Lance

Dear Annie,

Every day for lunch I walk to Gelson’s. I go to straight the deli and order my favorite:

½ sandwich/wheat

lacey swiss cheese
mayonnaise
lettuce
tomato
sprouts
avocado

+ 2 sides.

When you frequent a place so often, after a while you start to learn more about the employees. My favorite Gelson’s deli employee is Lance. He is young, average height, blonde hair, pretty green eyes, acne, and a tad bit chubby.

Lance is always friendly, outgoing, and polite. He jokes around with his co workers... seems like a smart enough guy. One day I asked him what his goals are. Turns out he really wants to go to Le Cordon Bleu and become a pastry chef.

“What are you doing here?” I tell him. “Life goes by really fast.”

“Oh I can't afford school right now. I have to pay my bills," he says.

“Can you take out a loan?”

“No. I looked into that. It wouldn't really work.”

Now you have to understand that I CARE about Lance. I WANT him to go back to school. As great of a sandwich maker as he is, I so want him to achieve his goals. I start racking my brain. What could I do to help? Maybe I should go down to the library and look for grants. Do I have any rich relatives? Can I start shoving money into a savings account?

WHY IS THIS NICE GUY WASTING HIS LIFE AWAY AT GELSON'S!?

One day I ended up behind Lance in the check out line. He was talking to the cashier about how he had won $10,000 in Vegas. I immediately piped up “You're putting that in savings for school, right?!”

“No,” he said. “I had to buy a new car and I borrowed money from my dad, so I have to use the $10,000 to pay him back.”

My heart sunk.

I'll admit Lance intrigues me. I used to wonder if he has a girlfriend. Not because I would have ever dated him myself... (he is only 21) but simply because I feel an affinity towards the guy. He seems so great. But you know, it is way too easy to build a false impression about someone based on such shallow interactions. I mean, I've seen this guy almost every day for four years. I'd sum him up as:

A bit sheltered, insecure, inexperienced... nice, funny, quirky...

I decided to myspace stalk him:

http://www.myspace.com/sakesake

Forget quiet little innocent Lance. We're talking Japanese loving, techno listening, gambling, smoking, race car driving, gay atheist here.

Maybe I should invite him to church.

Love,
Taintedsky