[i'm looking for a mind at work]
So I had a hilarious encounter with a man at the rink today. (Apologies to those who read this on twitter, but you get more detail here, at least?)
I'm skating and see a man in a Nordiques Peter Statsny shirsey. He's stopped at the end one time when I go past, so I just comment "nice shirt" and skate past, headphones on. I'm slow enough I had time to notice his very attractive face, which I hadn't seen across the rink. Ten minutes or so later he comes up behind me and asks how I like my skates.
Unfortunately, as I know nothing about my skates (they're CCM, I got them used and appreciated the fact that my shoe size means cheaper junior skates), that possibly wasn't the best gambit to open with, but it got us to stop in a corner to talk. (I even took my headphones out!) He touches his shirt and says, "so you're familiar with the team?" and I say yes, and with Peter Statsny. I wonder about the realistic possibility that they'll get a team again, trying to establish a common knowledge base (as in, I didn't recognize the logo randomly, I know something about this topic) and he starts telling me that Las Vegas is getting a team.
Strangely enough, I already knew this, so I again try to get us on equal footing of talking about something we both know about (usually when this happens, it turns out our NHL news knowledge base is heavily skewed in my direction, but I make a good faith effort to have a conversation of equals). I made some comment that led to him mentioning that both Quebec and Seattle are interested. I mention that Seattle needs an arena first. He makes a comment about Winnipeg being precedent, which it is but more for the league needing to get out of a trashfire ownership situation in Atlanta. Logical leap to the Canes being for sale, which is true (ownership trashfire in a different way than Atlanta). The media has definitely run with the Canes-to-Quebec possibility, but that ignores that the league would still have to negotiate sharing the province with the Habs. We both kind of roll our eyes at the Habs, and that part of the conversation ends with me making a comment about the disastrous management they have.
There's some other conversation, which if I heard correctly included mention of him growing up in Vermont, I ask about what brought him to our fair town (he's a process engineer and moves for work regularly; he's had a couple of jobs in the area). I crack a joke about his skates being old enough to be drafted when he said he thought he bought them in 1998, and me mentions his draft class was 1985 and he was drafted by the Rangers and the friend (whose name I didn't catch earlier in his VT story) was also drafted. He establishes he'll be skating out of this rink for the rest of the year, then he's going to Wilmington to do something with USA Hockey. (He did have a good anecdote about people here freaking out when he took a slapshot. There's not so much pucks-off-glass shooting in this region.) We talk a little bit more and then skate our separate ways.
Of course when I get to my car I promptly pull up the Wikipedia page for the '85 draft. The Rangers drafted 11 Canadians and Swedes and an entire 1 American. I promise you, I was not talking to HHOFer Mike Richter today. While he looked more than Swedish enough for me to believe he just lost his accent, that didn't jibe with growing up in Vermont. So, Mr. Not-Statsny, I thank you for the laugh. You thoroughly entertained me.
(I will say: from what I saw, dude could seriously fucking skate.)
I went home and told Mom that I talked to an actual man today (this is a very rare event, especially a good-looking one), and she says he was trying to impress me.
(Aside: if men really do try to impress women by mansplaining, LOL MEN FLIRT BETTER. Because nope.)
This...honestly never occurred to me. I mean, aspects of it fit -- he certainly didn't have to start a conversation. I have decided to adopt this as the narrative, as opposed to lolmansplaining, because it boosts my confidence to think that someone, out in the wild, would think I was worth flirting with. (
spuffyduds being the only person I know of who has flirted with me since 2004-ish. Admittedly from 2007-2014 my depression and anxiety were probably visible from space, so maybe better for people to stay clear. It's 100% why I stopped posting.)
Mom did also point out that it's very likely many men have flirted with me and I just didn't know it (possible?) but that she's sure I then proceeded to emasculate them anyway. Because by not letting Mr. Not-Statsny mansplain more, I erased his macho-ness or something. Huh? HOW IS TRYING TO ESTABLISH EQUAL FOOTING FOR A CONVERSATION EMASCULATING? Okay, it totally is if your identity is tied up in ~intellectual dominance~ or some such nonsense, but please. For fuck's sake. Nope. You can entertain me all day with that nonsense, but stop taking lessons from Aaron "Trust Fund Baby" Burr if you want to make any progress.
(I probably switched tenses half a dozen times, but good > perfect and I'd rather post and practice than not. Also, I did introduce a new narrative that my lack of dating/flirting isn't that I'm 100% unappealing, it's that I appeal to a niche market. And twitter said I'm cute, which made me tear up, but twitter is smarter than randoms 1000% percent of the time. I've now broken math and English. Lo que sea. While I'm admitting my failbot-ness, I do admit being pretty clueless about how to flirt. I just kind of become more me, which...I'm kind of a lot anyway? Or my foot goes in my mouth. Though that's synonymous with "more me".)
I hope some part of this also made you laugh at least half as much as it made me laugh. I kind of want to run into this man again, because I had a good time. And he did have a nice face. :)
AND I HAVE THE PERFECT ICON FOR THIS. THIS IS WHY I MISSED YOU, DREAMWIDTH. (I miss my people more, but icons are my favorite thing about this specific platform.)
