Officially Back in the Saddle, But Holding On By My Bootstraps

Surely it is no coincidence that just after running the telephonic emotional gauntlet with Mr. EU and coming out unscathed with renewed strength and renewed self respect men are suddenly coming out of the woodwork. Despite the obvious connection between the two and the fact that I'm clearly a little more open to the attentions of others, it still comes as quite a shock to suddenly hit an oasis after trudging through the scathing desert for the last few months. Its also kind of shocking that anyone has any interest in me, much less more than one person.

My friend Buff (named for a role he played in the show we were both doing when my brother died) is doing a show called Alphabet City at Metropolitan Playhouse. The show is created by doing interviews with various lower east side personalities and creating pieces from the interviews and characters from the actual people. I went to see one of the evenings on Saturday night, and it was actually really powerful and interesting theatre. I met up with many of the people involved last Wednesday, which was their opening night, after the show. Among the peopl there on Wednesday was the man from whom Buff's character was developed, Doc Harley. Doc Harley is definitely a character in and of himself; he's a harley riding doctor covered in tatoo's and robin hooding those with money enough to pay for laser cosmetic surgery to fund the health care of the poor and uninsured. He's also one of those people who talks a mile a minute and likes to tell you the way it is. He's definitely interesting, and I've got to say that I definitely admire the fact that philanthropy is not an idea or a tax writeoff to him, its a way of life.

Doc Harley is also a gigantic flirt.

I gave him my card on Wednesday night - he wants to help me write my own one woman show because that's just how you get anywhere, and if I'm too scared to begin on my own and don't believe that I can write one he can help me find my story in two minutes. Whether he can refrain from talking or jumping into the middle of the telling of any story for two minutes remains to be seen.

He e-mailed me today and asked me if I wanted to go see evening C of Alphabet City this Wednesday night. I was actually planning on going Wednesday night anyway, as one of the characters being portrayed in evening C is a womyn who was in The Vagina Monologues with me this past spring, and it turned out that Buff has rehearsal on Wednesday. So I accepted Doc Harley's offer, we emailed back and forth a bit throughout the day, and it looks like I have a date for Wednesday night.

At least I think its a date. I'm pretty sure. In his most recent email, he said "I'm bringing another woman. But don't get jealous. She's a goodfriend of the family." which leads me to believe its probably a date or he wouldn't have said don't be jealous. He's also an old school Jersey boy, so he's probably a horny toad. (nothing against Jersey boys or horny toads, just an observation based on experience)

Anyway, it should be interesting. At least I know he's anything but boring, as I've already witnessed. In my return e-mail I said "jealousy is not in my repetoire, doc, and i've known you far too briefly to even approach anywhere near its realm. its lovely that [family friend] is coming along - you're so shy and quiet, she can keep the conversation going." , as he's anything but shy and quiet.

We'll see how it goes. But I guess I'm now officially out there in the dating arena again.

That makes me nauseous.