...otherwise one day, karma will jump up and bite you on the ass.
Life is far too busy for online dating at the moment. Given as I average one free evening a week at the moment (and need that to do laundry) I have little time for seeing the people I like to see on a regular basis, let alone anyone new. [Having said that, I would of course drop all plans should certain men suddenly become desperate to spend time with me.]
That's not to say that there are no stories to tell. As with many of the stories I seem to share here, it's one of living in a very small world and, in this specific case, bad karma.
Yesterday, I saw Good Male Friend while he was working at a decidedly chilly Christmas market with a colleague of mine (well, we do the same job but with different organisations) and someone I'd not met before, but had heard a lot about. GMF and I don't have many mutual friends, but our social circles often collide in exceedingly random and coincidental ways. I was therefore not surprised when he said "I met someone you know at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday..." What I wasn't expecting was the response I got to my question of who it was. Apparently I "went on a blind date with him in the summer and never called him back - he seemed rather miffed about it".
Oh yes, GMF had met Mr Long Replyer. (Why I didn't respond in the end is chronicled here and here.) Oh good God, how does this stuff happen to me?!
It was, of course, owing to my unfortunately unusual surname. Apparently I'd come up in conversation (I knew a few people at the meal) and as soon as my surname was mentioned, Mr Long Replyer made the connection. How I cringed! Not least because it means that there's a possibility I may run into him again in the future - eeek.
I tried to explain to GMF and colleague why I'd not replied in the end - without making him sound bad. GMF insisted that it probably wasn't such a big deal and it was just one of those things. Colleague pointed out that they'd agreed at the meal not to mention it to me, but GMF couldn't resist.
This leads me into an interesting position, in a variety of ways:
(i) GMF had no idea I was dipping my toe into the dating scene and seemed somewhat surprised that I'd not told him about it or this date. [To be fair, not only was it a month after he told me he wasn't interested, he was also in America.]
(ii) GMF now knows that this blog exists and what its about - yet is disappointed that I won't give him the link. Hmph.
(iii) One of the negatives of Mr LR was that he was very like GMF, yet wasn't GMF - I wonder if GMF spotted this?
(iv) What if I meet Mr LR again? That will be quite, quite embarrassing.
In the mean time, I will simply hang my head in embarrassment and shame and pray for forgiveness. Never again will I not reply to someone's heartfelt missive. I am a bad, bad woman.
