I'm strangely optimistic about this coming week for some inexplicable reason. There's nothing planned (so far) apart from the work event on Friday with Quiet Girl (and perhaps others). There could be more paperwork from the family stuff, but I'm waiting to hear back from a few people first.
And that's it. So I've no idea why I'm in such a good mood and actually looking forward to this coming week.
A few weeks ago during one of my phases of surfing the online dating apps, I saw a profile that set something off. I knew that I recognised her, but I couldn't put my finger on where or how. The pictures gave off vague Nigella Lawson vibes. I stared at the pictures for a while, and the name definitely rang a bell, but the details eluded me.
I closed the app and went about my day. As sometimes happens, that train of thought ticked away in my subconscious and the answer popped into my head an hour or so later: she was FBS's husband's business partner. I don't think I'd ever met her, but I'd seen plenty of photos of their business online and some TV clips, too.
So, randomly, in the taxi home last night, FBS started talking about her. I admitted that I'd seen her on Tinder which strangely never drew any comments from either D or FBS herself. But the conversation had changed from FBS sharing stories of a woman's disastrous online dating experiences to something else. A slight tonal shift but a shift nonetheless. FBS was describing the horrible time she'd had on Tinder and something else... was FBS trying to set me up with her or something?
She never said anything outright and I'd never offered my opinion on her as someone I'd like to date (attractive, but has kids and lives too far away for me). So by the time that D and I stepped out of the taxi, the moment was gone.
It was a great night in the pub with FBS, D, Friction Guy and Opinionated Guy. I wasn't as drunk as I had feared, though I was still quite drunk. While I always enjoy our catchups, it felt like we laughed more last night than normal, though for no real reason. Age is catching up with us and so our health was the main topic of conversation. Out of the five of us, I am the only one not on regular medication.
FBS asked a guy sitting at the next table to take a picture of us, and I think it might actually be a decent one. I might ask her for a copy of it and see if it's any good.
The chat about tomorrow night is ramping up. I wouldn't say that it's getting outrageous in terms of planning or anything, but it does feel like everyone's low-key excited to be meeting up.
FBS has posted several messages over the last few days about it and the latest, arriving just now, is a picture of her with a beer in her hand.
"Practising for tomorrow night!"
In a conversation with USHW recently, I shared that my ability to drink had taken a real beating: weight loss and lack of socialising (i.e. pub time) had "ruined me". Only a few years ago, I'd happily drink half a dozen pints on a Wednesday night and not give it a second thought.
Now, on a night out with FBS, D etc. I reckon I drink about half a dozen drinks, and I am far too drunk. I don't like being drunk. I like having drinks. I like being tipsy. But not being drunk.
But I'm still looking forward to it.
I saw a picture of actress Rachel McAdams earlier, though I don't think I've ever seen anything that she was in. It was what she was wearing that was what I noticed: a blue, front-button long dress. The reason that caught my eye was that I don't remember anyone else ever wearing one apart from FA2.
FA2 had a brown one that I loved. Well, not it specifically, but taking it off as part of foreplay. She wore it the night we christened BW's house after being in the pub. I remember it fondly: unbuttoning it from behind, from the bottom up, from the top down and even starting in the middle, when she had her belly button pierced.
It's the one piece of clothing I can recall her wearing a lot, presumably because she knew how much I liked taking it off. Plus, it was a dress. She didn't wear those often. 95% of the time it was jeans and a jumper or t-shirt/bodysuit, depending on the time of year.
The chat in the WhatsApp group with D, FBS etc, has kicked off ahead of our proposed night out this coming Friday. Not a lot has been said, apart from D, FBS and myself all confirming that we're going out. Nothing from Friction Guy as yet, but to be honest, I think that we could make a night of it even if it's only the three of us. And I think if the other two can't attend, we would actually head out.
That'd be quite a good night out, I think. I recall the night where it was only me, FBS and Opinionated Guy and it was great.
I had one of my recurring dreams last night. In it, I've failed my exams at university and I am trying to hide this fact from my parents. I can't remember the exact details now, but I do remember waking several times this morning before falling asleep again and the dream continuing.
When I woke properly, I was really glad. I think it was actually stressing me out even though I was asleep. So the realisation that I was awake and it was only a dream was a huge relief.
