Out n about

I stopped after work last night for drinks with a friend. Nice place, Maggiano's, you may have one near you. Great bar, attracts a versatile well heeled crowd across the age spectrum. I really only have about three friends with whom I do much of anything, two of them being married and the one I was with last night is as single as me, maybe even more so if there are degrees of singleness and I think there are. We worked together years ago, lost track of each other and then ended up at the same bar a few years ago and have imbibed with some regularity ever since. We have some people from our past in common and we have some business associations that cross paths also. I've mentioned him here before. We confide things to each other that we keep from the other people in our lives. We are a lot alike in some ways and vastly different in others. Makes for a good friendship. He's charismatic and never do we go anywhere that he isn't greeted by at least a couple of people, usually it's a steady stream. I can't imagine attracting so many people. He has a PHD and everyone calls him Doc and he is an assistant superintendent for one of the fastest growing, richest, school districts in the country. He's from a small town, redneck poor suburb, at least it was then. We joke about attaining a moderate degree of success despite our humble beginnings. My beginnings were stellar compared to his. No indoor plumbing until he was fourteen years old. Can you imagine that? I can't. His father left the day he was born to his Irish immigrant mother and he didn't meet him until he was a senior in college. He apparently ran numbers in Chicago and did some time before my friend was born. Hard time, like eight years. And his mother waited for him. And she never divorced him, never dated another man and he walked back into her life after nearly 20 years spewing contrition and she fixed him dinner and brought him up to date on the kids and they dated the rest of their lives. My friend got a full football ride at a small college and put himself through grad school and got his doctorate and never looked back. He took care of his mother financially which was even more burdensome due to her lack of benefits from not being a citizen. My drive came much later in life, early on I was busy underachieving which can be just as time consuming as success.

Our main differences are money and women. Each of us likes both money and women but we have different attitudes about these two subjects so dear to our hearts, wallets, and our maleness in general. He wants more of both than I do. Maybe it's that he needs more of both than I do. I'm pretty content with the money I make and while I can't have everything I may want I can have just about anything within reason I want badly enough. I know what it takes to scratch and climb and I'm more than OK here in the coast lane, over here like a bike path beside the highway, out of the way of the crazy traffic over there. You can get hurt playing out there in the traffic, badly. That's money. Now about women. It's not that he wants women more than I do (au contraire, that aint possible), it's that he wants more women than I do and the way you have more women is to give each of the ones you have less of yourself because there is only so much of you to go around, right? He's an excellent juggler and is still in the middle of his casual sex phase which I exited about the time it became OK for me to indulge in stands of one night or two or however many nights define casual if I so desired. Odd that I stopped then don't you think, when it no longer had the potential to effect anyone but the participants? There's some fodder for extensive psychological discourse in that statement but let's move past it shall we?

Back to women and the difference in how we want them. I like them more, I can tell, because his defining terms are nearly always regarding their age, physical characteristics or acrobatic skills. Sometimes their oral skills come into play, due to his background in education I assume although I don't think he's concerned much with written skills so I could be wrong about that. His body count is staggering. I know we're talking three figures and I'm pretty sure the first number isn't a one. As for me, I like to remember each woman I have been with, not just remember, but maintain the experience even when less than memorable. And when memorable, I want to be able to recall every detail. Even though my friend apparently has a larger than normal brain I doubt there is enough capacity for the details, maybe not even all the names and faces. But lest you judge him, he didn't achieve such staggering statistics all by himself and even now I can attest that there is no shortage of more than willing volunteers. It's amazing to watch charisma in action. He knows that his success (?) with women stems from that and he'll tell you so. I've told him that I talk to and sometimes meet women on line and have done some Match.com stuff in the past but I know he thinks my online experiences are something different than they are. Emails, blogs, and actual conversations (not resulting in a horizontal activity) aren't really part of his playscope so I know he doesn't get it. So I really don't try to explain and just flash my killer grin whenever he winks and acknowledges what he assumes are my online conquests. Right buddy, cyberspace is my cocktail lounge. But we have always have a good time and he doesn't show me anything but respect, doesn't play down to me like I'm his wing man or anything and we have a business relationship of sorts and he swears we're going to make a shitload of money sometime soon. He already makes a shitload of money so I'm hoping he knows of what he is speaking since it's seem to have worked for him in the past. I don't particularly need it but hey, I can find a way to spend it if it falls in my lap.

So where am I going with this? Nowhere......I'm just in the middle of "post" traumatic stress syndrome and my creativity is on vacation in the southern part of the country I think but I'm sure it will return refreshed and vibrant sometime soon.

I need to get out more. Just thinkin.