Key to survival

Earlier tonight (technically, last night) was the culmination of Rooftop Thursdays: 80 degrees, sangria, folks by the dozens at Ristorante Fiore on Hanover Street.

I did all six!

(God bless L.  She made perfect attendance badges.  Minor *sob*.)

It was midnight by the time I was biking past South Station, several sangrias in, reflective in that tipsy-and-the-evening-sky-is-lovely kind of way and, indeed, sad to see the end of this summer socialization exercise. I'm not necessarily leaving this series with a boyfriend.  But there was flirting and contacts and new friends that have my e-mail address who have friends who now also by default have my e-mail address.  Networking deluxe, and a totally new scene, which was totally welcome.

So here, at 1:15, just past the necessary pasta snack before sleep, I was moved to dig up something Cousin J e-mailed me earlier in the month:

"i keep thinking back to something i read in a magazine lately, that many people meet their mates via mutual friends. and i can think of many, many cases where that is true ....  so...here's the question---how does one engineer social situations to bring out the friends and coworkers of others in a non set-up type way? rooftop thursdays are a good start...some of them have to have slightly older colleagues and neighbors and friends, right? regardless, i'm glad you met some new faces and got some energy from it, that periodic high from new people and unexpected fun is so key to survival!"

In a week that included ugly-style love chats and married deceivers, I'm not unhappy to glom on to another excuse to survive.