The reason I came to New York on Sunday was to see Hilary Mason speak on Monday night. Her topic was how to find the best cheeseburgers in NYC using algorithms. The next night, I sit next to a handsome stranger who mentions that the hotel he stays at, Le Parker Meridien, has a really good burger place. The next day (today), I’m sitting at a table at the conference and these guys ask if they can share my table. They all have burgers and I ask them where they got their burgers and they said a place in this hotel. I asked what hotel and they said, “The Parker Meridien.” It was like a theme went full circle on this trip. I just wrote to HM and asked her where she ranked the Parker Meridien burger.
Also a couple of other weird synchronicities. I was at the after party for the speaking event on Monday, when I look across the bar and see this guy I went to college with. The weird thing is that I live in the bay area, he lives in LA, we hadn’t seen each other in over 10 years, yet here we are running into each other in a bar in Manhattan. What’s weirder is the last time I’d heard from him was a few months ago, when I hadn’t previously heard from him in 10 years. He’d written to say he’d had a dream about me, that he’d dreamed he was at a party at my place and I was drinking a cup that was filled with light. It coincided with a period in my life where I felt like I was generating electricity, glowing. And here was another bizarre run-in for us.
The next thing that was weird was tonight, I went to the show’s party and this Indian guy walks right up to me and introduces himself. I ask him what company he works for and he says Lockheed Martin. I do a doubletake because I’d actually hadn’t heard his name and ask him, “Are you Ravi from Lockheed Martin.?” He says yes, looks down at my badge and realizes we’ve talked to each other. He tells me he went with a different vendor, and I’m pretty furious but I give him a playful but passionate earful and the end result was he tried to offer me a job. He said it was such a coincidence because the reason he even said hi to me was just because he thought I was a hot girl.
I leave, realize one of the guys eating a burger today had mentioned Shake Shack has better burgers and it was nearby, so I went and grabbed a burger (soooo slutty). As I was walking home, I passed a speakeasy type bar I had passed on Monday and thought would be cool to stop into, and ended up talking to a guy who worked for the FDA. As he was leaving, I asked him if he knew where I could get weed. His friend said he had it at his place if we all wanted to go back and smoke and I said hell no. For all I know the place is wired with cameras and I’m about to get double-teamed. So they leave after the FDA guy mentions he totally wanted to sleep with me but I was on to him. I leave. There’s a brutha in dreads outside with a sign that says Money 4 Weed. I tell him I’ll split with him and he uses my phone to call some number and he has me wait under a scaffolding in Time Square where his friend sells me a CD, after which he passes me a dime. Congratulations, I have now scored weed in NY.
As I’m walking back the engineer texts me. Says he’s back at his hotel. Asks me which hotel I’m at and when I tell him he says he’s google mapping it. I’m surprised, thinking he’s basically saying he wants to come over. I ask him if he smokes, and he says he’s down and coming over. I think, obviously I always planned to have someone in my hotel room, that’s why I straightened up before I left. I did ask him to promise to behave, because I try to limit the amount of time I spend with married men in hotel rooms. In my mind, I really didn’t want anything to happen because I don’t think I’m prepared for a world where I’ve seen him naked, but a part of me was also thinking, how would anyone ever find out? The shit I got was shwag, but I’d bummed a cigarette off a nice smoke shop owner, and emptied it out, then filled it in. Is it scary I know how to do this.
Knock on the door and I remind myself I got this. I’m in control of this. We smoke and I’ve got two queen beds so he’s on one and I’m on the other. It’s pretty weird to be in this situation though and know under no circumstances are we to hook up. We talked about life. He thinks it would take $10,000,000 for someone to have the freedom to really discover themselves, take things to the next level. He says in life you should try everything because you don’t know what you would really like unless you try everything.
At one point he asks me what my passion is, and I said, getting inside people. He asked me what I meant, and I said I was deep inside him right now. He said no way, outside of somehow knowing my birthday, you don’t know anything about me. I said, I’m deep inside you because you think about me all the time even when I’m not around. And he stopped and turned red, then laughed and said, “Well, duh, of course I do.” Then it was out there and it felt like some shell had broken. He’s wondering why we met and why we hit it off right away and I said these things just happen. He asks me how someone can even get close to me, that obviously they can’t sell themselves to me. But if they proved they were a really good person, like really proved it, would I let them in? I think so, but they would probably have to jump through some hoops.
My back was hurting so he told me to lay back in my bed, but then it would have been awkward because I couldn’t see him so he came and sat next to me on mine, promising he wouldn’t do anything. We sat and talked about life some more. Then it was late and he went home. Before he left he asked if I would be willing to give him a hug. Of course, I said, and we hugged like old friends because he’s always felt like an old friend to me, even from the first time I met him. (He’d actually mentioned that when he first saw me, he thought, “Okay.” Wherever she’s going, “Okay, I’m in.”) I was surprised he would even ask, and I said I thought I always gave him a hug. No, he said. Are you sure?, I asked. Positive, he said. Then I remembered, we’d never hugged before. I always shake your hand, I said. He laughed sheepishly and said, “I know! And I think, okay business associate. I guess we’re not friends.”
That guy totally likes me. And I know whatever could have happened he would have let happen. At one point, we were both laying in my bed, less than a foot apart. If he had been more aggressive, who knows. But the point of the story is, I didn’t want anything to happen and nothing did.
Everything into their own compartment. This is as close as I can get.