The Hottest Guy Comes With Wheels

So the other night, I go to this networking meeting. Pierce was supposed to be there, but thats not entirely why I went. I do have my own life outside of the urge to stalk him.



Plus the fact that he didn't reply to my DM the other day.. he's a little bit in the doghouse. Honestly, I'd completely write him off if he wasn't so damn attentive last I saw him... and well if he wasn't so damn cute.


So anyway, I go. Pierce is not there. But I honestly only notice his abscense for about the first 5 minutes.


I enter and behind me in the entrance line is my old director and her beau. This is a networking thing for the geeky. I was a little shocked that she was there and that she'd heard about it. Weird.


Anyway, we get closer to the front of the line... there's a couple in front of me.. when a loud voice from the table says "Hey Maruska! I got ya, just fill out a nametag."


It's my favorite hot happily-married man. So I grin at him.


"Whaaa? you know who I am?" I say jokingly while I fill out my nametag.


Well a few minutes later after checking out who all is there (aka not Pierce), my old director finds me.


"Hey, how'd you do that?"


I look at her like she's grown a third eye as I try to jog my memory about what I might have just done.


"Huh?"


"At the entrance, how'd you do that?" She's looking at me as if I'm the social guru of the year.


"Oh, yeah.. I know him. No biggie. I actually know quite a few of the people here. I'm kinda geek." I admit as I am uncomfortable with her whole "omg you've got the hookup" attitude... though I was a little flattered by it. She's the Who's Who of Independant Theatre in Austin, so it was kinda funny getting on her "respect" list for networking.


"Oh wow, I didn't know. I just heard about these things." She says while looking around.


I'm looking around too, but mostly for someone to motion to me and save me from what is bound to me more uncomfortable talking.


I mention to her that I need to go say "Hi" to a few people and wish her a fun evening. Then I fled.


Of course, Pierce was a no-show the entire event. But that didn't mean I wasn't flirting around.


Actually, I wasn't so much flirting around as I was being flirted with. Made my head spin a little. See my little business venture is getting around I think.. or else it's given me some kind of pheromones to attract men.


There was one gentleman I've met like once before. Maybe twice, but pretty sure just once. I honestly don't know his name. He's hot. He's sweet. But not normally what I go for.. so not really on my radar.


But evidently I am on his. Within minutes of him seeing me, he came over and said hello. He then entrapped me into a conversation (it wasn't torturous, pleasant really, but he obviously was not letting me just flit on by). When he was interupted by a friend of his, I turned away to see who else was interesting to talk to..


Thats when I met the hottest guy.


Seriously when I tell you this guy is hot.. I mean hot... but probably not in the way most of you are thinking.


He was well kept. Great hair. Very hot face. Hot upper body. Looked like a relaxed GQ kinda guy. But what made him hot was his communication skills. The guy could talk to you and make you feel like the only woman in the room. He also listened like every word you said was gold. Two sentences in and I already wanted to nasty things to him. Sizzling.


Weirder still.. he's in a wheelchair. Something that normally I'd see, and check off my list of viable. But honestly, it wasn't really noticable. In a crowd of 50 people all standing, where his face had to be butt-high at best, I didn't really notice his chair. I simply saw a hot man. That's how smoking hot this guy is.


There are things more important than superficiality.


By the way, I wasn't the only girl swooning over this guy. He and I got interupted, and I left to find out if my other friends had shown up. Sure enough they had, so I did some chatting. In between conversations though, I'd go and see if hot guy was available for chatting.


He never was. Every time I went to see if he was free, he was fully surrounded by hot women. Seriously surrounded.


*le sigh*

I finished the evening having made a couple new friends, and with a few more hours of flirting under my belt.

... And with a little sadness that I didn't get to spend more time with the hot man.

Crazies Come Out At Night

Last night was crazy. As usual all my important events all happen to be scheduled at the same exact time.


