2424 Getting out and about

Saturday, June 6, 2009

I haven't been here since early Thursday. Busy. Thursday I drove 1.5 hours to Florida, NY, to join the southern Orange County Mensa subgroup for dinner at a small but very good (and very expensive) restaurant for dinner. It was me and seven guys. Interesting.

I like the southern Orange folks. Most of the local group activities are in the Poughkeepsie area, too far from southern Orange, so they're starting to organize on their own, schedule their own activities. Next month there'll be another dinner and a hike to a hawk-watching spot on a mountain. I plan to go to both.

All of the guys at the dinner are married, and I kind of wondered why it didn't seem to occur to them to include their wives.

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My goal is to get out more, and that's how I discovered www.meetup.com. It's a way to do things and meet people, but not like internet dating. Anyone with an interest they'd like to share can form a group, and people with like interests sign up, and then get together to do stuff. Everything from needlework to political discussion, to hiking, to movies and beyond.

Go there, put in your zip code, and see what's available in your area.

That's how I found the dog group I woods-walked with last week.

Yesterday, Friday, I went to see "Star Trek", and dinner after, with a movie-and-dinner Meetup group. There were six of us. We met in the lobby of the theater and then all sat together, and went to Chili's after.

I had been chatting with the organizer, Renee, before anyone else arrived, and mentioned several of the groups I had signed up for. She asked if I was going on the 40+ singles group river cruise on Sunday, and I said yes, but under false pretenses. I told her I was in a long-distance relationship, so I wasn't "single" in the dating sense, not looking to meet anyone.

The next person to arrive was a tall, thin, good-looking guy with dark hair, and it was obvious from first meeting that he was interested in me. Wow! Cool. Long time since I've felt such a sudden vibe from such an interesting source. Let's call him Tallguy.

When we all went to our seats, he walked with me, and was behind me when we went into the row, which would have put him next to me. But Renee, first in and on the other side of me, hadn't gone far enough in, so we were short one seat on the end, so Tallguy was the gallant and got up and moved to the other side of Renee. I don't know why Renee didn't just move one seat over, but that's the way it was.

When the movie was over, the others got up to leave. I told them I like to watch the credits (always have) and would meet them there. Tallguy said he'd watch the credits, too, and later we left together and walked out to the parking lot together.

It was a huge lot with no landmarks, and I was distracted trying to figure out where my car was when he offered me a ride to the restaurant. Well, I guess this proves I'm not manhunting. I said, "No." Not "No thank you", or "How sweet of you", or anything even remotely civil, let alone flirtatious. I said just "No." Hey, I was distracted.

Tallguy got to the restaurant before I did (I took a long way around because I wasn't sure where it was) and was standing at the entrance with Renee when I arrived...

... and didn't look at me for the rest of the evening. He also made no move to walk me out at the end of the evening. Tsk.

Oh well, just as well I guess.

I'm willing to bet that when he got to the restaurant he asked Renee if she knew anything about me, and she told him I'm not available. That's what it felt like, anyway.

Sigh.

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So tomorrow, I'm going on the river cruise with the singles group. Renee said I ought to enjoy the cruise, but maybe not the group - they're a hard drinking hard partying bunch, and that doesn't sound like my type. She doesn't know me, of course, but she's probably right anyway.
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