A failure!...

My gaydar failed me on Friday.

Totally, completely, entirely failed. I had picked up nary a flicker of "oh, he's gay" from the guy in my discussion group.

Not that I'd even realized my gaydar had developed, but it seemed to be something so natural, something that came to me one night in my dreams and hadn't yet failed me. I walk down the road, and I just know if a guy is gay. Now, I'm not talking about walking throught the Village, because that would be cheating...but I can just tell, and have had very good success rate from what other people tell me.

I couldn't even tell you what characteristics I notice when my gaydar goes off. Strange, it's not even as if a flashing red light appears overhead of anyone who I believe to be gay, it's just more of a realization, "Oh, wow you're gay!"

Anyway back to Friday morning, where sitting in my English class we were randomly devided into 10 groups, each group given a topic to discuss, and ultimately present our critical theories to the rest of the lecture. Even though I was sitting with people I know, I wound up being in a group with a newer but growing-friendlier-friend, Christina, as well as Peter, a friend who lived in my Rez building last year. There was one other guy, who I'd never spoken to before, but was very interested to meet.

You know that feeling you get when you're in a crowd of people, and you see someone you don't know. It's this sense that you should really get to know them, some unseen force pushing you to actually make contact. It happened with Lisa, and a few other people...so this isn't something that I feel every time I walk into a new class or situation. But I felt it since I'd seen this guy, and now I was given my chance.

His name is Eric, and he's in a similar-though-not-the-same program as mine. I immediately took a liking to him, because he laughed at my feably-witty jokes and seemed intelligent and sincere. We ended up talking for most of the time about things completely unrelated to the book, and it was time well spent. I even surprised myself, shy old me, as soon as he sat down in front of me I said simply, "What's your name?" and stuck out my hand. Ok, this sounds pretty lame, but nobody really does that when they have the option of just sitting there and talking superficially. I wanted to get to know him, here was my chance.

After the class I went on my way, and didn't really think about him until I got home and hit Facebook. I even forgot to add him until I'd moved on to something else...but I remembered and quickly looked him up.

His profile loaded, and I quickly scanned the info...hrm, no birthday listed, I guess I can't find out if he's older like I expected...and OH MY GOD he's gay.

Seriously, it threw me right off. I'd never expected he was gay! No suspicion, no warning...yet there it was on Facebook: Interested in - Males. Wow.

Then I got even more excited, because although he's not the typical gay guy (and after a quick check of his photos he doesn't appear to be a big partier either) I revelled in the opportunity to make this guy a friend of mine, who co-incidently would also be a gay friend. And the best part is, I didn't seek him out thinking "I must make this gay guy my friend," but rather, "I want to meet this guy and get to know him, and wow he's also gay, isn't that a funny afterthought!"

So I'm very excited to get back into class with him and hopefully get friendlier with him. Even though school's almost over, whatever, he'll be around next year too. I want to plant the seed before I miss the opportunity!

Also, I have to test my gaydar a couple more times before I move home, because I'm going to need it this summer, in the event I detect someone I know or meet is gay (because it's going to be one hell of a lonely summer...). I've gotta make sure my equipment is in working order before I start flirting with the guy at the library, after my startling failure-to-detect.