Welp, for the first time in several years I had a girlfriend to share the love on Valentine’s Day. I mentioned yesterday how the day got off to a dismal start and a canceled hike, but things took a turn for the better as the day progressed.
I’d posted on John Kim’s Facebook page that I’d be coming to his restaurant for dinner. An acquaintance asked if he and his girl could join us, and I said sure. He suggested 7 p.m., and I agreed, even though that’s a tad late to get started for an early bird like me. But I’d promised Swan some live music at Queen Victoria, and the band starts at 8:30, so the later dinner hour was a good fit. We left the house a little before 6 p.m. so we could avoid walking in the dark. I figured I’d pass the time until dinner hour with some San Miguel Zeros.
When we arrived at John’s place, we took a table on the second floor. John greeted us and mentioned we were earlier than he expected, and I told him we just wanted to get a good seat. As we waited, several other diners arrived, including a couple of folks I know, but most of them went upstairs to the third-floor open-air bar to dine.
So, I got a message from my supposed dinner companions around 6:30, saying they’d be arriving “around 7:20.” Hmm. I responded that we were already there waiting and had after-dinner plans, so we would have to reschedule for another time. Oh well.
After dinner, we caught a trike to Queen Victoria.
We watched the band warm up, and I was surprised there were no female members. Swan was familiar with the group, called Engine, and said they play hard rock exclusively. They definitely played loud. That’s the problem with most bar bands–inadequate sound mixing just leads to noise. I could see that the guitarist was quite talented in the guitar solos. The singer appeared to be good, too, but unfortunately, he was usually drowned out by the other instruments. I had heard raves about Engine being the best bar band around, but for the most part, I was disappointed.
Despite my grumpy old man criticisms, it was nice to be out on a date with my girl doing something she had been looking forward to. On the way home, she thanked me for staying out late with her. Late, in this case, was 9:30, but that was out of the norm for me.
Of course, I won’t need a VD excuse to spend more quality time with Swan in the days ahead. It’s nice to have a girlfriend.
In an odd coincidence, Facebook memories shared a moment from one year ago–my last barfine (i.e., paying to take a bargirl home with you).
I don’t even remember her name now. She was shy and new to the bar. One of her conditions was there would be no boom-boom (intercourse), and I agreed to those terms. For me, it was about the companionship more than the sex anyway. She was a sweetie, and I enjoyed cuddling with her all night. She left the bar shortly thereafter and moved back home to the province. She wasn’t really cut out to be a bargirl.
Today’s Quora Q&A (I’m not sure if I mentioned, I’m just taking the answers I’ve given over the years in chronological order. This one is from May 2022):
Q: Would you press a button that gives you 100 million dollars, but would take away 2% of your memory?
A: I forget.
Yeah, thousands of comedians are out of work, and I’m trying to be funny, right? Well, how about these:
And that’s enough for one day, don’t you think?
John came out and chatted with us and the guests at another table. He’s still not doing all that well, but he was up and moving about, which is better than I’d seen in quite some time.
I’m glad John’s doing better… but he’d be doing even better if you flipped him horizontally! You still don’t flip your selfies, do you? Most of the time, if the background is jungle, I can’t tell, but if there’s writing in the photo (on a tee shirt, or on a sign), I can easily see whether the photo is backward. I’m surprised your new phone doesn’t automatically flip everything “right side up.” My new (well, three-year-old) Samsung does. I don’t think I even needed to tweak any settings.
She left the bar shortly thereafter and moved back home to the province. She wasn’t really cut out to be a bargirl.
Or: she had such a horrifically bad experience with you that she ran screaming!
Here’s hoping that your current experience with real companionship has made clear that fake companionship just isn’t worth it. This life is better than one that ends with the epitaph “Bullshit & Money Led Me Here.”
Kev, I just checked the settings on the phone cam and turned off the button that prevented flipping. You’d think that would be the default setting, but it’s not.
Actually, it was a couple of months later, so it wasn’t me! I could tell how unhappy she was working in the bar. I hope things are going well for her back home in the province.
I’m hoping for at least another decade before discovering how it all ends, but you never know.