If I Were Your Senator....

I spent the previous week in California rock climbing in Joshua Tree with some friends and I just arrived in Chicago on the redeye flight from Las Vegas and I'm a wee bit exhausted from the flight and battered from my encounters with the rocks but I wanted to bring everyone up to date while everything is still fresh in my mind.

To begin with, I met the famous Alice (whose blog The Incredible Dating Adventures of Alice has sadly been retired) for drinks at a Hollywood pub and am pleased to report that she is every bit as charming and engaging in real time as she comes across in her writing. It's curious, this blogging world---meeting someone for the first time, yet knowing intimate details about that person's life and having that person know intimate details of your life. Anyway, it was a pleasant evening and I'm looking forward to hosting her when she interviews at graduate schools in Chicago.

The next day, I drove to Joshua Tree where Ted had rented a house with a swimming pool, hot tub and sauna. Very, very California. There were seven of us in the group, and after the second day of climbing everyone gathered around the X Box while I soakded my weary bones in the whirlpool and poured myself a scotch on the rocks. I remember pouring a second, then a third. The next thing I new, I was on top of my bed, fully dressed. The clock said 1:30, and I was suffering from an unquenchable thirst.

The next morning, I asked Ted what had happened the night before.

"Really? You don't remember?"

Bad sign right there.

"It wouldn't have been a big deal, David, but you're really the only drinker in the group. Except for Barry, everyone else is pretty much a teetotaler."

By talking to three different people, I was able to piece together what had happened. Apparently, I was arguing for Barack Obama and making disparaging remarks about Bill and Hillary Clinton. Specifically, that they represented the dark side of American politics. I may have been a bit conspriatorial.

The highlight, or lowlight, depending on your point of view, came when Ted's sister Jenny announced that she would not vote for me if I ran for the senate. I have no idea how the subject came up---I am as far removed from having a political career as anyone who is not currently in prison and I imagine this blog would pretty much nip any public service aspirations in the bud. I can only assume that I was speaking hypothetically. I really have no memory of this at all.

So, I became apoplectic on discovering that Jenny would not vote for me. She told me that it was because I didn't have a healthy regard for women. She apparently challenged me on the fact that I've been dating multiple women and asked me if I informed every new prospect that I'd be juggling her with six or seven other women.

After things had calmed down, I played X-box, or committed suicide via X-box, depending on whose version you believe, and went to bed.

My position regarding women has been that I'm free to date whomever I wish until I have the exclusivity talk with someone. If I ask someone if she wants to see me exclusively and she accepts, then we're in a relationship. Obviously, there are other things I can do along those lines----tell her I love her, ask her to move in, discuss marriage, any and all of which would rightly convey my intentions to pursue a monogamous relationship with the young lady in question. There are also gray areas, which I'm very careful to avoid. My conscience on that point is clear.

Still, I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me a bit. I like Jenny and I hope that I can give her a reason to formulate a better opinion of my character in the future.

However, if I'm launching political campaigns under the influence of alcohol then she's probably right to vote against me.