In December, I met a guy at one of the Meetup events with the fun group. It was one of the first events I had gone to and the second largest I had been to in terms of how many people were there. I knew the group had "official photographers," so I decided to take my camera with me, even though I wasn't one of them, knowing it would be easier to hide behind the camera than actually talk to all the people I didn't know-which was about 99% of the group.
It was Meetup Guy's first event with the group. We talked briefly-he came over to stand next to me to watch a couple of the other members of the group play shuffleboard. I had taken a picture of him earlier which on the small screen of my camera looked like it was going to be a good one and I asked if he was okay with me posting it to the website. It was my first time with the camera and I didn't want to upset anyone by posting pictures of them without their permission (I have since gotten over that now that I am an official photographer-but I do review the pictures first and don't post anything I wouldn't want posted if I was in the picture). It did turn out to be a nice picture and as I look through my pictures from that night, he is actually in several of them. Actually, he tends to appear quite often in the pictures of events we have both attended.
He said something while we were talking that intrigued me: he said he had broken up with his girlfriend a little over a month ago and that he had spent the holidays with his in-laws. This caught my attention because the only single people I know my age who speak of in-laws in the present tense are widowed. But how do you ask someone you just met if they are widowed? There are other possibilities as well: he could have been married and is still close with her family, or just refers to the ex-girlfriend's family as the in-laws. Maybe they didn't tell the family until after the holidays. Who knows? All I know is I was intrigued and curious and still am.
I thought he was cute but I also thought he was much younger than he is. I didn't see him at another event until recently-OMSI After Dark, I believe it was, and then our paths only crossed a few times as we were hanging out with other people (and yet he is the subject of most of my pictures-there were a lot of people there and I was only trying to get shots of those I was 100% sure were with the group). One of the gals I ended up hanging out with took my camera to take a couple pictures of me, and he commented on one of them it was nice to see me in front of the camera for a change, which I thought was really nice. When the group went roller skating, he made the comment that I was early when he saw me (on my RSVP, I said I was going to be 1/2 hour late, but it ended up being the day from Hell and the perk of that was I was able to get there on time) and he was the only one from our group to come over and make sure I was okay after I fell. He's a nice guy and have I mentioned I think he's cute?
But then he RSVP'd for a couple of events and made a couple of comments that led me to believe he was a little too interested in beer for my taste-not to mention another girl in the group. Being the daughter of an alcoholic, I have a skewed perception of who is and isn't an alcoholic. Basically, I pretty much think everyone who drinks beer is one. So my interest was short-lived.
We were at an event Friday night: bunco, followed by an after party at a sports bar. That was definitely a fun night in which I convinced Meetup Guy to go stand next to a police motorcycle like he was planning to steal it because I thought that would be a fun picture (it didn't take a whole lot to convince him) and admitted to another girl in the group I thought he was cute. (Welcome to high school, folks). I also found out he's a dog person, likes to read, and has a degree in history. And he really doesn't drink that much-certainly not to the extent I had pictured in my head. He's funny. And he's still cute-he has a great smile. And I'm intrigued again. And I'm pretty sure he is interested in another girl-who wasn't there but whom someone else in the group was trying to set him up with. (Sigh).
High school wasn't a lot of fun the first time and really hasn't be much fun so far the second time around either.
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