Happy, the Social Butterfly
I send Ron away to camp, so that I can be the whore of Babylon. Well, not quite. This is Eric who is the manager of Rehab, the Bar not the intervention. Tim and I went out to dinner on Saturday night in Silver Spring. We had a nice Mexican dinner, complete with margaritas, then we decided to hit up Rehab. We got there about 9:30, and the place was totally dead, except for the bartender, and a dancing mechanic from the Chevron station (don't ask).
We sat on the patio, nursing a couple of margaritas. I figure if I start on a type of drink, I don't particularly want to change for the evening. I don't want any strange chemical interactions. We talked to the mechanical dancer, and another couple joined us on the patio. I felt like a total loser. I mean, the night was looking like a MGMC experience.
Shortly thereafter, this guy walks up to the back entrance of the patio, stands on a chair, and looks like he's wrestling something. He gets of the chair and walks inside. Then Eric makes his entrance, stands on the chair and does the same wrestling act. Evidently, they were working a bad switch that had shorted out, resulting in ambient light only on the patio. This was not necessarily a bad thing. It reminded me of the backroom days, when you couldn't see what was happening to you. Not a bad thing.
Eric came over and Tim and I started talking with him. Tim snapped the picture with his iPhone, and because the light was so low, the picture is pretty fuzzy. Happily, Eric is not. He's the club manager, and is real nice guy with a very expressive face.
After we finished our drinks, Tim took me home. I immediately hitched up my shorts, and headed back to Rehab (each step is a journey). I got back there and introduced myself to the guy who had first wrestled the errant light switch. His name is Travis, and we had a far-ranging conversation about religion, finance, boyfriends, and sex, pretty much in that order. Travis is a mainstay at the establishment. He told me he'd been going there nearly every night for the last couple of years. I'm not going to rush to any conclusions, connect any dots, or roll my eyes too much. He's a very nice social guy....
I should mention Friday night. Perry and I took carryout from Suporn's. He had Pad Thai, I had Woon Sen noodles. We also had appetizers. We brought the food back here, and had a very nice meal. Of course, we headed over to Baskin and Robbins (just beyond Rehab) afterwards. Ice cream perfectly ends an evening.
Well, it didn't quite end my evening. I was online about 10:30 p.m., and got a message from Mike on ManHunt. His date for the evening fell through, and well, he came over for a very satisfying visit. He left around 7:30 a.m., and Perry and I went to breakfast at the Silver Diner. From there we moved on to the Home Depot garden store so I could get two flats of pachysandra (see previous blog entry).
The universe spins its mysterious ways. I'm always rather amazed at the tangled skein of uncoordinated activity that, nevertheless, ends up appearing purposeful and planned. Weird. Just plain weird.
So yesterday, Beth had a picnic and invited Tim and me (and several dozen other people). I took Happy's Famous Potato Salad, which was a hit, although I made about twice as much as I needed to. Oh, well, you can never have too much potato salad. Below is a pic of Beth and Doren. Doren is a square dance caller who has been a guest caller for DC Lambda Squares several times. I met Beth's mother, who is made some delicious baked beans. Juanita rose to the occasion with her tomato pie. Leo cooked the hamburgers.
Many of the guests were former square dancers, or people who go way, way back with Beth. She has deep roots in the area, and nurtures those friendships. I'm a little wistful about that, and happy that Beth has such a group of friends and family. I'm glad I could be at her picnic.
0 comments:
Post a Comment