My friend split with her boyfriend and I was also single, although she had gotten back on the proverbial horse first. I went to visit her for some healing vibes and we sat outdoors, drank tea and reminisced about the good ol’ days when we felt people were nicer, sweeter, less complicated. (Back when dating wasn't as hard.)
Or, was it that we had been more sheltered and naive back then? Did we not realize it's always been hard?
She got to chatting with one fellow on a dating app, and I helped her with a few one-liners over text. Soon, we realized we were all planning to go to the same festival that night.
"Would it be weird if we all went out?" she asked.
It’s something we were used to doing – meeting new people, having a good time; no expectations. However, if the past few years had taught either of us anything, it was that people were not always as 'like-minded' as us.
Would you tag along on your friend’s first Tinder date?
Memoir of a Zookeeper
"Plenty of documented accounts of misbehavior; even the penguins do it,” he says.
She takes a sip and rests her drink
outside the rim of a coaster.
Instantly, he notices, but elects to continue his lecture:
“society is filled with such notions, which I do not believe
can apply to everyone, certainly not myself.”
She draws her eyebrows inward,
curious how long this one will last;
wonders of the lioness caught in feline thought
when Leo takes on similar pride.
Her glass sweats onto the wood side table.
Too much ice, she thinks, taking another sip—
oh, but the warmth of gin and the luxury of his leather sofa.
“We’re all animals,” he concludes.
So, anyway, "Guy" invited us to his place, where his friends were meeting him before going to the Greek fest nearby, and told us we were welcome to stop by.
But, should we?
The easy answer was, "yes, of course," but the more complex one was: "no, that’s weird."
Well, we got weird that night, and as we stood on his front steps, my pal couldn't bring herself to ring the doorbell (second-guessing how strange we actually were), so I did instead.
We brought a nice bottle of wine to share, and the host and his crew treated us to some Jell-O shots and finer whiskey. At the festival, we drank tasty beer, danced like no one was watching, shared food, talked about life, and even went out for a nightcap. Any onlookers would probably have assumed we’d known each other for years.
There still are people out there ‘like us,’ we realized. The reminder was nice, sweet, and rather uncomplicated.
Sometimes you gotta take advice from your best gal friend: "Just keep swiping, bring a friend if you want, and hope things continue to go right."
Martin Senn is a "...German artist who creates wire sculptures. His three-dimensional figures against a white backdrop resemble ink or marker illustrations that have quickly been scribbled onto one’s own sketchpad; however, upon closer examination, one can see a number of loops, knots, and pieces of wire that have been manipulated in each piece...outlining versions of invisible things."
Bio from My Modern Met blog post, titled "Playful Three-Dimensional Wire Sculptures," written by Pinar (October 5, 2012).