April 18, 2004 :: Mojo conservation theory

I was really thinking it was gone.

As my elation about the reunion faded, I grew more irritated about the no-shows at the happy hour. Of our 160+ mailing list, almost 80 of them responded s'il vous plait in the affirmative. We got maybe half that number that night, of which a few were uninvited stragglers or friends of friends. If not for my coworkers, I would have been batting pretty poorly... the breakfast club was a complete no-show (more on them later). But of the people who did show, I managed to get a few excited about going out Saturday night, hence the mention earlier of the 18th St Lounge.

Come Saturday, they all flaked out, one by one. I was in the car on my way to the lounge from getting a bite to eat earlier when the last person called and bailed. I was floored... eight people all individually backed out of the plan, each with his or her own individual excuses. And people ask me why I'm always going places by myself... hmph.

I am resourceful, though, so I made up a Plan B on the spot. I called my friend Nate, who can always be counted on to be out doing something sociable on the weekend. He said "meet us at Republic", so I did. The night was salvageable.

Republic was looking rather dead when I arrived around 11pm. Undeterred, I ventured upstairs, staked out by the pooltable with my now-favorite bartender and Nate and a couple of other folks, and watched one of the least entertaining boxing matches I've ever seen. Minding my own business, this random man walks over into the area and strikes up a conversation. I wasn't feeling particularly chatty, but he was. And as he blithely ignored my attempts to allow the conversation to die of its on congenital defects, I came to realize something.... this man is hitting on me. I guess all the recent hype and hoopla about undercover gay and bisexual men, particularly in this area, had sensitized me to this possibility. I made a beeline for the bar to escape that situation, and then I began to wonder... has it come to this? Is my mojo so dead that I can no longer draw people to a social event, or even have a woman hit on me? The night was looking depressing indeed. Once Mr. Undercover left the area, I took my drink and had a seat on the couch.

All was not lost... a woman did eventually hit on me, unbidden. Her name was Tracy, her line was "how old are you?", and she followed up that winner with "what do you do?" Apparently I was overdressed for the spot (dress shirt and slacks), and besides that, it is apparently unfashionable to tuck in a button-front shirt these days. She made me guess her age (another winner), and what she did for a living with absolutely no clues except her innate inquisitiveness. And before I managed to blurt out my completely off-target hypothesis, she added a hint: "I'm a scientist." Upon hearing that, I gave up, so she informed me that she is a pharmacist. All I could do at this point is shrug, and she went upon her merry (and most likely drunken) way. I thought to myself, at least she is female. Back to the couch, I managed to collect my thoughts a bit. All is not so bad, it could be worse. A short while later, it got a lot better.

Another woman (thank God) sat next to me and struck up a conversation. I don't even remember the small-talk, all I remember is thinking she had pretty eyes. I found out she was from California and went to Stanford, which at once gave us something in common and something in conflict (I went to arch-rival Berkeley, albeit for graduate school). We chatted about dining in the area vs San Francisco, which instantly scored some points. Eating is one of my favorite things to do, and talking about eating is one of my second favorite things to do. I found out she's a graduate student a year from finishing at UMd, getting her JD and MBA simultaneously. Damn, that's a lot of abbreviations. In the words of my insufferable genius friend James, "that doesn't guarantee that she's smart, but it does mean she's probably not dumb." Not much of a guarantee, but given my dating track record, I can work with it. We agreed in principle to hit one of the restaurants we spoke on, and we exchanged cards when she left. And all I kept thinking was that she approached me. The mojo is in effect!

epilogue: What, you may ask, about "the one I am stuck on"? She's been giving me the stiff arm lately. It's not often that I talk on the phone with someone I am dating or interested in and end the conversation with statements that preclude talking for several days. I could talk to her every day, but apparently that's not what she likes to do, despite the fact that we WERE doing that at one point. I could be overreacting, as usual, but the fact remains that she's there, I'm here, and here isn't there. Besides, Ms. Lotta Letters seems to have all of the same qualities, and she's local. But I'm not jumping that gun just yet. Stay tuned...

posted by Rainmayun at 8:04 PM -