"I" is for "Ivan"

Some days are just stranger than others. There's something in the air, a certain energy, and you know no matter what happens that day, things are going to be just a little bit odd. Yesterday was one of those days. 

It was a gorgeous day, followed by a gorgeous evening. I spent the afternoon commenting on the strangeness of the day with a friend. Nothing in particular, really, just a few too many people wearing neon, and me still feeling off from battling a mysterious facial rash all week that the doctors were fighting off by pumping me full of cortisone. I wasn't even sure I should be drinking that night, but hey, when has that ever stopped me?

I had a few friends over to hold round two of trying to kill a 30 pack of Miller Lite. Steph, at one point, played the grade school game of, "What will my next boyfriend's name be?" by going through the alphabet with her can tab. You know the one, you push the tab forward for "A," back for "B," and so on, until it comes off. The letter you land on is the letter of the first name of your next boyfriend. My friend got "C." So we rattled off a ton of "C" names. I got "I." There are not a lot of "I" names. We came up with Ian, Isaac, and Ishmael. I assumed it was a sign I wouldn't be meeting anyone that night—because "I" is kind of random. 

It was my yoga friend's last day bartending, so we stopped in to see her. We were introduced to the 57-year-old women next to us when she came in from smoking and told us in no uncertain terms that we were in her seat. She then proceeded to get hit on by a handful of 20-somethings, much to her, and our, entertainment. Then, we all watched as a patron started a fight with my bartender friend because she served her in a plastic cup instead of a glass. The patron took it as an insult and complained about it to everyone for entirely too long. 

Right around then, I felt someone touch my hand and turned around to see a guy poking it. For whatever reason I assumed he thought I was someone else. (I don't know.) So I greeted him with a, "Hi, I don't know you."

"I know, I wanted to come over and say 'Hi' to you before I left. Hi, I'm Ivan."