rushedSharkins was in town for a party (Happy Birthday, Margaret!) that evening, and was going to crash on my couch. She phoned a little past 11:30 p.m. to ask if I wanted to come dancing - so I got dressed and met her at the Vogue. Since we got started so late, though, neither of us felt done with the evening by the time they turned on the lights and shooed us all out. So we walked over to Mercury (following the footsteps of a fair number of others, it seems; quel surprise) and hung out there. I knew they stayed open "after hours" but I'd never been there that late (early?) so that was interesting. For the first while it was quite packed, so we just lurked about and chatted (ok, shouted in each other's ears - I guess I have trouble classifying that as "chat"). Following the theme of 'meeting folks you've not seen in a while' we happened to end up in the vicinity of a table where
retcon and his crewe were ensconced (I think I also saw partner-in-crime icebluenothing but I thought he was out of town, so maybe not). Turns out Sharkins used to hang out with him at conventions, back in the day - which is probably actually how the first of our serial introductions were made[*]. So that was a pleasant if somewhat chaotic reunion. For a confluence of any number of reasons, I don't always make much of an impression on people when I'm introduced to them. Various theorists have postulated shyness, reticence, snobbery, tiny feet, or a strangely Scots chameleon-like ability to hide in plain sight as the reason - but without any concrete proof of causal correlation I am forced to leave the question moot and deal with the practical consequences. Mostly this entails being regularly re-introduced to friends-of-friends or acquaintances. It only bothers me when it bothers me - and yes, I realize exactly how unhelpful that is both in general and in specific. It also doesn't help that I have lived around here (for a largish value of "around") all my life, and have drifted in and out of various social agglutinations. Finally, I have a relatively good memory for spatial relationships and context, but I can't remember names to save my life and just for frosting, regularly go through phases where almost everyone I see reminds me of someone else (entirely regardless to whether an actual physical, personality, or gestural resemblance exists).
[cue white rabbit] Dear me, I've just noticed there is a .5 hour discrepancy between my system tray clock and the analog clock on my desk. Meaning 'oops I'm late for work' rather than 'oops, I need to wrap up and leave the house in the next five minutes.' Confound it - I guess I'll catch up the rest of the narration later.
