Making Friends Online

I did something this weekend that I think some people might find a little strange. I met up with someone whom I'd been chatting with on Craigslist. Despite online relationships becoming more and more commonplace, I think there is still a stigma attached to them, perhaps even more so in the case of certain online friendships.

Long story short, I'd announced to Francisco a few weeks ago that I needed to make friends. For better or worse, I'm just looking for what I refer to as a 'drinking buddy.' Truly just a casual friend to hang out with on the occasional weekend. I perused Craigslist and responded to a few Strictly Platonic personals in both the w4w and m4w sections. Two of the conversations didn't really go anywhere, but my conversation with Paul seemed to be going in an encouraging direction.

After a week or two of chatting, Paul messaged me last week to see if I might be available to get together. Paul is a pilot and is only in town sporadically, although his current schedule seems to put him nearby at fairly regular intervals.  I'd suggested Saturday, but he was actually flying out that day, so we met up at Jefferson Social on Friday.  Despite the inherent awkwardness in a first time meet-up, I'd say the evening went great - and the Shroom Taco I had was spot on as well!

All this to say I'm glad I took a risk and met someone new online. I've never been someone to make friends easily, and I don't have many connections in Cincinnati. I have maybe a person or two in town I could hang out with, but I don't want to feel like I'm constantly bothering them to get together.

Who knows if I'll ever hear from Paul again (I do plan to send him a message today or some other time this week)? Who knows if he'll ever be a consistent drinking buddy? Either way, I think we both had a good night, shared a few drinks with a new potential friend, and stepped a bit out of our comfort zones.

I was going to expand on my thoughts on this more, but I had actually recorded a video about it on Friday. It is literally of the worst video and audio quality ever, so it is a definite reminder that I need to get a better camera.

Eh, browsing through Craigslist again and not really seeing anyone that tickles my fancy. I'm thinking someday I'll get around to posting that "Drinking Buddy Wanted" post.