Plans.

So, with April being less than a few days away, it's already looking like my most social month in a long, long time. I've agreed to meet with Nerdy Girl on Tuesday for something. That'll be a walk or pool depending on the weather. Next weekend is the work night out with Stalky Guy and Quiet Girl.

I'm expecting to hear back from M about meeting for drinks soon and FBS has to confirm some dates for that group to meet this month.

And then, still, there's an outside chance that I can get KfW2 out. As I have suggested before, at this stage, I'll suggest meeting in May rather than April if that conversation does happen. But I'm hoping to see her soon. I want to see her soon.

What to do?

One of my favourite local bands has announced a gig at my local bar (CB Pub) at the end of June. Ordinarily, I'd have attended with FP. Maybe AM or QC1 would have attended, too. But these days it's a different matter. AM's long-promised night out still hasn't happened (first suggested back in September last year). And given that she's seemingly holding on until a friend of hers visits home, I could be waiting some time.

I want to go to the gig, but I know it will be bittersweet given they were a favourite of FP and his passing last year.

WTF?

A rather eclectic dream last night that featured, amongst others, BR, USHW, my brother-in-law and people from work.

It started off at a sporting event. Maybe football? It was Ireland versus England. We then transitioned to a party, hosted at BR's house. USHW was my guest, and she was staying at my house. Then lots of work colleagues turned up, for some reason, and at some point, USHW and I had a falling out, causing her to leave the party.

Then my brother-in-law turned up to give me a lift home, and that was the end of it, I think. That's when I woke up.

Skirting the issue.

When KfW2 talks about her old tartan skirt (and it happens a lot more than you'd think), this kind of image pops into my head.

In my head, the skirt is red tartan and the woman wearing it is KfW2, not Hilarie Burton, an actress. And she's wearing tights and knee-high boots or DMs. But ultimately, it's a very short tartan skirt. In real life, I doubt that KfW2's skirt was that short, but I didn't know her back then, so I could be wrong.

Chat.

And it happened pretty much how I expected. I met G at 7:30 PM, we had several pints and were back home around 10:30 PM. It was a very pleasant few hours and the chat was easy. In the middle of it, while G was at the bar, I texted KfW2. She happened to be on my mind due to the pub I was in and where I was sitting.

She messaged back. She was in bed. She'd call tomorrow, she promised.

And she did. However, it was the same old story. She was in the car when she first called at lunch, only for that call to be cut short as someone from work was phoning her. And then she called later in the afternoon. Again, she was in the car. Unlike with G, this chat was more stilted, from my end. I don't know why. And, unsurprisingly, this chat was also cut short because KfW2 needed to call her husband.

I still haven't managed to get her out, socially, though that never came up in conversation yesterday. I'll shelve it until after the Easter weekend and then get back on it.

April will be busy - a work night with Stalky Guy and Quiet Girl, a potential night out with M plus a night out with  FBS, D etc. If a night out with KfW2 happens, it might be better to hold off until. May. These things aren't cheap any more.

Is it?

I needed to go to the local shopping centre and I've pretty much not left the house in three weeks because of the illness. It's a lovely day here, so the thought of wandering around for an hour, listening to music and getting in some provisions and clothes was very appealing.

I showered, dressed and left the house. As I approached the bus stop, this very attractive redhead turned the corner. She was dressed in green - a green hoodie, green yoga pants and running shoes. But she looked familiar. I was convinced it was Attractive Neighbour, but as she got closer, doubt began to creep in. I didn't want to stare, so just continued walking.

She got into a car with a guy and they drove off. There are no open shops or restaurants near me, so I am convinced they were walking a local trail that's a few hundred metres away and were just returning to where they'd parked their car.

So, it's a couple of hours later, and I still can't say for certain that it was Attractive Neighbour. But if it wasn't, then AN has a doppelganger.

Last minute.

Out of the blue, a text from G. Was I free tomorrow to meet for a few drinks? I was. And so it was arranged. Details are still to be ironed out, but I reckon we'll meet around 7 PM for a few quiet ones and back home around 10 PM.

Recollection.

I was browsing some old photos from the online hobby last evening, specifically one of the weekends when people from across the UK got together, drank heavily and chatted. It was the weekend where I met USHW in person for the first time.

It prompted some fond memories, not just of meeting USHW, but meeting a few other people too. That included R. I'd met R before at another of these events and we hit it off, but she showed up specifically to meet me and it was fun seeing her again.

So, yeah, fond memories.

Cutting contact.

Random Internet Woman's latest email (from a week ago) has upped the ante in trying to move to phone calls. While I don't think it's a threat per se, it has brought to a head a few things. I don't do phone calls. Pretty much the only person that I do have phone calls with is KfW2. RIW has said that if we continue via email, she feels she won't be able to provide the same quality of "conversation" that we've had so far.

But if we move to phone calls, I see this fizzing out almost immediately. And I don't want to force her to continue communicating via email.

I'm also really low energy at the moment. A combination of the past four months of family stuff plus a recent illness that has still not fully gone after three weeks has floored me, mentally. The family stuff is ongoing, too.

I'm really tempted to cut contact. It already kinda felt like work, like I was, or am, obliged to reply, and I'm just not in the headspace for that. I probably should have replied before now, but as I said, illness and headspace have had a huge impact recently. But I think it's for the best.

Swing thing.

For some reason, a young lady demonstrating electro swing dancing has started appearing on my YouTube feed, despite having zero previous interest in dancing or the music genre. She is, however, very attractive and reminds me of a woman I had a crush on back in my early 20s. I can't remember if I've blogged about her before, but there's not really much more to it than that.

