My Single Peeps: Jason L.
Jason lives in the same building as I do and shares an apartment with two friends from high school. During our interview him for this profile, one of the roommates, Rebecca, wanders around the house, eavesdropping. After Jason says, “I think I’m pretty easygoing,” Rebecca shouts, “Awesome! Likable!” They grew up in Agoura — he’s 27 now — and have known each other since middle school. Jason jokes that his group of guy friends thought they were cooler than they actually were, and that the girls probably didn’t want to hang out with them. Rebecca interjects, “You were guys we’d want to hang out with, just not make out with.”
To me, Agoura High seems like the teen-sitcom version of high school. And I’m jealous I didn’t have that. They’re all so … nice. “Our group of friends was pretty unique,” he says. At prom, where most kids might share a rented limo with one or two other couples, they were so close they had to rent two buses to fit 70 kids. Every year since graduating high school, they’ve put together a dinner the night before Thanksgiving. “It was always at one of our parents’ house, and [there were] easily 100 people there. This was the first year none of us felt comfortable asking our parents, so we had it at a bar instead.”
Jason’s a very easygoing guy — sociable and laid back. There’s nothing complicated about him. “I don’t get mad very often, to be honest with you.” I ask what ticks him off. “Disrespectful people. I don’t get in fights. I’ve been in one fistfight my entire life.” And that was to defend someone’s honor.
“I’m a pretty in-the-moment kind of person. I have friends who think, ‘What happens after you die?’ and that’s just not something I think about. Where I land and where I raise kids is not something I think about. I’m still trying to make my career happen.” He works as a personal assistant to a well-known songwriter. “I don’t go and get dry cleaning. I don’t do grocery runs or make sure food’s in the fridge. It’s more business-side stuff. I also do A&R [artists and repertoire] for his label — finding and signing new talent.” But music isn’t his first passion: “If I could pick a job, it would be working in video production for concerts.”
Jason loves camping and long bike rides — often with his father, a successful accountant who only works a few months out of the year. He looks up to his parents and envies their love story. Jason’s mom and dad met when they were 6 and 8 years old, respectively. They were married after high school. Rebecca shouts out, “They hold hands. They sit on the couch next to each other and spoon. It’s weird!” Jason says, “It’s not weird.”
I ask Jason about dating. “I haven’t been on a lot of dates. Most of my relationships have been through friends. I’m not the type of guy who’s going to go to a bar and pick up a girl. I don’t go out for that reason. If it happens, that’s cool, but that’s not my mindset.” Rebecca shouts, “He’s an old man!”
He wants a girl who’s active. “I don’t mind a little shape on a girl. More often I find myself talking to girls who are full-figured. I don’t mind sitting on the couch sometimes, but I want to go play tennis or go on a hike. If I don’t do something active for a couple of days, I’ll get extremely anxious. I can’t sit still.”
If you’re interested in anyone you see on My Single Peeps, send an e-mail and a picture, including the person’s name in the subject line, to mysinglepeeps@jewishjournal.com, and we’ll forward it to your favorite peep.
Seth Menachem is an actor and writer living in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter. You can see more of his work on his Web site, sethmenachem.com, and meet even more single peeps at mysinglepeeps.com.
