Saturday and Sunday have been filled with friendly male interactions. Yea. It’s a welcomed reminder of why having friends with a Y chromosome is still a good thing. If I happened to meet a man I wanted as more than a friend, then that would’ve been nice too. But that didn’t happen. Maybe next weekend. Who knew metro-sexual lumberjacks (minus the flannel), with enough testosterone to have an 8 am shadow, and the personality to warm even the iciest of ice princesses were so hard to find?
Instead, I met a nice 30/40-something man at the bagel shop who was more than happy to chat it up with me. Probably should’ve introduced myself, or sat with him, but that didn’t happen either.
By Saturday afternoon I was drinking some Saint Arnolds beer on a brewery tour where I was initially introduced by force. At the front of the brewery area a tour guide gives an initial information session, then dismissed the crowd to line up at the various taps for sampling. Music played over the PA system during the mingling and drinking period of the tour. About 30 minutes into the mingling they cut off the music, and a brewery employee made his way to the platform. “Would…uh…data…Could the guy that left his card at the front desk and forgot to sign his receipt please come to the front desk? D-A-T-T-A, please come pick up your card. D-A-T-T-A. Thank you.”
A couple of my friends make jokes about leaving credit cards, but I figured it was more or less because of the situation. I ignored it and continued sipping on my Christmas Ale. The large group I was with became more social as everyone consumed more alcohol, allowing for some late introductions to happen. A friend of the people I came with walked over to me and asked my name. I answered, “Hi. I’m Jessica, Sam and Tibbica Steve’s friend.”
“Hi, I’m Datta.”
“How do you say that again?”
“Datta. D-A-T-T-A.”
I laughed. “Wait…why is that so familiar? Oh! You’re THAT guy, the one that forgot his card! No wonder they were making so many jokes.”
“Yeah, I do stuff like that all the time.”
The conversation moved toward how we knew the people we were there with and what each of us did work-wise.
“Well, I work in genetics and at a pub on weekends.”
“Really? Which one?”
I told him where I worked. “Yeah, I know that place. I left my phone there once.”
Of course he did. I suggested lots of Velcro or a necklace with a pouch to combat his forgetfulness. Probably not the coolest way to solve the problem, but still a whole lot better than losing stuff all the time.
I was also thrilled to meet the guy dancing below, despite his confusion over video versus still photography. It happened several time and made trying to take videos quite awkward. (Apologies in advance for the camera angle. I always forget my camera only shoots horizontally.)
Who knew he had some moves? You may be wondering how and why he would bust out with choreographed dance in the middle of a brewery. Well, I’ll tell you. He had a deal with Tibbica to learn all the moves to “Thriller” in order to show off during karaoke. She never bothered to learn the moves, but he did. I needed the proof, and he obliged.
Once the tour ended I stopped at Chili’s to have an early dinner with Willis (Sam’s nickname from me), T. Steve, and a person I would like to refer to as “Leonerd”. Leo is a very interesting character to say the very least. When he was little he didn’t know how to spell his middle name, so he wrote “nerd” instead of “nard”. As an adult he made the mistake of telling me this, which caused an overwhelming urge to refer to him only as “Leonerd”. Ah, Leonerd, thank you so very much for sharing. Feel free to do it again.
It was a pretty good Saturday, and Sunday hasn’t been too shabby either. I had my first waitressing shift in over a month. Seeing some regulars and getting to socialize was nice. Live music blasted from the pub patio (kudos to his version of “Single Ladies”). I danced; the sun shined; money was made. All of it led to even more smiles.
Thanks to everyone, friends and friendly strangers, for making it a really nice weekend.
