Good Days, Bad Days and a Wingman's Curse

This last week of January sure was a doozy. Monday, I put in an offer on a townhouse--it was a long and involved process with at least 30 pages of paper. I didn't really understand why so much effort was involved in just making an offer to buy a place. Monday evening I made the mistake of checking my work email late in the evening and read some messages that were, shall we say, less than positive. Through kickboxing, pasta dinner, and a glass of wine, I was still fuming over these emails.

Tuesday morning, I woke up and figured the day would go one of two ways: I'd have to quit my job, or everything would be fine. I managed to get myself all stressed out about having to quit my job on the same day I might buy a house and decided that whether or not the offer was accepted would be my "sign" if I should quit my job.

My sister summed all of this up best:
"Do you have PMS right now?"

Long story short, I didn't quit my job, the day got marginally better, the offer was countered, I countered back, spent a day in a meeting trying to figure out how to save the world by removing junk food from schools, had a great visit from a friend, practiced Yoga, regained my mental stability and then it was Thursday.

On Thursday, Dawn and I set out for another speed dating adventure. This time, we'd chosen an event for "professionals with advanced degrees" and it was in DC. We met up at the Hotel Monaco and made our way to U Street (really, the place was in Adams Morgan...but I digress), wondering why we thought it was a good idea to do this after a long day of work but still looking forward to an entertaining evening. This group was much larger and there was definitely a lot more potential than the first event. I should have known the evening would be interesting the moment I saw someone I knew come through the door.

Of course, I couldn't place the guy. I could remember his name and his profession, but not how I knew him. I decided I'd have to wait until he rotated to my table--and when he did, I immediately said, "So, we know each other." To which he replied, "We do? I'm sorry, I'm really bad with faces." This was not going to help. Anyway, three questions later, I remembered him as a mutual friend of Mary--we met when we both attended her wedding in Memphis about a year and a half ago. Before you all get your hopes up, let me share a pivotal moment of my experience getting to know this guy in Memphis.
Me: "Wow, how cool, we just drove past Sun Records!"
Him: "What's that?"
Me: "That's where Elvis recorded his first album--where a lot of famous musicians have recorded albums."
Him: "Really. Huh. I have to say, as much as I am really interested in going to Graceland, I don't really understand what the big deal is about Elvis."
Me: Stunned silence
Him: "Yeah, I mean, if you asked I probably couldn't even name one of his songs."

Anyway, suffice to say, this guy is nice and very smart, but I really have NO IDEA why he's popped up in my life again. I do know, however, that it was Mary's idea for him to go speed dating. Go figure.

This time, Dawn's friend was seated across from me and she was having a great time watching my face so she'd know what to expect when the guys came to her after me. One guy really stood out from the crowd; handsome, charming, funny--he presented himself as a flirtatious player and I was disappointed when the four minutes were up and he moved on. When the event was over, Dawn and I met up with her friend--and the friends she had brought along and walked down the street to grab some dinner. We had great fun comparing notes--among 5 four minute conversations with these guys, we put together a lot of details and some entertaining patterns:

• There was the guy that was only interested in what advanced degree each woman had--his sheet was just a list of everyone's bona fides. And he was old enough to be every woman's Dad.
• There was the New Yorker who, when I said I'd recently moved from Crown Heights, responded with "Shalom?" "No, I'm not Jewish," I replied, "but I was asked that about once a week when I lived there." Turns out he's an OB/GYN.
• A repeat guy from the previous speed dating--not too surprising since he'd recommended this event to Dawn during the last one, but slightly awkward to have to converse with him for another four minutes.
  
• Dawn also met someone she knew among the crowd, a friend of her cousin.
• The player was recognized by all of us as such, and revealed as a guy with a decent job as well as playing the role of wingman for the last guy I met.

Anyway, just as our debrief was winding down, the player and his buddy walked in to the restaurant and I invited them to join us. I didn't really recognize that he was acting as wingman to the buddy until later--and as it turns out, the buddy was into me and wingman got him out of there when he figured out I wasn't into him. So, the curse of the wingman strikes again--instead of me thinking someone's interested in me when it turns out he's interested in my friend; this time I'm the one who's interested in the friend--and I felt badly. Suddenly, speed dating seemed less like silly fun and more like another easy way for people to get hurt.

And after all of this, who knew what Friday would bring? It brought great news! Not only have I now lost 22 pounds (wahooooo!!!!), but I have an accepted offer on a house. I. Am. Buying. A. House. If it passes inspection and the appraisal goes through, this is where I will call home for the forseeable future.

February, here I come...