My Flirting Group.
A huge networking event
A new writers group "sit down and write" meeting (which obviously I need)
The FED - Swing Dancing

Let's not even mention all the friend's happy hour invites, movie invites, and other more extraneous activities. Though I suppose the FED is kinda extraneous, but I kinda absentmindedly insinuated that I'd show up this week.

I needed to go to the top 3 events. I only actually made it to two, and even that was crazy. I went to the flirting group mostly because I wanted to reconnect with the organizer for it. One day he's going to be a multi-millionaire, and I'll probably still need a job. Plus we both kinda love behavioral sciences. If it was legal/possible to stick humans in jars and watch what they did... we'd be doing it... though neither of us is really a scientist. We're just both kinda crazy.. in mostly good ways (depending on who you talk to.)


Anyway, I arrive at the Flirting group and I get to talk to the organizer a bit. He's been trying to reconnect with me (professionally - networking.. the guy is a newly wed), so we got a good chat in while everyone else did the flirting exercises. I thought about staying and flirting myself, but honestly looking at the men present.. I figured I'd have better luck next door at the networking event. (aka out of the 3 guys that showed up, only one of them was .. er.. acceptable appearance-wise, and he seemed about as into me as day old fish.)

However, my organizer friend did mention some kind of millionaires group in town that throws parties. Evidently its 4 men to every women, and he said I'd "clean up" there and that it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel. So I'll be looking out for those. ;) I mean.. millionaires for the taking? Who wouldn't?



Then I headed over to my networking party. I walk in. Anxiety. Its wall to wall people and there's a line to get in. They're doing nametags, AND the people at the nametag table are writing out the name tags for the people. Meaning EVERY SINGLE PERSON is attempting to spell out their name for the person writing the name down. WTF?

This is not how these events normally go.. so when I got to the table and the girl asked my name.. pen ready to write out my name tag.. I kinda went a little nutz (inside, I tried to hide it). I felt like I was 2 and couldn't write my name myself, so this nice lady had to do it for me. If I could have grabbed the damn nametag from her and written it myself I would have. Instead, I asked nicely if I could write it. She balked a bit, but handed me the nametag while telling me that the person next to her needed to also know my name to write it on the sign-in sheet. I had this strange creepy sensation as if I was suddenly not at a networking event but at some kind of military camp with alcohol.

I shook it off, and ran to find people I knew. It wasn't too hard as about every 5 steps I ran into someone I knew from some place or another. Said hi in my awkward.. "I have nothing interesting to say" way, and yet somehow found something to say anyway. Hopefully it was interesting whatever it was I did say, though I fear it was not.

I had a good time though.. flirting with very happily married male friends.. and attempting to find an attractive looking single male. Which for some reason is getting harder and harder at these events, as every good looking man at these events it seems is gay. Seriously. I'm not joking.

Though I did get to see Pierce again. Now, I've mentioned once before that I'd kinda had a thing for him since the first time I met him, and that we flirt.. but I have no idea if he's interested or not. After last night, I'm going to say .. not interested.

He was looking extra fantastic though. It was like suddenly he went from the uber-geeky guy to uber-hot guy. He had on this clingy fitted t-shirt. Normally I just assume geeky guys are rather non-muscular and well.. geeky figures.. No no.. Pierce is f'n ripped. I don't know what kind of canned spinach he's been eating or what kind of toxic spill he slipped into or what.. but DAAAAAAAAAAMMMN he was looking good. I almost forgot how to talk to him as I was busy staring. I'm pretty sure my mouth fell open and dragged on the floor a couple times as well.

It is not fair. Brainy. Fun. Great personality. And f'n hot? Sorry but I'm quite sure that's illegal.


Anyway, towards the end of the night, I found him again (I'd done some mingling and came back) and we chatted for a while. He excused himself to use the facilities, said he'd be right back.. in a way that made it sound like he was reassuring me (soo not a good sign).. only never to return. I did see him come out of the restroom, and look in my direction.. but he didn't come over.



