Little Boxes, by Doris

So last night I took Rock's advice and tried to score a date. As in, meeting face to face, seeing if the energy I'm feeling online is there in person. One of my OKCupid cuties is mired in final exams this week (as he told me in a very sweet "I haven't forgotten you" note last Sunday), so I a) don't want to bother him during a stressful time, and b) do want to wait until he responds to me as promised. See what an awesome non-stalker I'm being?

In the meantime, there's another dude. Brown hair, glasses--fair warning to all guys with brown hair and glasses in my city, I WILL most likely message you at some point. This one's sort of Rivers Cuomo-esque (and I've always had a thing for Rivers, despite the many accounts that he's a total douche). Rivers-a-like and I have a good rapport online, so last night I bit the bullet and asked him to coffee, during one of the random times I have free this weekend (thank you, holidays).

Then it got complicated.

It's not that Rivers-a-like isn't up for coffee. He is.

However . . .

He doesn't live in the city. Due to various personal reasons, he's currently in a suburb about an hour west.

Now, he didn't exactly lie about this. Plus, I believe OKCupid pulls up every possible match in a 25-mile range. I never explicitly asked him, "do you live in the city?" I assumed it because his handle denotes a city address, but we all know that to assume is to make an ass out of u and me (cliche, yes, but it's proven true too many times to count).

And he was very sweet and apologetic, saying that if this is a dealbreaker for me, he understands. He is in the city most weekends and often a few times a week. He just wanted it out there before we actually met.

I remembered a similar thing happening to Rock. Only in Rock's case, the guy waited until after their first date to drop the S bomb, which I always thought was kind of a red flag.

So I told Rivers-a-like that it wasn't a dealbreaker, as long as he was in the city regularly. I also told him that due to a major car accident a few years ago, I don't own a car, so I hoped THAT was not a dealbreaker. Meaning if this goes anywhere, the burden will be on him to come to me.

I had a few minutes before work, so I checked OKCupid and he hadn't responded. However, this was at 8:45 a.m. and we usually message about 10 p.m.-ish. And if I don't hear back from him, it wasn't meant to be anyway.

Waiting, again. This time for a boy at a distance.