Child's Play

Last night I met up for coffee with the college kid. Now... I must preface that he is in graduate school, and to be a librarian nonetheless, so I was really hoping that the age difference wouldn't be a big deal.

We met up at the Clinton-Washington subway stop off the G at 5 last night. The G train, being what it is, left me at the subway stop waiting... and I was about 10 minutes late. He was waiting inside the subway station, right past the turnstile. We walked to the Pratt campus and to the small cafe where he bought me a chai latte with his meal plan. He was pretty much exactly what I expected him to be like personality/lookswise, and to be fair, of the 3 guys that I went out with this past week - I found him to be the most physically attractive. He does remind me a good deal of D. Looks and personality-wise, although he is slightly more awkward in conversation than D. He plays a lot of video games, reads a lot of fantasy books, even kind of looks like D. I wonder if this is what D would have been like 3 years ago? Interesting thought. Anyway, we talked for a while, and during the conversations, it became apparent, that nice as he is, he's just too young for anything more than a friendship. He is still financially dependant on his parents, which I guess is fine when you're 23, but he doesn't work and is pretty much still living the life of an undergrad. I found that very hard to relate to. He's taking 3 classes this semester, all of which meet once a week, at night, and is not working or doing anything during his days. Coming from someone who is taking 2 classes and working full time, it's hard for me to even wrap my head around that kind of lifestyle. He also does not seem to have a lot of friends that he does things with, and I wouldn't want to become the only person that he saw socially outside of school. Yuck. That's a lot of pressure, and he has a ton of free time. I feel like he could get pretty clingy, pretty fast. He was nice though, and we were able to talk a lot about what we had in common, which was good. I wouldn't mind being friends with him, but I think I'll have to let him know that - much sooner rather than later. After 3 hours, I needed to get back home to do some homework/school work. He walked me not only to the subway, but inside the subway, and offered to swipe me in the turnstile if I didn't have an unlimited metro card. (I do - so it was unnecessary.) After an awkward hug goodbye, we parted ways, and I went to go wait for the G. The best part of the trip home (which made the G a little bit bearable) was when a Mormon missionary tried to convince me to go to church with him this morning.

I heard from the kid not long after I got home, and he asked me if I wanted to go see a movie with him later in the week (it was a movie we had talked about over coffee, and I had mentioned that I wanted to see it.) Although I know better, I said yes. Since I don't think they will accept his meal plan or his metro card at the movies, I will probably offer to pay. Then I will have to proceed to tell him that we're at much different places in our lives, and I think he's too young for me to date him, but we can be friends. Hopefully he will understand.