Ah well..



I found myself exhausted by that point anyway.. too much social time and too little food. I'd kinda forgotten to eat all day until right before I had to leave, in which I didn't really have time to eat then. So I headed home to make myself a big assed plate of food.


On my way to my car though, I pass by Katz Diner. Suddenly I hear thudding on the window of the diner and two guys looking at me and waving exstaticly for me to come in. WTF? I went in.. mostly out of curiousity about what drugs these guys were on.. but partly because I vaguely recognized one of the guy's faces. They were both brown skinned and looked Indian.


What is with me attracting Indians?? Please someone tell me?

So I walk in. The host says, "Table for one?" and starts to grab a menu when I interupt him.

"No no.. I believe I was summoned by some strange guys that I don't know. I'm sure I'll be right back." And I head into the dining room.

The host looks at me with "Oh thats what they were doing" relief and a bit of a "good luck" smile.



I get to their table, and ask "Do I know you?"





The one whose face I vague recall seeing before looks offended. The other guy is quick to invite me to sit down and introduces himself. For an Indian guy btw, the second guy is hot. He even had longish hair which I normally find revolting but on him it was fantastic.



Evidently, I'd met the first guy at one of the networking parties. Which one? I don't recall. This is how long Indian men stay on my radar.. blip.. gone.



The guys are nice and welcoming. They try to convince me to stay and eat with them. They're uber-sweet.. the creepy too sweet thing that it seems only Indian men can do really well to make you feel comfortable.. and yet those experienced with Indian men know that behind all that niceness is a very persistant "come home and fuck me". Both of them were fresh off the boat Indians, and since I had no intention of going home and fucking either one of them.. I left.



It was a funny picture though... two strange men excitedly pounding a window as I walked by in order to catch my attention.. Flattering.



Unfortunately that never happens with men I actually like.

SXSW: First Day

So .. I attended SXSW or as I'll from now on call it.. GeekWatch 2010. It was wall to wall sexy geeks, plus a few douchebags. Ok, quite a few douchebags, but they were easy to detect and avoid. 

I went to SXSW alone as most of my friends here did not go, so it was interesting and self-revealing.

I learned about myself:

1. I'm not good at new places, with new people, if I'm even in the least worried about making a good impression. (if I honestly don't care what people think, I'm fine, but SXSW is full of potential employers and I don't want to really piss anyone off)

2. I can only network for a very short amount of time before I start to go insane.

3. I really have no tolerance for uppity, snooty, or otherwise douchebaggy people.

But I get ahead of myself.

Friday.. 

After a day of attending panels, I decided to attend a few free parties. I mean its free food and booze, why not? I'm dead tired from panels and chatting with strangers all day (networking), but I go anyway.

On my way to one of the parties, I see a man in a suit sitting on the side of the pavement. He's looks geeky and cute, has a SXSW badge, and looks amazingly lost. 

"Hi, are you lost? Need help finding something?" I ask.

"No, I'm ok. I'm just looking for something to eat. You don't happen to know Austin?"

"Yeah, I live here." (I kinda lied. I live in Austin, but I wasn't that familiar with that part of town.)

"Do you know where there's a good place for food?" 

"Well that depends. What are you in the mood for?" (I get out my iPhone to look stuff up.)

"I could go for a good burger."

"Well then you need to go to Casino El Camino. Best burgers in town. Trust me."

He wanted directions, and of course I pulled out my iPhone and showed him the map. We flirted a bit, and he did not seem in a hurry to pull away.

I gave him my card and told him to call me if he needed anything else. I smiled and we headed our separate ways.

I went to the party I'd planned on, and found myself hot and bored. It must have been 90 in that building and stuffy. I left after making a round to look for friends, then headed to Casino. Maybe I could non-chalantly run into Muso (the guy from earlier).

