0141A: Sunday at the LoveYourself Cafe

So I had really hoped to post this entry via mobile last night, but was unable to do so for one reason or another. The irony is not lost on my that I had initially purchased my Nokia E63 in the hopes that it would allow me to post blog entries on the fly when I don't have access to my laptop, but sadly that was not the case last night. So I'll just have to backdate this entry and live with the guilt of doing so.

So let's go back in time now...

I'm sitting at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf branch on Adriatico surrounded mostly people that I've never met before. A few of them are familiar to me by name if not by face given I've read their blogs, follow their Twitter feeds or have in fact watched (and loved) Zombadings. It's still a bit of a struggle at times to follow the conversation or to find a way to contribute in a meaningful way, but I do my best and keep my game face on as the conversations continue to flow freely. I'm really putting my rarely used social skills to work today but I'd like to think that this is all a productive part of the process.

I'm with these fellow queers because I agreed to a friend's invitation to attend something called The Love Yourself Cafe, which is a forum for gay men to discuss various issues. And as luck would have it, the topic for this particular session was The Single Life - you can just imagine how that Twitter conversation went where my friend both consoled me over my break-up and invited me to this event in practically the same breath. That's life for you, eh?

Garbed (or more like armed?) in my All Hail Megatron T-shirt and my Transformers pendant turned to the Decepticon side, I figured that I was ready as I would ever be to deal with fellow single folk in what is probably one of the more distinctly single activities in my post-break-up life. And I have to admit that I was initially skeptical about the whole thing and whether or not this was the sort of event for me, but in the end I pushed through, and in hindsight I don't regret making that choice.

I met a lot of interesting new people. heard a wide variety of opinions and I'd like to think that I handled the social side of things well enough despite my doubts, fears and irrational hesitations. I still have a long way to go before I feel fully "right" with myself again, but I'd like to think that today's activity really helped me a lot, even if I didn't necessarily feel that I had all that much to learn from some of the other folks in my discussion group. But that's life and I think I did well in trying to help the facilitator with managing the discussion without overly appearing to do so. Or so the theory goes.

So here's to new friends, new learnings and of course new adventures in my geeky single life.


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