An interesting evening

Friday Johnny Panic turned 30 and was kind enough to invite me to her birthday festivities. I was sitting at her kitchen table wondering how soon I could politely bolt (experiencing panic in the face of multiple people I didn't know but who all knew each other) as people trickled in through the kitchen door (the door she never told me was the one I should use! I came in a different one altogether! I KNOCKED EVEN! No one else knocked! Oh fickle fickle birthday girl!) when two guys came in.

I recognized one of them and promptly Whirled around to face the other direction. It was a guy who had written me on Match, the second e-mail I think I read after joining -- some of you will remember him as the one with longish curly blondish hair. I never wrote him back because, for one thing, something in his eyes just didn't quite look right.

(Johnny doesn't know any of this yet, to my knowledge, though Dave may have told her.)

As soon as he opened his mouth I knew I didn't want to talk to him, but I ended up in a conversation with him because it was the thing to do. Fortunately my photo on Match is deliberately vague, and of course he would only know me by my profile name, which, you will be surprised to learn, includes the word "Monkey."

We introduced ourselves. I said I was a writer, and he immediately and forthwith launched into describing the book he wants to write. I played my part (actually the subject is pretty interesting: a great-great-grandfatherish type of his who was in the Civil War/War Between the States/War of Secession [there, did I get everyone?] and became governor of Pennsylvania) and watched for my chance to bring someone else into the circle of conversation. Before long I was able to step back and include Dave, and shortly after THAT I ducked away to "get more water."

I didn't want to tell Johnny since she was very drunk and I didn't know if she would make something of it (especially with the guy). I did tell Dave, who'd ended up listening to him longer than I had. His response: "Oh, the crazy guy?!"

I did have a really good time, BTW, Johnny. See, it surprises the hell out of me when people actually seem to want to talk to me, or at the least to not hate it. But that's another post for another day.