Work in Progress

I promised in my last blog entry that I would elaborate on the random drink offer.

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine was in town for some job interviews (incidentally, she got a job and IS MOVING BACK!! YAY!!), so she and I spent our Friday night the way any good Texan should. After we had our fill of Pappasito's queso and beef fajitas (a.k.a. "manna from Heaven"), we headed over to a local bar to have a couple of drinks and hear some live music.

We had been sitting there for a while enjoying the band and the people-watching when an obviously intoxicated woman came over and asked us if we were using our extra chair. Thinking she would take the chair and move it over to sit with her friends, we told her no. She then proceeded to sit down at our table, and she began talking to us. She discovered that she and my friend share the same middle name ("I'm 40 f-ing years old, and I've never met anyone else with that name!"), and that was it--we were friends for life. And just when we thought she couldn't get any more excited, she found out we were teachers. Wouldn't you know it--her stepmom was a teacher, and she loves her stepmom ("I just laugh my ass off when I'm with her!").

Our new friend became concerned that I was not drinking. I assured her that I had already had a couple of drinks but was done for the night. She insisted that I let her buy me a drink "in honor of [her] stepmom." Generally not being one to pass up a free drink, I relented and drank a vodka and cranberry in honor of a funny stepmom who used to teach. Before the night was over, we had danced with our new friend and her group of friends, chatted with and refused additional drink offers from her significant other (who assured me that teachers have his full support), and acquired a fun story to tell.

What I learned from this night was that I do possess some of the "Hey, wanna buy me a drink?" skills, but they clearly need a little redirection.