(blah blah blah walking)

I open the door to Casino, and find myself blinded.  It was dark with bright lights and it took me a minute to adjust.  However, in the corner of my eye I see someone waving, and then I hear..

"HI"

Its Muso.  So much for a casual run in. No excuse of "Oh I just stopped by with a few friends.. who just happen to be in the other room" ... nope.. he sees me enter alone.

I suppose I could have pretended to look for some friends in the back, but disoriented by the lights and tired, I wasn't thinking that straight.  

Plus, Muso asked me to sit in the seat next to him and my feet hurt so I did.

We talked for hours. Laughed. Talked about where we were from, the conference, and plans we had next.

He was going to another party, and I was headed home. (The poor dog had been cooped up for way too many hours)

We left and walked together until our ways parted, at which point he said we should keep in touch.  I reminded him that he had my card.  He pulled out his wallet, and my card from his pocket.. and put my card in his wallet.

He said he'd definitely contact me.

I only half believed him, and went home.

Twitter Me This

So I go out Friday night. Its dreary. Its been raining. So I put off going out.

But I RSVP'd yes.. Plus I can help spread the word about sites where I'm writing, and possibly network for jobs maybe. And it was at the Gingerman (hello self, your favorite bar) So I should go right?

I drag myself out. I dressed nicely.. well nicely for the Gingerman, but comfy for me. I did my hair and my makeup. When I last checked in the mirror before leaving I looked GOOD.

I walk out. Its still raining. By the time I get to my car, even with the umbrella, my hair is now laying flat and frizzy. Damn it. But my face still looks ok.

By the time I actually get to the bar, my makeup is pretty much invisible with the exception of a little mascara and eyeliner. Great!

Being as I was (on my own) meeting with a bunch of people from Twitter that I've never met before let alone only twittered with a couple of them ever, even though I've been to the Gingerman tons of times, my social anxiety was in full swing. Entering the "party" looking worse than I did before I showered was not helping at all.

Luckily the Partymeister and crew were there to help give me a life-raft. I ran into them shortly after entering the bar when Pete yelled "Hey!!!" loudly as I walked by. I said my "Hi's" and went to find the Twitter ensemble.

2 hours late and the party was packed. Seriously packed like front of the stage at a rock concert. It could have easily been a moshpit. If I was actually prone to panic attacks, I'd have had one just trying to get through the crowd.

I instead went back to the Partymeister's crew and had a beer. Chatted a bit. Relaxed. However, when Partymeister's pal 'Chesthair Man' decided to start pulling out his chest hair to prove to me that he didn't need to be drunk to do it.. I decided to give the Twitterers another go.

I met a really nice guy with a huge dog. HUGE dog. I believe it was a short-haired St. Bernard. It made my 43lbs possible Belgian Shepherd look like a lapdog. The dog was sequestered under the coffee table, and I totally envied the dog. I really wanted to just be under there with it.

But I threw a smile on my face, and tried to make my rounds. It was still massively crowded and moving around was hazardous, so I tried to stay on the edge of the group. Still too crowded.

So I went back to Partymeister's table and had another beer. This time Chris was there. Unfortunately, he was also there with this very sexy "neighbor-friend" (his term) and completely absorbed by her. Cute & adorable, but not very entertaining for me. (Yes it is all about me.) So I talked a while with Pete as Chesthair Man went home, and Partymeister was distracted with some cute girls.

Finished my beer, then attempted the Twitterers again. I then finally found LaniAR whom I'd found out about the Twitter party through, and was the hostess. She introduced me to a couple people and we hit it off.

I actually met several really cool girls through the party which is extremely strange for me, but hey.. its a good thing. I also met a couple guys. One was extremely HOT, but sadly uber-married. Another may grow on me.. we'll see.

All in all, it was a good time. Tiring. Stressful. Insane. But a good time.

Oh and I now have a massive amount of Twitter-followers. Seriously though Twitterers.. I'm not THAT interesting. I promise. But for you, I'll try. :)