More than once, I've gotten really, really interested in women who were completely unavailable. (One or two of those times, I got interested in women who are interested in women. REALLY completely unavailable.) Earlier this year, I managed to realize I'd gotten hung up on a particular Ms. Not Gonna Be My Girlfriend, and began the process of managing to, as Bart Simpson says, "Cool your jets, man." And it dawned on me this morning that I'd managed not to think of her for a while...and also that I'd noticed other women I found attractive, and been better at noting that they weren't available. And as I'm not going to horn in on someone's relationship, at that point my response needs to be -- and is more often -- "OK, she is aesthetically pleasing, and maybe we can be friends because she's obviously neat in several other ways or I wouldn't have been attracted to her, and friendship is one of the good things so that's its own worthy goal, so: stay on the lookout for someone else, who'll be both interesting and available."
Maybe I'm getting over my crushes quicker.
The other tidbit has to do with one of those crushes, from several years ago. Workplace crush, from when I was at the call center. She was and I'm guessing still is cute, fascinating, hilarious, and taken (by a guy, so at least I knew she liked guys). A few years after that, this exchange happened between me and our former co-worker Matt, after I'd told him that I'd had a thing for her:
Matt: Oh, I remember her. Kind of mousy.Oh, yes.
Me: Mousy can be hot.