Making Friends

I’m trying to make more friends. Right now there are a handful of people I could call up and say, “Hey, it’s me” and they’d know who I was. Anyway, at work one night I was invited out the next Friday for a birthday celebration for a girl I work with. I work nights at the distribution center so there seems to be a sense of camaraderie with us women. Anyway I gave her my number and she said she’d call Friday with the details, mentioning her plan was to start at a specific bar and then bar hop a bit and end up at the bar with a club for dancing. (I know, I live in a small town with tons of bars! People in the next state actually come here to go to our club to dance.) 

The night of her birthday party, I didn’t get a call. But since I dressed up (which is rare these days), I decided that surely I’d find them if I went to all the bars. So I went out by myself to the bars. That’s a first for me. Normally I call a friend to see if she’s going out or to see if we can meet. We’re stronger in numbers you know. So this was a break through for me to do this alone. I showed up at the bar and felt pretty stupid walking around looking at everyone. So I got a drink (trying not to look too conspicuous) and sat down. 

What followed is a reminder why I don’t go to bars alone. Every guy in the room (and it didn’t matter if they were with a girl or not) followed me with their heads/eyes. Ah just like Mexico! So one guy I’ll not soon forget, short fat and ugly, walked up and said, “Damn girl, you hot!” When I walked off he turned to his buddies and lamented that “it didn’t work”. Buddy, you really thought it would?!? Sitting at the bar didn’t help, so I sat at a table. A “business man” from out of state sat down. He proceeded to tell me that he was making great money selling Kirby vacuums door-to-door here. I commented that there was a lot of dust around here. To which he replied, “Nah, it’s just ‘cause I jack the prices way up out here. Can’t do that where I live.” A great salesman, like a great magician, should never tell his secrets. I quickly finished my Mai Tai and moved on to the next bar. 

Disappointment settled in when I didn’t find them there and heard that the club was closed. Conclusion: I never did find the birthday girl to celebrate with her. 

My moral to this story is ...well there is no moral. I’ll just have to make sure I get the other person’s number as well and check where they are before leaving the house! I’m beginning to think good friends are hard to come by. Makes it even harder to make girl friends when their guys are checking me out...I’m not the competition ladies. Trust me, I’m not!