Let me just say, from the perspective of a girl who considers herself a little different from most girls in the single respect that I will often talk to someone first (blame it on my friendly midwestern upbringing): What in the H. E. Double Hockey Stick are you waiting for?? When will men finally understand that what most women want is for the man to be the man. Break the ice. Make the first conversation happen. Say *hello,* for heaven's sake. How can she possibly know you're interested, or even just a nice guy she can say Hi to if you take three years to *speak* to her? What in the world have you got to lose? At the very worst, unless you're a smelly, slimy toothed loser/stalker/freak, you have someone on the bus to talk to, who might save you a seat if she can, to smile and wave at first thing in the morning. At the very best...you figure it out.

Mou"little tolerance for shyness"sie

> OK, let me start with a disclaimer:
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> Anyone reading this post in hopes of being excited by my story should stop reading now. This story is not interesting in the least. Honest.
>
> (There, that should get people curious.)
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> This morning, like most good mornings, I was up early and ready to go in time to catch the Perfect Bus. Why do I call it the Perfect Bus? Three reasons (in no particular order):
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> 1) It picks me up half a block from my house and drops me off twenty feet from my office building;
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> 2) It gets me to work a little bit early EVERY time I catch it;
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> 3) There is a REALLY cute girl who always seems to be on it and gives me "glances" fairly often.
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> As far as I am concerned, there could not be a better bus. (No, wait, it could pick me up at my front door and have fifty REALLY cute girls who gave me glances, but c'mon here, let's be realistic.)
>
> So anyway, this morning I caught the Perfect Bus. It was crowded today, though, which was annoying. You see, last time I caught the Perfect Bus (Friday) there was an empty seat right near the front. As usual, I had my early morning blinders on, so the only thing I could see was empty seats, and I saw this one empty seat and no others. About halfway through the trip, I noticed who I was sitting beside: The REALLY cute girl! This surprised me, since she usually had a seat further back. I entertained thoughts that she might have intentionally sat at the front so I might sit beside her, and then I fidgeted shyly for the rest of the bus trip. Neither of us said a word, though.
>
> Back to today. Many people were already standing when I got on the bus, and I could not see the REALLY cute girl anywhere. Of course, there were a number of seats at the back which I could not see from where I was. As the bus went on, people gradually got off from the back, allowing those of us who were standing to move back and sometimes get seats.
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> A little way along, I noticed that the REALLY cute girl was on the bus, standing about five people back from where I was. As the bus went along, seats opened up and people sat down, gradually reducing the distance between me and the REALLY cute girl. Of course, I didn't think about it much, because I had sat beside her on Friday and nothing had happened.
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> Finally, we came to the second school on the route, and a crowd of people got off. The back bench of the bus, which is wide enough for about five people, was mostly cleared. When three people were sitting on it in the three left-most positions, the REALLY cute girl got the right-most seat, and nobody else sat down in the last seat. It ended up that only two of us were still standing in the back half of the bus: myself, and this one other guy.
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> INTERLUDE: The Other Guy
> --------------------
> The other guy is a handsome young man with a beautiful young girlfriend. They are almost always on the Perfect Bus together, and he always gets off at the main stop downtown, while she always remains on the bus after I get off a stop later. BLATANT ISSACHAR FLATTERY ALERT! The attractive young couple always reminds me of the picture of Issachar and Jacqueline from the RinkAlbum page (for those of you with access to the RinkAlbum).
> --------------------
> END INTERLUDE
>
> As usual, the attractive young guy had made sure that his girlfriend (or fiancee or wife, I really have no way of knowing) got a seat, and then he stood beside her talking to her quietly rather than getting a seat for himself. As a result, there remained one empty seat on the bus, and one person standing who would consider taking it.
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> SURPRISE CLIFFHANGER ENDING!!!
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> Don "Will wait for popular demand to dictate that he finish the story" Monkey