This entry also exists at http://ainsley.dreamwidth.org/831351.html. Comment whenever and wherever you prefer.
I'm skating and see a man in a Nordiques Peter Statsny shirsey. He's stopped at the end one time when I go past, so I just comment "nice shirt" and skate past, headphones on. I'm slow enough I had time to notice his very attractive face, which I hadn't seen across the rink. Ten minutes or so later he comes up behind me and asks how I like my skates.
Unfortunately, as I know nothing about my skates (they're CCM, I got them used and appreciated the fact that my shoe size means cheaper junior skates), that possibly wasn't the best gambit to open with, but it got us to stop in a corner to talk. (I even took my headphones out!) He touches his shirt and says, "so you're familiar with the team?" and I say yes, and with Peter Statsny. I wonder about the realistic possibility that they'll get a team again, trying to establish a common knowledge base (as in, I didn't recognize the logo randomly, I know something about this topic) and he starts telling me that Las Vegas is getting a team.
Strangely enough, I already knew this, so I again try to get us on equal footing of talking about something we both know about (usually when this happens, it turns out our NHL news knowledge base is heavily skewed in my direction, but I make a good faith effort to have a conversation of equals). I made some comment that led to him mentioning that both Quebec and Seattle are interested. I mention that Seattle needs an arena first. He makes a comment about Winnipeg being precedent, which it is but more for the league needing to get out of a trashfire ownership situation in Atlanta. Logical leap to the Canes being for sale, which is true (ownership trashfire in a different way than Atlanta). The media has definitely run with the Canes-to-Quebec possibility, but that ignores that the league would still have to negotiate sharing the province with the Habs. We both kind of roll our eyes at the Habs, and that part of the conversation ends with me making a comment about the disastrous management they have.
There's some other conversation, which if I heard correctly included mention of him growing up in Vermont, I ask about what brought him to our fair town (he's a process engineer and moves for work regularly; he's had a couple of jobs in the area). I crack a joke about his skates being old enough to be drafted when he said he thought he bought them in 1998, and me mentions his draft class was 1985 and he was drafted by the Rangers and the friend (whose name I didn't catch earlier in his VT story) was also drafted. He establishes he'll be skating out of this rink for the rest of the year, then he's going to Wilmington to do something with USA Hockey. (He did have a good anecdote about people here freaking out when he took a slapshot. There's not so much pucks-off-glass shooting in this region.) We talk a little bit more and then skate our separate ways.
Of course when I get to my car I promptly pull up the Wikipedia page for the '85 draft. The Rangers drafted 11 Canadians and Swedes and an entire 1 American. I promise you, I was not talking to HHOFer Mike Richter today. While he looked more than Swedish enough for me to believe he just lost his accent, that didn't jibe with growing up in Vermont. So, Mr. Not-Statsny, I thank you for the laugh. You thoroughly entertained me.
(I will say: from what I saw, dude could seriously fucking skate.)
I went home and told Mom that I talked to an actual man today (this is a very rare event, especially a good-looking one), and she says he was trying to impress me.
(Aside: if men really do try to impress women by mansplaining, LOL MEN FLIRT BETTER. Because nope.)
This...honestly never occurred to me. I mean, aspects of it fit -- he certainly didn't have to start a conversation. I have decided to adopt this as the narrative, as opposed to lolmansplaining, because it boosts my confidence to think that someone, out in the wild, would think I was worth flirting with. (
spuffyduds being the only person I know of who has flirted with me since 2004-ish. Admittedly from 2007-2014 my depression and anxiety were probably visible from space, so maybe better for people to stay clear. It's 100% why I stopped posting.)
Mom did also point out that it's very likely many men have flirted with me and I just didn't know it (possible?) but that she's sure I then proceeded to emasculate them anyway. Because by not letting Mr. Not-Statsny mansplain more, I erased his macho-ness or something. Huh? HOW IS TRYING TO ESTABLISH EQUAL FOOTING FOR A CONVERSATION EMASCULATING? Okay, it totally is if your identity is tied up in ~intellectual dominance~ or some such nonsense, but please. For fuck's sake. Nope. You can entertain me all day with that nonsense, but stop taking lessons from Aaron "Trust Fund Baby" Burr if you want to make any progress.
(I probably switched tenses half a dozen times, but good > perfect and I'd rather post and practice than not. Also, I did introduce a new narrative that my lack of dating/flirting isn't that I'm 100% unappealing, it's that I appeal to a niche market. And twitter said I'm cute, which made me tear up, but twitter is smarter than randoms 1000% percent of the time. I've now broken math and English. Lo que sea. While I'm admitting my failbot-ness, I do admit being pretty clueless about how to flirt. I just kind of become more me, which...I'm kind of a lot anyway? Or my foot goes in my mouth. Though that's synonymous with "more me".)
I hope some part of this also made you laugh at least half as much as it made me laugh. I kind of want to run into this man again, because I had a good time. And he did have a nice face. :)
AND I HAVE THE PERFECT ICON FOR THIS. THIS IS WHY I MISSED YOU, DREAMWIDTH. (I miss my people more, but icons are my favorite thing about this specific platform.)
This entry also exists at http://ainsley.dreamwidth.org/831351.html. Comment whenever and wherever you prefer.