I got the warning I was being taken to a Christmas shindig a full month and a half before the occasion. So there wouldn’t be any conflicts with the time given to find ‘the dress’ and ‘the heels’ to match. Stories of the previous years festive open-bar celebration had me worried, was I to find the tallest heels I could possibly wear, because the taller you are the more you can drink, right? When I got word the ‘date’ was becoming  more friendly and less constraining with the same invitation I received was now being extended to two more as well. I knew that I was free to roam. I had an opportunity to squeeze every essence out of what the night could hold. So upon arrival I met up with my other very out going  female counter part to plot out our route for the evening. (As if we needed to go anywhere else besides an open bar Christmas party.) We were to unknowingly cause havoc and chaos that night. A quote taken from Betsy Israel : “Single women seem to forever unnerve, anger, and unwittingly scare large swaths of population, both female and male.” I like this statement because it was made in reference to women living without influence of the opinion created by mass society. I was dressed and ready to embrace the night. I like having fun! Good, harmless, loud, obnoxious: fun! Just as much as the next guy.

I barely saw my ‘date’, this however didn’t hinder me from having a great time. I felt the buzz and warmth of the room, no, I wasn’t tipsy…just yet. There was a general excitement in the air. I ran into several people I already knew and managed to make a few new friends. There was a band playing and everyone was having a really nice time. After several trips made to the bar, the clock was winding down on the party and I was refusing to let my carriage turn into a pumpkin just yet. It was only midnight and on a Sunday in Savannah that meant that there was at least another hour and a half of fun left to be had on the town. In an article about ‘Bachelorette Envy’ written by Jessica Solloway, she lists the ‘Thrill of the Looking for the One’ as one thing married women miss the most about single life. In which she says ‘Who can forget how fun it was to go out with your girls and not know who you’ll meet or where the night will take you?’ I wasn’t looking for ‘The One’ per se but, I definitely wanted to carry out the rest of the night in adventure.

So we left, my single co-hort and I. Destination: a meet-up point setup by her intended to mingle with someone she met at the party. I don’t know if my animalistic need to suit kicked in when I came across one adorable young man at this meeting point. Or what exactly what words were used to lure him away from his friends and to join us in pursuit of a more excitable place to be. Call it liquid courage, at least on my part. Deciding we wanted to be in a more uproarious surrounding, we trotted off to another bar escorted by said young man. I think the devious side of my brain started to do all of the talking for me or blame it on the alcohol. I found myself having no trouble starting or carrying on a conversation with this person. I’ve met him a few other blurry times before, always with a lingering thought of how I’d like to get to know him more. I guess the chance had arrived at that very moment. We got along so well I felt like extending an invitation for him to come with me when the nightlife here in town was being put to sleep.

I wasn’t sure what to think when I woke the next morning spooning someone in my bed. I think my first thoughts were: “Thank god I woke up in time to get ready for work.” I shook my head a little, trying to clear the fog still looming over my mind. In the article ‘When Women Choose to be Single‘ by Rita Robinson she writes,  ‘When single women don’t make it their life’s goal to find a mate, it leaves them free to absorb what’s going on around them and to turn on to life as never before. And if they do decide to marry, they’re doing so for the right reasons rather than a need to feel complete.’ I’m not sure if I remembered anything I had absorbed from the evening before. However, for that fleeting moment it seems I had a great night.

Its winter time after all, someone to share the electric blanket with seemed like a great idea to me when I was leaving the bar. I’m not really looking for Mr. Right or even Mr. Right Now, a companion? Sure. Someone that makes me laugh? Sure. Someone whose path I’ll probably cross, even if a ‘Hello’ is all that takes place in passing, what not? After all my life’s goal isn’t to find a mate and on that Sunday night it wasn’t even initially intended to find anyone at all. I had intentions to only to live my life despite any cultural ambivalence towards my actions, due to the role of what most people think of how single women should be and act. Whether it be ‘crazed cat-woman’ or ‘shopaholic neurotic man hunters’ or an ‘optimistic Marlo Thomas’.