So about the party last night...

The birthday boy is a friend of ours. I went to high school with his wife, and her close friend who I've referred to here as M. She's been featured (with Jill) in a couple of our Sinful Sunday posts.

I don't dislike these people, but really, they're the sort of friends we see a couple times a year, usually at parties they throw. They're not the sort of friends we get together with spur-of-the-moment or anything.

And while they're not bad people, every time I see them I am reminded of the fact that I'd rather be friends with fiercely-leftist intellectuals, preferably ones who are openly kinky. And they aren't any of those things.

(I once blogged about the pleasure party the guy's wife threw, and which was the most awkward thing we have ever attended.)

Read about said party here: http://frisky916cpl.com/2012/08/20/our-saturday-night-a-tale-of-two-parties/

Anyway, I'd talked to M beforehand. She was for all intents and purposes dreading this thing as much as I was, and intimated that she'd be open to bailing early and grabbing a couple rounds elsewhere; it's been ages since we've seen each other.

I appreciated her saying it, even though I knew she wouldn't actually bail. For one, she sees these people a lot more often than I do, and it wouldn't be expedient to impulsively skip out earlier than a certain time.

Two, being so close to the birthday boy and his wife, she is more than familiar with their supporting cast, i.e. all the friends and co-workers I know by face only, and pretty much never converse with. So she'd have people besides myself to talk to.

So like most of their parties I figured I'd spend a lot of time standing around awkwardly, the difference being that this time Jill wouldn't be there to join me.

When I arrived, the few people I knew were engaged in conversation. I pretended to watch a baseball game on TV while trying to discern what beers were on tap.

Then I noticed someone: a woman a few years older than I, someone I knew primarily through M. They'd been lifelong friends until a falling-out last year or the year before.

She was sitting alone at the far end of the bar; while the birthday boy's wife came up occasionally to say hello, it was clear this woman been disavowed by the party at large.

She bought me a drink and we caught up for almost an hour. It nicely staved off boredom, awkwardness, and anxiety.

At some point, M began sending me "puking" emojis, undoubtedly in reference to the person I was talking to. Eventually she texted that I should bail on the lonely older woman and come talk to her.

And I would have liked to catch up with M, but I wasn't done talking to her ex-friend. Anyway, despite my late arrival the night was young and we'd have plenty of time.

Eventually a few people showed up that the other woman knew; she introduced us, then began talking to them. I took that as my cue and sidled down the bar where M went on a rant about "friend divorces" and how wrong it was for the other woman to have shown up.

I would have liked to have talked to her longer, likely about something less inane, but she had other friends and acquaintances vying for her attention.

At one point while we were talking, some curvy blonde in her early-to-mid thirties walked up and jumped into M's lap like she was Paris Hilton's chihuahua or something.

She turned to me and, in a show of faux apology she said, "It's okay. I can do this because we've slept together." So I said, "Yeah, so have we."

From M's expression I got the sense that she and the chihuahua had shared a hotel bed after a concert or a wedding or something innocuous like that.

In my defense, I didn't mention that M went down on my wife.

Anyway, that's when I started checking the time every few minutes. And tweeting about places I'd rather be. You might remember that list.

For the next half hour to forty minutes I stood around awkwardly. Which is exactly what I didn't want to spend my evening doing.

There were a couple baseball games and a hockey game on TV; I can only feign interest in those for so long.

But yeah, that's pretty much how my night went.

I'd planned to leave after an hour and a half, as that seemed a generous amount of time to waste standing around with my thumb in my ass on a Friday night.

(Not literally.)

Fifteen minutes before I was planning to leave, the older woman I'd talked to earlier to came over to say good-bye, and gave her regards to Jill and the kid.

She's really nice; I've no idea why M wants nothing to do with her, but it seems to say more about M than the other woman.

Also, in contrast to the deranged "friend divorce" rant I got from M, the most the other person had to say about the rift was, "I'm sitting by myself because those people don't talk to me."

Anyway, she left. M, the friends who'd driven her, and I believe the chihuahua all left five minutes later. I took that as my opportunity and got out of there as well.

I'm watching The Valley of Gwangi this evening when I get a call from a co-worker of my friend M. She's getting married and M suggested she have me photograph it. So I guess I'm a wedding photographer now.

I need to (a) figure out my rates, (b) scope out the area where the wedding and subsequent photo shoot will occur (it's a small Justice of the Peace-type affair), (c) beef up my IG portfolio since that's what I used to show the client samples of my work, (d) take M to lunch.

In retrospect I'm really glad I wasn't totally fucking blitzed when this person called me. Could've happened!

I was feeling down tonight when my friend M messaged wanting to talk about a traumatic incident last weekend. I listened, said it wasn't her fault, validated her feelings, and reassured her no one will think less of her.

That she felt safe confiding in me turned my mood around.

Obviously I am angered by what happened to her. I am angered by the fact that similar things have happened to virtually every woman on Earth. I am upset over thoughts that I may have, at some point in my life, been guilty of similar things (though not overtly malicious ones).

Still, I'm not feeling useless at the moment.