Anyhoo, electro swing, eh? Have a look/listen for yourself: em.delacrem - YouTube.

But, you know, the music is kinda growing on me.

Reconnect.

I've been preoccupied with QC2 all day. It's due to a dream I had last night. I don't remember many of the details, but I recall that I met her randomly, and then tried to reconnect with her. Or I tried to hook up with her. Or both, on separate occasions? The latter, I think. As I said, I don't remember a lot of the dream, though there was more to it, but I definitely tried to reconnect with her and she was having none of it. And I felt sad when I woke up. While we only really saw each other a few times a year, I enjoyed meeting her for drinks, catching up, and even getting some advice from time to time. I do miss her.

Plans

In addition to the night with D, FBS etc. and the work thing with Stalky Guy and Quiet Girl and, fingers crossed, KfW2 (though still no reply to my suggestion that we do something soon), I've been meaning to reach out to M, and I still want to chat to Nerdy Girl.

Let's see.

So after putting out the feelers to FBS, D etc. I've another few irons out there. There's a work thing at the start of April with Stalky Guy and Quiet Girl that's pretty much nailed on. Additionally, KfW2 shared a memory via DM on Facebook (is it weird that she doesn't do stuff like publicly any more?), so I took that opportunity to ask if she was free soon for some socialising. Let's see how that all turns out.

Sigh.

I'm in a real funk at the moment. I think a good portion of that is coming from the illness. I'm really low-energy. The illness has sapped me of energy for the past two weeks, I've been in a permanent state of either pain or discomfort and I think that has had an effect on my mental health as well. The illness, fatigue and the resulting loneliness are all coming to a head, I think.

I've already put out feelers to FBS, D etc. for a night out, which will probably happen in April. I'm still keen to get KfW2 out, too, but it's still proving difficult just getting her to talk, never mind arrange something.

Urgh... again.

Finally, what I would call a good night's sleep. I think I've shifted most of the illness, though a cough and a sore throat remain. And the cough gives me a headache and shooting pain across my left shoulder.

I also recall pieces of a dream from last night. I was dating actress Anne Hathaway. We were doing that thing where we were having an awful lot of sex in the early days of a relationship and hadn't announced anything publicly. After a rather extensive session (though this wasn't a sex dream per se), we left my house to go to the shop to pick up groceries and snacks.

On the way back, we bumped into Friction Guy and his girlfriend. FG's girlfriend and AH knew each other in the dream, so we chatted for a bit and went our separate ways. Soon after, paparazzi descended on my house. We managed to sneak out and head to my parents' house where my Mum was ill, so AH was looking after her in between us cuddling on the sofa and just chatting. It was around this time that I woke up.

Nothing really to say. As you might expect, it's brought back some loneliness (being ill and single/living alone is not great even if it's not a serious illness), and the lack of sex is an ongoing frustration. And I hate being ill.

But here's a picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Catsuit. Boots. Mmmm...

Urgh.

Plague Tales, Day 3. I managed a whole 5 hours of sleep last night. It might not seem like much, but I reckon that put my total sleep over the past three nights at around 10 hours. I've not had any caffeine since Saturday, so that's not to blame either. I am, however, getting better. At this rate, I might return to feeling human again by the weekend.

Achoo.

Day 2 of the Plague or whatever it is that I have. I got about 2 hours of sleep last night. I sent KfW2 a text message, essentially just begging for sympathy, but she was having none of it, also being ill. As you might have guessed, work was a struggle, but I managed to be a little productive today.

My eyes still hurt, I ache all over and I've developed a cough. And my ribs also hurt presumably due to the amount of coughing and sneezing I've been doing for the past 36 hours. I really don't do illnesses well... or any kind of mild pain/discomfort.

Here we go again

Yup, I definitely have something. I'm aching all over, my eyes hurt when looking at screens and I got pretty much no sleep last night. I'm in work today but I just can't get motivated. All I want to do is go back to bed and get some sleep.

All weekend long.

I didn't sleep well last night. I think I'm coming down with something, which is unfortunate because I took some time off work last week because I was feeling really run down. I can't have this tickle in my throat develop into something full-blown.

Anyway, it was well after 3 AM by the time I fell asleep last night. And I dreamt of FA2. Specifically, I dreamt of a weekend, that actually happened, where we had no social commitments. We just spent the weekend in FA2's house and we couldn't keep our hands off each other.

It started when I arrived at hers from work, I'd been thinking of her all day, and marched her up the stairs and screwed her. And that set the tone for the rest of the weekend. We got to about dinner time on Sunday,  depleted and exhausted, but physically satisfied.

So, yeah, that was my dream and, as you may guess, led to a very frustrating morning.

Looking forward.

I always thought Quiet Girl was really hard to read and my attempts to get her to socialise, while generally successful, felt forced. But it was she who reached out to see if I was going to our monthly work outing, implying that her presence depended on mine.

Stalky Guy also showed up. I was pondering whether or not to attend, due to the ongoing family stuff, but I needed a drink, I wanted the company and, as USHW is fond of reminding me, I'm a sucker for a pretty face. And I do think QG is pretty.

There is not much to report - it was a fun night, I got tipsy, QG gave out hugs at the end of the evening (a first - I didn't think she was the tactile type) and we tentatively agreed to attend another thing that the company is putting on - a sporting event that might lead to drinks afterwards.

Wowzer.

Nothing to say today apart from looking at this stunning picture of Alison Brie that she's posted on Instagram.