Is it so terribly horrible that every time I see my neighbor I think to myself “stupid cute married neighbor!”? I thought that this morning when I was waiting in my car for the power steering to thaw so I wouldn't be too late to work. He was walking out to the car and I contemplated ducking so he wouldn't see me sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting in my car and think what a wierdo. But seriously my power steering freezes on really cold days and I always forget that it might be frozen in the morning adding another twenty minutes to the time it takes me to get to work.

It’s really unfortunate, for me not for him, that he is married. Seeing as how every interaction I’ve had with him has proven him to be a genuinely nice individual. I really don’t know anything about the wife. I’ve only seen her a couple of times whereas he seems to walk their dogs at a similar schedule as when I enter and leave the apartment building. Sometimes he’ll even try and hold the door open for me while I awkwardly manage to haul my bike up the four steps and past the hallway door to my apartment.

Married and taken men are always nicer though. They are as a rule, easier to talk to and in general much easier to get along with. It is as if being in love frees them from the awkward interactions with single people of the opposite sex that were always there before. When meeting other single people there is always the sizing up that we do of each other.

My friend and I noticed a specific instance of this the other day at the coffee shop. We ran into a guy friend of ours known within the circle (and I’m sure outside of the circle as well) as quite the womanizer (is that term acceptable today? Player didn’t sound quite right and man-whore too harsh or sexist because why specify gender with the word whore?). We chatted with him a bit and afterwards she remarked to me,

“He looks so different lately.”

“How so?” I asked, thinking first of the fact that hes been keeping his hair shorter and more kept up lately.

“Less dangerous,” She replied.

I instantly understood what she was saying. No longer was he looking at every female through the eyes of a possible hook up. It is a relief to say the least and it was definitely fun to see the way he looked at his lady friend when we chatted with them later on.

Ok. I’m using the word lady friend can I get some sort of grandma word usage waiver over here?!