Some dating advice for men.

At work on Monday, I noticed this guy who walked up and down the romance aisle, where I was (ironically) putting away books. That in itself is weird, but this didn't occur to me until this conversation happened:

Guy: "So have you worked here long?"

Me: "Yeah, pretty long." *pause* "Do you need help finding something?"

"No no no, I'm okay." *pause* "I just thought you were pretty so I thought I'd say something."

*forced laugh* "Oh, well thank you."

"You're welcome." *starts to walk away, stops and backtracks* "Not to be weird or anything, but... do you think maybe I could give you a ring sometime?" *makes one of those stupid hand gestures that is supposed to indicate a phone*

And this is my favorite part:

"Like maybe we can go kayaking or something?"

I told him no, first because he was not attractive and second because HE IS A STRANGER. I lied and said I had a boyfriend so I would not hear anything more about it. But KAYAKING? Seriously??? First of all, what a weird thing to ask a girl to do. Second of all, why the hell would I go kayaking with this complete and total stranger? I don't know if he's any good at it, I don't know if he'd be able to save me if I flipped my kayak over (which, let's face it, would most likely happen).

Here's the cherry on top of all of this. Later that day when I told my friend Eric, he told me that the same thing happened to another girl in the music section, except the guy asked her to go rock climbing. The manager of the music department then told her that Maxim or some other guy magazine ran an article about asking women out on dates, and one of the tips was to ask them to do a sport.

Here's a tip from an actual woman: That only works if 1) it's a sport that doesn't have the potential to drown you, and 2) you ACTUALLY KNOW THE GIRL. I would hope most women are smart enough not to go kayaking with some guy who thought they looked pretty at a bookstore.

But maybe that's just me.