The Beautiful People

Last night I dashed my previous plan to meet some new intelligentsia at Dionysium and instead accepted my neighbor's invitation to come downtown to Maiko for sushi with her friends. (Yes, I am eating alot of sushi these days - I fully expect the mercury poisoning to take effect at any moment.) The neighbor has a new dog and we've been spending a fair amount of time together lately. It's been nice. My dog LOVES having a new boyfriend to boss around. I love having a smart and single girlfriend to visit with again. The neighbor's invitation wasn't completely altruistic. There was an agenda: she was being set up and she wanted back up. I'm the go-to girl for anything like that. Call me "Pretty Girl's Best Friend".... it's my lot in life. Actually, I'm always up for meeting totally random people. Boy, did the evening deliver! Turns out that the setup guy J is a full on former frat boy turned sales exec. You can tell he's an a-hole from 50 yards. Although his look was polished, the sleaze factor was a bit high. It's all relative though because after his friend G showed up, the male species hit a new low. You know G. Or a guy like him. Way too many anecdotes about strippers. Comments about T and A at completely inappropriate times. Doesn't seem to think women have any value except their bodies. Doesn't matter that he's paunchy, unattractive, loud and brash; he fancies himself some kind of stud. Everyone would accept him and tolerate him if he'd just relax and get out of his own way. Think Dangerfield in Caddy Shack, only without the redeeming charm, humor or money. Despite G's presence, we actually had a pretty pleasant time over dinner. For the most part the conversation flowed and everyone was sociable. J started to warm up and mellow out. He still seemed pretty shallow, but started sharing some lighthearted anecdotes that made him seem a bit more human. At the other table the twenty-something girls were shouting about how fabulous they are and how L.A. rules!!! Um, yeah.... if you think L.A. is where it's at, please move there soon and free up some parking for those of us who still love Austin. Their 40ish male friends barely seemed to notice. It's amazing the behavior men will tolerate to be in the presence of a nice pair of tits. We moved on to GingerMan ostensibly for darts. Thankfully we were spared sitting with the loud drunk girls when the neighbor's friend suggested we sit outside. We all got a table on the back deck and it was a perfect Austin night. Until we notice J's friend (the Queen Bee of the nasty 20-somethings) sitting at a distant picnic table and hurling. Lovely. Yes, my friends... this is what life is like with the beautiful people.