"The object of thinking is doing."
My topic of the week is what to do with Friday Nights to avoid Friday Night Let Down Syndrome when everyone else has something fun to do and I become irrelevant and invisible until Monday morning.
All week, while I've been writing down my thoughts in my blog/journal, I've also been taking some practical steps to deal with the situation. It's not like I'm a hermit or anything. I can, albeit uncomfortable at first, engage with people I don't know and reach out of my shell. So here's what I've been doing and a few preliminary results.
First, as pathetic as it sounds, I plunked some money down on one of the social dating sites. I did this a little before back when they were free. I never met anyone I fell for, but I did meet my very best gay friend. Too bad he lives in Houston. This time is better (you get what you pay for?). I've been enjoying Saturday morning coffee with a new future good friend. Not sure there's much more there, but it's a start. So far, so good.
Second, I ran an ad on Craigslist just asking the world whether anybody else in Oklahoma City felt the same way I do about Fridays. So far, I've received five responses, and am trying to figure out where we can all go Friday and just meet each other. Maybe some good will come of that, maybe not. But it too is a start.
Third, I've been checking out some places to hang out. In OKC, adjacent to the gay ghetto area, there is just the weird area of town. I love weird people. Anyway, there are quite a few smaller bars and restaurants over there that you would never know existed if you didn't go looking for them. These places are way more in line with my tastes and comfort zone than the gay bars or crowded, busy dance clubs.
Last night I went to one such place for a while called the Lobby Bar. I had a great chicken sandwich and two beers. In the hour and fifteen minutes I was there, I had no less than four enjoyable conversations with people I would never meet in the course of my normal day. If I have to resort to being a barfly, places on this level are infinitely better than gaytown.
Everybody knows somebody, and momentum breeds momentum. I really do want to take the momentum of the year and apply it to my social life. I want to meet some new people and make some new friends. It's time to do something besides 'want' that.
Whether anything good actually happens or not, it's fun to hope.