6 degrees of bacon separation

I almost left a party tonight because I didn't know anyone when I arrived. Of course the host and hostess are friends; they invited me. But when I arrived, the other guests were complete strangers to me. A while later some people I know, but don't adore, arrived. I busied myself by frying bacon in the kitchen(we are a tribe united by bacon). Eventually some more people I know and like somewhat arrived. That was better, but I still wanted to leave. I had nothing to talk to anyone about.

Eventually, there was no other choice but to talk to the strangers. When I did, my universe collapsed inward. I asked one of the guests who he knew in connection with the party; half an hour later we were still lobbing names and associations. Apparently, this person looked familiar BECAUSE HE'D BEEN IN MY OLD HOUSE! That would explain it. He was friends with Butterfly, my old housemate and had been there one day.

I spent most of the rest of the evening talking with him and his lovely girlfriend. He mentioned having to do some Sarbanes-Oxley stuff for work, to which I replied OOH securities! And he agreed that it was a geeky good call. Turns out Sarb-Ox affects techs too. We chatted about my interest in digital civil liberties and exchanged contact info. There was an e-mail waiting for me when I got home.

The last part of the evening was also worthwhile as our lovely host listened to me blather about my disillusionment with the attainable nature of some of my law-related hopes and dreams. Just having the ear that listened without trying to fix was helpful as it helped me to refine some thoughts and I gave myself some food for thought.

I'm glad I stayed.