9/19/09: Picked Up @ a Bar ... so normal, yet so rare

Yes, it happened. Not since the defunct coffee house pick up has this rare social development occurred. Yay!! Here's what went down ...

I was hanging at a house party with a friend who was, shall we say, pretty happy after having been there for multiple hours. I need to be delicate here as he is both a lovely friend and a new and seemingly devoted reader. So, moving on ... I left because I wasn't feeling the gross, warm keg beer and decided to head to one of my favorite bars just around the corner. Incidentally, this is the same bar where I ran into Cokehead XBF and I haven't been back since. Just couldn't warm myself up to the idea. Last night, however I was feeling pretty good about it. I did an initial pass, looking in from the street, to make sure he wasn't there. I didn't see him but kept walking down the street, thinking that maybe it was a better idea for me just to go home, watch a little tube, and get to bed at a decent hour. Then I thought, no dammit!!! I really want to be out and just because my friend is happy at the other scene and I'm riding solo doesn't mean that I can't have a little, quiet drink at this bar, especially since it appears to be Cokehead XBF free for the moment. Don't think I wasn't a tad nervous the whole time wondering whether he'd roll in, all red-eyed and disgusting. Good thing he didn't.

I grabbed a seat at the bar after asking a lovely fellow whether the stool next to him was free. It was and I sat, whereupon the bartender got me my "usual" and I took a sip. Yum. The guy next to me also appeared to be alone and was watching the college football game on TV. He turned when the bartender gave me my "usual" and asked what my usual was. Vodka soda with a splash of cran. Total dieter's drink but very refreshing after my recent consumption of aforementioned warm keg beer. He then asked whether I was a regular and I said I was I guess, enough at least to know the bartender and for him to know what drink I want. He said that he was the same and at that point the bartender, who was kind of standing near us, overheard and made introductions. Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. We continued to talk and figured out that we live about three doors apart on the same street, same block. Now, as you may recall this was also a random coincidence I shared with coffee house pick up ... maybe the universe wants me to find love close to home. The universe wants me to find convenience.

At some point during the conversation, some friends of his rolled up and he introduced me to them. A woman and a man. The guy basically sat there watching TV while the woman, my new friend, and I talked through the next couple of rounds. At some point, the topic of internet dating came up. His lady friend was trying to convince him to join the very dating website I have recently abandoned. I told them that I used it and had around 60+ dates over the course of 18 months but that I decided to stop and take a break after Freckles. I gave them very sketchy details of that situation (not naming him, of course) and they were both appropriately sympathetic. Still wondering whether I should have shared this little tidbit of info with this fellow but I think it turned out ok. Anyway, he didn't seem too jazzed about doing it and she spent a lot of time trying to cajole him. I sat listening to her experiences as a member on the site and thought internally about my own and listened to his protests secretly hoping that he would just ask me out. I mean why not? The conversation turned to whether it was better to use the internet or try to meet someone "organically" (a word we all used almost simultaneously, very bizarre) and I think we were all conveniently ignoring the fact that an organic meeting was taking place right there and then. Weird ...

Fast forward to an hour later after a complete change in subject to something I don't remember at this particular moment but think had something to do with African travel and military juntas ... um yeah ... anyway, he gets out his Blackberry and just asks for my number. Straight out. Love it. I readily gave it to him, correcting a mistyped number in the middle, making sure that he'd gotten it right. Blackberry back in the pocket with my number safely stored inside. Around midnight, we decided we were done and he picked up the tab for the three of us. It was so sweet and unexpected, I feel bad that I barely protested. We all walked to our respective homes together and at the corner of our street, we split off from his female friend at which point she and I hugged goodbye, with her saying that it was really nice to meet me and she's sure that she'll be seeing me more soon. As she said that she looked at him and kind of smiled. Um, don't really know what to think of that but it seems positive, right?

He and I turned to walk down our street and talked for the brief few seconds it took to get to the front of my building. At the steps up to the door, we stopped, turned to each other and said goodnight. He said that he'd like to call me and see me again and I think my response was a combo of one or more of the following: "For sure" ... "Definitely" ... "That'd be great" ... "Totally" ... frankly, I don't really remember. We hugged and said goodnight again and I climbed the steps to my door. Once inside my apartment, I collapsed on my bed and almost instantaneously passed out. Happy and a little drunk. But mostly happy.

So, it's now morning and we'll see whether this ends up in a first date or whether this goes the way of the dodo and coffee house pick up. Fingers crossed.

BTW: this man has five cats. Should this freak me out? Thoughts, as always, are welcome. I also told them about the blog. Mistake?