More college dudes, supposedly

Look I was nowhere near the Lower East Side this time.

So we took the shuttle from Vail over to some new Italian joint that was supposed to be having a half-off happy hour. After a sillarious episode at the Vail bus depot where 1. no one was quite sure where to stand to catch the West Vail Red bus 2. the crowd was close to mutiny after the third Out of Service bus pulled over 3. LeejTheDeej pulls out his phone and dials K-hat to see if she can come pick us up 4. exactly at that moment of course the West Vail Red bus pulls up and 5. the doors open right in front of me, I scramble on and grab a seat, trying to save the one next to me for kendog when this very pleasant looking rugged outdoorsy chap boards and is headed straight my way. Sorry kendog, priorities. There's a seat over there...somewhere down there.

I'm not sure who started talking to whom first but it was probably me because even though I am generally shy, I can sometimes be shameless when a guy has the right amount of flop to his hair. I don't remember what kind of jargon goes on, some small talk crap about how it's snowing so much or where is this bus going, but the dude has nice eyes and is all chipper and friendly-like so I keep insightful questions and comments teed up so we don't end up in the blackhole of awkward pickup-talk silence.

Out of nowhere he asks me "Are you still in college?" Bro, we were talking about how your shoes are all wet because it's so snowy out, where did this question come from? I have to admit that when I go boarding I tend to look pretty childish or even like a boy in my helmet, turtleneck and bundled getup, but that comment just made me feel small. So I say "No, I'm out of college" and then I ask him if he's still in college, because why else would someone have that sort of question on the brain? He said he just finished in December. Wha-wha-what!?

Me: This past December?
Dude: Yea. (major southern drawl)
Me: As in, a month ago December?
Dude: Yea.
Me: Ok. (The bus is packed, I can't really escape. Please don't ask me when I finished - I swear I'll lie!)
Me: So then, what are you gonna do now?
Dude: I wanna go into Sales.
Me: You want to go into "Sales"? What kind of sales? Like do you want to sell sneakers or drugs or more like...medical equipment?
Dude: Yeah that. Big stuff. The kind of sales where I have to fly around the country.
Me: Oh so you want to travel?
Dude: No I don't want to travel, but I can make a lot of money doing it, so that's what I wanna do.

OK then. Now, as much as I might not look like I'm out of college, this dude surely did not look like he had just finished college. Frankly, he looked a little banged up even. Aussiestef agreed with me that he really didn't look like a fresh grad and that his head had probably seen better days. In retrospect I should have asked him if he had taken 9 years to do college because I would have believed it if he was an old looking 27, but I didn't want to be rude. Afterall, he really was very sweet. But as we talked more - in particular after I found out he had just graduated, he started to come across younger and younger. Does this mean when guys do find out my real age I come across as older and older?