The Stranger

All right, friends. I am very sick right now and (another) big weekend is coming up, so I know that tomorrow I will seriously regret having stayed up to thumb-type this post on my iPod. And yet I trudge on, for you. Actually, mostly I trudge on because I am a bit of a narcissist, and I love hearing the sound of my own (digital, written) voice.

Here's the situation. Every day, when I'm walking the couple of blocks from the subway stop to work, I pass the same guy. EVERY DAY. That's the weird part; I don't necessarily get to work at the same time each day. Yet, I always pass him during my fourish minute walk.

This dude is probably around 30 (although I suck at judging age; he could end up being 20 or 40), relatively fit-looking under his suit, with the kind of slightly spiky dair hair and facial hair that says, "I listen to great music, and I know it. I also have at least one tattoo and possibly a surprising piercing on my body. I wear this suit because I have to and I do it slightly ironically, but damn, do I make it look good." You know what I'm talking about.

For the first couple of days that we passed each other, I thought it was a funny coincidence. I tried to catch his eye to tell him, in eye language, "Hey there. We cross paths daily. We should smile at each other, or at least make the slight face adjustment that shows recognition when you're feeling too New Yorkian to smile." But, frustratingly, daily guy would never look up to make eye contact with me. Then I started getting this weird paranoia that someone had hired him to stalk me, which explained both why he was there every day even at different times and also why he wouldn't look at me. However, I'm not actually that paranoid/ narcissitic/ generally crazy, so I figured that he probably is just super zoned in the mornings, and legitimately hasn't noticed the beautiful brunette he passes daily. Not sure how he hasn't noticed; lately I have taken to openly staring, a mixture of "What the hell? Really, every morning?" and "Be my friend!" This morning it kind of almost seemed like he was smirking a little as he pointedly avoided (at least it seemed pointed to me) my gaze.

So my question to you is, how do I get my morning buddy to actually become a morning buddy in reality and not just in my head? Should I just leave this poor dude alone? (Let's be honest. That's not really an option for me. I don't leave things alone. I'm a trudger.) Advice?