I Saw Her In The Vegetable Section

[Pangloss62]

For about a year now I've seen her on her recreational walks around the neighborhood. As the weekend anchor for one of our city's TV stations, she's about as close to a "celebrity" as we have. Because my schedule and lifestyle leads me to watching her weekend newscasts, she is more the "face" of the TV station for me than the others on its staff; one of which is sort of an icon for the city.

I always said to myself "One of these days I'm just gonna introduce myself and tell her I watch and enjoy her Sunday morning broadcast." And that would not be a lie; she takes more of a mellow approach to news, as opposed to the "in your face" style of the weekday shows.

So there she was, in the vegetable section of the supermarket. Should I boldly walk up and introduce myself? I think I went into auto-mode as I did just that. She was very nice. We chatted just a bit, I shook her hand, complimented her weekend anchoring, and went on my way with my little green bachelor grocery basket.

I felt that there could have been so much more. How can a guy know where he stands in such a situation? "Am I coming off creepy? How many other people recognize her and fawn over her semi-celebrity status?"

Let's face it, weekend newscasters are the benchwarmers in the major-market TV news biz. I usually get the feeling that most of them are destined to ALWAYS be the weekend anchor; try as they do, they just don't have that extra "something" that elevates them to the weekday slot.

But they still are ON TV! Just those few hours of face-time every weekend gives them some status; at least more than myself. So they remain semi-intimidating to your average Joe like me.

"What should I do? Am I even really attracted to her beyond the fact that I see her on TV? She's probably married (but I saw no ring). Wouldn't re-introducing myself and giving her my card come off as fucking creepy? But how else could a potential relationship (and I don't even know if that could ever happen or even if that's what I would want) get started?

As I placed my Shittake mushrooms in my little green bachelor basket, I saw her turn down aisle 8. "Maybe I'll just do it. What would be the harm? Oh God."

You women should be listening here; it doesn't matter if you are a weekend news anchor, men just get a bit flustered when they have to make "that move," the action of interaction that gets things started. Sure, women have become more adept at doing that, but I still think the expectation is that it's the man who has to take that risk.

"OK. She's at the dairy section. No narrow aisle to confine us. OK. Here goes..."

I said somthing really stupid like "Sorry to be so forward but..." and then I gave her my card (I work for the National Park Service, so that's kind of a buffer). To my surprise, she said "Oh, let me give you mine." Wow. That wasn't that hard.

And then I read her bio on the TV station's Web page. It said she was married with two kids. But I think she's divorced, because I've never seen her with husband, and she dyed her hair since coming to my city. Whatever. At least I tried, and who knows what the future may bring? Maybe we'll be just friends. And that's fine with me. I bet a weekend news anchor could use some friends.