I’m bad at flirting, but that’s okay

Okay, mental note: talking about the weather isn’t the best way to flirt with cute guys.

Neither is comparing them to vegetables. Even if it’s my favorite vegetable.

A while back, I went to the bars with Eleanor. After we caught up on our life happenings and sent the obligatory snapchat to some friends, one of the bartenders caught my eye. Since we sat at the bar, I struck up a conversation with him. We talked about what we’re up to in the area. I asked him what he was studying, and he said finance. Then I expressed my thoughts on how that sounded interesting and complex. Not knowing much of what else to add, we hit a lull in the conversation. For lack of better things to say at the time, I half pounced toward the bar and exclaimed a little too enthusiastically, “I’M GOING TO BE A DOCTOR!”

The bartender burst out laughing so hard that he walked to an opposite corner behind the bar to calm himself down. Eleanor was sitting next to me, and she observed this entire exchange. She also had no qualms about holding back any laughter either. But rest assured, there are no hard feelings. Granted when the bartender recovered from laughing to the point that I think tears came to his eyes, he did come back to talk to me some more. To this day, I’m still not sure what direction I was trying to take the conversation with that statement.

My confession: I was sober when this all happened.

To give you all some information behind my thought process, this was around the time I heard good news about med school. I realize now what I said was incredibly out of context. Maybe this entire scenario would have worked out better if I told this bartender I was applying to med schools and that I just heard about my acceptance. Though even when I’m not trying my hand at flirting, I still tend to blurt out phrases that make complete sense to myself but often seem very random to other people. Oh well, it usually leads to interesting conversations or purely awkward times.

Recently, I returned to this bar with Iced-T and E. They were eyeing a bartender and commenting on how attractive he was. Since I’m terrible at remembering faces, it didn’t occur to me right away that he was the same bartender I spoke to previously. When I finally realized this, I started talking to him again. After all– what did I have to lose after my last encounter with him? At some point in our conversation, he told me that I looked familiar. Though, I didn’t exactly point out to him that I was the awkward, enthusiastic doctor-to-be as I had expressed before. This time around, I tried not to yell any random phrases that would baffle him or amuse him too much. Overall, I’d say it was quite the good night.

Looking back, I’m happy to say the memory of my first run-in with this bartender offers more comical relief rather than embarrassment. Moral of the story: embrace your quirky self. In the words of my friend S, maybe some guys find it endearing.