Travel Experiment

After a day in the house huddled over my computer with spreadsheets and numbers I got myself dolled up and headed for an evening out on the town.  What does a poor organizer with no car and little money do on a Sunday?  

Head to Barnes and Nobles!  I live near the faux-downtown of Virginia Beach.  It's a town center akin to The Grove in LA or Sunset Place in Miami, though a quite a bit more tacky.  I navigate the 8 lanes of traffic to get there.  

I decide to do an experiement.  I've been a bit devoid of boys lately.  

#1 I'm in Southern Virginia, which isn't exactly known for the smart, interesting, political, passionate type men I'm into.  Not to stereotype, but well, yeah, I guess I will, because I haven't met anyone to prove me wrong.  Come on, confederate flags are not okay to fly on your pickup trucks anymore.  How I miss the self-deprecating sarcasm, over-the-top artsiness and heavy fashion of LA men.  Or even the over-the-top-sensuality of Miami guys.  Give me a Boston preppy anyday over a Norfolk man yelling "Hey baby!" out of his car at me or even the boring looking strip-malled-out guys at Gordon Biersch.

#2 I work all the time and rarely hang with anyone besides my staff.

So, I will plunk myself down in the travel section and see if there's anyone remotely cute that comes by to get a travel book.  If he's in the travel section, he's obviously got bigger horizons than most people here.  I'll figure out some way to talk him.*

I made my way over to the travel section where I settled down with a few good books--Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? , Cheap Bastard's Guide to Boston, and The Europe Book.  I read for about an hour hanging out along the travel wall.  

Zero.  Zero people looked in the travel section.  Doesn't anyone in Tidewater travel?  With disgust (but a few good ideas on becoming a travel writer and obtaining cheap drinks in Boston) I reshelve my books and prepare to leave.  

But what's this, mmmm, pretty cute.  I pretend to scan the racks some more and glance over.

:::sigh::: He is at the next shelf over--self-improvement books.  

Staying away from that one.  I pick up a moleskin notebook, a must-have for any respectable travel writer, and head off home.  

*Sidenote:  I just did a search on "Picking up Guys in Bookstores" and came up with a whole bunch of this.  Seems like it's much more of a man's sport.