Friday night in

I had been looking forward to going out with this friend. Nothing special, just grabbing something to eat and seeing what happens. He's interesting, and decently goodlooking, though has been sort of a mystery still since I've known him, and one of these people you meet only occassionally in the corridors. It's been a lot of back and forth emailing, and either he's busy or I'm away. Finally we managed to meet for dinner.

It started off alright, talking and keeping one another updated with what we've both been up to these days. Settled at an Indian restaurant, which turned out to be a bit pricey for both of us, but at least the conversation was pleasant.... or at least until we touched upon politics.

Probably that really killed the mood of anything else happening... our views are just too different. He's hardline conservative, I'm a left leaning liberal who believes in the power of the welfare state and its ability to provide an equal footing, or at least social security for everyone. I believe in universal health care, he advocates rolling back government and letting people be. People must make choices, he said, and unfortunately the poor sometimes make bad choices with what they have... chemo or cable (tv) it boiled down to in the capitalist world. I thought it was a crude way of seeing things... as often there is no such choice, especially for the poorest of the poorest, who can't even afford proper food or housing, let alone have the luxury of choosing between chemo or cable.

Dinner ended, and I said some friends were getting together to watch movies and invited him to join us. He declined, saying he had plans. Made plans with friends online to play games. OK, I said, and left.

To be honest, I was disappointed. Yes, perhaps I thought there was potential of getting to know this person better, or maybe even having him over to spend the night. But I guess online games are important.

So I went home, chatted with two friends who dropped by, and we slipped a DVD into the player. And I enjoyed a Friday night in with fellow singletons, happy that I have friends to fall back on, and friends who do not disappoint.