Get Me to The Geek.

Note: As always, follow my continuing journey on my personal blog, So about what I said...

I first spotted Cute Cafeteria Guy one sunny spring afternoon as I sat down to eat my usual, boring lunch. The cafeteria was crowded, but it didn’t seem to bother him as he tucked himself away at a corner toward the back. He had that boyish cuteness about him, his attention transfixed on his laptop, which of course was a state-of-the-art model.

He remained quiet, shy and reserved, and I remained, well, very interested. He was mysterious and I wanted to know more. Over the next week, I continued to spot him as I sipped my Mountain Dew and tried to work up the courage to approach him. But he suddenly disappeared, and alas, my hopes were quickly and swiftly dashed.

Actually, his disappearance made me want to seek out more of his kind. Why? Because ripples of change are coursing through the modern love scene. Thin is definitely not in. Pretty boys and party boys are oh so passé. And masculine, muscular men? That’s just mundane.

Those were the top three ‘man types’ that made my list of “ECK NO” when I recently found myself in a man-hunt rut. Maybe it was the weather or maybe it was something in the water, but the classic male mold (think all-American, clean cut, chiseled twentieth century walking, talking versions of Michaelangelo’s David) just wasn’t cutting it for me anymore. They had their heyday, but were now sadly, sorely outdated. A cool piece of arm candy at one time, but now all-too stale. Expiration date long passed.

Before long, Cute Cafeteria Guys suddenly appeared all over the place – in the library, in the bookstore, slinking in the shadows. He looked a little scared, a little mysterious, and his arm candy typically consisted of, not a pretty bubbly blonde, but a laptop, cell phone, ipod or some equally shiny techy gadget. I also noticed he could rattle off comic book and Star Wars trivia with ease, gossiped about Bill Gates and the latest version of Windows Vista.

It was official: I was intrigued.

A coworker recently proclaimed on his blog that “Nerd is the new cool.” He’s right. There’s never been a better time to be a bit quirky, offbeat, a little left of center. With shows like The Big Bang Theory (to answer your question: Yes, I am in love with all four of those geeks, but if I had to choose one to play video games with, it would have to be Howard Wolowitz), Mr. Bespeckled no long has to hide under the peripheral radar. The time has come where it’s finally hip to be a square.

So how did those self-proclaimed nerds go from geek to chic? And what can we women gain by hopping on the Geek Express? Though their mystery still lingers in the air, I do have a few pertinent theories.

Out with the In crowd