Emily went out of town with the new boyfriend this weekend, so I found myself on my own. So on Friday night I just spent the time recovering from a hectic workday and catching up on "The Daily Show" online. But Saturday night was time for going out, and it was quite handy that some girls from the running club had decided to have a housewarming party. But as is the tradition with so many hash housewarming parties, you don't actually hold them at your house, you hold them at a pub!
A friend of mine who is a fellow Cambridge-and-Oxford type from the hash had been talking to me about going on weekend trips away before I started planning all of my Panama-and-Australia madness. She's a rather nice blonde doctor, a bit ditzy but nice enough company, so I agreed that could be a fun idea, given how crap I generally am at exploring Europe even though it's right at my doorstep. So originally we had been planning on going to dinner on Saturday night, but when this housewarming came up, we decided to push dinner to Sunday and go to this party instead.
It then came as a surprise when she called me on Thursday to say, "How would you feel if we invited HP along on our weekends away?" Although before I could even stammer a sort of response, she said, "Because she figured that we could have dinner at mine on Saturday before the pub party, and figure out which weekends we're free." And of course that's so awful, because the truth is that while I can tolerate HP well enough for a few hours in the evening when I don't have to talk to her for more than 10 minutes at a time, now you're asking me to spend a whole weekend travelling in a foreign country with her? The worst part is, while of course I can THINK this, actually saying so is another matter entirely. One can only be so b*tchy out loud, you know?
Anyway, on Saturday I got a text around noon from the Blonde Doctor, saying we were meeting at her place at 6. Given that I'd never totally agreed, I thought about saying I'd never gotten the text (as I hadn't seen it until about 3 PM, since I was at the gym), but after I was pretty much ready to go out for the evening at 5:30, I figured, "Why not?"
So I went out to catch a bus to her place, although would you believe it, the bus I needed whizzed past me as I was still running to the bus stop? I was so annoyed, I then ran ahead to the next bus stop, and the bus actually got stuck in traffic, allowing me to actually get to the next stop before the bus I should have originally caught in the first place! Result!!
I got to the Blonde Doctor's place, sat around petting her cat, and we waited, and waited, and waited for HP. Finally we got a call from her saying that she had only just made it to Victoria Station (at nearly 7:30), and at that point, by the time she got to the Blonde Doctor's place, it would be well after 8, and we wouldn't make it to the party before 9:30, which is late, even for London.
So instead we went to the party, and where I'd felt a bit guilty for eating before going to the Blonde Doctor's house (where she had said she was going to cook dinner), I was now a genius, having already eaten yummy Mexican food at home, and avoiding having to eat greasy pub food!
Yet this party was unfortunately dull, dull, dull, dull. I greeted the hosts, two absolutely lovely sisters, who thanked me for coming, and introduced me around to the other mix of friends who were there. Yet my goodness, I've never put forth so little effort for so little result! With the boys I talked to, I really tried everything. Books, sports, work, travel, how-do-you-know-the-hostess, i-hear-you're-in-a-choir, but I swear it seemed like they couldn't do anything beyond give monosyllabic answers or contribute towards a more extensive conversation. And I'm not one of those girls who finds a party without boys to be dull, I enjoy talking to girls just as much if they're interesting. But even on that front, it was total misery. At first I wondered if the party was so dull because I wasn't drinking, but parties should be interesting whether you have alcohol in your system or not, right? A person as hyper-social as me should be able to be a teetotaller and still have a good time, but this party was just hurting.
The only really interesting part of the evening was where one of the sisters introduced me to her boyfriend (who I didn't know she had), and she asked me if I was dating anyone, as I had assumed she knew I was single. Funny how you can think you know people pretty well and then realise you don't actually. But even as I had a conversation with one of the boys from the hash about being single, I just had the thought, "I am bored. I am not meeting anyone interesting, the music is too loud, and even though 10 PM might seem a bit too early to head home on a Saturday night, what on earth are you going to gain by staying here?" So I found my coat, said good-bye to the hosts (I'll admit, I dodged seeing the Blonde Doctor, just doing my conflict avoidance-thing), and slipped out.
Got home, changed into my pyjamas, and was a very happy camper to be home early on a Saturday night!
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