the farewell party

one of our improv friends is leaving and we organised a secret farewell party for her. the night before, i'd asked the organiser whether i could assume most of the regulars would be there for the party but she said that only those people who knew her well would be there. i wasn't sure what that meant and i wondered if i could really count as someone who knew her well. i mean, i only started improv back at the end of September and only go every other week and as she always comes late and leaves early, it's not like we'd had that much social interaction apart from 2 parties. i went home feeling awed at having been invited in the first place. 

...when i walked in to the party the following night, i was therefore surprised to find P. there. a friend of mine had brought him along to my party 3 weeks ago, which is when he'd met the others and he'd come to a couple of improv sessions since. i thought that was pushing the limits of 'knowing her well' just a bit, which just goes to show the same words don't all mean the same to different people! and not really clear on who didn't get invited... 

anyway, the party was great. she was so surprised - it turned out the organiser had pretended that she'd tried to plan a big farewell party but that most people couldn't make it so it'd be a small dinner for 3, which ended up making her feel depressed all day as she thought no one cared! luckily, she was so happy to see us all that i think (hope) it made up for it. and now she's ready for her big move down under.

guy one

so i hadn't seen guy one since our date. he invited me to some group activity with the improv people but i already had plans and he couldn't make it to my party. after that, he didn't come to the last improv session despite the fact he was signed up and i couldn't go to the last minute curry evening that someone else organised. 

i didn't know if he was coming to improv last night so i was happy to see him when he showed up... looking sharp. leather jacket and a haircut with sideburns. i love sideburns. but of course, that's not what came out of my mouth when i said hello. i only managed a 'nice jacket' or 'looking good' - actually, i can't even remember what i said, only that it wasn't a great line. 

at the end of the session, things were a tiny bit awkward. i mean, the whole group was around us so it wasn't easy. he was talking to his best friend in the corner and i was making enquiries. as i exited the room, though, i found him talking to 3 other guys and they basically all wanted to talk to me at the same time. i was suddenly surrounded, the centre of attention. i made a point of starting with him, though, which he seemed pleased about. he said he'd come to the drinks on Tuesday. we were trying to convince a couple of others to come, too, when H. grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side (he really wanted to explain - personally - why he wouldn't be able to make the drinks anymore). although we all know he is happily married, i kind of hoped guy one was slightly jealous of our little aparté. i went back to the others and said my goodbyes, hoping i'd see him at the party tonight.

music that makes you shiver

there are songs that send shivers down my spine. in the positive sense, i mean. generally, it's not the lyrics but the music itself and/or the pitch of the singer's voice. James Morrison's 'You give me something' or Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful' are good examples - for me, anyway.

the date with guy one

we finally managed to meet up. it took some time as we both have crazy schedules. we met at a small coffee shop that i love and which he seemed to really enjoy - he said he'd come back. 

we talked for a couple of hours. it was interesting although he seemed slightly intimidated at some of the things i told him about myself. the thing about improv is that you get to spend a lot of time with people whom you start to feel very close to despite the fact that, at the end of the day, you actually know next to nothing about them. so i didn't even realise that he didn't know about my history (e.g. my travelling and experience) - it's generally the first thing people talk about and since we've know each other for what, 6 months, i just assumed he knew, so i didn't think about the fact that maybe it was a bit overwhelming for someone who'd only ever been to 4 countries (that said, i had no idea that was the case until he told me!)

altogether, it went well. there was, however, this one thing that worries me a bit. as i've mentioned before, his smile lights up a room. when he doesn't smile, though, he looks like he's really bored. i might be wrong but he didn't smile all that much - this could of course be a result of the information overload he suddenly got on me. i certainly hope so, cos as a constantly smiling person, i'd have huge trouble spending a lot of time with someone who didn't at least seem happy to be there. he did, however, seem keen to repeat the experience, so i'll invite him to my party and we'll see what happens next. to be continued...