Therefore, it's not a huge surprise that I wandered down to a wine bar on Wednesday night to partake in what is called, "The Narrators" series. Basically, it's just a bunch of artists, comedians and writers gathering in a hipster bar to ramble on about personal incidents and throw back a few two-dollar PBR's.
Just look at the crowd waiting for my story...not.
Storytellers Wanted:
I joined in the fun because a friend of mine from L.A. was coming back to town to do some shows and she was participating in the event and encouraged a bunch of us to also get involved. Now, a few things about this lady. First, she is perhaps one of the funniest people I've ever met. Truly a comic genius. Second, she's also the same gal that somehow managed to talk me into doing stand-up, not once, but twice. Both times compeltely sober (my third stand-up effort involved a lot of alcohol and a seedy bar, so it doesn't count).
It's odd how she has some kind of comedic sway over me. Probably the only woman in the world that I don't have a crush on that could actually talk me into doing stand-up more than once. I wanted to see her perform, and I wanted to see how I'd do in that environment.
I got there early, about an hour early, because I misread the time on the invitation. That was fine, it gave me time to partake of the cheap beers on tap at the Paris Wine Bar. And by cheap beers I mean the one cider they had in a can for two bucks and the one dollar Pabst. Eventually, people I knew showed up and we all gathered in the back room for storytime. There were ten "narrators" on the docket and each one was supposed to have only ten minutes.
Of course, you KNEW this wasn't going to happen. At ten minutes, ten storytellers, that should have amounted to just under two hours. Give it a full 120 minutes with people getting up and sitting down and the host time. As it turns out, we weren't done until about 10:30, so...you do the math. SOMEONE went longer than ten minutes, right?
I enjoyed the stories, I didn't wow the folks, but I didn't embarass myself, and sometimes that's all you can hope for. I told an old radio story. It wasn't funny, but I made up for it by sitting on a stool and not making eye contact, so, it was all good. But that's not what this entry is about. No indeed.
A Lovely Surprise:
Because afterwards, all of the performers and some of the random folks sitting around watching the show mingled and shook hands and told everyone how much they enjoyed the others' story. I didn't really know anyone else there outside of the couple of people I met there. But as I was chatting with the organizer of the event, a very pretty girl walked up to me and stood in front of me, not saying anything.
Of course I noticed her, but I didn't know her and I just figured she was waiting for me to get out of the way of the very narrow aisle that led to the front door. I stepped aside, but she didn't move, she just stood there. After about two minutes, I said my goodbyes to the the host and I turned to look directly at her. Without saying anything, she just put her arms around me and held me for an awkwardly long time. I'm not talking about five minutes, but when a complete stranger does a drive-by hug, even 30 seconds can seem like a very long time.
After what seemed like forever, the young lady pulled herself back from me and grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes and simply said, "I loved your story, I...I loved your story." Here's what I heard. "I want to have sex with you."
Yes, I know, that's not what she said. But you have to understand that what a woman says isn't always what a man, particularly a bachelor, hears. I'll admit she was pretty. Very pretty in a librarian, curly dirty blonde hair pulled back with glasses, fair skin and striking green eyes sort of way. It took me a second to respond, because I truly didnt' expect anyone to come up to me and talk to me about my story. It was grim, it wasn't funny, it was just a straightforward story. Not even close to the best I could do. But she seemed very smitten with the retelling of my story.
I grabbed her hand back and thanked her profusely for her compliment. It was crowded as people were starting to file out and make plans for the rest of their Wednesday night. Well, really it was just crowded in the very spot we were standing in because we were smack dab in the only walkway between the back room and the front door.
After thanking her, I didn't know what else to say. But she was still grabbing my hand and I was still grabbing hers, so it felt like I needed to say something. So I asked her if she had an interest in journalism. To which she replied, "I'm a freelance journalist myself, and I found your story so fascinating." It was like I had turned on a firehose. For the next ten minutes she just kept talking.
At this point I started trying to figure out how to transition from random stranger conversation to something more intimate. I was in luck because we HAD to get out of the way of everyone trying to leave, so I slowly led her over to the bar and kind of sat her down in the one open barstool. We chatted for a while, talking about journalism, the media, the Iraq war, politics, writing and comedy.
Of course, you won't be surprised when I tell you that she is significantly younger than I am. And of course you won't be surprised when I tell you that I simply didn't care. Sadly, after about 30 minutes of chatting, I asked if she wanted to go somewhere and get a drink. To which she replied, "I'm not sure, I have to see what my boyfriend is doing."
Grrrrrr. A disappointment, to be sure, but at the same time, I had a revelation. I haven't spent nearly enough time getting out to the clubs and bars and wine houses and partaking of the myriad of fun things available in town. I didn't get the girls number, for obvious reasons, but it was nice to be appreciated.
I have to send out a special thanks to Meredith and Michelle, Sarah and Michael for also being there. Sara and Michelle were performing as well, but Mere simply came down to show support, which meant a lot. But at the end of the night, I realized that since I'm not doing as much improv as I have been the past several years, I have a chance to get out and do things outside of the community I've been involved with for such a long time. I still want to do things with those people as well, as much as I can, but I also have to get out and meet total strangers from time to time as well.
Just tonight our apartment complex had their annual "Pool Party" complete with free food, free alcohol and prizes. I reconnected with some of the handful of people I know from riding the elevators for the past four years, and met some new folks. I danced to Frank Sinatra with a retired ballarina dancer and shared a mojito with a lovely, overworked female lawyer.
The point is, and I know a few other bachelors that understand this as well, I simply have to get out more. If this means grabbing Mere and dragging her to places where we can both meet people, then that's what I'll do. Hell, we could both use a one night stand if nothing else with some mysterious, hot stranger. Regardless, I've enjoyed this recent foray back into the social scene. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes!
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