Sports Tickets and Reflection

When I moved here 13 months ago, I had exactly two friends in the area (Ms. Potato and Travel Buddy), both of whom were instrumental in the getting me here and the getting me a job and the getting me a place to stay aspects of moving (which covers pretty much every aspect, I believe). They are, obviously, pretty much freakin' awesome. And when I moved here, I was fortunate enough to be sort of grandfathered into a group of friends via my connection to these two. We (the larger group) spent the summer of '06 drinking and partying and making out.* Then I started dating and moved to the 'burbs and the friends went back to school and winter came and the group, although I hesitate to use the word "defunct," kind of became a shell of its former self.

So today, when a coworker came into my office and gave me two (sweet) suite tickets to tomorrow night's Caps game, I started thinking about who I might take. Roommate is out of town for the weekend. Travel Buddy is so not the sporting type. Ms. Potato's parents are in town. The rest of the larger group is either coupled (making a last-minute, one-half-of-the-couple invite for a Friday night tricky and unlikely to be accepted) or out of town. My one friend at work is married and has a kid, so I'm thinking that's a no-go. So that leaves me with a blazing question: Who can I ask?

And so I started thinking. My first reach was for SWB, since he was online at the time and likes sports and such. Then I thought about that for a second and realized I still haven't decided if I really care to see him again. Then I thought of Fabric Softener Guy, but he has a girlfriend and I don't think he's that into sports. Then I remembered The Misogynist.

I've argued and argued with The Misogynist that he can't have the name because it belongs to someone I knew in a former life, but he's insistent, so I'm relenting. He insists on the name because I apparently accused him of being one many months ago. I don't even remember this conversation, but it sounds like something I'd say, so I'm sure it's true. I've been talking to him for [insert higher power]-only-knows-how-long now. Before I met him, I sometimes couldn't handle his humor in chat. It took meeting him for me to figure out that he's mostly joking when he says things that might make me want to call him a misogynist (or any number of less flattering names).

Several months ago, when I was still dating NRA and SWB, I was given tickets to a Wizards game. SWB was gallivanting off to Amsterdam the next day and already had an engagement for the evening, and NRA just flat out refused to join me because he was too busy or something. Anyway, this left me without an arm on which to hang, and I certainly wasn't going to show up at the corporate suite without someone to accompany me. The Misogynist was online that day, and I ended up inviting him. We met, he explained some basketball stuff to me, we had a good time. We had drinks afterward and determined that the meeting was not really a date. We've been in fairly regular contact since. He's provided a good ear and some decent straight-guy-vantage advice when it's been called for.

So I asked him to join me. Looks like that's a go, which is good, but for several hours this afternoon, I was left in this period of "friendless" flux. I didn't feel hopelessly friendless, as I know I have really good friends scattered throughout the country. I did feel like I should have more friends who I can do things with when those mentioned above aren't available. Did ya notice that all the friends I have were either from a former life, through friends from a former life, from work, or because I started dating online? Suddenly, this makes me quite sad.

* There was really only one "Yay! It's finally spring! Let's have a cookout and get trashed" make-out party. Well, it didn't start as a make-out party. That's the part most of us remember, though. Good times.