Everyone reads too much into things at the beginning of a relationship. Even the dude who pretends he couldn’t be more casual. It’s natural — we’re trying to mind-read our dates, gauge intentions, figure out if our new flame would rather be doing her nails than listening to our college stories during a nice night out on the town. So you have to be careful with us guys — even though we pretend not to be so sensitive — and realize what signal you’re sending.
Here are five that say: I really really like you… for anyone else but me.
More on Dating from Glamour:
1. The Coffee Invite
“Let’s totally have coffee at 2:15 on Wednesday!” Coffee? On a weekday? At such a precise time? That’s when you meet your friend’s little sister who wants to ask you for career advice.
2. The Group Invite
“Me and a bunch of my friends are going to be at XX bar, why don’t you stop by?” When we hear that you’re bringing your friends along, we assume you don’t want to be alone with us.
3. The Inappropriate Attire
“I just came from the gym.” It’s no problem if you don’t dress like you’re on your way to accept the academy award for best actress, but if you’re wearing sweatpants, we’re assuming you don’t want us to think about you in any sensual way.
4. The Excuse Caused by Your Insecurity
“I’m soooooo tired.” This is the absolute worst. I’ve had women say that to me when they’ve actually been interested and later admit that they were just worried that they seemed boring and were making an excuse. But what we hear is: I’m laying the groundwork to go home as soon as possible.
5. The Outpouring About Your Ex
“I’m just getting out of a really intense relationship.” We don’t care if this is true, and we know that even people just emerging from coupledom can get involved with new people. But we don’t want to spend our first moments alone together hearing about how intense your old relationship was. Not the mental picture that makes us giddy.
NEW YORK – A New York Police Department rookie just couldn’t wait to get started.
One of the NYPD’s newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said.
The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.
“Officer Firpo made us all proud,” police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “He’s off to a great start.”
The man Firpo arrested, Jeffrey Grant, was being charged with robbery. Grant, 47, has 48 previous arrests and was just released last week from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., after serving time for a robbery conviction, police said.
Grant, of Manhattan, was in custody late Thursday and couldn’t be contacted. The name of his attorney wasn’t yet on record.
The mugging victim was treated at a hospital for a broken wrist.
Firpo’s feat “may be the fastest police action upon graduation in department history,” said chief police spokesman Paul Browne, who was at the graduation ceremony for the class of 250 new officers.
Firpo, who graduated from Lehman College in January with a degree in political science, said he wants to focus on community affairs while working in the nation’s biggest police department.
“I’m really trying to stick in the community,” he said.
The more than 1.6 million fans who registered for tickets to Michael Jackson’s memorial service will wait until Monday to learn if they received one of the 11,000 tickets for Tuesday’s ceremony.
The two-day registration period for the service at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles ended Saturday. Another 6,500 tickets will be given away for the Nokia Theater overflow section next door.
Fans had to register for free at staplescenter.com between 10 a.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday for the random drawing of 8,750 names. Each person selected will receive two tickets and will be notified by e-mail after 11 a.m. Sunday.
Before the drawing, officials at AEG, the owner and operator of the Staples Center, will “scrub” the entries to eliminate duplicates and any suspected of being made by automated systems or “go-bots,” said Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine in a statement.
Winners will receive a unique code and instructions on how to pick up their tickets at an off-site distribution center on Monday. At the distribution center, they will receive the ticket and a wristband that will be placed on their wrists at that time.
Fans must have both the ticket and the wristband to enter Staples Center on Tuesday. Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or tampered with will be voided.
Sunshine said those steps are being taken to prevent ticket-scalping.
City officials are preparing for massive crowds. Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger says anywhere from a quarter-million to 700,000 people may try to reach the arena, even though a wide area around Staples Center will be sealed off to those without tickets.
City Councilwoman Jan Perry strongly urged people to stay home and watch the memorial on TV. The ceremony will not be shown on Staples’ giant outdoor TV screen and there will be no funeral procession through the city.
No details were given about the actual memorial events, which come as the nation’s second-largest city struggles with a $530 million budget deficit. Perry said the cost of police protection for “extraordinary” events like the memorial is built into the Police Department’s budget, but she still solicited help for “incremental costs.”
Last month, donations covered about $850,000 of the city’s $1 million cost for the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA championship parade. Critics had blasted the idea of using city money when it is considering layoffs to close its budget gap.