Lost

It's been a busy few weeks and I have lots of characters to report on. I swear, there are some guys I meet up with solely to provide fresh fodder for the blog.

Case in point - the slovenly dude I met up with Friday night for drinks after work. He showed up dressed in a sweat shirt and 5 o'clock shadow. Let's just say he was not as attractive as his borderline photo. He was a working musician and guitar teacher so I thought he might have a cool factor beyond his sketchy appearance.

That assumption went out the window when the waitress asked if we wanted rolls with our meal. "Only if they are free," he replied. The waitress actually said "WOW! No, we don't charge extra for them." When the bill came, I didn't bother to wait to see if he picked up the tab. Rules or no rules, I did not care to be beholden to someone who I had no intention of seeing again. But worse yet, he did not put in enough for his share of the tip. "Is 10% enough," he asked. "No, it's not," I said as I put down enough for a decent tip. I ran to my car.

In other Rules updates, I mentioned that my last time out with Mr. Craigslist that he had dropped his mother off at the hospital. Following the Rules, I did not call him or email him, even though I was concerned for both him and his mom. He was clearly distracted the whole evening. I let a whole 10 days go by without contacting him, just enough time to go through the death, wake and funeral. That's right - his mother died the next day. I only found out by viewing his Facebook page where apparently more thoughtful friends had posted their condolences.

I felt badly so I called and I invited him over the other night. Thanks to Facebook, I knew he liked the show "Lost" and we watched the premiere together. It was a mellow night. I have to say, just having someone to hang out with and watch TV on the couch was nice for a change. But per my earlier posting, this one is moving slowly and me, with all my abnormal paramours, isn't quite sure what to do with him.

Since it is moving so slowly I did not turn down the invite last night to go out with someone a friend suggested. Tall, good looking, dimple on the chin type, he has a name that sounds like a country-western ditty -- Lonny Ray. He is a luthier and a guitar player in addition to being easy on the eyes. AND he didn't ask the waitress if he had to pay for rolls. Promising!

Meanwhile, back at the Sad Cafe, I had the misfortune of sitting next to PAL at an industry dinner recently. He continues to behave inappropriately towards me. I leaned over and spoke to him like a retarded pre-schooler. "You need to stop that. You are just hurting my feelings. Do you understand?" He doesn't understand that flirting with someone whose heart you broke weeks ago is bad form.

Meanwhile, Mr. Maple Latte (aka Spaceman) is still circling hoping for a plum work assignment from me. I was almost relieved when a better candidate came along recently. I won't call or tell him in person if I give the assignment to someone else - I'll just send an obtuse email and let him figure it out. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Then there's Wild Thing, who sent me a text message saying he's back in town weekend after next. While this meets the Rules lead time requirement, at this point, I barely remember what he looks like and am totally turned off at the concept of being his north country hook up for when he's in town doing business here. Never was my intention and I would need to see quite the change of heart to even consider hanging out with him again. He claims to be too busy but Christ, I'm as busy as they get and look at all the time I have to go out on dates.

So two decent candidates in play; one also ran; two has-beens; and one dud. You need a scorecard to keep up with this cast.