Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Set Up For Disappointment

I made tortilla soup (from a mix) the other night, and, in accordance with the instructions I cut some tortillas into strips and fried them as a garnish for the soup.
Why does fried food have to be so bad for you? The soup itself was okay, but the fried tortilla strips were so good I almost filled up on them and ignored the soup.
That’s probably the most exciting thing that’s happened in the past couple of days, so you haven’t been missing much.
Today I was wondering if Scott and I were going to do Riff Trax night tomorrow. I was going to send him a text to ask him that, but before I got the chance I got a text from Stacy inviting me to their house tomorrow night, which answered that question.
Of course, it wasn’t until afterwards that I realized that this would mean having to be out on the road with all of the drunks, but oh well.
As I mentioned, not much of interest has been happening over the past couple of days. I’ve mostly been engaging in some hard drive hygiene, deleting/archiving files, and trying to organize my pictures, both those I’ve downloaded and those I’ve drawn.
Riveting stuff.
Stacy just called to inform me that they’re ordering Chinese tomorrow and to ask me what I wanted. She also mentioned that there would be someone else there whom I don’t know, and, as this someone is a woman and single, she didn’t want me to think that they were trying to set me up with someone.
That sort of thing happens every once in a while. That is, in some sort of gathering there’s going to be a single woman and my friends inform me ahead of time so that I won’t think that there’s a set up. The thing is, it’s unlikely that I would actually think that anyway.
There are a number of reasons that I’m unlikely to make that assumption, but I suppose the biggest one is the fact that I’ve never actually had friends try to set me up with someone. In fact, and I don’t say this to be insulting, just stating the facts, pretty much all the friends I’ve ever had have been utterly useless in that regard. Either they don’t know anyone they can set me up with, or, if they do, it just doesn’t occur to them to do it.
(I have several theories about that latter point which I won’t bother getting into.)
The last time I suspected that someone was trying to set me up with someone was somewhere around ten years ago, during my drinking days.
Some friends and I were headed over to Michigan Tech to check out some live performances being done as part of the Winter Carnival. Among the performers was the niece of my friend Ginger.
Ginger kept raving to me and our friend Jeff about how talented, sweet, and generally wonderful her niece – who was only a few years younger than Jeff and I – was, to an extent that it seemed as though she was trying to generate interest in her.
Jeff and I both noticed this, and, to be a bit shallow, we also noticed how everything she had to say about her niece essentially boiled down to “she’s got a great personality.”
So it was with some trepidation that we headed over to watch her niece perform, as neither of us was inclined to be set up with someone who, assuming it to be shorthand for fat/unattractive, had a “great personality.”
Once she got on stage, however, we saw that “great personality” wasn’t a euphemism for unattractiveness: she was hot.
And extremely talented.
So Jeff and I immediately changed our thinking on the whole set up thing, and were preparing to square off – as we had on several occasions with several other women – in competition for her attention.
(I lost each and every competition with Jeff, by the way.)
Of course, it was then that we found out that Ginger never had any intention of trying to set either of us up with her niece; she was just very fond of her and inclined to rave about her.
This became abundantly clear when Jeff said, “Your niece is really nice,” to which Ginger responded, “Yeah, and her girlfriend is a real sweetheart, too.”
D’oh.
(I would say that the there was a set up going on the whole time; Ginger setting us up for a cruel joke, but that sort of thing really wasn’t in her nature.)
So yeah, I don’t often worry that my friends are trying to set me up with anyone.

2 comments:

lbugsh2 said...

Yes Scott and I are useless is in the setup category we have been married to long, and have very few single friends. well and the ones we do have are Morman, and that does not quite seem your cup of tea. I refuse to setup someone with someone else that is not a semi decent match.

Merlin T Wizard said...

That's not saying that we couldn't set you up with her. However, I always think it's nicer to get to know someone in a neutral situation like the New Years get together before trying to set up a date, if for no other reason than to see if you appeal to each other. Well?