Writing Up A Storm And Determining If I'm An Idiot

Remember those grad school applications? Naturally they all want a writing sample. So I dug up an old paper from my Immigration Law class and I'm revamping it. I've been doing additional research for the past few weeks and I started the rewrite on Saturday. It's amazing how much of a difference learning how to do real research helps. If there is one thing I can say about having to work in hell is that I have learned how to sift through huge volumes of materials and how to create smarter searches to narrow down what I'm looking for.

So Saturday afternoon I head over to my local chain bookstore (we all know the one with the B&N in their name) because ... well, they do have the Deathstar within and comfortable, quiet tables to work at. I started the rewriting process and let me tell ya .... I was rolling there for a while. I decided to rewrite the entire thing out first before typing it up again. I am already through about the first 3rd of the rewrite.

Now, while I was at said corporate bookstore, a lady close to my age (notice I didn't say young? ... heh-heh) grabbed a table behind me. Very cute, short, petite, dark hair with blue eyes. A definite cutie and no ring (it's the first thing I look at). But she sat down after getting her low-fat whatever it was she was drinking, put on her walkman, and started studying something with x-ray pics. So after about an hour, she walks over and very nicely asks if I wouldn't mind watching her things while she ran to the bathroom. Mind you, this is B&N in the more "upscale" (if you can call it that) part of town and there are only like 3 other people in the entire coffee shop area. But I told her that I'd be glad to watch her stuff.

This only brings up the Devil's own version of kryptonite ... how do you know when a lady is letting on that she might be interested? Now I've had guy friends who would insist that this was a signal. I don't wanna be that Chachi type-o-guy who takes everything a lady says as a come on with lines "I'll watch your books ... and I'll watch you while I'm at it." or "How you doing?". Every instinct I had was saying it meant nothing ... that it was only a friendly request. After all, she didn't want anyone to snatch her walkman and run out. Of course, I've thought that before only to have a nearby friend say "Dude, that was a total come on." Maybe I need to hire that Hitch guy to help learn to read signals.

My mind rationalizes this situation in different ways. In one case, it was completely friendly and she was just worried someone might run in and snag her walkman, skim milk latte, and books. It was a friendly request. But at the same time, she could've just walked over to the restroom and not say a word at all. Once I start talking to someone, I'm usually fine. But it's determining if that is a sign of interest or just a smile because my fly is open is another story. Now this opportunity has passed, but it's left me wondering if there is some general rule about how to read signals that a lady might be intersted in the Devil .....