St. David's Day Ball

St. David's Day costumes

I need to learn to start defending my precious nights in.  I don't know if it's the lack of Diet Coke for Lent of what, but I'm really tired these days, and I need more nights off.  Just time to go to bed early and get some more sleep.

After last night's late night return from Cambridge, I slept in for a good portion of the day, and then spent much of the day on the phone with people.  First to call was the Young Dutchman, doing our usual weekend check-in call a day early, and just chatting with me for quite a while about work (his only real topic of conversation these days), although interspersed with stories of Dublin and plans to go to Las Vegas in April (for work, of course).

Everyone at the ball

He also told me a bit about the guy that I'm now taking to the RAC Ball next week.  Much as I had started to fear would happen (since he hadn't mentioned his enthusiasm for the upcoming event), I had finally pushed Roofie's Brother for an answer to whether he could make it or not.  I'd really been hoping that the event would be a chance for the two of us to spend some alone time together, to have a chance to talk and figure out what was going on with us without the audience of a million people we know.

Yet, it was not to be, as he wrote to me with an excuse of how his sister was insisting that his nephew's first birthday party had to be the actual birth DAY, which meant he was going to have to go down to Bornemouth on Friday to work from there, to be there for the birthday party.  Reasonable enough excuse (and he had warned me that he had a family thing he would need to get out of), but still disappointing.

Everyone in costumes

The Young Dutchman sorted that one out however as soon as I mentioned it to him, saying within moments that I was now going with an awesome guy he knew from his work, who even owned white-tie.  I'm rather curious about who this paragon will be, as sometimes in the past, the Young Dutchman's take on who is "awesome" has been a bit different from mine.  Plus, the Young Dutchman so rarely thinks of me as a single girl, he's never alert enough to set me up with single, attractive men.  So I'm going into this expecting a short, sweet-but-already has a long-term girlfriend guy as my date.  The Young Dutchman is just rather clueless like that, but you never know, he might surprise me...

In costume with The Blonde

After I had enjoyed our lengthy chat, I called my sister-in-law to talk for a while while she packed for a weekend trip to Maine, and my niece insisted on getting on the phone with me for a while.  It was super-cute, as while I had expected to just hear a lot of heavy breathing on the other end of the phone (toddlers don't always seem to understand that you can't hear them), I instead got a charming listing of all the toys she was taking on the trip with her.

Right as I was hanging up with my sister-in-law, I got another pleasant surprise when Joel called, to actually talk for a decent length of time.  Had a good time talking to him about his latest relationship (I can't believe it, he wasn't even single a week!) and Joel giving me a talking to about my own choices in men.  I think he had an astute observation when he noted that they're all like puppy dogs, who follow me around eagerly, but after getting the affection and attention they need, bound off without actually committing anything to me.  As much as I hate it, I think Joel might be right, that I need to force the issue a bit more.  As Joel said, "When you walk into a room, everybody loves you.  There is nobody that you're avoiding, who you don't want to see again.  Which actually is part of the problem.  If you've taken risks and pushed guys to step up their game, you've risked rejection and there are people you won't want to see again.  The fact that you're happy to see everyone at every party you go to is part of the issue.  They get all the joy of seeing you without ever having to commit to you."  Sounds kind of weird, but I think he has a point.

With The Blonde's date

Finally after I hung up with Joel, I talked to my parents for a while, and then dashed off to go to the gym for a bit, before I needed to come back and change to go to this St. David's Day Ball that The Blonde wanted me to come to.  I quickly threw together an outfit that could perhaps be considered a costume, and made my way to the venue.

The Blonde and the new guy, in costumes

The champagne was liberally poured, which was helpful as I was talking to all of the random people who were there.  A few faces I recognised, many more that I didn't.  We had champagne for nearly two hours, before we went upstairs for some more food and drink.

There were some funny activities, like leek fencing (rather ridiculous but hysterically funny), and a St. David's Day cake.  I spent most of my time talking to The Blonde and her new guy, who it was hard to believe she had only known for a week, as they were so acting like a long-term couple already.

St. David's Day cake

He seemed nice, not personally my type (too much of an army bloke, not the intellectuals I prefer) but I could see him being a good match for The Blonde.  It was actually rather cute, how much he doted on her, and what a good sport he was.  After all, what man would agree to get dressed up in a pink Georgian costume for a girl he'd known less than a week?

Plus, as I was being frequently stuck in the "third wheel" position, he was really game about talking to me for quite a bit.  I did find myself in conversation with an American guy later who was clearly a bit taken with me, but he was just too rude to the serving staff (making some snarky comments about the girl pouring champagne) to really be tolerated.  I never understand why people don't realise that being mean to the help doesn't make you look posh or sophisticated, it just makes you look like an arse.  (The Blonde's new man, to his credit, was absolutely lovely and gracious to the help, making jokes with the girl pouring his champagne every time she came around.  Good mark in a man).

Random guy who changed into a banana costume before leaving to go to another party

Finally at 11:30 pm, The Blonde was clearly game to continue the evening's party, but I'd really just had it, and so slipped away.  Time to go home while I still had the chance, as I needed some sleep!