Busy Bee 2

Last Tuesday I attended my first "singles" meetup event; they lured me in with a free drink and free food.  That's pretty much all it takes to get me to show up somewhere.  Needless to say, the evening was a bust.  The highlight of the event was Hadi; a large, sweaty, goofy-looking middle eastern guy wearing a purple polo shirt.  He comes up to me and introduces himself and then says, "I would like to get married and have children."  I was pretty caught off guard, since I'd never heard some use that as a pick-up line before.  I stumble for words a bit, but manage to eke out, "Uh... well, there seem to be a lot of ladies here tonight," as I motion to the crowded room.  "No.  With you," he replied.  Holy crap!  Thankfully, a guy from my apartment building, that I'd met last weekend, jumped right in and rescued me from the conversation.  I happily turned my full attention to the other guy.  So, you would think that should've been a pretty obvious I'm-not-interested signal to Hadi, right?

At the end of the evening, as I'm about to leave, Hadi pounces on me again and asks for my phone number.  I told him, "I don't want to get married and have babies with you," to which he responds, "I was just kidding."  Hmmm, that's not my idea of a funny joke so I just turned and ran away.  So, if I had been unclear in my intentions before, then surely after physically running away from, he would take the hint, right?  Nope.  The next day I get a message from him on the meetup site saying how great it was to meet me and did I want to hang out some time?  Grrrrr!  Persistence does not always pay off; sometimes it’s just plain creepy!

Last Wednesday, I had my regular bellydance class.  Even though I’ve been taking classes for almost two months, I’m not sure I’m getting any better.  It’s much more complicated than you might think because it involves trying to do so many things at once; sort of like rubbing your belly and patting you head at the same time.  Oh well, it’s still kind of a fun workout J

Then on Thursday, Leslie and I had a much needed happy hour date.  Work has been so crazy lately that by the time 5 o’clock rolled around I was dying for a drink.  I haven’t even come close to exhausting all the bars and restaurants within a one mile radius of me, so we checked out a new place, Black Bottle, a super cute little bar with great food.  The flatbread with prosciutto and béchamel was fabulous, as was the seared spiced sashimi yellowfin tuna.  I'll definitely be going back there again.

Friday was finally a calm night, but I needed that so I could get up early on Saturday for pilates.  I had never taken an actual pilates class using "the apparatus" but I had always wanted to try.  I was a little nervous because it looks like some sort of medieval torture device, but a friend wanted me to join her and the first class was free.  I really, really enjoyed it so I might have to breakdown and actually pay for classes (they're expensive!) or... I could just try to find other studios in town that offer free trial lessons.

After class, we went out for brunch and I completely undid any sort of benefit from the exercise.  The french toast with whipped cream and blueberry compote was totally worth it though.  It was so crispy and delicious, it almost tasted like it was deep fried.  As we were done eating and asked for our check, the waitress asked if we wanted some jello shots for the road.  It was 11:00am?!?  So… of course one of my friends eagerly said yes; shots for the table!  That was the most potent jello shot I think I’ve ever had in my life.  I think they just used unflavored baker’s gelatin and their homemade fruit infused vodka, with no sugar.  Yikes!

After brunch, we checked out the gay pride festival which was going on in the same neighborhood.  It was mostly just booths of educational information, so not super exciting, but there was still some good people watching and live music.  Once we were finished up at the festival, I headed over to Pike Place market for some errands and then Saturday night was the tick tock aerial show.  I probably never would’ve known about this, but luckily I got an invite from my friend Ashley.  I’m not gonna lie, some of the symbolism and narrative behind the performance was probably lost on me (it was a little bizarre), but the artistry and skill behind the movement was astounding.  I really want to start taking some more aerial classes.  After the show, we did a little bar hopping before finally calling it a night around 12:30.

The next day was the official gay pride parade in downtown Seattle.  After the splendor of the Solstice parade the weekend before, my expectations were high.  Unfortunately it was kind of a let down.  The parade consisted of so many boring corporate sponsors that were nothing more than a banner with the company name and a bunch of employees wearing matching tshirts.  I’m happy that businesses are support gay rights, but it does not make for an interesting parade!  There were a few random funny floats sprinkled in and, of course, some decent people watching among the other parade-goers.  It just seemed to drag on and on with boring floats and the crowds were getting on my nerves, so after 2.5 hours we decided to duck into bar for a beer.  When we got out, the parade was still going on.  I think it total it must’ve been over 4 hours long which seems excessive.  After a nice late lunch/early dinner with Leslie, the weekend was over and time to start the cycle of craziness all over again.

I actually ended up skipping my Tuesday plans this week after an 11 hour day at work and tonight was bellydance class.  Phew, now you’re all caught up!  I’ve got some fun 4^th of July plans this weekend and then next week I’m off to Atlanta again for work, so hopefully I’ll have more fun adventures to report back.