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SociabilityPeople nowadays like to be together not in the old-fashioned way of, say, mingling on the piazza of an Italian Renaissance city, but, instead, huddled together in traffic jams, bus queues, on escalators and so on. It's a new kind of togetherness which may seem totally alien, but it's the togetherness of modern technology. |
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Saturday, April 25, 1998
This morning my friend Kirsten and I drove together to the second edition of MS Singles Saturday coffee. I knew she lived on Capitol Hill, but I didn't know she was about three blocks away from me! This time we were meeting at Uptown Espresso, in the lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.
It was a beautiful morning, sunny and a bit breezy. I laughed when I pulled up to pick Kirsten up; we had both made the choice to wear short skirts, by coincidence. We were the first ones to arrive at the espresso place, so Kirsten treated me to a beverage (I had forgotten to visit a cash machine) and an apple pie muffin. Thanks, Kirsten! I'll get treats the next time. We grabbed a table.
We didn't see Sean (in fact he never showed up for an event he organized, the weasel!), but we did notice a woman by herself, with an Excel logo on her jacket. Kirsten was too shy to go and speak to her, but I dared. Sure enough, this was Susan, who came over and joined us. Michael showed up a few minutes later. I don't know how he recognized us, possibly from the picture on my internal web site. He's been posting about a possible trip to some hot springs, so we discussed that. The part about crossing a waist-high stream to get there didn't sound too good!
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In the afternoon I made laundry my project. We only have two washers in the building, and I have a lot of clothes! I was glad that no one else had made the laundry choice today, so I could do as many loads as I wanted and not feel like I was interfering with anyone else's schedule.
I really need to clean out my closet, move some craft stuff down to the storage locker in the basement, and get rid of clothes that I won't be wearing. I now have clean clothes, but no room for them in my dresser!
I also created a photo index page for this site, so I can point people to it easily. That way the curious can find out what I look like quickly, without my having to point them to specific URLs.
I called Jason. I hadn't heard from him since we went to Norwescon two weeks ago. I wanted to hear about his mother's visit to him last weekend, and catch up generally. It was much more comfortable talking to him on the phone than it was when we were dating!
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I had dinner tonight with MD, whom I'd met a few weeks ago. He had contacted me from my yahoo personal ad.
We walked from my place to a Thai restaurant a few blocks away and had dinner. I tried to explain fandom to MD, but I knew I hadn't done a good job when he said it sounded like a big chatroom! We also talked about job stuff (his and mine) and possible places for him to find a house to buy. Three dogs makes it difficult to find a satisfactory place to rent.
We walked from the restaurant to the Century Ballroom, zigzagging through the street grid. I love the light in the early evening, before it's fully dark. The sky was still a deep teal in the west, and many folks hadn't drawn their shades yet. I like peeking into apartments and thinking about those lives (and critiquing their decor!).
We got to the dance in time for the lesson. MD had said he didn't know how to swing dance, but it must have come back to him, since he did fine! Hallie (she runs the ballroom and is one of my dance teachers) pulled me out of line to help her demonstrate, as she did a few weeks ago. I was pleased!
The band, John Holt's Radio Rhythm nine-piece combo, was good, if a little bit on the ricky-tick side. Hallie and Lovica did a dance performance at the first intermission that was entirely charming! I think it would be enjoyable even if the audience wasn't up on lindy intricacies, but knowing some of the techniques does help in appreciating the difficulties involved.
A fun day!
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