Casual Friday

What do I do?

I get asked on a frequent basis what I do...my answer always depends on who I am talking to. It is similar to a response I got a couple of nights ago sitting at the Hilton Palmer House Hotel bar in Chicago. As I was sitting there an older chap sat down on my left. Since I was also a loser who was sitting on my own I took it upon myself to say hello and make some conversation. Once he had shared that his name was Dennis I got round to asking "what do you do?". He just smiled and ignored me. It was great in one way. I just wish that I had balls that big to do the same with someone who asked me the same question. After a very long silence I turned around to him (while thinking, if he doesn't mind being rude neither will I) and said, "so are you going to answer my question or just ignore me?". His response was, "you asked the wrong question". Hmmm. So I turned around again, taking this all on as a personal challenge by this point, gave it a second thought, and turned to ask, "so tell me, what is the right question?". He just smiled again, reached over and touch my thigh and said something like "keep trying". Other than the feel on my leg I was quite enjoying this and ordered another beer.

"So Dennis, you are in the CIA and you are here stalking out some people then?"... a long silence.
"It must be hard being a secret agent"...smile
"So do you have kids?"...yea...long pause...end of short divulgence of content

It sort of went on like that and I bantered with him that it was unfair that he could specify that I asked the wrong question but would not have the decency to share what was the right one. So at the end of the day, I met Dennis, who bought my beer and has kids.

My name is Mark, I buy beer, and I have kids. Nice to meet you. 

posted by Mark Dowds @ Friday, March 24, 2006