My friend Katie, who I met on Myspace because she joined a group I created called Champagne Lovers, is in town for the long weekend.
Some people I know feel it is absolutely commonplace to arrange to meet someone you met virtually. Some others are very suspicious of anyone online. Anyone with an online life has probably either dated someone they met or slept with them or got conned by them or even murdered or kidnapped.
A friend of mine joked: have fun meeting the old fat man pretending to be a normal girl from CA. If I was a 14 year old girl that could really happen. But I am in my 30’s and far out of the age range targeted by sexual predators while still being smack into the demographic for being conned (did you see that Oprah show on this very subject?). However if Katie had intended anything untoward I am certain I would’ve picked up on it right away!
I’ve got a healthy level of paranoia but I never once suspected Katie was anyone other than Katie.
I’m also just very bad at veering out of the comfortable rut I’ve made for myself and that making plans and going out disrupts. But Katie was worth making the effort. After all, she flew out here. The very least I could do was show up.
I walked into the bar to meet Katie and her friend Judy and we proceeded to get ripped. We ordered 3 bottles of wine and 2 plates of skimpy snacks, neither of which did nearly enough to soak up all the alcohol.3 women without male bodyguards will sooner or later have male attention. We tried to (is there ever a nice way to put this?) get rid of him but we failed. As pickled as we were we forgot that the bar had held onto one of our credit cards and in our haste to leave the bar we all forgot to pay and get the card back.
Luckily I remembered when we were only a half a block away! Can you imagine? I would never knowingly stiff a bar and especially not a bar that is so nice and whose bartenders are so cute and competent. Our only excuse is we were sozzled.
When that little disaster was taken care of I suggested we walk to my house so they could meet the dog and my boyfriend.
We drank still more wine at my place and it is incredible that I didn’t die. How am I alive after first not even eating and consuming vast amounts of alcohol? Sometimes my Irish kicks in and saves my ass.