{"id":157,"date":"2006-01-30T15:48:56","date_gmt":"2006-01-30T22:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2006-01-30T16:11:22","modified_gmt":"2006-01-30T23:11:22","slug":"i-saw-u","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"I SAW U"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m a romantic. It’s embarrassing and not at all cool to say these days. However, I don’t consider myself hopeless. On the contrary, I’m sometimes annoyingly optimistic. Which is why I love I SAW U ads and craigslist Missed Connections<\/a>. I’ve been the lucky recipient of two I SAW Us. One from an ex who didn’t really see me, but knew I’d be at this certain place and that when I read the ad later I’d be looking for this particular place. The other was from a guy who placed the ad right after our first date, just before I sent him a warm but stern kiss-off email, which means it ran after I’d say “Thanks, but no thanks.” Poor guy.<\/p>\n

You’d think these two not-so-pleasant experiences would be enough to deter me from ever checking them again. But I do. I used to pick up The Stranger<\/a> solely for the I SAW U section and Savage Love. When they changed the ads to a mostly online format, I ran straight for craigslist. I’m not sure why. <\/p>\n

There is just something so hopeful and wide-eyed about them. Though I laugh at a vast majority of the ads, I’m constantly astounded by how sure most people are that it isn’t going to work (and, honestly, I doubt many of them do) and that they do it anyway. It’s just such a testament to what is great and awful about dating. It also REEKS of Seattlites’ insecurities and inability to go out on a limb, but that’s a different post.<\/p>\n

I haven’t been reading them as much lately. Not because I’m now in a relationship and wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if someone did actually see me. But because I’m never in one place long enough for anyone to see me. I’m in Portland almost as much as I’m in Seattle. Or I should say I’m in public in Portland as much as I’m in public in Seattle. Lately, I’ve been at the Doug Fir or Crow Bar as often as I’m at the Tin Hat or Linda’s.<\/p>\n

So this past weekend, I was at a taqueria in Portland with GTB, waiting for my burrito and guacamole when he picked up a Mercury.<\/a> He turned right to the I SAW U section. I thought it was a little strange to read them right in front of me, but quickly got over it when I remembered that I do the same thing all the time. He perused as I sat quietly staring at the map of Mexico on the wall. A few minutes later he pushed the paper away and said, “Nope.”<\/p>\n

“Nobody saw you?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“No, nobody saw YOU.” he replied. “I thought maybe someone had seen you at my show last weekend. But they didn’t.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m a romantic. It’s embarrassing and not at all cool to say these days. However, I don’t consider myself hopeless. On the contrary, I’m sometimes annoyingly optimistic. Which is why I love I SAW U ads and craigslist Missed Connections. I’ve been the lucky recipient of two I SAW Us. One from an ex who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}