As promised, this is about Thursday night.

David and his friend Duncan and I had made plans to have dinner last night. As occasionally happens when you're coordinating the schedule for three people, David had to revise the plans a time or two. He called and asked if I minded if we went a little late, and I said that would be fine...I also pointed out that if I got too hungry, I'd just raid my kitchen. He thought that was a joke; I knew I meant it---if I get too hungry, I turn into the raging bitch from hell. And I don't do that if I can avoid it by something as simple as snacking.

Since we got sort of a late start, the first restaurant was closing for the evening. And I drew a blank about where else in the area would be open. David needed to run an errand, so I suggested that he do that and let me think a minute. Sure enough, when he got done I had Plan B ready for testing. Plan C was on the back burner, and would have involved a grocery store trip...

Plan B worked. We wound up going to Spanky's in Chapel Hill, which I hadn't been to in a while. After we got food, we settled down to the serious business of having a good time, and getting to know each other. We did a round of what we were doing to make a living these days, which included Duncan asking me exactly what my freelance work was---as in what I did all day besides write journal entries. I had a mouthful of food at the moment he asked, so I just handed over my keyring---which has my business card in one of those plastic picture frame dealies.

Duncan has a wickedly good sense of humor. I knew David did also, and mine's not too shabby, so we had a lot of jokes going. We wound up with a lot of North Carolina jokes, since we're all from here. And food jokes abounded. No food fights; we're all pretty well-mannered.

David and I both showed up with cameras...Duncan got to play photographer for us. Before you ask, I have no idea why I was smiling so weirdly---I think I was being a smartass.

That's me with David.

That's Duncan, across the table from us.

And David, from my vantage point.

After the meal, we did a small amount of sight-seeing, including a brief tour of an old shopping center that hasn't seen much modernization. That was on the way back to my apartment. The evening ended on that note, since the two of them were headed back to David's parents' home and it was getting late.

It was a most pleasant evening with two people I'm extremely glad to have met.