A Breath Of Fresh Stare

I'm back in college in hopes of changing careers, and I'm interested in a woman I've become friendly with in one of my classes. Our schedules rarely seem to mesh, so it's been difficult for me to find a time to express my feelings. In fact, there's never an appropriate time to ask her out due to other students always being present. Still, I think it would be a shame not to let her know that somebody really cares for her.

--Continuing Ed

There are sometimes great barriers to two people coming together -- warring nations, conflicting religions, violent family feuds, and other students seated in nearby desks. You're taking college classes, which suggests your problem-solving ability exceeds that of most boiled vegetables. This, in turn, suggests you could figure out the obvious solution: Pull this woman aside and ask her out. But maybe what you're most interested in is a convenient excuse for spending the rest of the semester staring at the back of her head while drawing little hearts in a notebook, allowing you to feel connected to her without risking rejection. The problem is, this can cause your feelings to fester -- to the point where you have such a huge one-sided relationship with her that you become unable to speak to her without seeming creepy. If you do want to date her, ask her out now, before "Wanna knock a few back at Kelly's bar?" comes off like "You know, you'd look really pretty chained to my cabin wall."