Real-Life Men and Dating Reruns

None of my online connections came through this weekend, so I went out on Saturday night with my good friend Jane, who is always open to new adventures. She even went speed dating with me once. I emailed Mimi shortly before leaving, and told her that I was determined to meet one nice real-life man at the bar where Jane and I were going to go for dancing and live music.  She wrote back that she was never good at that after the age of 20 or so, but neither am I, really. At my age, I'm too shy when it comes to striking up a conversation with a man in public, but my confidence level had a boost recently, so I thought I'd try again.

 I was at a karaoke bar for my daughter's birthday celebration a few nights ago, where my son told me that he had noticed a few men giving me appreciative stares, even while I was singing! That is hard to believe, but then he pointed out the men in question to me and even encouraged me to smile back at them. Lo and behold, one of these men even came over to say hi, and I don't think anyone gave him any money to do so, either. I feel like I'm a pretty observant person, and I always notice when men are looking at other women, but obviously I'm not always aware of when they are noticing me. Back to last night. When the man at the table next to ours said we could have the empty chairs at his table for the rest of Jane's friends who were arriving, I invited him to join us. I had previously noticed that he was my type, tall, a little burly, nicely dressed, with attractive facial hair. We started chatting, and all the right signals were there. He leaned in closer, brushed my arm with his, then later laid his hand gently on my arm to make a point. Later, I touched his sleeve with my hand in response to a question he asked, because that's what I am supposed to do if I'm interested, right?  Then we exchanged information (he's published a book about dating and said he could give me info about NDAs and the like), but shortly after that, he admitted that he was waiting for his date, who was 45 minutes late.  He wasn't sure if he was being stood up or not. His date, he bragged, was the sister of a major Hollywood director whom he met the night before (while they were both on dates with other people) where they felt a mutual attraction from across the room, and made plans to meet at a remote location where they wouldn't be seen by either of their previous dates. He described her for us in case she happened to enter the crowded bar unseen by him. Her hair was blonde,  he said, "Texas Blonde," and she was on the short side. Finally she arrived at his table, and that was the end of my conversation with a handsome real-life man. The band started playing, and they leaned in close to each other to talk, and it was impossible to hear any of their conversation after that. By then, the group of Jane's friends knew whose sister she was supposed to be, but everyone agreed that if she really was related to the director in question, she could only be his mother. The blonde had had some major work done, and her body was trim, but her face and hair were frozen and starched into a mask of obvious plastic surgery covered by expert makeup. She wore a short black dress, and she could shake it like a teenager out on the dance floor, and despite her age she kept his attention all night. I did give the man my email, but even if I don't hear from him, it was still a win, because I met him (and spent time talking to him) in a bar. As we left, Jane said she thought that the published author and I made a much nicer-looking couple than he and the Texas blonde, but that's the way it goes sometimes. By that time, I was no longer interested anyway.

Meanwhile, I've been contacted online by Easy Rider, who forgot that we went out on a date last year and had no chemistry, at least for my part. In response to his email, I wrote that I must have made a great impression, since it took him over a year to get back to me.  He obviously didn't get my sarcasm, and he wrote back again asking what my username was before, so he could refresh his memory! Speaking of men with bad memories, Jane told me last night that Farm Boy has written her an email on the dating site she recently joined - saying they should meet, they have a lot in common, they work in the same field, yada yada.  I'm sure she lost any respect she previously had for him, in addition to lots of faith in the class of  men who frequent online dating sites.  You see, just before I broke up with him, Farm Boy spent an afternoon with her at a rally we'd invited her to. Oh, these online men. How soon they forget!

I googled the Hollywood director from last night. His two (step)sisters are at least ten years younger than me, but the picture of his mother that came up strangely resembles the Texas blonde, although her hair is a different color in the online image.