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2000-03-13

Saturday I met up with this woman I used to work with. We shared an office for two and a half years; we were friendly, but rarely socialized outside work. Now we miss each other. We'd planned to take a walk but ended up shopping instead. First we went to Nearly New then stopped into a store that sells rejected catalog clothing cheap.

As we drove between these two stores, we passed an establishment that sells primarily beer, tobacco products, and magazines (B and I refer to it as the House of Manly Pleasures). My friend recognized her husband's car parked out front and wanted to run in and say hello. I waited in the car. When she returned she said, "Guess what he was doing!" I said, "Reading porno magazines." She said, "Yes!"

As she and I were parting ways, saying we should do this more often, I told her of an idea I'd had. I have this real yearning lately for female companionship. I don't want to start a book club -- past attempts have been unsatisfying -- but I would really welcome some kind of Dinner with the Gals every couple weeks. She loved this idea, has been feeling the same lack, so I hope we can get something together. I used to get this kind of comaraderie effortlessly at work. Like the window I had in my office, I didn't fully appreciate it until forced to do without.

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A friend of mine who lives in Boston is in the area for a few days for work. He's teaching classes during the day but we'll be hanging out all three evenings. Tonight he's coming to the house for dinner. We met the summer between high school and college, and aside from a junior high school friend with whom I recently re-established contact, is my oldest friend.

He's a very serious Scrabble player, regularly competes in tournaments and is working with the National Scrabble Association to establish tournaments for school-aged children. If you live in Boston and have ever seen a guy talking about Scrabble on public access TV, that's him.

He and I used to be able to play Scrabble. While he'd almost always win, we were close enough to keep the game fun. But a few years back he discovered this whole Scrabble scene (via the Internet, don't you know). He began going to a club, competing in tournaments, getting very very good. His prowess has grown to the point where playing me would be too unchallenging.

Back when he was first getting serious about the game, I tried to seek out clubs where I live. There was one half an hour from where I live. I went and met a couple of guys who lived closer to me and we attempted to start our own at the local Barnes and Noble one night a week. We had a smattering of people show up, few of them very serious about the game. Around this time I met B and began devoting my evenings to sitting at home emailing him.

You know those places that offer non-credit classes for adults who want to get out and explore new things and maybe find dates in the process? My friend teaches a Scrabble class at one of those in Boston. When the last session began and the students were introducing themselves, one woman mentioned that she'd occasionally attended a Scrabble club in my state but that there was only one person she really enjoyed playing. My friend said, "Was it Helene Green?" Astonished, the woman said it was.

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