sign – means he’s rich. Used the word “phat” in his e-mail. Bad sign? Does this mean he’s 23? Well, whatever. So am I. Or at least I LOOK 23.



I’m sure he will lose interest as soon as he realizes what a horrible backcountry skier I really am, but if I wear a short enough skirt, maybe he can be swayed in the opposite direction. And at least I can casually drop the fact that I climbed Rainier. “Oh, yeah, when I was climbing Rainier this summer…”