You may have gathered that I don’t get out much, - as in socialising, meeting people, ‘hanging out’, as opposed to council meetings, pilates, meditation etc. On Monday, I had an email from one of the guys who was in the Mikado saying that someone was organising a ‘reunion’ at a restaurant in town on Wednesday evening at 9 (to allow some people to go to the rehearsal for the next show first), and to call Pete at a certain number by Tuesday so that he could let the restaurant know the numbers.
I have an aversion to talking to people on the phone (even friends), so I kept putting it off, then other things got in the way, and it got round to Tuesday morning and I hadn’t called But, given that it was a mobile number, I thought that it would be OK to text, which I did. I didn’t get a reply, but I figured that worst case the restaurant could squeeze in an extra one.
The next challenge was deciding what to wear – I’m really ambivalent about going out, it’s always a bit of an effort to make myself do it, though I tell myself I’ll enjoy myself when I get there. Then I fretted about getting there at the right time – I hate being too early or too late, I hate being conspicuous, I just wanted to be some time in the middle and sneak in without being noticed. At the last minute, I couldn’t find my phone, so that made me a few minutes later than I intended. But I got to the restaurant about 5 to 9.
And – there was nobody there. The restaurant had no bookings. They asked how big the party was, and of course I had no idea, but anyway they had no bookings at all. They said there was a football match on and maybe everyone was at home watching the telly. They offered to lend me the phone to call and find out what was happening, but I told a white lie and said I hadn’t got the number with me. I had, but I was too embarrassed to call. I went to the chippy and then came home.
I’m not so paranoid as to think it was done deliberately. I guess the arrangements changed, maybe because of the footy – and nobody thought to call me. Maybe he never read my text, so didn’t know I was planning to go (though as it was a mobile number, you’d expect that he would check for texts). Maybe I got the number wrong. It was probably my fault for not ringing up and actually speaking to Pete in person in the first place. I thought about going to the rehearsal hall and seeing if anyone was there, but I was too embarrassed. I just went home.