I should have been doing some paperwork off of the family stuff from a few weeks back, but if I am being honest, it's overwhelming me a little. When I'm overwhelmed like this, my first thought is to back off instead of doing the logical thing: taking the big problem and breaking it down into more easily manageable parts.
And as part of that procrastination, I was looking at houses on the local property websites.
And for some reason, that turned into a memory from nearly 20 years ago when I was looking for a place to live. This would have been shortly before I moved in with Useless Flatmate. I went to view a place in a nice area. More accurately, I went to view a room in a flat. A double room, claimed the advert.
I had space requirements: not just room for a double bed and storage, but space for a desk where I could put my PC, too.
Before I could actually see the room, the person who lived there explained the circumstances: she owned the flat but she spent most of her time in England and was only home once every month for nearly a week. Therefore, I'd have the run of the flat, mostly.
That all sounded promising. Then she showed me the room. It was not a double room per the advert. You might have been able to squeeze a double bed in there, but that would have only left space to walk round the bed and that's it. Fitting a desk and office chair in would have been impossible.
I mentioned that to her and she got super defensive. Not that it mattered. As soon as I saw the size of the room, I knew it wasn't for me, even with the free reign for most of the month. It's not like the entire flat was big. It was cozy. There wasn't even anywhere I could have set up my desk in the living area. Not that I wanted to. I'm a gamer, so no-one wants to hear me talking into my headset if they're trying to watch TV.
Anyway, I said that I wasn't interested due to the size of the room and let her be. I did notice that she updated her advert. If I recall the details correctly it no longer said "double room" but simply listed the dimensions and called it a "good sized room".
I was expecting to hear from CC today. She had mentioned that she wanted to go and look at kitchens and she knew a guy who did kitchens. As it happens, a new kitchen is the next phase of my house plan. I have a rough idea of what I want, from a functional perspective, but no idea about any of the bells and whistles.
So I know where I will put my oven, fridge, washing machine, sink and dishwasher, but I couldn't tell you what colour the kitchen will be, what the tiles will be like. And the only way I'll make those decisions is by going out and looking at kitchens.
So, yeah, I was expecting to hear from CC, but she's not said anything. Part of me is disappointed because I'd like to kick off this phase of the house renovation, but after about 5 pints last night, I'm feeling very lethargic today.
A few weeks ago, I shared some details of my family thing with Nerdy Girl. She immediately offered to go out on the lash.
"Not now, but I'll take you up on that in a few weeks time."
And I did. I suggested we head out last night, to CB Pub. And that was the plan until I was just about to leave the house.
"Can we do pool instead?"
I wasn't really in the mood. I wasn't actually interested in going out on the lash either, but I did want to get out of the house, have some company and a couple of drinks and chat about stuff. But I wasn't going to make a song and dance out of it.
"Yeah, could do a couple of games"
And it was quite pleasant. We played pool for a couple of hours before NG decided she'd had enough, then we adjourned to CB Pub, which was only about a minute's walk away from where we were playing pool.
And we chatted for another couple of hours.
However, it wasn't until we were on our way home that it turned out that NG didn't know how the family thing had turned out. She was under the assumption that things were just the same as I'd reported a few weeks back.
While you could argue that she should have realised, in reality, it was on me. I didn't share the news with her. I'm pretty sure there are some people that I should have shared with directly, but I relied on a Facebook post, and I don't think that reached as many people as I would have liked.
I know that while FBS and Opinionated Guy are active on Facebook, she was unaware of the news, so she didn't share with D or Friction Guy. The same applied to GM and The Crowd.
Regardless, it was a pleasant night. Nerdy Girl is always good company.
A bit of a weird dream last night. It featured KfW2 quite significantly. In the dream, she kept inviting me to social and work events but would never explain why. At these events, she wouldn't really spend any time with me.
Eventually I caved and pulled her to one side.
"What's going on? Are you OK?"
She hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
"I just need to you be here, watching. I don't trust these people."
And then the dream switches to another social event with KfW2.
And it ended about there.
For some reason, it really shook me for reasons I don't fully understand. I know that, in the dream, KfW2 was really concerned about something and wanted my help, even if she was being vague about it. But is that it? As I said, I can't really put my finger on how it made me feel, just that I was feel off as a consequence. Illogically concerned and worried about her, even if it was just a dream.
