The Joys of the Committee

Tonight was the Club YM's Committee meeting, and I'd agreed to meet Doro beforehand for drinks. I feel like I haven't seen her in ages!

I got an extra bonus when we walked into the bar, and Tristan was there! I was so happy to see him, as I haven't seen him in the longest time either, and hey, I just like Tristan.

So we sat having drinks, talking about ideas for Younger Member's events, and Tristan actually kept coming up with quite a few good ideas. His thoughts on informal crew dates were definitely good ones, although his description of how to do a "Safari Dinner" just seemed to be way too complicated to be workable. Although it was hilarious with each new idea (particularly the Safari Dinner idea), he kept saying, "It's really trendy right now!" And we would be looking at each other and asking, "Really? With who?" It was funny how Tristan kept suggesting singles events, as I guess the boy is really tired of being single!

Later on the Wild Welshman joined us, and so we expanded our table, then Zack came along, and Stefanie too, so at that point we just moved to a larger table (thank goodness on a Tuesday night the club bar wasn't crowded), and continued to discuss ideas for events, with a lot of really helpful input from Tristan. I almost wished that we didn't have to leave and go to the "formal" meeting, as we were actually accomplishing quite a bit just sitting around the table in the bar!

Still, after the clock rang 7, it was time for the real meeting and Tristan had to get going anyway, so we all made our way down to the Marlborough Room and worked our way through the agenda. Thankfully the Secretary wasn't there, so without him shooting down ideas or going on long-winded rants, we managed to get quite a bit accomplished, and I ran through the agenda quite efficiently. Doro also later praised the fact that it was a lively meeting, with people actually talking and suggesting ideas, and I had to say that compared to how dead some of our meetings have been, it was nice to have people really contributing. By pushing everyone forward and keeping us driving on schedule, I managed to end the meeting at 7:55, keeping my promise to Doro that we would end by 8 PM. Everyone seemed pleased with that (not just me), so I think short meetings will be the order of the day in the future!

Doro had signed Oxford Boy's application to the Club for me, although I couldn't believe it when immediately as we had been talking about how I needed to leave his application at the desk, I walked out of the Club without it. Seriously, I can't manage to keep a thought in my head for two minutes?

Admittedly I blame Doro somewhat for engaging me in conversation about the Tall South African (who she refers to as Casanova, which I find tremendously appropriate), as I always argue that he is a huge distraction for me, even when he isn't there. Noticed that I'd missed a call from Joel while Doro, Tristan and I were having drinks, which I found tremendously funny, given that I've been trying to get the four of us together for ages! It was like he had a psychic feeling that he was missing out...

Doro and I then walked together through St. James' Park to Pimlico, which is where she lives and where the running club was having their run this week. As we walked and talked, I told her about the plans for drinks with My Friend's Flatmate (she seemed to think it would be a disaster if we weren't drinking), how I think the Tall South African is inappropriate but I'm totally drawn to him (she told me to have a fling with him and enjoy it, so I was glad to get her approval on the idea), and how Joel has been after me to do online dating. She half-jokingly asks why Tristan and I don't just date, and I have to say that would certainly make things easy! Tall, good-looking, age appropriate guy who I get along brilliantly with and have all the same friends in common with. Definitely just slotting the pieces of the puzzle into place. I've never gotten any indication of interest from Tristan however, and I think that's really the key, that you want a boy who desires you. It's not quite enough to be friends, but you need someone who wants to rip your clothes off too.

We parted ways, and I arrived at the pub, to find that there was no Oxford Boy there (boo!), but DD was there and quite happy to see me. It was good to catch up with him for a bit, as I know he likes me, and I'm rather fond of him too in a way, but it had been a long time since we'd gotten a chance to talk and catch up. And let's face it, it's always nice to talk to a boy whose face lights up with delight when he sees you.

I survived the circle and then stuck around chatting to Caroline for a bit, about dating and various things...I realise I should make an effort to introduce her to Tristan. They really might suit. It's funny though, as Caroline is so keen to see me with a boyfriend...she's nearly as bad as Joel!

Finally around 10 PM, since I hadn't been drinking, I decided to head home. DD put up huge protests to that, which was rather cute, but eventually I managed to get out of there even as he seemed hugely disappointed.

When I got home, I realised that today is the first day of 2012 I haven't spoken to the Tall South African. It had to happen at some point (we kept joking about how we were going to break our "streak"), but it was still kind of sad nonetheless. And so time marches on...