2002-04-05 - 11:05 a.m.
Single Forever?
Three nights a week, I work at a bookstore coffee shop. Not only is it a great place to make $7.50 an hour, it is a phenomenal place to people-watch. The most eccentric cream of the social crop reside in a bookstore. Some study, some read magazines they never purchase, some play chess, some wax philosophical over herbal tea.
I have a �regular�� and I�m afraid I don�t know his name. I know him as bottle-of-orange-juice-and-blueberry-muffin. He is, categorically, a computer geek. I am not usually one to make sweeping generalizations, but if you were asked to describe your idea of a computer geek, you would describe Mr. Orange Juice. He comes in, almost nightly, to play Go, a strategy game that people too intelligent for chess play (if you remember, Russell Crowe�s character in �A Beautiful Mind� played it with his Ivy League buddies). He�s about 30 years old, short, stocky, and wears t-shirts that say things like �Master Hacker.� He is a little Rick Moranis, a little Steve Erckell, and a little Bill Nye, the Science Guy.
One time I asked him the same question twice (�Would you like your muffin warmed?�), and when I mentioned my problem with multi-tasking, he explained to me exactly how many functions the human brain can hold at one time, and if he could somehow augment that capacity by just one function, his ability to program computers would skyrocket. �I program computers,� he stated matter-of-factly. �Shocker,� I replied, wide-eyed.
Last night, he came in with a woman. She is Asian, taller and thinner than he is, and a good 15 years older, but as they sat with their heads together, whispering about, likely, the essence of binary code, I couldn�t take my eyes off of them. They looked genuinely happy together, and in my head, I heard the end-of-romantic-comedy music swell as I saw him put his arm on the edge of her chair.
Mr. Orange Juice gives me hope. Surely, if this guy can find true love, a smart, responsible, funny, and attractive 25-year old can?!?? Even if she does pour coffee.
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