Thursday, March 24, 2011

Addiction XVI: Socialising

This is weird.

Socialite ILB didn't really raise his vanilla head much until just before Christmas. He made a very quiet appearance at the CCK Hallowe'en party just before the shop closed, but in terms of meeting people as ILB (with the exception of meeting The Oxford Seamstress, who was by then his girlfriend), he wasn't doing too well. But then he turned up to one of the CCK socials before Christmas, and then when dumped by the aforementioned Seamstress, who by then was a Drinker, found himself without anything to do on Thursday nights, so he started going to Spiritual Space.

In January, he was invited to review a Lovers' Guide, and he did so with great zeal, but even if he hadn't reviewed it, his evening was a night to remember by all accounts, with a huge amount of free chips, spring rolls and Diet Coke, the coolest collection of drinking buddies one could think of, and the most fascinating of conversations. Oh, and the chance to feel like a genuine sex writer, as well.

Throughout the year so far he has been reusing two MSN accounts simultaneously, talking to people he wouldn't have talked to on MSN before - not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know them. Likewise, his Twitter account has afforded him communication with more lovely people; indeed, when his relationship came to a grinding halt, it was people on Twitter who first game him words of comfort. And that is the wonder of the Internet.

But at the moment, ILB is not socialising. His real life self is, but as ILB, there's not much to be done. He had a good weekend, earlier this month, in Germany. He has a weekend coming up which he will spend with 47 and others, concentrating on that most precious of art forms, music. But he has a desire to socialise more as ILB than anything else, and considering his wallflowering speciality this time last year, this is, indeed, weird.

Not so much of a shrinking violet after all.

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