The Guy From the A Train:
We all have that fantasy of meeting our soulmate on a plane, train, or other form of transportation. You sit across from them...You lock eyes and know your life will never be the same again. We then have this idea that after having that one life-changing conversation, said soulmate will then undergo the giant romantic gesture of tracking you down just to go on a date with you.
But when it happens on a subway and you had less than a five minute conversation with a guy, the line between romantic and creepy becomes very blurry.
I sat down next to him because he seemed to be absorbed in a book, which is usually a safe bet that you won’t be forced to interact with your fellow passenger. I was on my way to a dinner party, minding my own business on the A train when all of a sudden, he speaks. It takes me a couple of seconds to realize he was even speaking to me. A quick evaluation of the situation resulted in me deciding he seemed normal enough, good looking and wasn't raising any warning flags so speaking with him until we reached our destinations would be harmless. I politely engaged in conversation from between 125th Street and 145th with this handsome stranger. At 145th he hopped off the subway into the sea of people with only the information of my first name, and that I was a graduate student in a two-year program at Columbia. As I rode up to 168th I thought to myself, “I will never see that guy again, and it is a shame he never asked for my number.”
Days went by and I had completely forgotten about my brief encounter with A train guy. I remember sitting in the middle of lecture when I received the email. A LinkedIn notification, to be exact, with the message: “Hey Sam-- I met you on the A train the other day. I recalled you mentioning your enrollment in a two-year program at Columbia and I managed to find your profile. I’d like to stay in touch with you.” Sitting there staring at this message, I was dumbfounded. He must have gone through every Samantha enrolled at Columbia...or was just weirdly good at LinkedIn stalking. Also, what does “stay in touch with you” mean? From what I remembered from our brief conversation, he owned a restaurant in Washington, DC (I highly doubted he wanted my professional cooking advice considering I just learned how to turn on my oven this past New Year’s Eve...true story). So I had what I saw as 3 options:
Ignore his message
Respond with my best recipe ideas (carrots and hummus?)
Give him my number to “stay in touch”
I bravely chose option 3 where I learned that “stay in touch” is code for dinner and drinks in the East Village. Of course before going on this date I decided to do my fair share of stalking to make sure I hadn’t just agreed to go on a date with a serial killer. After what I thought was an appropriate and equal amount of stalking and informing almost everyone I knew of the exact time and place of the date, I was about to embark on my first subway encounter date.
The date itself was actually not terrible. Turns out he was an international judo competitor, owned a restaurant, and he introduced me to one of my now favorite pizza places in Manhattan. What I have learned from this date: If you accept a date with a guy you met off of the A train you may just end up on a date with an international Judo champion.
Reason for not seeing this guy again: Busy...and my attention span for learning about the art of Judo doesn’t extend past 3 hours.