Drinks and Conversation

Learned what I would label a karmic lesson on Friday night...it's a complicated scenario. A friend from work had an acquaintance of a friend coming into town and crashing on her futon during a road trip to her new home in Chicago. Talking about it with my friend earlier in the week, we both agreed that we couldn't think of anything more awkward than trying to entertain a total stranger (and a female no less, who are admittedly a difficult gender to read). So I agreed to meet up with the two of them for margaritas at Chewy's. What normally would be a five minute drive took me almost half an hour because of the Forest Park Balloon race...may I just say that we live in a city of the most inept drivers in the world! Sitting in traffic that hadn't moved in over five minutes seemed like an omen of the evening to come. At the very least, my party mood was rapidly disentigrating.

However, I was more than pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had with our "total stranger." In the course of two hours and a couple of margaritas, our little group had discovered beyond our enjoyment of frozen cocktails a mutual interest and (most unusual) a common feeling about current events, politics, literature, education, dating, sex, and all the other things girls discuss when they get together in groups. As our new friend put it, "It's amazing how many people you can get to know when you are open to new conversations yourself." Hmmm, deep thoughts.
9/17/05