The Three Visit Barrier

When I told my pal about The Three Visit Barrier, he thought it was just an excuse I made for not talking to Record Chick at the local Borders. To see whether my theory was bunk or if I actually knew what I was talking about (for once), I made a visit to Borders. The release of the Another Late Night compilation by Zero 7 served as my cover.

So what's The Three Visit Barrier? OK, let's say you see some sweet thang at the local Starbucks, Borders, Tower Records, [Insert Corporate Conglomerate Sucking the Soul out of Independent Stores Here]. You have three visits at the maximum to make your move. If you don't make your move within three visits, you become "The Creepy Guy Who Keeps Coming In and Furtively Staring at The Coffee Chick/Book Chick/Record Chick [Insert Retail Lackey Here]," and who the hell wants to go out with that?

Record Chick at the local Borders is cute, though not overly so. Blonde hair done in a very simple straight chin length cut, blue eyes, a face two steps across the Plain Jane county border into the Attractive city limits. She wouldn't turn heads if she was walking though Westwood or the 3rd Street Promenade, but in Silicon Valley, she's head and shoulders above the average woman you'd see on the street.

Anyway, the local Borders is a hop, skip and a jump (minus the skip and jump) from my pad. Since of late the second novel has been coming in fits and starts, I've been going to Borders to gain some inspiration. I left The Three Visit Barrier four state lines ago, and continued to make furtive glances to Record Chick (c'mon, what do you expect, I'm a guy living in an area where there are 3,000 excess single men).

When I hit Borders yesterday, I used Title Sleuth to see whether the Zero 7 compilation had arrived. It hadn't. So I improvised. There's a DVD that I had been wanting to get, Title Sleuth said Borders had a copy, but it wasn't on the shelf. So as Record Chick was heading to the DVD section, I managed to talk to her and ask her if they had a copy of aforementioned DVD.

Record Chick's Flirtation Filter was set on max. Rigid stance, avoiding eye contact as much as possible, very forced smile afterwards. So I think there is some validity to The Three Visit Barrier. "Well, maybe she was creeped out before The Three Visit Barrier." Ah, but ya see, Mr./Ms. Wisenheimer, before I hit The Three Visit Barrier, Record Chick actually smiled at me a couple of times (not "Meow! You look so yummy I can eat you right up" smiles, but definitely not "I'm only smiling at you out of store policy" smiles).

Oh well. This might be karma trying to tell me to stay away from blonde blue-eyed women who are into music.

P.S. - Record Chick isn't the woman not so obliquely referenced in earlier posts. Ugh, I'm using double negatives.