Stranger Danger. Don’t take candy from strangers. Don’t accept a pint you didn’t see poured. Etc, etc, etc.
If a guy is the friend of a friend, is he still a stranger? Should you really make plans to go to a new neighborhood and meet said stranger at a pub you’ve never been to with his entourage of brothers?
Yes and Yes. Or no and yes. Definitely make plans and go. And he isn’t quite a stranger or quite a friend, either. Anyway, it was fun. Sean is the childhood friend of Louisa. Louisa is a co-worker of mine from the chicago office and, really, if you connect all the points–the reason I’m in London at all.
For those of you who don’t remember, I covered Louisa’s maternity leave. Which turned into a permenant position for me at IES, which turned into the current temporary position in London. Where Sean, a childhood friend of Louisa, lives along with his two brothers.
After an introduction on email from Louisa, Sean and I spent the last 6 weeks or so trying to find one night that we were both available to meet for a pint. There was my trip to Italy, his gigs, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and party season, my trip to Belfast and finally, one free night. I am the first to admit, there was probably a bit of trepidation because there was the off chance that one of us would turn out to be a boring loser, then what would we tell Louisa? “Sorry, but your friend is actually pretty lame.”
I am happy to report that unless I was the loser (and I don’t think I was) we aren’t losers. We are in fact very funny, creative people who are good company. Sean’s brother Corin also stopped by with his flat-mate Amy. We shared horror stories about past roommates and living situations, talked about buying suits and what women wear. “Yes,” I admitted, “women dress 10% for men and 90% for other women.” Corin pointed out that all women have to do with wear short sleeves and tight jeans, check, check. I accomplished both by accident–not really an accident, I don’t have too many options anymore.
Anyway, it all seemed terribly funny last night. But since you “had to be there” and most of you weren’t, I’ll spare you the other conversations. The moral of the story is–always say “YES” to a pint with the friend of a friend, because they aren’t quite strangers and probably aren’t losers.
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