Last month I saw a young woman working at a coffee shop who looked a lot like that former cashier that I go on and on about to this day. I wondered whether or not this barista was the former cashier's sister. I entertained the notion of making this coffee shop my new, regular coffee shop and going there almost every day. I would stop short of asking about that former cashier, because I'd been down that road before when I'd spotted ANOTHER young woman in late 2022 that worked at a book store and I asked HER in January, 2023 if SHE knew the former cashier. The young woman at the bookstore said no, and I left it at that. I made a point of patronizing another bookstore after that.
I guess I would have attempted to make this barista's acquaintance as a regular costumer in her coffee shop, but then I came up with the whole revelation about point "A" and point "B." I decided my effort to refrain from trying to get from point "A" to point "B" in regard to that former cashier could best manifest itself materially if I DID NOT patronize that coffee shop where that barista works and if I DID NOT try to make that barista's acquaintance. So far it's been about a month or so since my decision, and I'm good to my word.
I've talked some about a waitress in a diner where I sometimes eat breakfast. She gave me her email address sometime last year, and I promptly sent her an email inviting her to see me perform at an open mike. She didn't respond to my email. She didn't mention getting my email at all during my next visit to her place of employment as a customer. She started acting like she didn't want to talk to me sometime last November. I couldn't figure out why. I thought she wanted me to make it about that former cashier. I let the notion of that former cashier into my being even though the mere act of allowing myself to think of this former cashier as a possibility for me could invite a kind of emotional and mental chaos I did not miss at all.
I resolved the whole issue of that former cashier and how I felt about her with that insight about how I always found it impossible to get from point "A" to point "B" with her. I felt really good about my solution to try to refrain from going from point "A" to point "B" in regard to that former cashier. Like I said, the most material manifestation of that effort to restrain myself from point "A" to point "B" resided in my effort to refrain from lurking around that barista that resembles the former cashier and trying to make that barista's acquaintance.
I have an event I'm participating in next month. I won't patronize that diner where that waitress works until after this event because I don't want to invite her to it. The last time I ate there, the waitress was being friendly and talking to me. I liked how she was being friendly to me, for sure, but I still DO NOT like how she's treated me in the past. I figure the best way to show I care enough about myself, and by extension, to show I care about her, would involve letting this supposed opportunity to get with this waitress slip through my fingers. The best way I see to materially manifest my desire to play a different role than that of the nice guy who gets passed over in favor of "Chad" or whatever would involve me refusing to play the part of the persistent, devoted, ardent admirer of this waitress. The best way I see to refuse to play the role of ardent admirer resides in an attempt to refrain from patronizing that diner for the next month and a half and to not invite her to the event I'm participating in next month.
Look, I'm showing that I don't care at all whether or not I get laid in a very material way. I won't see this person for quite some time if I follow through. If the problem women such as her have with "nice guys" stems from the perception that nice guys are nice only if the woman they are being so nice to grants them substantial access to them, then I'm definitely walking away from all of that. I DO care about how I'm treated by women such as her to show in a very real, material way my disdain for the supposed "opportunities" these women sometimes deign to "favor" me with.