So being back here makes me realize some things.  First, I've poured a lot of time into writing in the <a href="today/" target="_blank"  class="bodytext">last</a> <a href="daily/" target="_blank" class="bodytext">few</a> <a href="javascript:archiveRemote()" class="bodytext">years</a>.  I've got this small crew of people who post to this site (and a few more that have explained why they do or don't...) and now, I've had my writing published elsehwere recently (at <a href="http://www.almost.org/" class="bodytext" target="_blank">almost.org</a>, go see!) and now I feel like I haven't been wasting my time doing this writing thing.  Mind you, it helps to be good at writing as a lawyer, and when I was working as a programmer, it gave me respite from the perl storms.  [Sorta like shitstorms, but of perl]  So writing.  Yeah.<BR><BR>
The <a href="javascript:cast('cast/elconqs.html')"
onMouseOut="window.status='';return true" onMouseOver="window.status='The El
Conquistadors';return true" class="cast">El Conquistadors</a>
 (the worlds seventeenth most dangerous band) have a gig at Arlene Grocery at 10pm on Saturday.  I'm gonna try to go.<BR><BR>
My parents are in town right now, my dad is here to photograph the Gay Pride parade.  When I told Clover that they were in town for Gay Pride, her eyes got quite large and she asked if I was the product of an alternative couple.  No... not really.  They're nuts, but they're straight.<BR><BR>
Yes, my parents are in town again, and I was able to crash with <a href="javascript:cast('cast/meghan.html')" onMouseOut="window.status='';return true" onMouseOver="window.status='Meghan Formel';return true" class="cast">Meghan</a> last night, because she's house sitting at an amazing townhouse in the West Village.  We're talking about a place that's bigger than my parents house in Connecticut.  In the West Village.  With a garden.  It's insane.<BR><BR>
Went with <a href="javascript:cast('cast/christine.html')" onMouseOut="window.status='';return true" onMouseOver="window.status='Christine Beers';return true"class="cast">Christine</a> and her friend Ian to Spa for a New Media Networking party which was full of typical tank top girls, eyes bright and lips made up just so, but not really New Media types looking to network.  There was also a reasonably high B&T faction, so we left after about an hour.  Christine and her friend, off to dinner, myself off to Tribe.  Tribe hasn't been the same since Gustavo left.  I can't rely on my friends to be there flirting with him whenever I'm there, or a slew of other beautiful women to be just basking in his glow. And mine too, I would later find out, but that's another story I don't feel like telling.  Anyway, Tribe was boring, the highlight being my sitting a few feet from a woman that I'd met there the last Friday I'd been there, who had gone home with my friend Johnny Sunshine.  I heard good stories about that night, and laughed knowingly to myself when I saw the look of recognition in her eyes.
Fortunately, Clover called while I was finishing my beer.  It gets all weird after this - went home from Tribe, my parents showed up after 15 minutes and told me they'd gone looking for me at Tribe (well, my dad told me that to torment me) and they probably missed me by 5 minutes, but I kept that to myself.  <a href="javascript:cast('cast/ethan.html')" onMouseOut="window.status='';return true" onMouseOver="window.status='Ethan Gold';return true" class="cast">Ethan</a> called while I was killing time before meeting Clover, and he showed up, at which point my mother badgered him with questions about his career.  The only good point about that was that my mother wasn't badgering me with questions about <i>my</i>  career.<BR><BR>
Ethan and I left, grabbed Louisa from downstairs, and we walked to Tower, where the three of us parted company and I met up with Clover.  Our plan had been to take a walk.<BR><BR>
I'm always nervous around people that I don't know particularly, and I'm more than a little bit shy, at least socially.  Professionally I can be a pit bull, but that's a different scenario.  I was so awkward that Clover told me I had to calm down and be less stand offish.  So I'm a social spaz.  I live.<BR><BR>
We ended up at Simone, right across the street from tribe, where I'd just been.  Had a glass of wine, and started to calm down.  We actually had a very nice conversation, I told her about some of my less savory exploits, and she laughed along with me, and I scared her with tales of tinnitus and probably didn't listen to her enough, but it's a learning process, meeting new people.<BR><BR>
We left Simone a quieter place than we'd arrived, made our way to a party a few blocks from my apartment, which was as boring as any party I've ever been to, and left within minutes.  Both exhausted, we called it a night, she walked me to where Meghan is staying, and with a firm handshake, we were each on our separate ways.<BR><BR>
Meghan and some friends were watching Pee Wee's Playhouse on video tape.  I saw an episode with Laurence Fishbourne in it, and decided at that moment that it was time to call it a night.<BR><BR>
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<BR><BR><b>How do you break the ice with new people</b>