Matchmaking

Matchmaking

 

The Train Man suggested we fix up my friend D with Jack, a friend of his. I used to do a lot of matchmaking in my younger days. We were going to get Jack and Donna together at Monday Night Blues at the Monte Vista Hotel, but that didn’t work. Donna was an unpredictable schedule and splits her time between Munds Park and Scottsdale. I met Jack on several Monday nights and deemed him “good enough” for Donna. She was finally over the guy she’d dated last year. He never actually broke up with her; he just never called or emailed after she visited and rearranged all the furniture in his home.

Schedules finally meshed, sort of. We set the date for 8:30 on the Saturday night when the Kiss tribute band was playing at the Pinewood, formerly the Lone Pine. (By the way, does anyone else think it’s confusing to have a Woody’s, Pinewoody’s, Pinewood Restaurant, and Pinewood Country Club in such a small town?) Unfortunately the Train Man had to drive the freight train to Needles and I was ushering at Bells are Ringing. So I told the Train Man what Donna would be wearing and he said Jack would be wearing his signature red hat that said “Action Jack.”

Joan, a friend of both Donna and mine, said she would go to the Pinewood and have a drink with Donna until Jack arrived. After ushering at the play, I did a quick change in my car and checked my phone for messages. I got this one from Joan: Donna’s blind date. She also sent a picture.

Donna’s blind date

That was definitely not Jack. I drove over to the Pinewood and found Donna and Joan at a table. Joan was anxious to share her photo with Kiss. She thought it was the real band and messaged the picture to her son!

I asked how it went with Jack. Donna insisted he stood her up. But in the meantime she’d met a man who was a realtor in Scottsdale. They laughed about buyers who sat on the fence waiting to buy and then they never did because no inventory was left. They compared horror stories on short sales and how long it took to close them. She reported he was attentive and took her hand often. She forgot to ask if he was married.

Another man approached and told her of his woes. But he was charming and they danced. He confided that his dog slept with him, endearing him to Donna.

I couldn’t believe that Jack had stood her up because he’d seemed a decent guy when I talked with him over our drinks on those Mondays. Luckily I had his cell phone number and called him. He said he spent about half an hour at the Pinewood searching for the blond in black clothes with a denim jacket. Blond? Donna is a redhead! Jack insisted that the Train Man had told him at least four times Donna was a blond. I asked him if he was wearing his red baseball hat. He said he wasn’t because he had spruced up to meet Donna. He was just going into Cliff Castle Casino but he would be back at the Pinewood within the hour.

Joan toodled on home. I sat with Donna who seemed like a man magnet. An Italian named Luigi, definitely not a senior citizen at about 45, told Donna was beautiful and asked if she were single. When she replied in the affirmative, he asked to kiss her. She declined. He told her how good she smelled and asked again to kiss her, saying “I’m Italian.” But Donna said she didn’t kiss men she didn’t know. He kept trying to snuggle up to her.

The man next to me started talking and turned out to be a football coach. Donna is a devout and knowledgeable fan. They started discussing the latest Cardinals’ preseason game. Thankfully he let us know he was married. He and Donna continued to talk football.

Finally Jack arrived. He and Donna talked and laughed. He was affectionate, holding her hand and touching her shoulder. I hung around because I figured Donna needed a ride home to my house, where she was staying, because Joan had driven home. While they yakked and yucked it up I played Scrabble on my phone. We closed up the bar at midnight.

When we were going out the door, Donna headed for her car! Shoot, I could have left an hour ago.

I don’t know whether Donna and Jack will get together again, but it was a fun evening.

Check out Annie’s website at www.annieweissman.com.  Her novel, Reinvented Lives, is available  on Amazon.com .

 

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The Reliability of Web Sites

The Reliability of Internet Sites

I was sitting on my front porch late this afternoon, minding my own business, and reading Home Front for a book club meeting. I felt something between the toes of my left foot. I wiggled my toes, looked down and there was a darned bee, who stung me! It hurt, so I put on ice cube on it, the panacea for all pain. Then I remembered I had a “smart” phone and asked Siri how to treat a bee sting. She looked it up on the web for me. Most of the sites were about allergic reactions to bee stings. Luckily, I am not allergic. The first advice was to pull out the stinger, but I didn’t see it.
Ask. Com suggested a paste of baking soda and vinegar. I got the ingredients from my kitchen cupboard. I put some baking soda in a small container and added the vinegar. It foamed and bubbled like the venerable Volcano science project. It finally calmed down and I made the mixture into a paste. I put it on the sting, and wrapped a Band-Aid around the toe. It still hurt. A lot.
I went to dinner at the Country Club with Joan. The lobster Thermidor and the flan with berries were outstanding but my toe still stung.
Then I remembered way back to when I had just turned thirty. My husband and my daughter Emily, who was three at the time, were visiting San Francisco. We were in Golden Gate Park when a bee stung Emily. She let out quite a series of screams. An older Chinese woman came up and said to find someone who smoked. Ask for a cigarette and take out the tobacco. Wet the tobacco and apply it to the bee sting. She said it would draw out the poison. We did as she said. As soon as the tobacco was on the bee sting, Emily stopped crying.
Lucky for me Joan is a smoker. I asked her for a cigarette. The bee sting continued to bother me during dinner. After the meal I went home to try the tobacco remedy. My toe still hurts, but not nearly as much.
So why did I try the baking soda and vinegar treatments? Because the Internet told me to. I should know better. I was a librarian and taught about the reliability of websites. Now if it had been the Mayo Clinic or Scottsdale Healthcare website, I would have been justified in trying the treatment. But it was just someone who posted the answer on Ask. Com!
This leads me to the reliability of dating on the Internet. There isn’t any reliability. People make up their own profiles and can fantasize themselves however they choose. I have met men who used photos from ten or more years ago. They are much more interesting in their profiles than in person. I myself have assisted friends in writing their profiles. That’s why I prefer to meet a man right away, rather than emailing for weeks or months. Sure people put on their best masks and acts to meet someone new, but that’s a whole lot better than a pile of lies written to impress me.
So readers beware, consider the sources of websites!

Check out Annie’s website at http://www.annieweissman.com. Her novel, Reinvented Lives, is available at Treasures and on Amazon.com .