Long and Contemplative, with a Hint of Funny

Inspired by today's Milano adventure:

A middle-aged man on Bancroft, tall with a Raiders cap, baggy clothes, thin but not particularly skinny, said “hi there” as I was about to pass him. “Hi” I said quickly, trying to avoid what might otherwise have been a chattermouth. “You married?” he said. “Yeah,” I said, and looked down to avoid tripping on the sidewalk. “Dude’s a lucky guy. You have a good day.” I cut in front of him to get inside Milano, and he kept on walking.

I’m not sure why I said I was married. I mean, yeah… anyone who I marry will be lucky (and I’ll be lucky to have him). It sort of bugged me that whether I was married was the first question he asked, but I shrugged it off as man-on-street-hitting-on-me-syndrome.

And Frasier. Okay, so I don’t watch it often, mostly because 1) it’s all sort of the same, and 2) I don’t control the television and my roommates don’t watch it, either. But it was on last night (probably because we were far too engrossed in various facebooking activities), and it was an episode guest starring Laura Linney, who later in her career played the wife in Kinsey and some main/supporting character in Love, Actually. Needless to say, she falls into the love narrative just about everywhere she goes. Maybe that’s actresses in general. Who knows.

My coworker, Miguel, is convinced that I look like Laura Linney as she appears in Love, Actually. I haven’t seen this movie so I have no idea whether or not I agree, but he brings it up every single time we work together, which, thankfully, isn’t often since he forgets to show up sometimes.

So I’m considering whether I resemble Laura Linney as she appears in Frasier. Her character is a professional matchmaker promising to save Frasier’s love life for a mere $10,000. He coughs it up and goes on several bad dates, then asks for his money back, at which point Linney breaks down and admits she has already spent it on rebuilding her life that has been disheveled ever since her divorce. A divorced matchmaker with a fake wedding ring has set up Frasier with various dumb or crazy women for $10K. She hits rock bottom; Frasier offers to buy her a couple drinks. They hit it off and Frasier totally falls for her. She continues on her merry way with her young and handsome outdoorsman boyfriend, while Frasier pines after her. She and the boyfriend have a huge fight, she ends up at Frasier's place, they chat for hours and he is foiled by his family walking in as he’s about to confess his love for her. She thanks him for being such a good friend, promises to find him a great match, and leaves to make amends with the boyfriend.

She Doesn’t Get It.

He spends hours staring at the ceiling thinking about her, despite her problems. It doesn’t end that way, but Linney’s screen time does, so obviously I stopped paying attention because I no longer had someone to compare myself to, except Daphne, who is very pregnant and has an accent.

It made me wonder whether I don’t get it. Whether there’s someone thinking about me at night, whether they think they’d be lucky to have me.

I hope it’s not the guy on the street, but at this point I guess that’s good enough.