New Thing

Recently I actually had a guy, a friend of an acquaintance,  apparently show interest in me. To the best of my knowledge it was only the second time in my life that anyone has ever shown interest in me. (The other time was a brief encounter with a guy at a bar, so brief it doesn't count for much.) 

I was at a party and I caught the name of a guy the host, Neil, was talking to. The guy was Sam and I'd read a couple short essays he'd written which Neil had posted on Facebook. Mainly because I'm interested in the creative output of others I said to Sam “Oh, you're the guy whose writing is funny.” 

“I'm just funny when I write?” Sam asked, “But not in person?”

“I don't know if you're funny in person,” I replied, “I haven't heard you say much.”

“Now I'm under pressure,” Sam replied. At that point Neil actually introduced us and I said I'd read the essays Neil had posted.

“I'm funny when I write,” Sam said said to Neil. 

"There's nothing wrong with that," I added.

Surprisingly this exchange led to a somewhat lengthy conversation that lasted the rest of the party. 

I hadn't drank all that much but it was late and I was nearing sleepiness so I can't recall all of what we talked about. I do know none of it was typical what-do-you-do sort of small talk. 

The conversation was mainly led by Sam so there was, for some reason, talk about our hair and cell phones. At one point he insisted he give me his number by dialing it from my phone...This was for the purpose of Facebook friending, I think. 

I also found out Sam was about 18 years younger than me, which was roughly what I'd figured. He, however, had assumed I was about 8 years older than him. Like any middle-aged  guy I was happy to hear that.

The party ended and I went home. I was surprised to receive a text from Sam about half an hour after I left saying he was happy to have met me. I replied the same. He texted back I replied, and so on. As with the conversation at the party I can't recall what we were talking about, though at some point he mentioned something about cuddling and I replied that I'm not really a cuddler.

It's supposedly a typical American male thing to assume any woman who pleasantly interacts with you is interested in you romantically or sexually. I've not read whether this also holds true for guys who are into guys. All I know from personal experience is I've pretty much never had any guy express interest in me socially, romantically, or sexually.

With the Sam interaction I could have been doing the American male misinterpretation of the situation, though I'm pretty sure I wasn't. Sam could have been drunk. But whatever the reason it still felt odd to have had a guy I just met interact with me the way Sam did. 

As it turned out it all meant nothing. I friended Sam on Facebook. I sent him one message about trying to find his blog. I looked for his blog online and any other Internet presence. He made a brief reply hinting that he'd scrubbed his Internet presence. 

We never interacted directly again leading me to conclude his interest in me at Neil's party was just a one night oddity.  I'm fine with that. It was an interesting and strange experience which is more than I can say about most the parties I've been to.