Hangover without the alcohol

I feel very blurry eyed and headachey this morning.

My co-worker from the farm, P called me last night. One of the Great Pyranees at the farm died yesterday-Boss couldn't find him so P went over and found him dead out back. Very sad.

P had missed me at the farm, and we talked for 3 and 1/2 hours!!!! I used to be quite infamous for my phone stamina, but I think I broke a personal record last night!

I had the chance to tell P that Boss was having me cover for her(P) Tues and Wed this week, and most of the talk was about the farm. P was drowning her sorrows in some type of liquid refreshent-I could hear the ice tinkiling as she refreshed every so often and her speech became louder and more slurred as time went by. Myself, I had forgotten to re-stock the ale supply on the way home from the fiber frolic, so I stayed sadly sober throughout.

P has a nice boyfriend, if that is the term, as they are basically married but not.
The time was interspersed with brief conversations between them, and on my end, rescuing a batch of brownies and tucking the saplings in for the night.

At the end of the conversation, P started seriously choking and had to put the phone down-I wondered if she was going to choke to death while I sat helpless on the other end of the line. Finally she recovered enough to pick the phone up, gasping...victim of an ice cube going down the wrong pipe. Ouch, I hate that!

I figured it was time to close the conversation, and we did.

On the way into the fiber frolic yesterday, there was a couple behind us, and the guy looked very familiar. The woman was dressed very artsy, with fishnet stockings and a colorful scarf among other accessories. As happens at events, I saw them several times, until at one point the guy and I passed each other directly and I said out loud, "J"?

He kept going but sort of reacted, so I said again louder, still walking away from each other, "J"?
Then he stopped and turned, and in fact, we did know each other. We had been out on a lunch date several years ago-set up by mutual friends. We had spoken on the phone a couple times and I had listened to his show on Maine NPR, and he had managed to get me to agree to meet for lunch.

He seemed a bit over-eager to be in a serious relationship, and although we had gotten along fairly well, I blew him off, not too harshly, I hope.

We were lingering around Boss's booth, and started chatting like long lost friends. He is living with his girlfriend, who knew Boss from way back-they even had each other's goats. J told me about getting attacked by the meanest farm goose on a visit. Small world.

His girlfriend was none too pleased, not very friendly, and said she had other committments and backed out of watching Boss' booth while Boss showed the bucks. OOps. No harm intended.

Between that encounter, and hearing P and her boyfriend's domestic conversations from the other end of the line last night, I woke up with relationships on my mind.

I have always been a loner, although I have been in my share of LTR's. I find it difficult to be with someone 24/7. The easy comraderie J and I shared yesterday left me wondering if perhaps I had been hasty in rejecting him-if going it alone is the most satisfying option.

I even asked P last night if she knew any single guys-she replied,"oh, you don't want a boyfriend!" (she and hers have had some rough patches lately).

Hmm-do I or don't I ? I don't have an answer to that important question.