Minneapolis Adventures

I went to Borders today to study for a bit before going to see Arbusto and his girlfriend Jazz, who is in town for the weekend. I picked a table facing the music/DVD section. It also faced a table about six feet away at which a guy was sitting...frequently staring at me.

Despite the fact that others were studying in the cafe area, he tried to talk to me from his table, asking my name and making a game of trying to guess my ethnic origin. Chinese? No. Japanese? No. Vietnamese? No. Laotian? No. African? What? No.

Finally, in order to keep him from further distracting everyone else with his guessing game, I went and sat at his table. He talked to me about his studies at St. Paul Technical College, talked about his move from Ethiopia, and tried to extract information about my ethnic background and graduate program. Then he asked if he could get my number so that we could see a movie or have coffee.

Me: "Oh, thanks, that's nice of you to ask, but I have a pretty serious boyfriend."
Guy (skeptically): "How serious? Are you married?"
Me (puzzled): "Uh...no."
Guy: "Well, are you engaged?"
Me: "No."
Guy: "Well, then, we could - "
Me: "No, we're pretty serious."
Guy: "What does he do?"
Me: "He's a professional musician."
Guy: "Is he done with school?"
Me: "Yes."
Guy: "Then perhaps he is ready to be serious."
Me: ...
Guy (decisively): "I will give you my number in case things change."
Me: "I have to go."