How did I lose 40 lbs? Ancient Italian Secret!

There's this cute guy who lives in my 'hood. I see him around with his cello, or whatever, strapped to his back. I see him walking to and from the subway. The thing he carries on his back might not actually be a cello, but it's too big to be a regular guitar (I think), and too small to be a string bass. So I'm operating on the assumption that it's a cello. This guy is a straight guy. With a cello. What I really think is that he's not actually that cute, but the fact that he carries a cello around on the Q train makes him cute. Also that he lives in my neighborhood and doesn't have Carribbean music blasting on his ipod on the subway. That is definitely a plus.

I held the door for him one day. I think if I hold the door for him again I might actually say hello too.

Man, New York is a really hard place to meet people. I thought it would be easy; less cars, more real interaction, more people in general.... but really, everyone is very guarded. Nobody looks each other in the eyes unless it's an accident. Being a young, pretty girl by myself, I certainly don't. But I've been having this sort of fantasy lately, and it goes like this:

Single, twenty-something, hipsterish-without-being-too-trendy GAL (not me) on the subway platform notices that I'm reading The Feminine Mystique. She remembers hearing somewhere that it redefined modern American society.

Gal: Hey, is that any good?
Me: Excuse me? Oh, the book? Yeah, actually it is. If nothing else, it offers a really nice history of feminism, but I also found the theme applicable to trends I've seen within the last few years.
Gal: Oh yeah? Like what?
Me: *insert profound wisdom here*

The Q train arrives and we take it to Canal St., where we skip off to Little Italy and have a pizza feast, which miraculously causes us both to lose 15 pounds! Then we go to the ATM, where we both discover that there was a bank error in our favor, so we go shopping! And since we ate magic pizza, everything fits perfect!

So what do you think? It could happen, right?

Okay, maybe not. But I am seriously trying to meet some new people. I took a bellydance class today, which was GREAT! I'm totally going back; the teacher is nice, the class is just challenging enough without being draining, and the other students were really friendly. It's promising. I tried going to a movie discussion group I found on meetup.com too... The results were not nearly as good as the dance class; the vibe just wasn't there (and the movie sucked big time, although I won't mention titles).

Oh yeah, at the end of my fantasy, I find out that my new friend lives in my building, and during our subway ride home, we see cello guy and I work up the nerve to smile and say hi. He smiles back and tells me I'm the most interesting person he's ever seen. I find out he's not available, but we become great friends (he teaches me to play Twinkle, Twinkle on the cello), and I always have just the tiniest crush on him--because there's something really dorky and adorable about a dude who carts a large viol around with him all day.