Post number thirty-nine, Take the L-Train.

I’ve been working hard on trying to evolve into the person I want to be, and decided some months ago that a long period of introspection was important. I didn’t have any idea when it would end, or with what result.

I wasn’t looking for anything. Honestly. I was content in my solitude.

And then . . .

When we met at the opening night party for the NY Film Festival, I was thinking about the dates I had lined up when I returned to LA. Yeah, dates. Plural. Things ebb and flow, and lately meeting people had been easy. And we need the eggs.

When we started talking about the movie we’d just seen, I found myself unable break eye contact, and felt a little vulnerable, a lot comfortable, and completely unsure if I was alone in the feelings.

On the way out of the party at 2AM, we traded numbers and made a tentative plan to meet up with a bunch of people at a bar on Lafayette. Yeah, right. I’ll meet y’all there. If I don’t fall asleep the moment I open my hotel room door.

In the cab downtown, I resolved to call it a night. At the hotel, I shed my formal wear. My phone rang. Was I coming? Channeling Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS----sometimes you have to just say what the fuck---I surprised myself by putting on some jeans and going back out.

By 4AM, we’d laughed and chatted and had great conversation over a few more drinks. I was dead tired and somewhat less uncertain about reciprocal interest. Life moves fast. I said goodnight.

At noon, we said goodbye. Life moves too fast sometimes. On the way to the airport, I remembered my dates back in LA. Politely canceled and quickly forgotten, bait cut without a second thought.

Last weekend, we spent time together in LA, cheering at football, crying at CRASH, and talking for hours and hours on topics from the banal to the sublime.

Where it goes is to be determined. I’m taking it slow. Easy. Relaxed. Eyes open. Mind clear.

My shoes are scraping the sky.

Post number thirty-eight and a half, Website.

Thanks to a very cool, thoughtful, extremely slim and technologically more advanced friend, the Lonely Op now has his own website. It is the same content as what you are looking at now (if you are looking now), but with a simpler, more elegant and easy to remember address:

TheLonelyOptimist.com

Dotcom billions and media domination are only a matter of time.

Thanks, Topher!

Post number thirty-eight, Three Weeks in Seven Moments...

Three weeks ago, I went to a favorite bar with my friend Mike and his dad Mike to have a beer…and it was open mike night.

Two and a half weeks ago, I was at Tavern on the Green, wearing my tuxedo, sipping vodka, chatting gamely and feeling like Cary Grant.

Two weeks ago, the USC Trojans trailed Oregon at the half, and still won the game by thirty-two points.

A week and a half ago, I saw Neil Diamond at Staples Center, and felt like I was in 1979. Or Vegas. Or both.

A week ago, I was behind the visitor’s dugout in Anaheim, and saw the Yankees beat the Angels in game one of the AL Divisional Playoff.

Half a week ago, I began an amazing weekend with a new friend.

Yesterday, I was back in Anaheim to witness the end of the Yankees’ season from high above third base.