People: Unplugged…

This past weekend, Joe and I met up with a friend of ours from online.  Wally lives in Austin, and he and a friend of his came to Houston to watch the Texans lose.  We’ve talked with Wally a number of times online and he always seemed like a really fun guy even though he liked football.  We talked it over and agreed to meet up at Katz’s (I just love that place) and walk up to the bars since they were only a couple of blocks away.  Joe and I get there and can’t find Wally.  Turns out he got lost.  (He hates driving on the highways so he took back roads from southwest Houston to nearly downtown…a trip that should have only been 20 minutes, but wound up taking almost 1.5 hours.)  When he finally showed, Joe and I were the chatty ones, or rather I was the chatty one.  I love meeting people for the first time and I think I make a good impression.  Joe isn’t much of a talker, but he carried his share of the conversation.  Anyway, Wally and his friend (who I still don’t know the name of because Wally never introduced us) just sat there the whole time.  His friend never ordered anything to eat and just drank water.  Wally hardly spoke but he did speak.

After dinner, we all walked to the bar.  Wally’s friend was walking as though there were someone after him.  He kept looking over his shoulder and looked terrified.  After we get to the bar, I order a beer and a shot and Joe has his Diet Coke (he’s a good designated driver).  I offer to buy Wally and his friend a drink and it turns out that neither one of them drink.  Joe says the look I gave them was kinda rude.  I don’t remember giving one, but come on…you go to a bar and you don’t drink??  What’s the point?  That’s like a vegetarian hanging out at steak house.  You’re just taking up space.  We tried to make the most of it though.  We tipped the dancers (one I knew before I met Joe  ) and tried to talk about football, even though I find it extremely boring.  After six beers, I got tired of being around them.  I told Joe we had to leave (he says I was a mean about it) because of our golf game the next morning.

They were so BORING!  Completely different from how he acts online.  If anything, I’m more personable offline than I am on.  But I guess some people are different.  But OHMYGOD he was so boring.  If we had just ditched them there, I wouldn’t have felt bad.

When we got home, I was tempted to take Wally off my Yahoo Messenger, but I think that may have been a bit over the top.  Online, he’s a great guy with a great personality.  What a difference….